"mussels"

The lab tests samples from 17 communities in Southeast, as well as from tribes on Kodiak Island.

Throughout Alaska’s waters, shellfish populations have been in decline for decades — decimated by overfishing in the 1980s and by changing ocean environments in the years since.

Residents from two Northwest Alaska villages say they found large numbers of dead mussels and krill washed up along shores in June, contributing to fears that record warm waters may be causing a wide range of ecosystem changes.