Science and Environment

For more than a week, Tuluksak resident and subsistence fisherman Nicolai Napoka has been traveling 4 miles down the Kuskokwim River with his smelt dip net.

During its October meeting in Anchorage, Indigenous People's Council for Marine Mammals members said that they're missing basic population research that could help better manage subsistence resources.

During a meeting in Bethel on Oct. 27, some blamed bycatch for the region's low salmon runs and restrictions on fishing; others blamed climate change.

Two resolutions brought before the Alaska Federation of Natives during this year’s annual convention called for efforts to reduce salmon bycatch for fish that return to the Yukon and Kuskokwim rivers. Both measures passed, but some abstained from voting.

The federal government rolled out a new Arctic Strategy this month, a move welcomed by the Alaska congressional delegation. But it's unclear what it means for residents on the ground back in Alaska.

The Alaska Department of Environmental Conservation is investigating a large fuel spill at the new Vitus Terminal in Bethel.

The remnants of Typhoon Merbok not only battered Alaska’s west coast in September, the storm also left behind a few treasures in its wake.

More than 40 remote communities in Western Alaska saw impacts from a dramatic storm that battered the state’s west coast in mid-September. Among them is Newtok, a village that’s garnered years of national media attention as severe erosion and melting permafrost cause a wide range of serious public health problems.

Representatives from the U.S. Departments of Interior and Commerce, along with NOAA, will meet with tribal leaders at ONC on Oct. 5 to hear about how they can help subsistence users in an era of historically low salmon runs.

Father and son Tomi and Thomas Isenschmid spent several weeks kayaking down the river. Along the way they met bears, wrong turns, and kind people willing to help.