Climate & Environment/Science

In late July, foreign debris began to wash up on Bering Strait shores. Almost three months later, NOAA and local groups are working together to determine which vessel is the source of the trash.

Approximately 1,000 individuals across Western Alaska and the state are opposed to IPOP’s potential gold mining project in the Bonanza Channel, Safety Sound area.

Diomede, Wales, Shishmaref, Gambell, Savoonga, Unalakleet, and Nome all saw unusually high amounts of marine debris and trash, found along the beaches of Western Alaska.

IPOP LLC, the mining company associated with Rivers of Gold, has applied for a permit to mine gold using a 36-inch cutterhead dredge in the Safety Sound, about 25 miles east of Nome.

Susanne McDermott, a fish biologist with NOAA Fisheries, says that after tagging 38 cod last year, none of them stayed under the ice in the Northern Bering Sea over the winter.

Reports of dead seabirds found on the shores of Western Alaska are being documented again this summer. If numbers continue to rise, this would mark the fourth year in a row the Bering Strait region has seen a seabird die-off.

Alaska Department of Fish & Game’s area manager for the Norton Sound, Jim Menard, said as of opening day, zero commercial crabbers had signed up to fish for the 140,000-pound crab quota.

Several fires sprang up on the Seward Peninsula yesterday after the Alaska Fire Service correctly predicted lightning would spark new blazes in the area. Some of them have already been contained.

Nome residents have now experienced the warmest May in the city’s climate history. According to one climatologist, the average temperature of almost 46° for the month broke the previous record from more than 35 years ago.