Climate & Environment/Science

As a significant fall storm approaches Western Alaska, the Department of Homeland Security and Emergency Management (DHSEM) is asking residents to prepare as best they can to protect life and property.

The National Weather Service is forecasting coastal flooding in Nome and across Western Alaska this weekend, with potential storm surge reaching up to 14 feet above normal levels.

Close up of the face and tusks of a walrus.

The Young Hunters Walrus Summit, the first of its kind, will be held in Nome next month. “Our mission is very simple. It is to protect the pacific walrus conservation,” Vera Metcalf said.

Nome recently hosted NOAA’s administrator and Under Secretary of Commerce for Oceans and Atmosphere Dr. Richard Spinrad. In late August, Spinrad detailed NOAA’s goals that have particular relevance to Alaska.

Researchers have found a high level of potentially harmful algae in the waters near Teller, Brevig Mission, Wales, Little Diomede and Shishmaref. They are now advising that residents of those areas use caution when consuming locally caught subsistence marine mammals and birds.

The 2022 beluga population aerial survey is complete. Now NOAA and the Alaska Beluga Whale Committee, or ABWC, can begin the number crunching to estimate the abundance of these important subsistence creatures.

Special projects for this year’s survey include Pacific Cod Tagging, investigations into cod and pollock fish condition, herring collection and an assessment of the levels of saxitoxins in algal blooms.

Silhouettes of seabirds flying above an ocean at sunset.

The Nome Census area now has a confirmed case of Avian Flu for this year. According to the State Veterinarian’s office, a glaucous gull tested positive for H5N1 on July 18.

After no commercial crabbing since 2019, this summer’s Norton Sound Red King Crab fishery had a record year of $3.7 million dollars in ex-vessel value.

Parts of Western Alaska and Nome were blanketed in smoke, reducing air quality to hazardous levels. The wildfires that caused smoky conditions for up to 15 hours that day were burning more than 400 miles south of Nome.