Category: Coastal News

October 11, 2024 Fishing Back When: Crab Landings Down, First Time in History

10/28/2024 - By Carli Stewart. For the first time since the birth of the industry, Alaska King crab landings declined in 1967 to 135 million pounds, down 24 million pounds from the 1966 landings. The hardest hit area was Kodiak, where landings decreased by 26% in the course of the year, a… SEE MORE

Record Lobster Seizure Amid Rising DFO Concerns

10/27/2024 - By Carli Stewart. During a significant operation last Friday, federal fisheries officers seized over 13,000 pounds of lobster from a Shelburne County, Nova Scotia facility. According to the Department of Fisheries and Oceans (DFO), the seizure—valued at more than $100,000—marks the largest lobster confiscation in the Maritimes this year. The Maritimes is… SEE MORE

Where the Rivers Run Pink

10/26/2024 - By Jude Isabella. Non-native pink salmon have swarmed Norway’s rivers, prompting a relentless—and potentially fruitless—fight to beat back the invaders. The Grense Jakobselv River flows from northwestern Russia to the Barents Sea. For 35 of its 45 kilometers, the river also serves as the border between Russia and Norway. This… SEE MORE

Climate Change Destroyed an Alaska Village. Its Residents are Starting Over in a New Town

10/25/2024 - By Rick Bowmer and Thiessen. Growing up along the banks of the Ninglick River in western Alaska, Ashley Tom would look out of her window after strong storms from the Bering Sea hit her village and notice something unsettling: the riverbank was creeping ever closer. It was in that home,… SEE MORE

Marine Carbon Dioxide Removal is About to Go Big

10/24/2024 - By Ramin Skibba. Following its Singaporean pilot project, carbon sequestration start-up Equatic aims to build a massive plant in Quebec. Cutting carbon emissions is not enough to keep global warming to less than 1.5 °C—the goal of the 2015 Paris Agreement on climate change. Not anymore, at least. Unless the transition… SEE MORE

Migrating Seabirds Are Bringing Forever Chemicals into the Arctic

10/23/2024 - By William von Herff. New research shows how toxic chemicals hitch a ride with seabirds flying from southern latitudes to the Arctic. Between March and May each year, 15 million black-legged kittiwakes gather from across the North Atlantic and Pacific Oceans to nest and breed on rocky Arctic cliffs—some making the journey… SEE MORE

Century-Old Halibut Schooners Restored in Port Townsend

10/22/2024 - By Michael Crowley. The boatyard many fishermen who ply the waters of the Pacific Northwest or Alaska in wooden boats choose for maintenance and repairs is Port Townsend Shipwrights Co-Op in Port Townsend, Wash. At the yard this September, several wooden halibut schooners had been hauled out awaiting work this fall. Among them… SEE MORE

In the Gateway to the Arctic, Fat, Ice and Polar Bears are Crucial. All Three are in Trouble

10/21/2024 - By Seth Borenstein. Searching for polar bears where the Churchill River dumps into Canada’s massive Hudson Bay, biologist Geoff York scans a region that’s on a low fat, low ice diet because of climate change. And it’s getting lower on polar bears. There are now about 600 polar bears in the… SEE MORE

Outer Fall built by John's Bay Boat Company

Boat of the Month: Outer Fall

10/20/2024 - By Paul Molyneaux The first time I ever saw Jimmy Tripp was in late 1982. Jimmy had his boat, the Day Star, loaded with big wooden Anderson traps and was heading offshore. It was snowing and the flakes vanished in the water of Spruce Head harbor. Tripp had his head sticking out… SEE MORE

More Indigenous Youth are Learning to Spearfish, a Connection to Ancestors and the Land

10/19/2024 - By apnews.com. Ganebik Johnson started learning traditional Ojibwe songs when he was about 2 years old. He’d hang around listening to his uncle sing, or observe elders, or even pull up music on YouTube. Spearfishing came shortly after, at around age 7, when his grandfather took him out on a northern Wisconsin… SEE MORE