So far this year, only one group of boats has been prohibited from fishing in the Bering Sea because of bycatch problems. It’s not because this group took too much salmon, or halibut, or seabirds, or anything else that typically gets people riled up. Instead, boats catching Pacific cod using pots were ordered to stop all activity in late October because they brought up too many octopuses -- about a million pounds of them this year to date. KUCB’s Alexandra Gutierrez was at the groundfish plan team meeting in Seattle this week, where scientists discussed ways to keep this from happening again.
Traditionally, it’s bad luck to kill an albatross. That’s especially the case if it’s a short-tailed albatross, since taking the endangered bird as bycatch can result in fishery closures.
According to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, one of these birds was taken in the hook-and-line groundfish fishery last Tuesday. The bird had come from a breeding colony in Japan, and it was taken west of the Pribilofs. A tag on the albatross showed that the bird was less than two years old.
The Alaska Volcano Observatory has downgraded the alert level for Cleveland Volcano to yellow. Scientists have been monitoring the volcano since July when a lava dome in the crater started to grow.
Early last month it threatened to overflow and unleash a major ash cloud. Now scientists are saying that satellite observations show the eruption may have paused or stopped. The dome has shown no significant growth in several weeks, although it remains hot.
Kimberly Klein loves her job. She’s a biologist with the United States Fish and Wildlife Service, and she focuses on endangered species in the Aleutian region.
KUCB's Alexandra Gutierrez talked to her about sea otters and other at-risk species in Southwest Alaska.
A cargo vessel spilled a small amount of fuel oil into Dutch Harbor on Wednesday.
The Nelson Star was moored at the Unalaska City Dock when it released about 150 gallons the oil into the water.
“It looks like they intended to pump over what they thought was clean water -- something they do routinely. But there was a crack somewhere in the system, and as a result they pumped over some oil,” say Petty Officer Peter Whale with the Coast Guard Marine Safety Detachment.
For about five years, scientists have been working on Aleutian Island Regional Marine Research Plan that takes into account the input of people who live and work in the region. Last weekend, one of the scientists behind the plan traveled to Unalaska to see what locals had to say about what issues should be studied out here.
The September 2nd tsunami evacuation was a test of Unalaska’s emergency preparedness. Residents in low-lying areas were called to leave their homes and move to higher ground to escape a potential wave. The rule of thumb is to get at least 50 feet above sea level. But now, some University of Alaska Fairbanks researchers are working on a model that should give more specific information on how the state’s communities could be affected by tsunamis.
Each year, thousands of ships travel through the Aleutians on the Great Circle route, and that number only continues to increase. It’s one of the faster ways to get cargo from Asia to America, but it can also be a perilous voyage. The Aleutian Island Risk Assessment is an effort keep maritime disasters from happening in the region, and its advisory panel has just released a set of recommendations that they say could improve vessel safety in the immediate future.
A research vessel operated by the National Science Foundation has left Unalaska to do seismic work in the Chukchi Sea.
The research vessel Marcus G. Langseth will be collecting data on the Chukchi shelf and borderland to get a better sense of the region’s geological history. Prior to leaving on this cruise, the Langseth had been studying the earthquake subduction zone in the Aleutian region for the Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory as part of the Alaska/Aleutian Megathrust Project.
