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Alaska: President Announces Actions to Protect Natural and Cultural Resources in Alaskan Arctic Ocean; Alaska Officials Express Concerns With Latest Executive Order By MARY KAUFFMAN - Friday, President Barack Obama announced new steps to enhance the resilience of the Alaskan Arctic environment and the sustainability of Alaskan native communities with the creation of the Northern Bering Sea Climate Resilience Area.

Satellite photo of the Bering Sea
Russia is visible on the left and Alaska is visable on the right.
Courtesy NASA

According to the White House, the coastal tribes along the northern Bering Sea and the Bering Strait requested that the Federal Government take action to protect the health of the marine ecosystems of the Northern Bering Sea and Bering Strait while maintaining opportunities for sustainable fishing and sustainable economic development. Native villages in the northern Bering Sea region of Alaska largely practice a subsistence-based lifestyle that is inextricably tied to the rich marine ecosystem of the Bering Sea. Warming ocean temperatures, sea ice loss, and increasing ship traffic can all impact the subsistence practices and food security of these communities.

In direct response to these requests, President Obama signed an Executive Order creating the Northern Bering Sea Climate Resilience Area. This area, encompassing 112,300 square miles, represents a hugely productive, high-latitude ocean ecosystem and supports one of the largest seasonal marine mammal migrations in the world, including thousands of bowhead and beluga whales, hundreds of thousands of walruses and ice seals, and millions of migratory birds. It is home to more than 40 tribes of coastal Yup’ik and Inupiaq peoples whose way of life has been linked with the marine environment for thousands of years.

Alaska Governor Bill Walker (I) responded to the announcement saying, “We support Tribal leaders in the Bering Straits region who worked diligently to provide economic opportunities for their community while protecting valuable resources."

"However," said the Governor, "the State of Alaska is concerned about any further erosion of our ability to support much needed resource development at a time when the state is grappling with declining oil prices and production. We are concerned about the timing and lack of clarity on how this executive order will be implemented in the coming years.”

The Northern Bering Sea Climate Resilience Area announced by the President is delineated for the purpose of focusing a locally-tailored collection of protections related to oil and gas, shipping, and fishing. The order also establishes a Task Force charged with coordinating Federal activities in this area to enhance ecosystem and community resilience, conserve natural resources, and protect the cultural and subsistence values this ecosystem provides for Alaskan native communities. Further, agencies are directed to consider traditional knowledge in decision making and establish a formal consultative mechanism for engaging with regional tribal governments to seek their input on Federal activities. This action advances science-based decision-making and engagement with Alaska Native peoples in addressing the changing Arctic consistent with the Joint Statement signed at the White House Arctic Science Ministerial and consultation with Alaska Natives in preparation for the Ministerial.

In addition to Friday’s protections, the Obama Administration announced approximately $30 million in philanthropic commitments for projects in rural northern Alaska and Canada. These projects include investments over the next three years related to shipping, ecosystem science, community and ecological resilience, and tribal engagement. Earlier in the week, the U.S. Department of Commerce deployed an Economic Development Assessment Team to Nome, Alaska to help the region diversify, grow its economy, and address challenges related to climate change and community resilience.

Friday’s actions are also supportive of the March 2016 U.S.-Canada Joint Statement on Climate, Energy, and Arctic Leadership and make substantial progress on its objectives of conserving Arctic biodiversity through science-based decision-making, incorporating indigenous science and traditional knowledge into decision-making, and supporting strong Arctic communities. These actions employ science-based leadership to improve marine and coastal resilience and sustain our Nation’s precious natural resources.

Kawerak, Inc., the Bering Sea Elders Group, and the Association of Village Council Presidents, which together represent more than 70 federally recognized tribes, were instrumental in achieving this landmark decision to create the Northern Bering Sea Climate Resilience Area. - More...
Sunday AM - December 11, 2016

Alaska: Despite evolutionary inexperience, northern sockeye manage heat stress - Sockeye salmon that evolved in the generally colder waters of the far north still know how to cool off if necessary, an important factor in the species' potential for dealing with global climate change.

Sockeyes, which spawn in fresh water and spend two to three years in the Pacific Ocean, range from southern Alaska south to the Columbia River.

Research by Oregon State University revealed that sockeyes at the northern edge of that range, despite lacking their southern counterparts' evolutionary history of dealing with heat stress, nevertheless have an innate ability to "thermoregulate." - More...
Sunday AM - December 11, 2016

Alaska: Vessel Captain Convicted of Assaulting Crew Member - On December 8, 2016, a Kodiak jury found 39 year old Kyle Mead guilty of assaulting a member of his crew. Mead was convicted of Assault in the Second Degree, two counts of Assault in the Third Degree and two counts of Assault in the Fourth Degree.

The convictions stem from an August 26, 2016 incident involving a report that Mead strangled a crew member and pushed him overboard. The victim reported to police repeated threats by Mead during the summer while working as a crewmember on Mead’s seiner F/V Miss Destinee. On August 26th, the victim reported Mead had become upset with him while deploying the vessel’s seine. The victim said Mead pushed him down, stepped over him and slapped him in the head before kicking him in his side.

Mead told the victim to stay in his bunk. Later, the victim reported that Mead came inside to his bunk and without warning punched him on the right side of his face and then put him in a choke hold causing him to become dizzy and preventing him from breathing. After that, the victim reported attempting to wave down another vessel for help when Mead pushed him forcefully over the rail of the boat. The victim reported catching himself on the rail but ended up waist deep in the ocean before being able to pull himself back up on the deck. - More...
Sunday AM - December 11, 2016

Alaska Science: Copper Valley couple caught a lynx that wandered all the way from Canada By NED ROZELL - A lynx that roamed more than 200 miles from Kluane Lake in the Yukon Territory to near Chitina is still being tracked across the Alaska landscape, thanks to a curious couple living off the Edgerton Highway.

A lynx that a couple in Kenny Lake captured in their chicken house.
Photo courtesy Linda Lohse

Ralph and Linda Lohse first met the animal Canadian researchers call Max on an October night in the Copper River Valley.

"My wife saw a lynx out there, sitting next to the chicken coop like a lion, twitching its tail and looking at the chickens and ducks," said Ralph Lohse, who lives with his wife, Linda, on property between the Edgerton and the Tonsina River. They watched the lynx for 40 minutes, until it leapt to webbing on top of a chicken coop.

They went outside to prevent it from getting a chicken. The startled wild cat ran off with a group of their sheep, as if all the animals were in the same herd.

In a few days, the Lohses noticed a few chickens were gone. Then two ducks disappeared.

They knew the culprit, seeing its round-as-a-cheeseburger tracks in the snow. The couple installed a motion detector on their chicken/duck pen. Every time they heard a buzz, they knew the lynx had returned.

Picking up a rifle was Ralph Lohse's first thought. But the fur trapper and his wife had seen a collar around the lynx's neck and knew someone was studying it.

"I've taken probably 400 lynx over the years," Ralph said. "It's not like he would be a good trophy or anything. We were much more interested in where it came from." - More...
Sunday AM - December 11, 2016