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Starting in January, the fleet will fish under a “rationalization” system where each catcher vessel will have a maximum catch limit, which will be assigned through quota.
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Several U.S. Navy warships were dispatched to the Aleutian Islands last week, after 11 Chinese and Russian military vessels were found operating in the region. The exact location of the foreign ships was not disclosed.
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Coastal Alaska is on the front lines of climate change. Extreme weather events are becoming more common, and many communities along Alaska’s shores wonder if the future will bring more of the same. A group of researchers tries to answer what storms might look like in the future by turning toward the past.
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While many Bering Sea crab populations find themselves in free fall, Dungeness crab is breaking records in regions that used to hardly see them.
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The fishing season has ended for Bering Sea Tanner crab. Crabbers caught the record-low quota of two million pounds just before the end of March.
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A new study shows organisms near the bottom of the food chain in the Bering Sea aren’t as fatty as they used to be, threatening the Arctic fish, seabirds, and marine mammals who feed on them.
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The federal agency announced last month that certain entities, like small agricultural coops or aquaculture businesses, as well as most private nonprofit organizations are eligible for low-interest loans of up to $2 million.
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The collapse of the Bering Sea crab fisheries has put St. Paul Island at risk of losing some of its essential services.The city’s economy is about 90% dependent on the harvest of snow crab, which closed for the first time in the fishery’s history in October. Without Bering Sea snow crab or Bristol Bay red king crab — which has been closed since 2021 — the City of St. Paul is estimating a roughly $2.7 million hit.In light of those anticipated losses, St. Paul’s city government declared a cultural, economic and social emergency in late October, following the fishery closures, and subsequently implemented budgetary cuts, hiring freezes and other measures.Now, the Pribilof Island community faces the loss of its emergency medical services.
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The Bristol Bay red king crab fishery has been closed for two years, and along with it, Bering Sea snow crab have abruptly disappeared, causing another complete closure. Together, the fisheries generally bring in millions of dollars to the fleet and the coastal Alaska communities that rely on them. Since 2021, when king crab closed and snow crab saw a huge decline in harvest numbers, fishermen have taken an estimated $287.7 million hit. Without those fisheries and without that revenue, more and more boats are relying on other work like fishing for cod and small amounts of bairdi crab or summer tendering gigs just to make ends meet. So when a group of Bering Sea fishermen recently heard they’d be getting paid less than they hoped for cod this winter season, they figured they couldn’t afford to just sit by. But that’s exactly what they did. When the season opened, they didn’t go out to fish…and it worked.
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The ice-filled caldera of Takawangha, which rises 4,753 feet out of the Bering Sea, is in the far western Aleutians, about 55 miles west of Adak. The volcano has been showing signs of unrest since Nov. 18.