NATIONAL OCEANIC AND ATMOSPHERIC ADMINISTRATION

The U.S. Senate Committee on Commerce, Science and Transportation unanimously passed a seafood bill on April 30 to fight illegal fishing. The legislation would rely on efforts from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, which Sen. Dan Sullivan said is already struggling to complete key fisheries surveys.Sullivan co-sponsored the Fighting Foreign Illegal Seafood Harvest, or FISH, Act with seven other senators, including Republican Sen. Lisa Murkowski. Sullivan said he hopes it will help fight unfair trade practices and give a boost to Alaska’s fishing industry.

The murre die-off might have gone unexplained if it weren't for decades of observations from researchers and citizen scientists.

In this episode of "Island Interviews," Wolfang Matilda Tutiakoff shared with KUCB's Kanesia McGlashan-Price what researchers discovered underwater near Attu Island and their personal journey during the expedition. They also highlighted the cultural and emotional significance of reclaiming the island.

A weak La Niña system is predicted this winter, meaning meteorologists can't forecast whether the Aleutian Islands will experience higher or lower than normal temperatures and precipitation this season.

Black cod fishermen in the Bering Sea have reported an increase in orcas taking their catch off their fishing lines in recent years. Orca depredation isn't just a costly headache for fishermen — it can be dangerous for orcas, too.

The entangled humpback whale in Nateekin Bay has moved outside of the surrounding Unalaska Bay and is trailing a buoy.

There’s an entangled humpback whale in Nateekin Bay, and local responders are asking boaters to keep their distance.

On April 1, a young humpback whale was found tied up in a probable fishing line and anchored down in a busy area in Iliuliuk Bay. Four days later, a group of whale entanglement experts carefully cut the line wrapped around the humpback's mouth and tail.

The Alaska Marine Mammal Stranding Network is working with local responders to gather images and information to coordinate helping an entangled humpback in Unalaska’s Iliuliuk Bay.

When scientists estimated that more than 10 billion snow crab had disappeared from the Eastern Bering Sea between 2018 and 2021, industry stakeholders and fisheries scientists had several ideas about where they’d gone. Some thought bycatch, disease, cannibalism, or crab fishing, while others believed it could be predation from other sea animals like Pacific cod. But now, scientists say they’ve distinguished the most likely cause for the disappearance. The culprit is a marine heatwave between 2018 and 2019, according to a new study authored by a group of scientists with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.