ST. PAUL

St. Paul Island, in the Bering Sea, is home to vast marine ecosystems that have supported the Unangax̂ community for generations. But the island’s most iconic species — the northern fur seal — has been in steep decline for decades. Last fall, the tribe began holding listening events to hear from residents about how to protect the island’s ecosystems from threats such as climate change and overfishing. The eventual goal behind that work is designating the waters around St. Paul Island as an Indigenous marine stewardship area.

Unangam Tunuu is taught in only a handful of classes in the public school system, and outside these sessions, the language is seldom spoken in everyday conversation. The struggle on St. Paul mirrors trends across Alaska. A 2024 report from the Alaska Native Language Preservation and Advisory Council, a legislative council that advises the governor's office, found that all of the state’s Indigenous languages are critically endangered, with some spoken by fewer than a dozen people.

Alaska’s congressional delegation announced more than $104 million in port and maritime infrastructure investments across six coastal communities, with $11 million allocated to renovate St. Paul’s city dock.

According to a Facebook post from the Aleut Community of St. Paul Island Tribal Government, a rat was potentially spotted on Wednesday. The tribal government’s Ecosystem Conservation Office is working to confirm the sighting using trail cameras at the city fourplex where the unconfirmed sighting was reported.

Between Friday and Monday, Alaska’s biggest regional airline laid off 130 of its 400-plus employees. At this point, the nine communities served by Ravn Alaska can expect fewer flights, though none of its destinations will be eliminated, a company spokesperson said.

The Aleut Community of St. Paul Island, the tribal government on St. Paul, hopes the project will open new revenue streams and lower prices in the island’s community store.

A former St. Paul police chief was convicted Tuesday of sexually abusing a minor, according to the State of Alaska. A jury convicted Nicholas Hunnicutt of sexual abuse of a minor in the second degree for inappropriately touching a 14-year-old.

Julia O’Malley has been writing about the state’s climate, food, politics and culture for more than two decades. She recently visited St. Paul to better understand how the island community is dealing with the snow crab crash, and to learn what’s at stake.

One of the most sealed off communities in the country is under a hunker down order following a surge of COVID-19. Roughly half of all coronavirus cases recorded on St. Paul Island since the start of the pandemic have happened in the last two weeks.

Two years after becoming one of the most sealed-off locations in the United States, St. Paul Island is reopening to visitors. St. Paul Island Tour, a business within the Unangan-owned TDX Corp., is resuming its operations after a pause forced by the COVID-19 pandemic.