Alaska Fish & Wildlife News
February 2012

Cooking Wild: Eating Alaskan

By Ken Marsh

Few places in the civilized world retain a stronger connection to hunting, gathering and eating well from the land than Alaska.

One late-September evening years ago, as I hiked with my trapping partner along a birch ridge down the lake from our cabin, a bull moose charged out of the alders to face what it apparently mistook for a rival. Startled, I unslung my rifle, took aim just as the animal realized its error, and spent the lion’s share of the night in a sporadic drizzle, ...   Eating Alaskan Article Continued

Why Don’t We Grow Red King Crabs
in Hatcheries Like Salmon?

By Amy Carroll

During the early 1960s the Kodiak red king crab fishery was booming. It crashed within the decade; 40 years later it has not recovered and the fishery has been closed since 1982. From 1969 to 1980, the Bering Sea and Bristol Bay harvests went from 8.6 million pounds to a record catch of 130 million pounds, but by the early 1980s, harvests had plummeted. Out of eight red king crab fisheries in Alaska, only three—Bristol Bay, Norton Sound, and recently Southeast Alaska—are active, ...   Crab Enhancement Article Continued

Moose Management Success in the Lower Yukon

By Meghan Nedwick

Asking people to hunt more moose hardly seems like a problem. But after telling three generations of people not to harvest moose, specifically cows; it may be difficult to tell people to do otherwise.

Historically, up until the late 1980s, moose on the Lower Yukon existed at very low levels and most areas had few or no moose at all. Of the few moose that were present, people harvested a high percentage of both bulls and cows which prevented the population from growing in otherwise suitable ...   Moose Success Story Article Continued