Alaska Fish & Wildlife News
November 2018

Bristol Bay Belugas

About 2,000 beluga whales call the salmon-rich, mud-dark waters of Bristol Bay home. This genetically distinct population, known as the Bristol Bay stock, is providing insights into the nature of the small white whales: how they communicate and find food in their noisy, dynamic environment, and how these highly social animals interact.

Lori Quakenbush, a marine mammal biologist with the Alaska Department of Fish and Game, has worked with researchers across North America catch and study ...   Bristol Bay Belugas Article Continued

The Situk River: An Alaska Steelhead Mecca

Let’s start with the facts. Steelhead (Oncorhynchus mykiss) are anadromous rainbow trout. Like salmon, they hatch and rear in freshwater, then go to the ocean to grow and mature before returning to their natal streams to spawn. Steelhead have complex life histories: they spend varying amounts of time in freshwater and saltwater, they return to their natal streams in the fall or spring, and they can survive to spawn multiple times.

Historically, you could find steelhead in ...   Situk Steelhead Article Continued

Hatchery-raised Rainbow Trout:
Using Mother Nature’s Tricks to Provide Fishing Op

While most of Southcentral Alaska is preoccupied with hunting or berry picking during the last weeks of August, there is a different kind of harvest ripening in the Rainbow Room at the William Jack Hernandez Sport Fish Hatchery in Anchorage. The three-year-old rainbow trout captive brood stock are celebrating Christmas and New Year’s mid-way through their “winter” and beginning to show signs of maturation.

It has been said “It is not nice to fool Mother ...   Raising Rainbows Article Continued