Alaska Fish & Wildlife News
September 2019

Moose Research
Moose and Their Flying Antagonists

Moose face some formidable adversaries in the wild. Bears eat calves in early summer, and wolves hunt moose year-round. But insects may well be their greatest scourge. Throughout the summer, a moose will be fed upon by tens of thousands of biting, blood-drinking insects, from tiny mosquitoes and gnats to chunky flies with stabbing, cutting mouthparts.

This summer, Bridgett Downs Benedict lived with moose and their insect hordes at the Kenai Moose Research Center near Sterling. A Ph.D. student ...   Moose Research Article Continued

King Crab
Managing King Crab in Southeast Alaska

King crab are an Alaska icon. They are delicious as well, and insuring they are available for harvest requires careful management. Biologists who oversee king crab in Southeast Alaska waters monitor the big, spiny crabs - and the Alaskans who catch them as well.

“People might have a potful of crabs and think that they’re everywhere, but it takes a long time to grow one of those things,” said shellfish research biologist Adam Messmer, who is based in Douglas and serves ...   King Crab Article Continued

Real Anglers
Alaska fly-fishers are a dedicated bunch

Several miles downstream of the Kenai-Russian River confluence, I stepped off the one-man pontoon raft Danny Z. had loaned me and pulled my 8-weight fly rod from the rack. It was late September and the cobble bar and surrounding shallows were littered with the carcasses of spawned-out salmon — reds mostly, dwarfed by a few old kings thicker and longer than a big man’s leg. They lay on their sides, poked and torn by eagles and gulls, empty eye sockets gaping skyward; the air was foul ...   Real Anglers Article Continued