Alaska Fish & Wildlife News
June 2011

Skates - No Wheels, Blades or Stingers
on These Slow Growing, Long Lived Creatures

By Anne Sutton

Lying among the mussels half immersed in a puddle left by the outgoing tide, its moist red gelatinous-like skin pulses softly. To a landlubber raised on Jacques Cousteau's TV adventures, this creature from the Gastineau Channel deep—hardly bigger than my hand—can only be one thing. “Wow, a sting ray,” I think, “Here in Juneau!”

I rush inside for a camera and burst in on webmaster Karl Wood, who grew up fishing out of Petersburg. He gently explains that what I've found is most likely a ...   Skates ArticleContinued

Found Transmitter a Needle in a Haystack

By Riley Woodford

At first glance the radio transmitter looked like a firecracker with a long fuse. It was a lucky fluke, not a firecracker – that transmitter lying on the Mendenhall Wetlands near Juneau had been implanted in a sea duck ten years earlier and 900 miles south.

The transmitter was turned in to the Alaska Department of Fish and Game office in May. About the size of a double-A battery, it had HSL 67625 written on the side. A few e-mails to waterfowl biologists at ADF&G and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife ...   Found Transmitter ArticleContinued

Changing Regulations to Cook Inlet
and Kodiak Sport Fisheries

By Tom Vania and Matt Miller

Every three years the Board of Fisheries meets to consider proposed changes to fisheries regulations for Cook Inlet and Kodiak. Proposals to change regulations are submitted by the general public, fishing organizations, local fish and game advisory committees, and the Alaska Department of Fish and Game. Three meetings were held over the winter to address proposals to change sport, commercial, subsistence, and personal use fishing regulations in Lower Cook Inlet, Kodiak, and Upper Cook Inlet. The ...   Changing Regulations ArticleContinued

BioBlitzing Alaska
Trio of Alaska BioBlitzes in Store for 2011

By Riley Woodford

Beaming down on alien worlds with their tricorders and phasers, the landing parties on “Star Trek” quickly assessed the planets' life forms. Shortly thereafter mayhem generally ensued, with flowers shooting mind-altering spores, sentient hemoglobin-eating gas clouds, salt vampires and rock-eating hortas.

Assessing life on Earth in the 21st century is considerably less hazardous. This summer, Alaskans will focus on three areas for a trio of BioBlitzes – rapid and focused assessments of ...   BioBlitzing Alaska ArticleContinued