Posts Near Nanwalek Map Timeline

A new plant species is establishing itself in the area and impacting native beach greens.

Some Southeast fishermen skipping fall season entirely, other’s say season has been “hit or miss”

Strong winds might have blown sea cucumbers (Cucumaria miniata) up on to the beach, exposing them to the cold at low tide.

A large group of dead northern sea nettles (Chrysaora melanaster) found near the shore in Kasitsna Bay.

We did not see a single sea star in the Kachemak-side tide pools, and boulders we visit each year all looked a little vacant, with a lot of empty, critter-free space.

Sea Nettle (Chrysaora melanaster) jellyfish washed up on the beach.

Squid are becoming more common on the shoreline over the past few years.

Sea star wasting syndrome, or disease as it has become known, hit Kachemak Bay hard in 2016, killing about 90 percent of sunflower and true star populations.

Tube-Dwelling Worms on Seldovia Beach

Squid are occasionally found in the area, but not very often.

Sea star wasting disease, a type of densovirus, reduced the count of sea stars in Kachemak Bay from 180 last spring to a measly five this year.

No one really knows why algae put so much effort into making poisons. Alexandrium makes saxitoxin, and causes PSP. Another algae called Pseudo-nitzschia produces domoic acid, the source of amnesiac shellfish poisoning.

Sea star wasting syndrome was first documented in Kachemak Bay in 2014, but it wasn’t until last summer that the mysterious infection began killing sea stars in large numbers.

Kachemak Bay has witnessed massive die-offs of sea stars, murres and razor clams. Whats going on?

Washing ashore from Kachemak Bay

Blue Sail Jellyfish

Near MacDonald Spit, southern end of the Kenai Peninsula.

These ladies found a snail that they had never seen before and brought them.

7-29-14 Crab larvae wash ashore - Port Graham, Alaska, USA

7-3-12 Barnacle decline - McDonald Spit, Alaska, USA

3-9-12 Barnacles declining - Nanwalek, Alaska, USA

Adult abundance “well below” fishery thresholds on both beaches. This outcome was not unanticipated, as the department said when opening the fishery in Ninilchik last year that adult abundance met necessary thresholds for allowing harvest — at least meeting or exceeding 50% of the historical average — but juvenile abundance was low, meaning there would likely not be enough adult clams this year or next.