Marine Mammals | 15 | ||
Ocean / Sea | 3 | ||
Birds | 2 | ||
Fish | 2 | ||
Invertebrates | 2 | ||
Microbes | 1 | ||
Weather | 1 |
Death / Die-off / Decline | 12 | ||
Unusual Range / Sighting | 3 | ||
Deformity / Disease / Injury | 1 | ||
Ice / Snow Change | 1 | ||
Unusual Animal Behavior | 1 | ||
Extreme Temperature | 1 |
2019 | 17 |
A variety of stranded marine mammals were observed in the Port Heiden area between August 17 and 26th.
Alaska has experienced a series of seal mortalities in June that were concentrated in the northern part of the state. This dead seal was found on the bluff near a public park in Anchorage.
A range of wildlife-related events have been occurring this month in Shishmaref and other parts of Norton Sound.
"Its face was down in the mud and it was laboring to breathe. Its body condition was wasted and we could see its ribs."
18 dead seals were found along the coast, and are like part of a larger mortality event that includes 60 seals total. The average number of dead ice seals normally found in a year is 18.
Grey whale (Eschrichtius robustus) found beached near the Placer River along Turnagain Arm is one of five grey whales reported dead along the Alaska coast during 2019.
Alaska Sea Grant agent Gay Sheffield from Nome responded to report of a dead bowhead and a dead grey whale northeast of Shishmaref near Cape Espenburg.
This comes just days after other reports of about 60 dead ice seals found from Kotlik to Kotzebue and Kivalina to Point Hope.
An alarming number of gray whales have been found dead this year from Mexico to Alaska, triggering a federal investigation into what’s causing the die-off.
NOAA has declared an “unusual mortality event” for gray whales on the North American west coast and launched an investigation.
The whale is located in an inaccessible place where scientists are unable to take a necropsy.
NOAA is monitoring significant numbers of gray whale deaths this spring along the Pacific coast.
Near Nome, reports of seal pups and walrus calves hauled out on beaches are piling up at an unprecedented rate.
A pilot first spotted the whale last week. What caused the whale’s death isn’t yet known.
A second whale has been found dead floating in the middle of Turnagain Arm, just two weeks after a juvenile humpback whale was found dead on the Arm after stranding itself twice.
It’s rare to see humpbacks in Turnagain Arm, known for its swift tides and shallow waters.
Every year since 2015, the Bering Sea has melted out earlier than in every year before 2015. If heat is killing animals, scientists have yet to pin down exactly how it is doing so.