Saint Paul

King crab legs for $199 a pound? There’s a reason for that.

The melt season for Arctic sea ice is underway after the annual maximum extent was reached late last month. Sea ice extent reached its annual maximum on Feb. 25, 15 days earlier than the 1981-2010 average date and one of the earliest dates for that milestone in the four-decade satellite record.

The main Bering Sea ice pack has begun its retreat to the north after extending to the Pribilofs earlier this month. This winter’s freeze-up has been reminiscent of more historical sea ice conditions.

Unusual webs spread across vegetation is likely related to a mass ballooning event, where spiders launched themselves in the air using the Earths magnetic charge and the wind.

The Bering Sea island is breeding habitat for millions of seabirds, including rare migratory species. A “strike team” had been searching for the rogue rat for 10 months.

Foraging strategies and their resulting efficiency (energy gain to cost ratio) affect animals' survival and reproductive success and can be linked to population dynamics. However, they have rarely been studied quantitatively in free-ranging animals. We investigated foraging strategies and efficiencies of wild northern fur seals Callorhinus ursinus during their breeding season to understand potential links to the observed population decline in the Bering Sea. We equipped 20 lactating females with biologgers to determine at-sea foraging behaviours. We measured energy expenditure while foraging using the doubly-labelled water method, and energy gained using (1) the types and energy densities of prey consumed, and (2) the number of prey capture attempts (from acceleration data). Our results show that seals employed 2 foraging strategies: one group (40\%) fed mostly in oceanic waters on small, high energy-density prey, while the other (60\%) stayed over the shallow continental shelf feeding mostly on larger, lower quality fish. Females foraging in oceanic waters captured 3 times more prey, and had double the foraging efficiencies of females that foraged on-shelf in neritic waters. However, neritic seals made comparatively shorter trips, and likely fed their pups similar to 20 to 25\% more frequently. The presence of these strategies which either favor foraging efficiency (energy) or frequency of nursing (time) might be maintained in the population because they have similar net fitness outcomes. However, neither strategy appears to simultaneously maximize time and energy allocated to nursing, with potential impacts on the survival of pups during their first year at sea.

For the last century, reindeer have roamed St. Paul Island without much oversight. But now, the tribal government is stepping up its management style to boost subsistence options and the local economy.

Scientist Rod Towell has been part of the fur seal counts since 1992. He said the difference at the rookeries is striking. Northern fur seal pup production has hit its lowest level since 1915.

As lichen has disappeared, the herd has changed its diet. This adaptation could have global implications for reindeer facing a warming climate.

Was observed for the first time.

Several ill or dead tufted and horned puffins were found on the shores of St. Paul Island.

A highly decomposed whale carcass was identified as a gray whale.

That's right, California sea lions. As populations of native Steller sea lions decline, Maniscalco says a growing number of California sea lions are showing up on Steller sea lion rookeries and haul-outs across the state. According to his research, some 33 sightings have been recorded. And some of those California sea lions have made their way as far west as the Pribilof Islands in the Bering Sea.

This season’s quotas of snow crab catch were slashed by nearly 90%, a body blow to the small island government on St. Paul, where the crab are processed — and taxed.

Coxiella burnetii, a zoonotic bacterium, has recently been identified in several marine mammal species on the Pacific Coast of North America, but little is known about the epidemiology, transmission, and pathogenesis in these species.

Q fever is a febrile illness caused by infection with the bacterium Coxiella burnetii. It is most often transmitted by inhalation of the bacteria after it is shed by infected livestock. The antibody prevalence in NFS samples from 2009 and 2011 (69%) was significantly higher than in 1994 (49%). The antibody prevalence of SSL samples from 2007 to 2011 was 59%. All NFS vaginal swabs were negative for C. burnetii, despite an 80% antibody prevalence in the matched sera. The significant increase in antibody prevalence in NFS from 1994 to 2011 suggests that the pathogen may be increasingly common or that there is marked temporal variation within the vulnerable NFS population.

After a two-year hiatus the Bering Sea snow crab harvest is back on. Signs of recovery are modest, and so is the allowable catch.

The purported sighting caused a stir on St. Paul Island, a birding haven sometimes called the "Galapagos of the North" for its diversity of life. That's because stowaway rats can quickly populate and overrun remote islands, devastating bird populations.

The recent closure of the Bering Sea snow crab and Bristol Bay red king crab fisheries has some Western Alaska towns taking a hard look at their futures, including St. Paul.