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	<channel>
		<title>Conservation news</title>
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		<link>https://news.mongabay.com/list/alaska/</link>
		<description>Environmental science and conservation news</description>
		<lastBuildDate>Sun, 15 Nov 2026 02:07:52 +0000</lastBuildDate>
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	<title>Alaska environmental news</title>
	<link>https://news.mongabay.com/list/alaska/</link>
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				<item>
					<title>US prepares to auction leases for seabed mining blocks in federal waters</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/05/us-prepares-to-auction-leases-for-seabed-mining-blocks-in-federal-waters/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/05/us-prepares-to-auction-leases-for-seabed-mining-blocks-in-federal-waters/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>27 May 2026 20:29:27 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Elizabeth Claire Alberts]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Rebecca Kessler]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2026/05/27100412/sea-star-coral-ex1702-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=320180</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Alaska, Pacific Islands, and Pacific Ocean]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Deep Sea Mining, Ecosystems, Environment, extractives, Global Environmental Crisis, Governance, Industry, Islands, Marine, Marine Conservation, Mining, Oceans, and Politics]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[This is part 1 of a two-part series examining the U.S.’s efforts to begin deep-sea mining in federal waters. Part 1 explores the process behind proposed lease sales in U.S. federal waters and reactions to those plans. Part 2 examines the regulations that would govern the industry. The U.S. agency responsible for overseeing deep-sea mining [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[This is part 1 of a two-part series examining the U.S.’s efforts to begin deep-sea mining in federal waters. Part 1 explores the process behind proposed lease sales in U.S. federal waters and reactions to those plans. Part 2 examines the regulations that would govern the industry. The U.S. agency responsible for overseeing deep-sea mining in federal waters is preparing to auction off seabed blocks within months — a step that could kick-start commercial-scale deep-sea mining and make the U.S. one of the first countries to allow it. Deep-sea mining has not yet begun anywhere in the world. Opponents say it could cause widespread and irreversible damage to the marine environment if it begins, while supporters say it could provide an important source of critical minerals. In a budgetary document released in April 2026, the U.S. Department of the Interior (DOI) indicated it intends to hold at least three offshore lease sales during the 2026 and 2027 fiscal years. The lease sales will take place through competitive auctions, providing a pathway for winning companies to gain exclusive rights to explore and exploit minerals in designated tracts of seabed. The first sale is slated for the federal waters of American Samoa in August 2026; a second in the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands (CNMI) in November 2026; and a third in Alaska in 2027. A spokesperson for the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM), the U.S. agency currently responsible for the development of offshore energy and mineral resources on the&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2026/05/us-prepares-to-auction-leases-for-seabed-mining-blocks-in-federal-waters/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/05/us-prepares-to-auction-leases-for-seabed-mining-blocks-in-federal-waters/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-320180</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Goldman Prize winner Alannah Hurley fights Pebble Mine “from a place of love”</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/04/goldman-prize-winner-alannah-hurley-fights-pebble-mine-from-a-place-of-love/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/04/goldman-prize-winner-alannah-hurley-fights-pebble-mine-from-a-place-of-love/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>20 Apr 2026 21:41:50 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Claudia Geib]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Latoya Abulu]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2026/04/20213426/Media-Room-Alannah_Credit-Goldman-Environmental-Prize_07-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=317824</guid>

											<reporting-project>
							<![CDATA[Indigenous-led conservation]]>
						</reporting-project>
					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Alaska, North America, and United States]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Activism, Biodiversity, Conservation, Ecosystems, Environment, extractives, Fish, Fisheries, Fishing, Indigenous Peoples, Indigenous Rights, Marine, Marine Conservation, Marine Protected Areas, and Mining]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[In the early 2000s, Alannah Acaq Hurley began working over her college summer breaks to spread awareness among rural communities in Southeast Alaska about a project called Pebble Mine: a pit 4 kilometers (2.5 miles) wide and 180 meters (600 feet) deep proposed at the head of Bristol Bay — the largest sockeye salmon fishery [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[In the early 2000s, Alannah Acaq Hurley began working over her college summer breaks to spread awareness among rural communities in Southeast Alaska about a project called Pebble Mine: a pit 4 kilometers (2.5 miles) wide and 180 meters (600 feet) deep proposed at the head of Bristol Bay — the largest sockeye salmon fishery in the world, and the waters that Hurley and her family call home. In 2001, the Canadian company Northern Dynasty Minerals Ltd. obtained mineral leases to deposits in the area for what would have been the largest open-pit mine in North America. Decades later, Hurley is now the executive director of the United Tribes of Bristol Bay (UTBB), and the work to stop Pebble continues. Hurley has received a 2026 Goldman Environmental Prize for her work in organizing an opposition that seems poised to bring the proposed copper and gold mine to a halt. After a 2023 veto of the project by the Environmental Protection Agency due to “unacceptable adverse effects” on the region’s salmon fishery and a surprising court filing by the Department of Justice under President Donald Trump’s administration supporting that veto earlier in 2026, more than two decades of work by local advocates seem to have turned the winds against the Pebble Mine project. Yet Hurley said the work to protect the region — home to the Yup&#8217;ik, Dena&#8217;ina, and Alutiiq tribal nations, and to eagles and moose, bears and whales — is far from over. “Our tribes have never changed their&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2026/04/goldman-prize-winner-alannah-hurley-fights-pebble-mine-from-a-place-of-love/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/04/goldman-prize-winner-alannah-hurley-fights-pebble-mine-from-a-place-of-love/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-317824</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Indigenous concerns surface as U.S. agency considers seabed mining in Alaskan waters</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/02/indigenous-concerns-surface-as-u-s-agency-considers-seabed-mining-in-alaskan-waters/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/02/indigenous-concerns-surface-as-u-s-agency-considers-seabed-mining-in-alaskan-waters/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>11 Feb 2026 16:27:46 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Anita Hofschneider]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Latoya Abulu]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2024/06/04113736/alaska-whale-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=314054</guid>

											<reporting-project>
							<![CDATA[Indigenous Peoples and Conservation]]>
						</reporting-project>
					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Alaska, North America, and United States]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Critical Minerals, Culture, Deep Sea, Deep Sea Mining, Environment, Indigenous Peoples, Mining, and Oceans]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[A U.S. federal agency is considering allowing companies to lease more than 45.7 million hectares (113 million acres) of waters off Alaska for seabed mining. Alaska is the latest of several places President Donald Trump has sought to open to the fledging industry over the past year, including waters around American Samoa, Guam, and the Northern [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[A U.S. federal agency is considering allowing companies to lease more than 45.7 million hectares (113 million acres) of waters off Alaska for seabed mining. Alaska is the latest of several places President Donald Trump has sought to open to the fledging industry over the past year, including waters around American Samoa, Guam, and the Northern Mariana Islands. Like those Pacific islands, Alaska is home to Indigenous peoples with ancestral ties to the ocean, and the proposal is raising cultural and environmental concerns. Deep-sea mining, the practice of scraping minerals off the ocean floor for commercial products like electric vehicle batteries and military technology, is not yet a commercial industry. It’s been slowed by the lack of regulations governing permits in international waters and by concerns about the environmental impact of extracting minerals that formed over millions of years. Scientists have warned the practice could damage fisheries and fragile ecosystems that could take millennia to recover. Indigenous peoples have also pushed back, citing violations of their rights to consent to projects in their territories. Trump, however, has voiced strong support for the industry as part of his effort to make the United States a leader in critical mineral production. He has also pushed for U.S. companies to mine in international waters, bypassing ongoing global negotiations over international mining regulations. Kate Finn, a citizen of the Osage Nation and executive director of the Tallgrass Institute Center for Indigenous Economic Stewardship in Colorado, said she worries the seabed mining industry will repeat the&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2026/02/indigenous-concerns-surface-as-u-s-agency-considers-seabed-mining-in-alaskan-waters/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/02/indigenous-concerns-surface-as-u-s-agency-considers-seabed-mining-in-alaskan-waters/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-314054</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Earth’s freshwater fish face harsh new climate challenges, researchers warn</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/12/earths-freshwater-fish-face-harsh-new-climate-challenges-researchers-warn/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/12/earths-freshwater-fish-face-harsh-new-climate-challenges-researchers-warn/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>17 Dec 2025 17:08:14 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Stefan Lovgren]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Glenn Scherer]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2025/12/17154917/0-tagged-Mekong-giant-catfish-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=311558</guid>

											<reporting-project>
							<![CDATA[Planetary Boundaries]]>
						</reporting-project>
					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Africa, Alaska, Global, Mekong Basin, North America, Southeast Asia, and United States]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Animals, Biodiversity, Climate Change, Conservation, Ecosystems, Environment, Extinction, Fish, Food, food security, Freshwater, Freshwater Fish, Health, Impact Of Climate Change, Planetary Boundaries, Planetary Health, Research, Rivers, and Wildlife]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Southeast Asia’s Mekong River is one of the world’s most diverse and productive freshwater ecosystems, home to more than 1,000 fish species, including both the critically endangered Mekong giant catfish (Pangasianodon gigas) and giant barb (Catlocarpio siamensis). Many of these species migrate long distances and depend on the timing and extent of the annual flood [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[Southeast Asia’s Mekong River is one of the world’s most diverse and productive freshwater ecosystems, home to more than 1,000 fish species, including both the critically endangered Mekong giant catfish (Pangasianodon gigas) and giant barb (Catlocarpio siamensis). Many of these species migrate long distances and depend on the timing and extent of the annual flood pulse that expands habitat and triggers spawning. But that seasonal rhythm is shifting as monsoon seasons become increasingly erratic — the result of climate change, with upriver dams adding to the water level fluctuation problem. There have been years in which Cambodia’s Tonle Sap Lake, the region’s major nursery ground, has failed to expand as it did in the past, reducing habitat for migratory fish. These changes in annual rainfall are unfolding on top of multiple stressors, including dam building, pollution and overfishing — altering habitats and driving species declines. Escalating climate change is adding a new layer of instability to the Mekong system. But how such pressures combine remains poorly understood. Floating villages along Cambodia’s Tonle Sap Lake rise and fall with the annual flood pulse that drives the Mekong region’s fisheries. When the monsoon is weak and the lake fails to expand to its usual size, fish habitat shrinks and local catches drop — conditions felt immediately by communities whose lives are tied to the lake’s seasonal rhythms. Image courtesy of Chhut Chheana/Wonders of the Mekong. &#8220;Climate change is a great unknown,” says Zeb Hogan, a biologist at the University of Nevada, Reno,&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2025/12/earths-freshwater-fish-face-harsh-new-climate-challenges-researchers-warn/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/12/earths-freshwater-fish-face-harsh-new-climate-challenges-researchers-warn/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-311558</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Booming sea otters and fading shellfish spark values clash in Alaska</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/10/booming-sea-otters-and-fading-shellfish-spark-values-clash-in-alaska/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/10/booming-sea-otters-and-fading-shellfish-spark-values-clash-in-alaska/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>21 Oct 2025 15:55:00 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Justin Catanoso]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Glenn Scherer]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2025/10/21110614/0-Sea_Otters_19631888633-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=308011</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Alaska, North America, and United States]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Animals, Biodiversity, Climate Change, Conflict, Conservation, Culture, Ecosystems, Environment, Environmental Law, Fisheries, Human-wildlife Conflict, Indigenous Rights, Mammals, Marine, Marine Animals, Marine Conservation, Marine Mammals, Oceans, Restoration, and Wildlife]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[HOMER, Alaska — Roarke Brown, a charter boat captain since 1972 in this picturesque fishing village, remembers being able to tread out onto the Kachemak Bay mud flats at low tide to fill a 5-gallon bucket with clams in little time with minimal effort. Tanner and Dungeness crabs? Drop a pot; haul it up crawling [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[HOMER, Alaska — Roarke Brown, a charter boat captain since 1972 in this picturesque fishing village, remembers being able to tread out onto the Kachemak Bay mud flats at low tide to fill a 5-gallon bucket with clams in little time with minimal effort. Tanner and Dungeness crabs? Drop a pot; haul it up crawling with crustaceans. “There was a big commercial crab fishery here that’s been closed for decades,” Brown tells Mongabay, seated aboard the Pacific Shadow, his charter boat, in Homer’s busy harbor. “It’s just like a plowed field where we used to get clams. It’s no better for razors [clams) and mussels.” There’s a complex tangle of historical, ecological and climactic explanations for the decline of nearshore shellfish populations off Homer, across the Kenai Peninsula, and throughout the expansive Gulf of Alaska. But Brown and his shellfishing brethren, in concert with some marine biologists and Native Alaskans, point to one culprit: The incessantly hungry, steadily propagating northern sea otter (Enhydra lutris kenyoni). Amid Alaska’s vast wilderness and rich coastal biodiversity — ranging from halibut to king salmon, bald eagles to tufted puffins, humpback whales to harbor seals — there is no more controversial species than the big-eyed, long-whiskered, luxuriously coated sea otter. Roarke Brown, left, joins two deckhands in the busy Homer harbor aboard his charter boat the Pacific Shadow. Brown maintains that an unchecked sea otter population boom in the past 20 years has diminished the ability of shellfishers like himself to harvest clams, crabs, mussels&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2025/10/booming-sea-otters-and-fading-shellfish-spark-values-clash-in-alaska/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/10/booming-sea-otters-and-fading-shellfish-spark-values-clash-in-alaska/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-308011</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Alaskan rivers turn orange as permafrost thaws, threatening fish and communities</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/09/alaskan-rivers-turn-orange-as-permafrost-thaws-threatening-fish-and-communities/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/09/alaskan-rivers-turn-orange-as-permafrost-thaws-threatening-fish-and-communities/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>25 Sep 2025 13:09:06 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Liz Kimbrough]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Liz Kimbrough]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2025/09/25125410/Low-Res_B0038542-700x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=306584</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Alaska, Arctic, Arctic Ocean, North America, and United States]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Biodiversity, Climate Change, Conservation, Environment, Fish, Fishing, Green, and Indigenous Peoples]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[The writer John McPhee once described Alaska&#8217;s Salmon River as having &#8220;the clearest, purest water&#8221; he&#8217;d ever seen. Today, that same river runs orange with toxic metals unleashed by thawing permafrost. &#8220;During the summer of 2019, the clear waters of the Salmon turned distinctly orange and have remained discolored and turbid since,&#8221; according to a [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[The writer John McPhee once described Alaska&#8217;s Salmon River as having &#8220;the clearest, purest water&#8221; he&#8217;d ever seen. Today, that same river runs orange with toxic metals unleashed by thawing permafrost. &#8220;During the summer of 2019, the clear waters of the Salmon turned distinctly orange and have remained discolored and turbid since,&#8221; according to a new study published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. The Salmon River&#8217;s transformation represents a much larger crisis. In Alaska&#8217;s Brooks Range,75 streams have “recently turned orange and turbid,&#8221; the study found. &#8220;This is what acid mine drainage looks like,&#8221; said Tim Lyons, a biogeochemist at the University of California, Riverside, and co-author of the study. &#8220;But here, there&#8217;s no mine. The permafrost is thawing and changing the chemistry of the landscape.&#8221; The cause lies underground in permanently frozen soil, known as permafrost. As global temperatures rise, this ancient layer is thawing. When water and oxygen reach the newly exposed soil, they trigger chemical reactions that break down sulfide-rich rocks, creating sulfuric acid that leaches naturally occurring metals like iron, cadmium and aluminum from rocks into the river, the research shows. Researchers tested 10 major tributaries of the Salmon River and found that nine had toxic concentrations of at least one metal on at least one of three sampling dates. The study shows that levels of metals in the river&#8217;s waters exceed U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) toxicity thresholds for aquatic life. Metal levels in the Salmon River mainstem were dangerously high&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2025/09/alaskan-rivers-turn-orange-as-permafrost-thaws-threatening-fish-and-communities/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/09/alaskan-rivers-turn-orange-as-permafrost-thaws-threatening-fish-and-communities/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-306584</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>New research sheds light on Canada lynx-snowshoe hare cycle, human impacts</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/05/new-research-sheds-light-on-canada-lynx-snowshoe-hare-cycle-human-impacts/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/05/new-research-sheds-light-on-canada-lynx-snowshoe-hare-cycle-human-impacts/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>14 May 2025 14:34:06 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Ruth Kamnitzer]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Glenn Scherer]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2025/05/14060945/Canadian_lynx_by_Keith_Williams-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=298495</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Alaska, Canada, Colorado, North America, and United States]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Animal Behavior, Animals, Biodiversity, Cats, Climate Change, Conservation, Ecology, Environment, Fires, Forestry, Habitat, Invasive Species, Land Use Change, Logging, Mammals, Predators, Research, Rodents, Small Cats, Top Predators, and Wildlife]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Open any ecology textbook and you’ll find the Canada lynx, the snowshoe hare, and their wildly oscillating population cycles offered as a classic example of the intimate relationship between predator and prey. The Canada lynx (Lynx canadensis) is a handsome, medium-sized felid, with a thick coat, tufted ears and large paws — an adaptation to [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[Open any ecology textbook and you’ll find the Canada lynx, the snowshoe hare, and their wildly oscillating population cycles offered as a classic example of the intimate relationship between predator and prey. The Canada lynx (Lynx canadensis) is a handsome, medium-sized felid, with a thick coat, tufted ears and large paws — an adaptation to deep snow. Its distribution and abundance in North America has long been inextricably linked to that of the snowshoe hare (Lepus americanus), its primary prey. The relationship also fascinates the public, with photos of the cat chasing the hare across snowy landscapes a staple of wildlife photo essays. Snowshoe hare numbers rise and fall dramatically in a regular cycle of eight to 10 years. A year or two later, Canada lynx numbers follow. This enduring relationship is borne out by Indigenous knowledge and centuries of fur trapping data, and is integral to boreal forest science. Now, researchers are questioning if human activities, including forestry practices, climate change and wildfires may be impacting lynx, hares and this natural cycle. With thick coats and broad paws, Canada lynx are supremely adapted to deep snow. Image courtesy of Allyson Menzies. An enduring ecological relationship Stan Boutin, a professor at the University of Alberta in Canada, has been watching the lynx-hare drama play out in Kluane, in Canada’s Yukon Territory, for nearly 50 years. Over this time, hare populations have exploded and crashed five times, with lynx populations following behind. “We&#8217;re on a heavy increase phase now. So the&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2025/05/new-research-sheds-light-on-canada-lynx-snowshoe-hare-cycle-human-impacts/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/05/new-research-sheds-light-on-canada-lynx-snowshoe-hare-cycle-human-impacts/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-298495</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Indigenous Alaskans drive research in a melting arctic</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/06/alaskas-indigenous-join-hands-with-whale-researchers-as-arctic-melts/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/06/alaskas-indigenous-join-hands-with-whale-researchers-as-arctic-melts/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>04 Jun 2024 12:11:46 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Gabe Allen]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Latoya Abulu]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2024/06/04120726/Screen-Shot-2024-06-04-at-2.07.07-PM-768x512.png" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=282896</guid>

											<reporting-project>
							<![CDATA[Indigenous Peoples and Conservation and Indigenous-led conservation]]>
						</reporting-project>
					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Alaska, Arctic, Arctic Ocean, North America, and United States]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Climate, Climate Change, Climate Science, Conservation, Culture, Environment, Global Environmental Crisis, Global Warming, Impact Of Climate Change, Indigenous Peoples, Ocean Warming, Permafrost, Research, Sea Ice, Traditional Knowledge, Traditional People, Whales, and Whaling]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[For a few days each June, the saltwater wind that blows over the fairgrounds in Utqiagvik, Alaska mixes with the smell of coffee, salmonberry pie and fresh whale meat. The festivities start early and end under the midnight sun during Nalukataq, the annual whaling festival. By noon, the tables at the center of the fairgrounds [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[For a few days each June, the saltwater wind that blows over the fairgrounds in Utqiagvik, Alaska mixes with the smell of coffee, salmonberry pie and fresh whale meat. The festivities start early and end under the midnight sun during Nalukataq, the annual whaling festival. By noon, the tables at the center of the fairgrounds are filled with slabs of whale blubber, cauldrons of stew and baked goods — enough to feed the town for a month. After a prayer, crew members circle the fairgrounds and fill coolers with food. Meanwhile, captains trade turns making speeches, pumping up the crowd and singing songs into a megaphone. On the first day of last summer’s festival, one cut of whale meat was conspicuously absent from the spread. The kidneys of a bowhead whale (Balaena mysticetus), which are usually slow cooked through the morning, were sitting in wildlife veterinarian Raphaela Stimmelmayr’s laboratory eight kilometers (five miles) away at the North Slope Borough Department of Wildlife Management. A family accepts muktuk, whale blubber, at Nalukataq in Utqiagvik, Alaska. Image by Gabe Allen for Mongabay. Stimmelmayr received the organs back in March, just hours after the Little Kupaaq whaling crew successfully harpooned a 25-ton animal. Little Kupaaq member Martin Edwardsen was in the boat that day. With the community’s help, the Little Kupaaq crew hauled the animal onto the ice and butchered the meat. But, as Edwardsen cut out the kidneys, he noticed something off. Tiny translucent worms wriggled along the surface of the organs.&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2024/06/alaskas-indigenous-join-hands-with-whale-researchers-as-arctic-melts/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-282896</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Alaska&#8217;s Arctic rivers turn rusty orange as permafrost thaws</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/05/alaskas-arctic-rivers-turn-rusty-orange-as-permafrost-thaws/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/05/alaskas-arctic-rivers-turn-rusty-orange-as-permafrost-thaws/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>31 May 2024 21:09:55 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Liz Kimbrough]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Liz Kimbrough]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2024/05/31210048/Screenshot-2024-05-31-at-1.51.59-PM-768x512.png" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=282843</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Alaska, Arctic, and North America]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Animals, Climate, Climate Change, Ecology, Ecosystems, Environment, Fish, Freshwater, Freshwater Fish, Impact Of Climate Change, and Permafrost]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Dozens of once-pristine rivers and streams in Alaska&#8217;s Brooks Range are turning an alarming shade of orange. The discoloration, according to a new study published in the journal Communications Earth and Environment, is likely caused by the thawing of permafrost, which is exposing previously frozen minerals that are now leaching into the waterways. The research [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[Dozens of once-pristine rivers and streams in Alaska&#8217;s Brooks Range are turning an alarming shade of orange. The discoloration, according to a new study published in the journal Communications Earth and Environment, is likely caused by the thawing of permafrost, which is exposing previously frozen minerals that are now leaching into the waterways. The research team, led by ecologist Jon O&#8217;Donnell from the U.S. National Park Service, documented 75 locations across a vast area of northern Alaska where the crystal-clear waters now appear heavily stained. Using satellite imagery and field observations, the scientists determined that the onset of this discoloration coincided with a period of warming and increased snowfall in the region over the past decade. Permafrost, which is ground that remains frozen year-round, acts as a storage vault for various minerals. As rising temperatures cause this frozen layer to thaw, these minerals are exposed to water and oxygen, triggering chemical reactions that release iron and other metals into the groundwater. This metal-rich water then makes its way into rivers and streams. &#8220;Our recent study highlights an unforeseen consequence of climate change on Arctic rivers,&#8221; study co-author Brett Poulin, an environmental toxicologist from the University of California, Davis, told Mongabay. &#8220;Arctic environments are warming up to four times faster than the globe as a whole, and this is resulting in deterioration of water quality in the most pristine rivers in North America.&#8221; Map of orange stream observations across Arctic Inventory and Monitoring Network (ARCN) parks in northern Alaska. Picture inserts&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2024/05/alaskas-arctic-rivers-turn-rusty-orange-as-permafrost-thaws/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/05/alaskas-arctic-rivers-turn-rusty-orange-as-permafrost-thaws/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-282843</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Plastic pollution talks end &#038; Arctic peoples return home to a ‘sink’ of plastic</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/05/plastic-pollution-talks-end-arctic-people-return-home-to-a-sink-of-plastic/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/05/plastic-pollution-talks-end-arctic-people-return-home-to-a-sink-of-plastic/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>07 May 2024 10:00:33 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Sonam Lama Hyolmo]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Latoya Abulu]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2024/05/06164158/indigenous-greenland-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=281739</guid>

											<reporting-project>
							<![CDATA[Indigenous Peoples and Conservation and Planetary Boundaries]]>
						</reporting-project>
					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Alaska, Arctic, and Arctic Ocean]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Climate Change, Climate Justice, Conservation, Culture, Environment, Environmental Law, Environmental Policy, food security, Indigenous Peoples, Indigenous Rights, Microplastics, Novel Entities, Oceans, Plastic, Politics, Pollution, Sea Ice, and Social Justice]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Global plastic pollution talks in Ottawa came to a close April 30, and with them a group of Indigenous leaders from the Arctic are on their way home. But the mood remains bittersweet for the delegation that must return to a region that has become a “sink” collecting plastic pollution that arrives from around the [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[Global plastic pollution talks in Ottawa came to a close April 30, and with them a group of Indigenous leaders from the Arctic are on their way home. But the mood remains bittersweet for the delegation that must return to a region that has become a “sink” collecting plastic pollution that arrives from around the world. “Oil-producing countries and industries have wielded undue influence,” says Pamela Miller, executive director and senior scientist at Alaska Community Action on Toxics (ACAT) and co-chair of the International Pollutants Elimination Network (IPEN). “We must ensure that the [next round of talks in November] is free of conflict of interest.” Though Indigenous delegates say there was significant progress in negotiations on a global treaty to curb plastics pollution by developing language to address harmful plastics chemicals, they were disappointed to see no commitments for cutting plastic production. They see high production and consumption of plastic as the root of the pollution problem. With the Arctic warming nearly four times faster than the rest of the world, communities in the Arctic are among the world’s most impacted by climate change and plastic pollution, according to a report published by ACAT and IPEN. Plastic pollution and the oil exploitation process to produce these petrochemicals are threatening Indigenous people&#8217;s health, food, livelihood, lands and human rights, say the authors. Climate change, they tell Mongabay, is exacerbating all these impacts. “This is a crisis,” Miller says. “And without curbing fossil fuel extraction and plastics production, the Arctic will continue&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2024/05/plastic-pollution-talks-end-arctic-people-return-home-to-a-sink-of-plastic/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/05/plastic-pollution-talks-end-arctic-people-return-home-to-a-sink-of-plastic/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-281739</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>The new Arctic: Amid record heat, ecosystems morph and wildlife struggle</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/02/the-new-arctic-amid-record-heat-ecosystems-morph-and-wildlife-struggle/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/02/the-new-arctic-amid-record-heat-ecosystems-morph-and-wildlife-struggle/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>14 Feb 2024 15:02:39 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Sharon Guynup]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Glenn Scherer]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2024/02/14134109/POSSIBLE-BANNER-IMAGE_35A1906-Image-by-Sharon-Guynup-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=278847</guid>

											<reporting-project>
							<![CDATA[Planetary Boundaries]]>
						</reporting-project>
					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Alaska, Arctic, Arctic Ocean, and Greenland]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Adaptation To Climate Change, Animals, Biodiversity, Birds, Climate Change, Conservation, Ecosystems, Environment, Extinction, Extreme Weather, Global Warming, Impact Of Climate Change, Mammals, Marine, Marine Animals, Ocean Warming, Oceans, Planetary Boundaries, Sea Ice, Sea Levels, Tipping points, and Wildlife]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Over millennia, animals including walruses, seals, lemmings, muskox and migratory birds evolved to survive the polar north’s extreme cold. But on land and at sea, wildlife are struggling to adapt to a rapidly warming climate and altered ecosystems.]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[Walruses have traversed the Arctic for millennia, gregarious pinnipeds that rest en masse on drifting pack ice, diving to feed on crabs, clams and other seafloor delicacies. Icy platforms also serve as safe birthing and nursery grounds. But as the far north rapidly warms and sea ice disappears, some herds now huddle on overcrowded shorelines, with deadly consequences for young calves: Because more disturbances occur on shore than at sea, calves are regularly trampled during panicked stampedes by the 1-ton-plus adults. Climate-driven changes are affecting other wildlife across this land of snow and ice. On the Arctic tundra, lemmings now struggle to eat, nest and move during the eight winter months they live beneath the snow, as they endure “weather whiplash,” with ever more severe fluctuations in temperature, snow and rain, says ecologist Dorothee Ehrich, at the Climate Ecological Observatory for Arctic Tundra with Norway’s Arctic University. As warming escalates, animals are on the move, bringing new diseases north. In December, officials reported that H5N1 avian flu infected and killed a polar bear — a global first. This highly infectious strain has circulated internationally since 2021, jumping between species, and has reached the polar region. It’s just one example of new pathogens there, raising serious concern because isolated Arctic species have little immunity to disease. Walruses have a diverse diet, feeding on dozens of genera of marine organisms, but the species prefers bivalve mollusks for which it forages by diving and grazing along the shallow sea bottom. Image © Steve&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2024/02/the-new-arctic-amid-record-heat-ecosystems-morph-and-wildlife-struggle/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/02/the-new-arctic-amid-record-heat-ecosystems-morph-and-wildlife-struggle/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-278847</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Residents of southeast Alaskan town debate mine that’s bound to change region</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2023/05/residents-of-southeast-alaskan-town-debate-mine-thats-bound-to-change-region/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2023/05/residents-of-southeast-alaskan-town-debate-mine-thats-bound-to-change-region/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>26 May 2023 15:02:09 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Evan Bourtis]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Latoya Abulu]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2023/05/26143418/Glacier-Creek-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=269090</guid>

											<reporting-project>
							<![CDATA[Indigenous Peoples and Conservation and Indigenous-led conservation]]>
						</reporting-project>
					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Alaska, North America, and United States]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Conflict, Conservation, Ecosystems, Fish, Fisheries, Fishing, Freshwater, Freshwater Fish, Habitat, Indigenous Peoples, Indigenous Rights, Industry, Land Conflict, Land Rights, Mercury, Mining, Mountains, Pollution, Resource Conflict, Rivers, Water Pollution, and Wildlife]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[In southeast Alaska, people and bears alike come to the shore of the Chilkat River to catch salmon beside evergreen trees and mountains with snow-covered stony summits. Five species of salmon call the Chilkat home, spending most of their life in the Pacific Ocean before returning to the river where they were born to reproduce [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[In southeast Alaska, people and bears alike come to the shore of the Chilkat River to catch salmon beside evergreen trees and mountains with snow-covered stony summits. Five species of salmon call the Chilkat home, spending most of their life in the Pacific Ocean before returning to the river where they were born to reproduce and eventually die. A two-minute walk from the river, across from a waterfall that flows down a rocky slope, you’ll find Gershon Cohen’s wooden cabin. Cohen, a water policy advocate, lives in Haines, a small town built between the river and an inlet, surrounded by vibrant waterways that sustain the region’s fishing industry. The Chilkat River and the Klehini River that it intersects with landed eighth on the list of 10 of the most endangered rivers in the U.S. in April. That’s a list that the nonprofit American Rivers has compiled for the past 40 years. The reason the nonprofit considers the rivers to be endangered: a proposed mine, called the Palmer project. The controversial mine proposal has caused divisions in the town between residents who are concerned about the mine&#8217;s impact on commercial fish stocks and residents who anticipate a boost for businesses in Haines and jobs closer to home. At the center of that debate is weighing short-term economic goals against long-term benefits. The mine would extract copper, zinc and other metals near the rivers’ glacial source upriver of Haines. Recently, the companies running the project got a permit to dig a tunnel under a glacier&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2023/05/residents-of-southeast-alaskan-town-debate-mine-thats-bound-to-change-region/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2023/05/residents-of-southeast-alaskan-town-debate-mine-thats-bound-to-change-region/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-269090</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Did climate change really kill billions of snow crabs in Alaska?</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2022/11/did-climate-change-really-kill-billions-of-snow-crabs-in-alaska/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2022/11/did-climate-change-really-kill-billions-of-snow-crabs-in-alaska/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>07 Nov 2022 11:25:21 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Elizabeth Claire Alberts]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Rebecca Kessler]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Food systems]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2022/11/04134014/snow-crab-2-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=262208</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Alaska, North America, and United States]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Animals, Conservation, Ecosystems, Environment, Environmental Law, Fish, Fisheries, Fishing, Governance, Law, Marine, Marine Animals, Marine Conservation, Oceans, Overfishing, and Saltwater Fish]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[The disappearance of billions snow crabs from the Bering Sea has captivated the world’s attention since Alaska shut down the fishery for the first time in October 2022. But where exactly did these snow crabs go? And what caused them to vanish so quickly? Scientists are still grappling with these questions, but climate change is [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[The disappearance of billions snow crabs from the Bering Sea has captivated the world’s attention since Alaska shut down the fishery for the first time in October 2022. But where exactly did these snow crabs go? And what caused them to vanish so quickly? Scientists are still grappling with these questions, but climate change is the most cited hypothesis for the species’ retreat. Erin Fedewa, a research fisheries biologist at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), said the decline of the species, Chionoecetes opilio, coincided with a marine heat wave that swept through the Bering Sea between 2018 and 2019, which possibly caused the species to experience starvation, increased disease or predation. Some fishers and crab experts put forward a different idea: They’ve suggested that fishing, particularly the unintentional capture of crabs in fishing gear known as trawls, also contributed to the loss of the snow crab, or at the very least, impeded the species’ recovery from low population levels. The snow crab fishery’s closure has amplified a chorus of concerns around Alaska’s trawling industry — mainly from within the fishery sector itself — and the knowledge gaps around its potential impact on fisheries. A snow crab (Chionoecetes opilio). Image by NOAA Fisheries. ‘A big shock’ Jamie Goen, executive director of the Alaska Bering Sea Crabbers, a nonprofit trade organization, said this year’s shutdown of the snow crab fishery, which is worth up to $200 million in annual revenue, has been “devastating” for crab fishers. She said that while she anticipated&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2022/11/did-climate-change-really-kill-billions-of-snow-crabs-in-alaska/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2022/11/did-climate-change-really-kill-billions-of-snow-crabs-in-alaska/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-262208</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>&#8216;Monument trees&#8217; underpin Alaska Native cultural resilience: they must be protected (commentary)</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2022/07/monument-trees-underpin-alaskan-native-cultural-resilience-they-must-be-protected-commentary/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2022/07/monument-trees-underpin-alaskan-native-cultural-resilience-they-must-be-protected-commentary/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>25 Jul 2022 23:59:06 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Audrey Clavijo]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Erik Hoffner]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2022/07/25204227/19996635279_c6841bf76c_o-1-1-e1658781793154-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=258551</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Alaska, North America, Pacific Northwest, and United States]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Commentary, Culture, Deforestation, Forests, Indigenous Peoples, Indigenous Rights, Logging, Rainforests, and Trees]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Despite heavy-duty rain gear and Xtratuf Boots, I am soaked to the bone. But you can’t put money on a sunny day in the world’s largest temperate rainforest – the Tongass National Forest – even in Kéex’ Kwáan (Kake), considered to be the sunniest town in Southeast Alaska. I trudge onwards, thankful for the old [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[Despite heavy-duty rain gear and Xtratuf Boots, I am soaked to the bone. But you can’t put money on a sunny day in the world’s largest temperate rainforest – the Tongass National Forest – even in Kéex’ Kwáan (Kake), considered to be the sunniest town in Southeast Alaska. I trudge onwards, thankful for the old growth cedar and spruce canopy above, doing its best to shield us from the downpour. Five Alaska Native youth with a box of 6-inch cedar seedlings (&#8216;stecklings&#8217;) rambunctiously follow, working their way through the berry bushes in an attempt to lead the group. The youth are crew members of a native stewardship and conservation program called the Alaskan Youth Stewards (AYS); it is my third summer as their crew leader. Unlike me, raised in the boiling hot and humid summers of Georgia, the crew members have grown up in Kake and thrive in the chilly, wet forest conditions. Ethan, who’s taken the lead, points upwards to a giant cedar snag with the girth of a poker table. “Look!” A scar the width of two hands runs up the cedar’s trunk about 30 meters, narrowing to a point. The youth stare in collective silence up at the culturally-modified tree – a cedar tree from which bark has been harvested for Alaska Native cultural purposes. Perhaps it was one of their ancestors who harvested that strip of cedar bark hundreds of years ago. Kasaan carver Stormy Hamar stands with a partially-finished cedar dug-out canoe. Image by Bethany Goodrich/Sustainable&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2022/07/monument-trees-underpin-alaskan-native-cultural-resilience-they-must-be-protected-commentary/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2022/07/monument-trees-underpin-alaskan-native-cultural-resilience-they-must-be-protected-commentary/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-258551</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>End old-growth logging in carbon-rich ‘crown jewel’ of U.S. forests: Study</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2022/06/end-old-growth-logging-in-carbon-rich-crown-jewel-of-u-s-forests-study/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2022/06/end-old-growth-logging-in-carbon-rich-crown-jewel-of-u-s-forests-study/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>08 Jun 2022 05:52:21 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[John Cannon]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[John Cannon]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2022/06/08052206/Tongass-National-Forest-bears-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=256938</guid>

											<reporting-project>
							<![CDATA[Covering Climate Now]]>
						</reporting-project>
					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Alaska, North America, and United States]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Animals, Biodiversity, Birds, carbon, Carbon Sequestration, Climate Change, Climate Science, Conservation, Ecology, Ecosystem Services, Environment, Environmental Law, Fish, Fishing, Forest Carbon, Forest Fragmentation, Forestry, Forests, Fragmentation, Green, Greenhouse Gas Emissions, Law, Logging, Mining, Old Growth Forests, Politics, Protected Areas, Rainforests, Research, Roads, Temperate Forests, Threats To Rainforests, Timber, Timber Laws, and Wildlife]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[The Tongass National Forest in the U.S. state of Alaska is a special place for conservation biologist Dominick DellaSala, even after decades of traveling the world to study temperate rainforests. “The trees are enormous,” DellaSala, chief scientist at the Earth Island Institute’s Wild Heritage project, told Mongabay. “It’s like being in a cathedral. It’s an [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[The Tongass National Forest in the U.S. state of Alaska is a special place for conservation biologist Dominick DellaSala, even after decades of traveling the world to study temperate rainforests. “The trees are enormous,” DellaSala, chief scientist at the Earth Island Institute’s Wild Heritage project, told Mongabay. “It’s like being in a cathedral. It’s an amazing place.” Shag-barked yellow cedar (Callitropsis nootkatensis), mountain hemlock (Tsuga mertensiana), and Sitka spruce (Picea sitchensis) are but a few of the tree species that can grow for hundreds of years and that anchor a rich and enduring landscape in the Tongass. The august Sitka is the world’s largest spruce and can tack on a meter and a half (5 feet) a year during adolescence on its way to a height of nearly 100 m (330 ft). Sitka Spruce (Picea sitchensis) trees. Image by wild trees via Flickr (CC BY-NC-ND 2.0). Walking among the giants, bryophytes and lichens carpet the forest floor, and the ground is spongy underfoot, DellaSala says. Tongass National Forest spans 67,000 square kilometers (about 26,000 square miles) of southeastern Alaska. Around 60% of it is forested, most of which is old growth. It also holds 12% of the world’s temperate rainforest. “You don’t see that in most places around the planet, let alone the temperate rainforest system,” DellaSala said. “It’s so unique on a global scale.” DellaSala and his colleagues recently published a study revealing that the forests of the Tongass hold about a fifth of all the carbon in the&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2022/06/end-old-growth-logging-in-carbon-rich-crown-jewel-of-u-s-forests-study/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2022/06/end-old-growth-logging-in-carbon-rich-crown-jewel-of-u-s-forests-study/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-256938</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Alaskan Indigenous leaders fear impacts on salmon streams by mining project</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2022/01/alaskan-indigenous-leaders-fear-impacts-on-salmon-streams-from-mining-project/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2022/01/alaskan-indigenous-leaders-fear-impacts-on-salmon-streams-from-mining-project/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>26 Jan 2022 18:15:31 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Laurel Sutherland]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Latoya Abulu]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2022/01/26173218/Bethel-No-Donlin-26-scaled-e1643218727262-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=252029</guid>

											<reporting-project>
							<![CDATA[Indigenous Peoples and Conservation]]>
						</reporting-project>
					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Alaska and United States]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Conservation, Fish, Fisheries, Fishing, Freshwater Fish, Habitat, Indigenous Peoples, Indigenous Rights, Industry, Land Conflict, Land Rights, Mercury, Pollution, Rivers, Water Pollution, and Wildlife]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[For Indigenous tribes living in Alaska’s remote Yukon-Kuskokwim region, southwest of the state, the future is bleak and uncertain. Tribal councils worry that plans to construct a 6,474-hectare (15,990 acres) open-pit gold mine near the Kuskokwim River watershed will have grave impacts on salmon habitats, their traditional ways of life and their health. “This development [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[For Indigenous tribes living in Alaska’s remote Yukon-Kuskokwim region, southwest of the state, the future is bleak and uncertain. Tribal councils worry that plans to construct a 6,474-hectare (15,990 acres) open-pit gold mine near the Kuskokwim River watershed will have grave impacts on salmon habitats, their traditional ways of life and their health. “This development could possibly destroy our livelihood, rivers and sea mammals that we depend on,” said Fred Phillips, representative of the Indigenous Village of Kwigillingok tribal council. According to him, tribes are not willing to take the risk. The Kuskokwim River in southwestern Alaksa. Image courtesy of Travis via Flickr (CC BY-NC-ND 2.0). The Yukon-Kuskokwim Delta (YKD) drainage is part of a rich biome encompassing coastal wetlands, tundra and mountains that supports the subsistence lifestyle of three distinct Alaskan Native groups; The Yup’ik, Cup’ik and Athabascan. To access the remote region, one needs to go by boat when the Kuskokwim River is flowing, or truck, snow machine and four-wheeler when the river is frozen. Draining into the Bering Sea to the west, the Kuskokwim River, and many of its tributaries, are designated as Essential Fish Habitat (EFH), under the Magnuson-Stevens Fishery Conservation and Management Act for Pacific Salmon. This is a legislation that manages marine fisheries in US waters. The sprawling river is a vital source of food for the 38 communities that reside alongside it, serving as a running ground for the chinook salmon (Oncorhynchus tshawytscha), chum salmon (Oncorhynchus keta), coho salmon (Oncorhynchus kisutch), pink salmon (Oncorhynchus gorbuscha)&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2022/01/alaskan-indigenous-leaders-fear-impacts-on-salmon-streams-from-mining-project/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2022/01/alaskan-indigenous-leaders-fear-impacts-on-salmon-streams-from-mining-project/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-252029</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>By cultivating seaweed, Indigenous communities restore connection to the ocean</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2022/01/by-cultivating-seaweed-indigenous-communities-restore-connection-to-the-ocean/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2022/01/by-cultivating-seaweed-indigenous-communities-restore-connection-to-the-ocean/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>14 Jan 2022 16:42:12 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Claudia Geib]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Rebecca Kessler]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2022/01/14162743/Dune-Holding-Sugar-Kelp-2_Ayse-Gursoz-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=251633</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Alaska, Hawaii, North America, and United States]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Adaptation To Climate Change, Agriculture, Climate Change, Community-based Conservation, Conservation, Culture, Environment, Food, food security, Happy-upbeat Environmental, Indigenous Peoples, Nature-based climate solutions, Oceans, Research, Restoration, Solutions, Sustainability, Traditional Knowledge, and Traditional People]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[For the uninitiated, the first mouthful of the Hawaiian red algae known as limu kohu (Asparagopsis taxiformis) may be an unpleasant one: intensely iodine-rich and bitter, with all the marine intensity of an oyster but none of its sweetness. O‘ahu resident Malia Heimuli doesn’t have the ‘ono for it, the Hawaiian word for when something [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[For the uninitiated, the first mouthful of the Hawaiian red algae known as limu kohu (Asparagopsis taxiformis) may be an unpleasant one: intensely iodine-rich and bitter, with all the marine intensity of an oyster but none of its sweetness. O‘ahu resident Malia Heimuli doesn’t have the ‘ono for it, the Hawaiian word for when something tastes good. But she says the older people in her life can’t get enough. “I&#8217;m not used to the taste, but my grandma and mom are like, ‘gimme that any day,’” Heimuli says with a laugh. There’s a reason for that generational divide, and it’s one that Heimuli knows well. Over the last 50 years, limu kohu, along with many of the 60-plus species of seaweed grouped together in Hawai‘i as limu, became less common on the islands’ shores, the result of changing environmental factors. With less limu available, many among the most recent generation of Native Hawaiians grew up without learning the culinary, medical and spiritual uses of these algae. But that’s changing, in Hawai‘i and around the world. Heimuli is the coordinator of a community group called Limu Hui — a partnership, or gathering, around limu. Based out of the community environmental nonprofit Kuaʻāina Ulu ‘Auamo (KUA), Limu Hui seeks to both restore the health of Hawai‘i’s limu species, and pass on the ancestral knowledge of limu held by elders to the next generation. Clusters of pale red limu kohu grow amongst green algae in Papahānaumokuākea Marine National Monument nortwest of Hawai&#8217;i. Image&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2022/01/by-cultivating-seaweed-indigenous-communities-restore-connection-to-the-ocean/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2022/01/by-cultivating-seaweed-indigenous-communities-restore-connection-to-the-ocean/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-251633</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Keep polar bears and their extensive range safe from oil drilling (Commentary)</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2021/10/keep-polar-bears-and-their-extensive-range-safe-from-oil-drilling-commentary/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2021/10/keep-polar-bears-and-their-extensive-range-safe-from-oil-drilling-commentary/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>08 Oct 2021 12:56:06 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Dyani ChapmanSteve Blackledge]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Willie Shubert]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2021/10/07123409/polar-bears-banner-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=247940</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Alaska, Arctic, Arctic Ocean, Canada, North America, and United States]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Animals, Charismatic Animals, Climate Change, Commentary, Conservation, Endangered Species, Energy, Environment, Habitat Loss, Mammals, Marine, Marine Animals, Marine Conservation, Marine Mammals, Oil, Oil Drilling, Polar Bears, Politics, and Wildlife]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Americans love their polar bears. The largest land carnivores in the world, these massive, powerful beasts are fierce, fearless and very much threatened. It’s the threatened aspect of their story that makes our hearts go out to them, especially as they struggle to survive in a rapidly warming arctic. The Southern Beaufort Sea population of [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[Americans love their polar bears. The largest land carnivores in the world, these massive, powerful beasts are fierce, fearless and very much threatened. It’s the threatened aspect of their story that makes our hearts go out to them, especially as they struggle to survive in a rapidly warming arctic. The Southern Beaufort Sea population of polar bears is estimated at approximately 900. While these wild, fluffy creatures often make their dens in the coastal plain of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, they roam far and wide throughout the north coasts of Alaska and Canada. That’s why, earlier this month, conservation groups took the courts against U.S. Fish &amp; Wildlife Service to challenge a regulation that would allow oil and gas operators to harass, harm and potentially kill polar bears on land and sea in Arctic Alaska. At the center of the battle is a question: should oil and gas companies be allowed to explore and extract oil in the polar bear’s natural habitat? For anyone who cares about the fate of polar bears, that answer is no. Political and legal fights surrounding polar bears are nothing new. Twenty-six years ago, Congress passed a budget that opened the coastal plain of the Arctic Refuge to drilling. Former President Bill Clinton vetoed it. Later in 2017, Congress once again passed a budget bill that sought to open the coastal plain to industrial oil drilling. This time around, it was signed by former President Donald Trump. Trump’s signature in 2017 kicked off a&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2021/10/keep-polar-bears-and-their-extensive-range-safe-from-oil-drilling-commentary/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2021/10/keep-polar-bears-and-their-extensive-range-safe-from-oil-drilling-commentary/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-247940</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Arctic biodiversity at risk as world overshoots climate planetary boundary</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2021/04/arctic-biodiversity-at-risk-as-world-overshoots-climate-planetary-boundary/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2021/04/arctic-biodiversity-at-risk-as-world-overshoots-climate-planetary-boundary/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>29 Apr 2021 20:14:32 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Gloria Dickie]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Glenn Scherer]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2021/04/29194152/banner-image-7-768x455.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=242147</guid>

											<reporting-project>
							<![CDATA[Covering the Commons and Planetary Boundaries]]>
						</reporting-project>
					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Alaska, Arctic, Arctic Ocean, Greenland, Russia, siberia, Tropics, and United States]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Animals, Bears, Biodiversity, Biodiversity Hotspots, Biology, Birds, Climate Change, Conservation, Ecology, Ecosystems, Environment, Extinction, Extreme Weather, Fish, Fisheries, Global Environmental Crisis, Green, Habitat, Marine, Marine Animals, Microorganisms, Polar Bears, Research, Species Discovery, Weather, and Wildlife]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Polar phytoplankton, fish, seabirds and mammals are increasingly threatened by global warming, which is destabilizing Arctic ecosystems, even as southern species move northward — will the imbalanced biome collapse?]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[Today, bowhead whales still transit the fringes of Arctic waters. Polar bears hunt blubbery ringed seals from rafts of ice. And ivory gulls ride gale force winds, plucking juvenile polar cod from the roiling sea. But for how much longer? Despite more than a century of scientific observation, the Central Arctic Ocean remains one of the least studied bodies of water in the world. Hostile weather, multiyear sea ice, total darkness part of the year, and remoteness hinder researchers endeavoring to better understand this region, its unique biodiversity, and dramatic shifts underway. What we do know is this: The Arctic is changing quickly as the poles warm. Sea ice cover, which has endured for millennia, is quickly disappearing, thinning and shrinking as the biome heats up at twice the rate of the rest of the world. In the absence of ice, southern species are moving north, sometimes making refugees and relics of long-term residents. We also know we can no longer afford for the Central Arctic Ocean to be a mystery. As the region heats up, the web of life that once tied together cold-loving species living in and near its enigmatic waters has begun to unravel, and may soon verge on collapse as the old guard fails to compete with, and gives way to, a new regime with largely unforeseeable consequences. Arctic sea ice breakup. The more the Arctic warms, the thinner the ice, and the more habitat changes. Image by Patrick Kelley / US Coast Guard. All of&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2021/04/arctic-biodiversity-at-risk-as-world-overshoots-climate-planetary-boundary/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2021/04/arctic-biodiversity-at-risk-as-world-overshoots-climate-planetary-boundary/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-242147</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Life and new limbs: Creative thinking, 3D printers save injured wildlife</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2021/04/life-and-new-limbs-creative-thinking-3d-printers-save-injured-wildlife/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2021/04/life-and-new-limbs-creative-thinking-3d-printers-save-injured-wildlife/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>05 Apr 2021 15:01:19 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Laurel Neme]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Glenn Scherer]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2021/04/05141930/BANNER-IMAGE-BEAUTY-THE-EAGLE-768x449.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=241303</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Alaska, Brazil, Costa Rica, European Union, Germany, Global, Latin America, New Zealand, North America, Oceania, and South America]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Animal Welfare, Animals, Birds, Charismatic Animals, Conservation, Crime, Endangered Species, Environment, Extinction, Green, Happy-upbeat Environmental, Poaching, Raptors, Saving Species From Extinction, Solutions, Wildlife, Wildlife Trafficking, and Zoos]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Though still labor- and time-intensive, 3D printing of beaks, feet and tails holds promise for disabled wildlife ranging from toucans to penguins, and baby elephants; it may even help rare species at risk of extinction. ]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[When caregivers at the Weltvogelpark Walsrode bird park in Germany returned to the aviary one morning, they were heartsick to discover that a secretary bird they called Söckchen, or “Little Sock,” had broken her leg inside her enclosure. They guessed that something must have scared her and made her jump, causing a severe break. Secretary birds (Sagittarius serpentarius) need their legs. Found in Africa’s savannas, they are large, mostly terrestrial birds; their strong, sturdy legs are vital not only for walking but for capturing snakes and other prey. Often, they hunt by stomping the ground to flush out animals, then run them down and strike with their beak or feet to stun or kill them. In the wild, the loss of a leg would be a death sentence. And in captivity it was a severe debilitation. With her leg severed, Söckchen became depressed, was not eating well, and rarely walked about. To help, the bird keepers came up with an idea: a prosthetic leg made using a 3D printer. Senior bird keeper German Alonso with Söckchen. Image courtesy of Lars Thalmann. Three-dimensional printing has revolutionized the use of prosthetics to help injured animals. In the past, artificial devices fitted to wildlife were both extremely costly and time-consuming to produce. For instance, building a prosthetic tail flipper for a dolphin named Fuji in Japan in 2003 reportedly cost $100,000, and designing one for another dolphin, Winter, in Florida in 2007 required 18 months. By contrast, 3D printing can be less expensive&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2021/04/life-and-new-limbs-creative-thinking-3d-printers-save-injured-wildlife/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2021/04/life-and-new-limbs-creative-thinking-3d-printers-save-injured-wildlife/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-241303</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>&#8220;Our identity is non negotiable&#8221; says Gwich’in leader Bernadette Demientieff</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2021/03/our-identity-is-non-negotiable-says-gwichin-leader-bernadette-demientieff/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2021/03/our-identity-is-non-negotiable-says-gwichin-leader-bernadette-demientieff/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>08 Mar 2021 08:15:29 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Rhett Ayers Butler]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Rhett Butler]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2021/03/06164803/Bernadette-Demientieff_6483441_header-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=240274</guid>

											<reporting-project>
							<![CDATA[Nature conservation Influencers]]>
						</reporting-project>
					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Alaska, Canada, North America, and United States]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Conservation, Energy, Environment, Human Rights, Impact Of Climate Change, Indigenous Peoples, Indigenous Rights, Interviews, Interviews with conservation players, Oil Drilling, Protected Areas, and Wildlife]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[The Arctic National Wildlife Refuge (ANWR) is a 19 million acre reserve in the northeastern corner of Alaska that&#8217;s renowned for its beauty and wildlife. ANWR also holds great cultural significance to the Native peoples of the region, including the Gwich’in Nation, who for generations have depended on the migratory caribou herd that births and [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[The Arctic National Wildlife Refuge (ANWR) is a 19 million acre reserve in the northeastern corner of Alaska that&#8217;s renowned for its beauty and wildlife. ANWR also holds great cultural significance to the Native peoples of the region, including the Gwich’in Nation, who for generations have depended on the migratory caribou herd that births and calves its young in the coastal plain of the refuge. The Gwich’in have thus been some of the staunchest opponents of opening up ANWR to oil drilling. But in 2017, over the objections of many Indigenous leaders and environmental groups, Congress passed legislation authorizing drilling in ANWR. In January 2021, just days before Joe Biden was to take office, the Trump administration held an auction for the right to drill in the refuge. Interest however was tepid: the sale raised less than $15 million. No oil major participated in the auction. A view of the Brooks Range Mountains in the Arctic Refuge Wilderness. Photo credit: USFWS Of the reasons the oil auction was a bust, the campaign by the Gwich’in was arguably among the most compelling, helping broaden the issue into one of human rights, traditional Indigenous culture, and reverence for wildlife and the landscape. As the Executive Director of Gwich’in Steering Committee, a body established in 1988 in response to proposals to drill in ANWR, Bernadette Demientieff has had a leadership role in the campaign against drilling. Demientieff is of the Gwichyaa Zhee Gwich’in, a Gwich’in tribe that lives in and around Fort Yukon,&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2021/03/our-identity-is-non-negotiable-says-gwichin-leader-bernadette-demientieff/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2021/03/our-identity-is-non-negotiable-says-gwichin-leader-bernadette-demientieff/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-240274</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Can whales and dolphins catch COVID-19 from wastewater? It’s murky</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2020/12/could-whales-and-dolphins-get-covid-19-from-wastewater-possibly-study-says/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2020/12/could-whales-and-dolphins-get-covid-19-from-wastewater-possibly-study-says/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>03 Dec 2020 15:10:40 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Elizabeth Claire Alberts]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Elizabethalberts]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2020/12/03101050/5036399325_384e515ea0_k-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=237468</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Alaska and Atlantic Forest]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Animals, Cetaceans, Conservation, Coronavirus, COVID-19, Critically Endangered Species, Diseases, Dolphins, Endangered Species, Environment, Green, Marine, Marine Animals, Marine Mammals, Oceans, Species, Whales, Wildlife, and Zoonotic Diseases]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[A few months after the first confirmed cases of COVID-19 began to pop up in the U.S., a piece of news came out of the Bronx Zoo in New York City: one of its Malayan tigers (Panthera tigris jacksoni), Nadia, had developed a cough. When a veterinarian tested Nadia for SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[A few months after the first confirmed cases of COVID-19 began to pop up in the U.S., a piece of news came out of the Bronx Zoo in New York City: one of its Malayan tigers (Panthera tigris jacksoni), Nadia, had developed a cough. When a veterinarian tested Nadia for SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19, “out of an abundance of caution,” the test came back positive. According to the zoo, Nadia had likely contracted the virus from an asymptomatic caretaker, making her the first known captive tiger to get the disease. The incident raised a pivotal question: could humans transmit SARS-CoV-2 to other species? News of Nadia’s illness led Saby Mathavarajah, a researcher at Dalhousie University in Halifax, Canada, to investigate whether marine mammals, such as cetaceans and pinnipeds, could get infected with SARS CoV-2 through wastewater. Sea lions in the Galapagos Islands. Image by Lieutenant Elizabeth Crapo, NOAA Corps. “There are no documented cases of SARS-CoV-2 to date in marine mammals but we do know that both dolphins and beluga whales have been infected with related gamma coronaviruses in the past,” Mathavarajah told Mongabay in an email. “Since most marine mammals are social, it is also possible for spread of coronaviruses between animals through close contact. So once one animal is infected it could threaten entire populations.” In a recent paper, Mathavarajah and colleagues at Dalhousie University found that 15 marine species, including whales, dolphins, seals and sea otters, could be susceptible to SARS CoV-2 due to having&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2020/12/could-whales-and-dolphins-get-covid-19-from-wastewater-possibly-study-says/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2020/12/could-whales-and-dolphins-get-covid-19-from-wastewater-possibly-study-says/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-237468</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Ice breakers in the Arctic: Let&#8217;s talk Inuit safety (commentary)</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2020/11/ice-breakers-in-the-arctic-lets-talk-inuit-safety-commentary/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2020/11/ice-breakers-in-the-arctic-lets-talk-inuit-safety-commentary/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>03 Nov 2020 14:59:52 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Beverly MaksagakMartin Robards]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Rhett Butler]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2020/11/02235549/caribou_AG7A0985-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=236473</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Alaska, Arctic, and Greenland]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Commentary, Indigenous Peoples, Indigenous Rights, and Sea Ice]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[The solitude of the north is changing. George Angohiatok noticed this quite graphically a decade ago when, after returning to Iqaluktuuttiaq (or Cambridge Bay, as it was renamed by settlers), he observed an ice breaker moving through the same frozen waterways he had travelled by snow machine the day before. If the vessel had smashed that open [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[The solitude of the north is changing. George Angohiatok noticed this quite graphically a decade ago when, after returning to Iqaluktuuttiaq (or Cambridge Bay, as it was renamed by settlers), he observed an ice breaker moving through the same frozen waterways he had travelled by snow machine the day before. If the vessel had smashed that open lead through the frozen veneer of ice a day earlier, he would have been cut off for at least a few weeks until the ice refroze. George wonders whether, even with his headlights, he would have detected the steam that signals the transition from ice to water in winter through his goggles. The growing presence of ice breakers worries George. His Inuit ancestors moved east across the Arctic coast of North America thousands of years ago. Since that time, the waterways have been their highways, both in summer and winter. Traveling between camps and villages, the Inuit have followed the wildlife at the heart of their food security. The caribou herds of the far northern islands—the Dolphin and Union herd and the Peary herds—also stride out onto the sea ice during their migrations between summer and wintering areas. The herds contribute heavily to the Inuit’s essential needs—providing both a source of “country food” and clothing with fur that is warm beyond compare. In the past elders have used the leg bones for carving and to build shelters. The Dolphin and Union caribou herd. Photo © Xavier Fernandez Aguilar. Use of the sea and ice by&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2020/11/ice-breakers-in-the-arctic-lets-talk-inuit-safety-commentary/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2020/11/ice-breakers-in-the-arctic-lets-talk-inuit-safety-commentary/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-236473</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>New study quantifies impact of hunting on migratory shorebird populations</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2020/07/new-study-quantifies-impact-of-hunting-on-migratory-shorebird-populations/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2020/07/new-study-quantifies-impact-of-hunting-on-migratory-shorebird-populations/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>17 Jul 2020 08:15:16 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Mongabay.com]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Leilani]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2020/07/17074405/Spoon.billed.-Sandpiper.Credits.Yann_.Muzika-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=232573</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Alaska, Arctic, Asia, Australia, Bangladesh, China, East Asia, Global, Indonesia, Philippines, Russia, Singapore, South Asia, South Korea, Southeast Asia, and Thailand]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Biodiversity, Birds, Climate Change, Conservation, Critically Endangered Species, data, Deforestation, Development, Endangered Species, Environment, Environmental Policy, Extinction, Extreme Weather, Food, Hunting, Impact Of Climate Change, Infrastructure, Migration, Over-hunting, Research, Tropical Deforestation, Wildlife, Wildlife consumption, and Wildlife Corridors]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Habitat loss and climate change are often blamed for the decreasing numbers of migratory shorebirds in a major flyway in the Asia-Pacific region in recent years. But it might be time to add another likely suspect: hunting. More than 50 million waterbirds from more than 250 different populations use the East Asian-Australasian Flyway (EAAF), a [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[Habitat loss and climate change are often blamed for the decreasing numbers of migratory shorebirds in a major flyway in the Asia-Pacific region in recent years. But it might be time to add another likely suspect: hunting. More than 50 million waterbirds from more than 250 different populations use the East Asian-Australasian Flyway (EAAF), a major migratory corridor that sees birds crossing 22 countries — from the Arctic across East Asia until Australia — in a journey that covers a treacherous 25,000 kilometers (15,500 miles). At least 32 globally threatened species and 19 near-threatened species use this flyway once the wintering season comes. It’s also the most threatened bird migration corridor in the world: U.K.-based BirdLife International has recorded a dramatic decline among migrating birds in the flyway, with the latest estimates showing that populations have fallen by 61% among waterbird species. Previous studies point to habitat loss driven by development infrastructures, which is most notable in China and the Korean Peninsula, as main factors for the plummeting population of migratory birds. This is on top of erratic weather patterns and predators, including human hunting, which pose challenges to a migratory bird’s annual flight. Bar-tailed Godwit and Great Knot in the Yellow Sea intertidal areas, a favorite resting stop for migratory birds. Image by Ding Li Yong But a new study, published in the June 2020 edition of Biological Conservation, shows that hunting might have a bigger impact than expected — or recorded. Hunting, through shooting, trapping and poisoning, among others,&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2020/07/new-study-quantifies-impact-of-hunting-on-migratory-shorebird-populations/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2020/07/new-study-quantifies-impact-of-hunting-on-migratory-shorebird-populations/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-232573</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Baby humpback whales bulk up in Hawaii ahead of migration [VIDEO]</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2020/06/baby-humpback-whales-bulk-up-in-hawaii-ahead-of-migration-video/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2020/06/baby-humpback-whales-bulk-up-in-hawaii-ahead-of-migration-video/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>05 Jun 2020 12:29:04 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Liz Kimbrough]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Liz Kimbrough]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2020/06/05115552/Screen-Shot-2020-06-05-at-10.54.24-AM-768x512.png" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=231072</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Alaska, Global, Hawaii, and United States]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Animal Behavior, Animals, Baby Animals, Biodiversity, Charismatic Animals, Climate Change, Conservation, Conservation Technology, Environment, Fish, Green, Happy-upbeat Environmental, Mammals, Marine, Marine Animals, Marine Mammals, Migration, Oceans, Technology, Tracking, Whales, Whaling, Wildlife, and Wildtech]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Newly released video footage gives us a glimpse of a rarely seen behavior: baby humpback whales nursing in the sheltered breeding grounds of Maui. Here, the young calves must drink enough milk to fatten up for an epic journey: an up to two-month migration across the Pacific Ocean to Alaska. A team of researchers used [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[Newly released video footage gives us a glimpse of a rarely seen behavior: baby humpback whales nursing in the sheltered breeding grounds of Maui. Here, the young calves must drink enough milk to fatten up for an epic journey: an up to two-month migration across the Pacific Ocean to Alaska. A team of researchers used non-invasive suction cups to outfit seven baby humpback whales (Megaptera novaeangliae) with CATS tags. Each specialized tag contains a built-in camera, acoustic recorder, depth sensors and tri-accelerometers, and was designed to provide information on the whales’ social interactions, movements, breathing patterns, nursing behavior and nursing frequency. The scientists hope to use this information to better understand the needs of mother whales and their calves during their time in the tropics. Lars Bejder, director of the Marine Mammal Research Program at the University of Hawaii at Mānoa, and Ph.D. candidates Martin van Aswegen and Will Gough tagged and recorded the whales over a 10-day period in February 2020. The project is a collaboration between the Marine Mammal Research Program, the Goldbogen Lab at Stanford University&#8217;s Hopkins Marine Station, the Friedlaender Lab at the University of California, Santa Cruz, the Hawaiian Islands Humpback Whale Sanctuary, Pacific Whale Foundation and the Oceanwide Science Institute. “What we are trying to understand with these new technologies is how much time do calves need to nurse from their moms to get strong and big enough to be able to make their journey back up north to their Alaskan feeding grounds,” Bejder said in&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2020/06/baby-humpback-whales-bulk-up-in-hawaii-ahead-of-migration-video/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-231072</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Arctic permafrost moving toward crisis, abrupt thaw a growing risk: Studies</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2020/03/arctic-permafrost-moving-toward-crisis-abrupt-thaw-a-growing-risk-studies/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2020/03/arctic-permafrost-moving-toward-crisis-abrupt-thaw-a-growing-risk-studies/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>18 Mar 2020 16:58:53 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Gloria Dickie]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Glenn Scherer]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2020/03/18145548/BANNER-IMAGE-cabin-768x453.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=228012</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Alaska, Arctic, Canada, and siberia]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[carbon, Carbon Dioxide, Carbon Emissions, Carbon Footprint, Carbon Sequestration, Climate, Climate Change, Climate Science, Conservation, Controversial, data, Emission Reduction, Energy, Environment, Environmental Policy, Global Environmental Crisis, Global Warming, Green, Greenhouse Gas Emissions, Impact Of Climate Change, Methane, Permafrost, Politics, Pollution, Remote Sensing, and Research]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Scientists are already warning of gradual permafrost CO2 releases; but future abrupt thaws could send huge amounts of methane skyward, causing a surge in global temperatures.]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[Small scale permafrost slump. Photo credit: NPS Climate Change Response on Visual Hunt / CC BY. The cracked, buckling road between Fairbanks and Fox, Alaska, wends its way past snowy forests where slender birches and black spruce trees protrude out of the ground at impossible angles, slanting and swaying as if the very earth were alive. Scientists call these “drunken forests.” The ground here consists of permafrost — soil, sediment, rock and ice that often remains at or below 0 degrees Celsius (32 degrees Fahrenheit) year-round. Permafrost covers approximately 22.8 million square kilometers (8.8 million square miles) in the Arctic, sub-Arctic and alpine regions — comprising nearly a quarter of the exposed land surface in the northern hemisphere. In Alaska, 85 percent of the state lies within the permafrost zone, though discontinuous permafrost — areas with patchy permafrost presence — underlies much of the Fairbanks area. In Arctic regions, permafrost temperatures often dip down to -8 degrees C (-17.6 degrees F). But in Fairbanks, which lies roughly 321 kilometers (200 miles) south of the Arctic Circle, temperatures hover much closer to the freezing point, causing the permafrost to sporadically thaw out. This freeze-thaw action has long posed challenges for natural and human systems, intoxicating forests, breaking pavement, sinking houses, and even sometimes draining lakes sitting atop it. But as climate change heats up the planet, with the Arctic warming at twice the rate of the rest of the globe, things are about to get a whole lot worse. Scientists began&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2020/03/arctic-permafrost-moving-toward-crisis-abrupt-thaw-a-growing-risk-studies/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-228012</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Ocean currents spin a web of interconnected fisheries around the world</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2019/07/ocean-currents-spin-a-web-of-interconnected-fisheries-around-the-world/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2019/07/ocean-currents-spin-a-web-of-interconnected-fisheries-around-the-world/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>04 Jul 2019 01:01:15 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Basten Gokkon]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Basten Gokkon]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2019/03/28064116/fish1-768x512.png" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=220132</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Alaska, China, Indonesia, Japan, Russia, and United States]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Animals, Biodiversity, Conservation, Ecosystems, Environment, Fish, Fisheries, Fishing, Marine, Marine Animals, Marine Conservation, Marine Protected Areas, Oceans, Overfishing, and Saltwater Fish]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
											<grant>
							<![CDATA[2163-3717]]>
						</grant>
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Chances are the locally caught fish you bought down by the wharf was spawned thousands of miles away, migrating on ocean currents, a new study has found. An estimated 90 percent of marine catches are caught within 200 miles, or 320 kilometers, of countries’ shores, but they most likely originated in spawning grounds under the [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[Chances are the locally caught fish you bought down by the wharf was spawned thousands of miles away, migrating on ocean currents, a new study has found. An estimated 90 percent of marine catches are caught within 200 miles, or 320 kilometers, of countries’ shores, but they most likely originated in spawning grounds under the jurisdiction of a different country, according to the study published June 21 in the journal Science. Analyzing data of catch and known spawning grounds of more than 700 fish species, coupled with ocean current data, the paper’s researchers developed a computer model to show where the various species tended to be born and caught. The simulation then showed that the dispersal of baby fish caught by ocean currents created an interconnection between global marine fisheries, the study said. “Now we have a map of how the world’s fisheries are interconnected, and where international cooperation is needed most urgently to conserve a natural resource that hundreds of millions of people rely on,” said co-author Kimberly Oremus, an assistant professor at the University of Delaware’s School of Marine Science and Policy. The global network of flows of fish spawn across international boundaries. The circles represent ocean territories and the lines indicate flows between them. The lines are curved such that the clockwise direction represents flows from source to sink. Image by Nandini Ramesh/University of California, Berkeley. Any two given countries are connected by an average of five degrees of separation, with effects from fishery disruptions — habitat&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2019/07/ocean-currents-spin-a-web-of-interconnected-fisheries-around-the-world/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2019/07/ocean-currents-spin-a-web-of-interconnected-fisheries-around-the-world/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-220132</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Mass die-offs of puffins in Alaska may be linked to climate change</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2019/05/mass-die-offs-of-puffins-in-alaska-may-be-linked-to-climate-change/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2019/05/mass-die-offs-of-puffins-in-alaska-may-be-linked-to-climate-change/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>31 May 2019 13:52:57 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Mongabay.com]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Shreya Dasgupta]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2019/05/31053134/Tufted-puffin-deaths-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=219075</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Alaska and North America]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Animals, Biodiversity, Birds, Climate Change, Conservation, Environment, Fish, Research, and Wildlife]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
											<grant>
							<![CDATA[2163-3717]]>
						</grant>
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[On the remote island of St. Paul, located in the Bering Sea off the coast of Alaska, more than 350 severely emaciated carcasses of sea birds, primarily tufted puffins, washed ashore between October 2016 and January 2017. Now, new research suggests that climate change may have been to blame. The Aleut Community of St. Paul [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[On the remote island of St. Paul, located in the Bering Sea off the coast of Alaska, more than 350 severely emaciated carcasses of sea birds, primarily tufted puffins, washed ashore between October 2016 and January 2017. Now, new research suggests that climate change may have been to blame. The Aleut Community of St. Paul Island, in collaboration with researchers of the Coastal Observation and Seabird Survey Team (COASST), a citizen science project housed at the University of Washington, have been regularly conducting monthly surveys to record dead birds that wash onto the island’s beaches. Beginning in October 2016, though, the residents observed something odd: where earlier they rarely came across carcasses of tufted puffins (Fratercula cirrhata), now there were nearly 300 of them in a span of just four months. During the previous decade, between June 2006 and September 2016, the teams had come across only six puffin carcasses. Tufted puffin on St. Paul Island, Alaska. Image by Alan D. Wilson via Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 3.0). Not all birds that die end up on a beach and are discovered. So the researchers ran several wind simulation experiments, based on known locations of the bird carcasses and wind conditions observed when the birds had washed ashore, and estimated that between 2,740 to 7,600 tufted puffins died during that time. Since an old estimate of the tufted puffin population on the Pribilof Islands — St. Paul is one of four of these islands — puts their number at only 7,000&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2019/05/mass-die-offs-of-puffins-in-alaska-may-be-linked-to-climate-change/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
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										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-219075</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Poachers caught on video killing mother bear and cubs at den in Alaska</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2018/08/trophy-alaska/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2018/08/trophy-alaska/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>21 Aug 2018 13:09:05 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Mongabay.com]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[John Cannon]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2018/08/20225946/1280px-Black_Bear-27527.46f28a310bf2435bb751515cbc303da4-768x450.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=209526</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Alaska and United States]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Animals, Bears, Biodiversity, Conservation, Ecology, Environment, Environmental Law, Forests, Hunting, Law Enforcement, Mammals, National Parks, Parks, Poaching, Politics, and Wildlife]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Authorities in Alaska say they have identified two poachers who reportedly killed a female black bear and her cubs from footage taken at the animals’ den in April. Unbeknownst to the hunters, 41-year-old Andrew Renner and his son, 18-year-old Owen Renner, a motion-activated video camera was trained on the den. The female bear was part [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[Authorities in Alaska say they have identified two poachers who reportedly killed a female black bear and her cubs from footage taken at the animals’ den in April. Unbeknownst to the hunters, 41-year-old Andrew Renner and his son, 18-year-old Owen Renner, a motion-activated video camera was trained on the den. The female bear was part of a study run by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and the Alaska Department of Fish and Game, and she wore a tracking collar. Black bear cubs. Image by Mark Betram/U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (Public Domain), via Wikimedia Commons. The scene that unfolded on the video, as described in a dispatch from the Alaska Department of Public Safety, has led to several charges stemming from the incident, including illegally killing a mother bear and killing bear cubs. Andrew Renner also faces a felony charge of tampering with physical evidence. After skiing to the den on Esker Island in Prince William Sound on April 14, Owen Renner shot the mother bear twice, and then Andrew Renner killed “the shrieking newborn cubs.” The two men returned to the den on April 16 to clean up their shell casings and get rid of the cubs’ bodies. About two weeks later, Andrew Renner took the collar and the female bear’s skin into an Alaska Department of Fish and Game office, claiming he had killed the bear in a different location and that he hadn&#8217;t seen any cubs with her. Kitty Block, who heads the U.S. Humane Society,&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2018/08/trophy-alaska/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-209526</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Red flags abound as a warming Arctic opens up to shipping</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2018/07/red-flags-abound-as-a-warming-arctic-opens-up-to-shipping/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2018/07/red-flags-abound-as-a-warming-arctic-opens-up-to-shipping/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>18 Jul 2018 08:09:29 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Basten Gokkon]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Basten Gokkon]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2018/07/16033201/22527975867_1c351a248e_k-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=208375</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Alaska, Arctic, British Columbia, Canada, and Russia]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Animals, Biodiversity, Climate Change, Coastal Ecosystems, Conservation, Ecology, Environment, Environmental Policy, Extinction, Global Warming, Mammals, Marine Mammals, Noise Pollution, Oceans, Politics, Pollution, Sea Ice, Water Pollution, Whales, and Wildlife]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
											<grant>
							<![CDATA[CBO2017]]>
						</grant>
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[KUCHING, Malaysia — Conservationists have called on governments and the private sector to do more to mitigate the impact of global shipping activities on marine ecosystems and communities in the Arctic. Commercial shipping along the northern routes that connect North America, Europe and Asia is expected to increase by 500 percent between 2015 and 2025. [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[KUCHING, Malaysia — Conservationists have called on governments and the private sector to do more to mitigate the impact of global shipping activities on marine ecosystems and communities in the Arctic. Commercial shipping along the northern routes that connect North America, Europe and Asia is expected to increase by 500 percent between 2015 and 2025. In Canada, that traffic, which includes container ships, oil tankers and cruise liners, is forecast to double between 2010 and 2020, then double again from 2020 to 2030. The port of Vancouver, for one, expects to see a 33 percent increase in the number of vessels that dock there in the next 10 years. Over in Russia, the current volume of cargo transported through the Northern Sea Route is at 6.8 million tons annually; the country aims to boost that figure significantly to 100 million tons by 2030. “That’s an enormous increase,” Andrew Dumbrille, manager of national oceans governance at WWF-Canada, said at a panel discussion at the 5th International Marine Conservation Congress (IMCC) in Kuching, Malaysia, on June 26. “Much of it is due to melting ice and opening sea routes, shorter routes, less fuel being used and shorter periods of getting goods to communities,” he added. A container ship carrying goods via Arctic waters. Image by Kees Torn/Flickr. About 90 percent of world trade is transported by sea, with ships and ports acting as the arteries and nodes of the global economy. The changes in ship traffic patterns reflect changes in the global&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2018/07/red-flags-abound-as-a-warming-arctic-opens-up-to-shipping/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-208375</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Cool birds don’t sing: Study automates acoustic monitoring of songbird migration</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2018/06/cool-birds-dont-sing-study-automates-acoustic-monitoring-of-songbird-migration/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2018/06/cool-birds-dont-sing-study-automates-acoustic-monitoring-of-songbird-migration/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>22 Jun 2018 18:27:00 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Sue Palminteri (1965-2019)]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Sue Palminteri]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2018/06/22140456/oliver1HR-sparrow_JohnWingfield-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=207688</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Alaska, Arctic, and United States]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Acoustic, Adaptation To Climate Change, Analysis, Artificial Intelligence, Birds, Climate Change, data, Migration, Monitoring, Research, and Sensors]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[It’s June, and migratory songbirds in the northern hemisphere are at their summer breeding grounds, having traveled thousands of miles from their warm-weather overwintering areas. Birds migrate as far north as the Arctic to take advantage of its large but short-lived surge in insect food and its few predators. The timing of their arrival is [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[It’s June, and migratory songbirds in the northern hemisphere are at their summer breeding grounds, having traveled thousands of miles from their warm-weather overwintering areas. Birds migrate as far north as the Arctic to take advantage of its large but short-lived surge in insect food and its few predators. The timing of their arrival is critical because their breeding cycles must match seasonal food availability for their chicks to survive. Migratory Lapland longspurs endure the cold en route to their breeding grounds. Image by Andy Reago &amp; Chrissy McClarren, CC 2.0 Scientists have shown that as spring temperatures rise, many bird populations are, in fact, migrating north and arriving earlier in the season at their breeding sites, where climate-related shifts in breeding-ground conditions, including environmental conditions and food availability, may help or hinder reproduction of individual species. Most songbirds are too small to carry GPS tracking tags scientists would typically use to follow their migrations north, but they do call intensely once they arrive there in preparation for breeding. To study trends in migration timing, scientists have begun setting out microphones to listen for particular species or the bird diversity at specific sites. Placing numerous relatively inexpensive acoustic listening devices in the field allows researchers to better monitor wildlife communities in remote places and across larger scales than field surveys typically can. Gambel&#8217;s white-crowned sparrows, like this one, prefer woody shrubs. As the Arctic continues to warm, shrubs on Alaska&#8217;s North Slope are expected to overtake open grasslands. That could&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2018/06/cool-birds-dont-sing-study-automates-acoustic-monitoring-of-songbird-migration/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
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					<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-207688</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Muskox and other Arctic mammals are feeling the heat of climate change</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2018/01/muskox-and-other-arctic-mammals-are-feeling-the-heat-of-climate-change/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2018/01/muskox-and-other-arctic-mammals-are-feeling-the-heat-of-climate-change/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>23 Jan 2018 14:50:56 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Gloria Dickie]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Glenn Scherer]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2018/01/23142438/FEATURED-2-MO-768x452.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=203134</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Alaska, Arctic, Greenland, Russia, siberia, and United States]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Animals, Biodiversity, Climate, Climate Change, Conservation, Ecology, Ecosystems, Endangered Species, Environment, Extinction, Extreme Weather, Global Environmental Crisis, Global Warming, Green, Habitat, Habitat Degradation, Impact Of Climate Change, Mammals, Mass Extinction, Research, Storms, Weather, and Wildlife]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[A new study finds that more frequent Arctic extreme weather, such as rain-on-snow events, result in smaller head size and possibly lower survival rates in muskox young.]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[Muskoxen take up a defense position. These large mammals are well suited to protecting themselves against Arctic extremes, but they may not be so well equipped to handle the rigors of climate change. Photo by Joel Berger courtesy of the Wildlife Conservation Society In Greenland’s Arctic, the Inuit have a word to describe a bizarre, natural phenomenon that occurs within the frozen landscape: Sassat, which translates as “concentrated animals offered as food.” This word has historically encompassed a range of scenarios, including the spectacular sea ice entrapment of 150 narwhals, 170 belugas and uncounted sea otters in southern Berinigia across the historical record. Increasingly, though, sassats aren’t limited to marine mammals. A Chukchi Sea winter tsunami in 2011, for example, entombed 52 wooly muskox and killed them. The effects of a changing ocean/climate are coming ashore in the Arctic. Once rare extreme weather events like rain-on-snow, ice tidal surges, and severely fluctuating winter precipitation have become characteristic of the new Arctic, and scientists want to know exactly how these weather and climate patterns are impacting the region’s animal populations. Mother and newborn muskox, Cape Krusenstern National Monument, Alaska. Scientists have found that increasingly common extreme weather events, such as rain-on-snow and extremely dry winter conditions occurring in Russia and Alaska during muskox gestation, result in smaller head size among muskoxen young, with smaller animals having poor survivorship rates. Photo by Joel Berger courtesy of the Wildlife Conservation Society A yearling on the run, Igichuk Hills, Alaska. The muskox is the&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2018/01/muskox-and-other-arctic-mammals-are-feeling-the-heat-of-climate-change/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-203134</doi>				</item>
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