Alaska Outdoors

Mab Island and South Birdget Cove.

Wild Shots

Submit your wild shots: The Empire Outdoors page is looking for superb images of Alaska’s wildlife, scenery or plant life. Send your photos to: Outdoors… Continue reading

Mab Island and South Birdget Cove.
Photo contributed by J&J Smart Charters  Clammers work the Polly Creek beach on the west side of the Cook Inlet during a June 26, 2013 trip with J&J Smart Charters operating out of Ninilchik. Biologists from the Alaska Department of Fish & Game are planning to survey the razor clam population near Polly Creek as concerns about additional harvest arise.

Fish & Game to survey Cook Inlet razor clams

The Alaska Department of Fish and Game plans to study the razor clams on the west side of Cook Inlet this summer.Razor clams are a… Continue reading

Photo contributed by J&J Smart Charters  Clammers work the Polly Creek beach on the west side of the Cook Inlet during a June 26, 2013 trip with J&J Smart Charters operating out of Ninilchik. Biologists from the Alaska Department of Fish & Game are planning to survey the razor clam population near Polly Creek as concerns about additional harvest arise.

Sitka herring fishery closes 4,600 tons short

SITKA — Fish and Game closed the Sitka Sound sac roe herring fishery Monday, with more than 4,600 tons left to catch in the quota.In… Continue reading

Soldotna Creek targeted for pike eradication

KENAI — The Alaska Department of Fish and Game is preparing to move forward in the second phase of a project to eradicate the invasive… Continue reading

Wrangell’s Stikine River Birding Festival

The Stikine River Birding Festival celebrates the spring arrival of migratory birds, including hundreds of thousands of shorebirds to the Stikine River Delta. The nineteenth… Continue reading

“We Eat Fish!” film screening

Inside Passage Waterkeeper’s new film “We Eat Fish!” about subsistence harvest and commercial fishing will be shown in JuneauWith footage shot from around Southeast, the… Continue reading

BLM Alaska seeks nominations to Resource Advisory Council

The Bureau of Land Management is seeking nominations for five positions on BLM’s Alaska Resource Advisory Council, which advises the BLM on public land issues.… Continue reading

Afternoon delight at Eagle Bach overlooking the Chilkat Mountains.

Wild Shots

Submit your wild shots: The Empire Outdoors page is looking for superb images of Alaska’s wildlife, scenery or plant life. Send your photos to: Outdoors… Continue reading

Afternoon delight at Eagle Bach overlooking the Chilkat Mountains.

Parasitic rhizocephalan barnacles

There are many species of parasitic barnacles, distributed around the world. The rhizocephalans parasitize crabs; they are sometimes found on king crabs in our area.A… Continue reading

Acorn and gooseneck barnacles

There are hundreds of species of barnacle and they do some very peculiar things (from our perspective). The larvae swim freely, but when they are… Continue reading

A male tanner crab has grabbed a smaller female in preparation for mating.

Crab grab

Female tanner crabs, particularly those that have mated in previous years, commonly gather in huge groups, at a density of over 100 females per square… Continue reading

A male tanner crab has grabbed a smaller female in preparation for mating.
Rufus nudibranchs in a mating group, starting to lay eggs.

Nudibranch orgies

Nudibranchs are shell-less-molluscs. Mostly carnivorous, they come in a variety of colors and forms. Many of them have ‘cerata’ on their backs; these are horn-like,… Continue reading

Rufus nudibranchs in a mating group, starting to lay eggs.
A female giant Pacific octopus tends eggs in her den.

Giant Pacific octopus

Individuals of this species often reach a body weight of 100 pounds or more, but in the Gulf of Alaska, adults have an average weight… Continue reading

A female giant Pacific octopus tends eggs in her den.

Sunflower sea stars

This large sea star is not as stiff and rigid as other species and comes in various colors. It lives from the low intertidal zone… Continue reading

A female parasitic isopod makes a lump on the side of this shrimp

Parasitic bopyrid isopods

Isopods (or sowbugs or pillbugs) are crustaceans; some live independently and others are parasitic. When a bopyrid egg hatches, the sexually undifferentiated (neither male nor… Continue reading

A female parasitic isopod makes a lump on the side of this shrimp
Leggy oak leaf lettuce.

Dirt Girl: Starting starts

My neighbor greeted me the other day with a question: “Do you have any plants started?” I shrugged my shoulders to answer her obvious question.… Continue reading

Leggy oak leaf lettuce.

Sex and the sea

Marine invertebrates exhibit a dazzling array of interesting ways of sexual reproduction, some of which is shown here.Thanks to Aaron Baldwin (Alaska Department of Fish… Continue reading

The early robin gets the worm in Evergreen Cemetery.

Wild Shots

Submit your wild shots: The Empire Outdoors page is looking for superb images of Alaska’s wildlife, scenery or plant life. Send your photos to: Outdoors… Continue reading

The early robin gets the worm in Evergreen Cemetery.
Pictured is an intertidal margerite snail with its eggs, all encased in a jelly-like coat.

On the Trails: Odds and ends

Here are a few recent observations from late February and early March, plus a very cool thing I’ve only read about. So here goes ...As… Continue reading

Pictured is an intertidal margerite snail with its eggs, all encased in a jelly-like coat.

In Sitka, predators arrive but herring don’t

SITKA — State Fish and Game biologists saw plenty of predators but no herring Friday in an aerial survey of Sitka Sound.“No herring or herring… Continue reading