Anchorage Daily News

Glacier Bay whale protection zone expanded

Glacier Bay National Park officials say a special area created this summer to protect humpback whales from being struck by boats is being extended, effective immediately.

Point Lay celebrates first whale in 72 years

The Arctic coast village of Point Lay, long denied a subsistence whaling quota and once all but abandoned, is poised to hold its first Nalukataq blanket toss feast in 72 years to celebrate the landing of a spring bowhead.

Public comment period on sea otter habitat extended

The public comment period on sea otters in Southwest Alaska has been extended for 30 days.

Migrating whale makes side trip

A 20-foot whale on the way to the North Pacific in its annual migration has decided to pass some time in Los Angeles' Marina del Rey.

Whale carcass towed out of Valdez harbor

No one noticed a dead humpback whale stuck on the bow of an Exxon oil tanker until the ship was preparing to dock Monday afternoon in Valdez, say company and oil terminal officials. The carcass was towed out to sea Wednesday.

Humpback struck by oil tanker near Valdez

A humpback whale that was dead after being struck by an oil tanker headed to the oil terminal at Valdez will be towed out to sea and set adrift today, according to the Coast Guard. It was not clear whether the whale was alive or floating dead when the tanker struck it.

Photos: Valdez whale

UAF aircraft developed to help monitor seal populations

A drone is flying surveillance over the Bering Sea this month as scientists test its prospects for documenting little-studied seals at the southern edge of the ice pack.

Video: Drone cam survey (NOAA)

Blue whales returning to former Alaska habitat

Blue whales are returning to Alaska waters in search of food and might be re-establishing an old migration route decades after they were nearly wiped out by whalers.

More marine mammal stories

Necropsy will try to find out why seemingly healthy whale died

A dead gray whale that had been floating near Camano and Whidbey islands in Washington state has been moved to a beach for a necropsy.

Two gray whales die in Puget Sound waters

A whale expert says it's a little unusual to have two dead gray whales in Puget Sound at the same time.

Group is photo-identifying Inlet belugas

Cook Inlet's few hundred endangered beluga whales are being identified, one by one, not through tagging, but by photographs that show their distinctive marks.

Northern fur seal population hits another low

The 10-year-long decline of the northern fur seal population hit a new low last year with the fewest number of fur seal pups born in the Pribilof Islands in 92 years.

State sues US to get beluga whale listing rescinded

The state of Alaska plans to sue the federal government over its recent decision to list Cook Inlet beluga whales as an endangered species, the governor's office reported Wednesday. The lawsuit would try to rescind the listing.

Feds list Cook Inlet belugas as endangered species

Photos: Beluga gallery

'The Last Polar Bear...'

Any competent wildlife photographer knows all about waiting. Few have waited in bitter subzero cold for weeks on end, hoping for the wind and the sun and other conditions to be right for a glimpse at the planet's largest land predator.

Fight for ribbon seal protection far from over

The conservation group that petitioned to list ribbon seals as threatened or endangered vowed to keep trying despite rejection by federal wildlife managers.

Ribbon seals aren't endangered, government rules

Can diet, breath samples and scat give clues to orca decline?

When seven resident killer whales that frequent inland waters of Washington went missing this year, there was no shortage of suspects.

Habitat protection proposed for Alaska sea otters

A U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service proposal issued today would designate 5,879 square miles of ocean along the Aleutian Islands as critical habitat for threatened sea otters.

Conservation group sues to protect walrus

A conservation group went to court Wednesday to force the federal government to consider adding the Pacific walrus to the list of threatened species.

More on Pacific walruses

Walruses flee shrinking ice for shoreline

Aleutian sea lions fade as eastern group grows

Endangered Steller sea lions in far western Alaska continue to do a disappearing act, with already distressed numbers slipping further in some areas.

STORY RAN: OCT. 16, 2006

Belugas at a crossroads

Seven years after a virtual halt to Native subsistence hunts was thought to have put a depleted stock of Cook Inlet beluga whales on a path to recovery, marine mammal scientists counting the bright white whales from the air last summer spotted fewer than ever.

STORY RAN: OCT. 17, 2008

Headed for extinction?

A new and gloomy federal assessment of Cook Inlet's beluga whales projects a one-in-four chance the population could go extinct within 100 years, and better than a two-in-three probability the whales will vanish in 300 years unless something happens to improve the odds.