Alaska Arctic Observatory and Knowledge Hub

We are thrilled to announce that AAOKH and Tamamta student Elizabeth Mik'aq Lindley will be defending her PhD in Fisheries with a seminar at the UAF Troth Yeddha' Campus (Room 201 O'Neil) and online this Friday Aug 7 at 10 am. Email [email protected] for a zoom link.

Please join us in celebrating and learning more about Mik's great work to understand salmon in Alaska's Arctic!

Dissertation Title:
Opportunity and Constraint in a Warming North: Pacific Salmon and the Conditions of Redistribution in Arctic Alaska

Research abstract:
Climate change is reshaping marine and freshwater ecosystems in unique ways and altering the distribution of Pacific salmon across coastal Arctic Alaska. Taken together, this dissertation examines how salmon become known, understood, and potentially establish in Arctic Alaska by weaving together diverse forms of salmon knowledge with mechanistic analyses of early life history. In the first of four chapters, I synthesize diverse lines of evidence, including agency reports, workshop discussions, monitoring programs, and local observations to document patterns of Pacific salmon occurrences across Arctic Alaska and identify key uncertainties in their status and recent shifts. Second, I describe the methods, approaches, and critical self-reflections from the Arctic Alaska Salmon Workshop, which convened Iñupiat environmental practitioners and western scientists to produce knowledge and questions regarding shifts in salmon presence in Arctic Alaska. Third, I test the role of temperature as a barrier to successful Arctic incubation by coho salmon (Oncorhynchus kisutch) using a common garden rearing experiment, applying thermal conditions that emulate a series of spawning dates within an Arctic perennial spring. Variable survival occurred across treatments, and warmer regimes elicited developmental compensation that reduced time to hatching, relative to cooler treatments, suggesting that thermal constraints are dynamics under Arctic establishing contexts. Finally, I analyze spawning phenology and incubation temperatures of observed Arctic-spawning chum salmon (Oncorhynchus keta), demonstrating that thermal conditions shape emergence timing and its alignment with seasonal windows of opportunity for proceeding life stages. Together, these chapters show that salmon expansion in Arctic Alaska reflects interacting processes of knowledge production, thermal opportunity, and phenology. By linking epistemological reflection with experimental and field-based analyses, this dissertation advances fisheries science understanding of poleward redistribution at high latitudes and provides a framework for exploring ecological reorganization in a rapidly warming Arctic.

Good afternoon! We have observations and photos to share from Point Hope and Utqiaġvik this week, including some interesting fish observations, shorefast ice hanging around Utqiaġvik and a herd of caribou near Point Hope!

7/14 in Point Hope: “45⁰ yesterdays drive to nuvuk seen lot of qasigiaqs hunting fish. Looks to be 40 or more swimming in the water. Got to see em chasing the fish and the fish jumping out of the water trying to escape the seals.
Idk if we should put this down but as we were watching the seals getting closer to the beach near us we spotted what looked like a 3 ft long tuna looking fish that jumped out of the water escaping the seals. I dont know what kind of fish it was but to me it looked like a tuna , body was at least a foot wide.” - Guy Omnik

7/14 in Utqiagvik: “The shorefast ice is still onshore near Utqiagvik but is starting to break loose near Nuvuk.” - Billy Adams

7/13 in Point Hope: “49⁰ cloudy/rain south winds 10-15mph a friend of mine fishing just caught these .. was on my way to nuvuk and stopped by a friend fishing on the south beach with a net
AAOKH reply: [is that unusual?]
Guy: Not unusual for this time of year. Sitting at the south beach now and my friend just caught over 20 salmon” - Guy Omnik

7/9 in Point Hope: “Gm. 42⁰ foggy south winds 10-15mph. Caribou have arrived in the Lisbourne peninsula some say at least 2000 or more, I haven't seen the big herd but I was able to see a few. Yesterdays hunt felt like low 50⁰s with sunshine and lot of mosquitoes was a nice n hot day.” - Guy Omnik

Good morning! We have observations and photos to share for the first week of July, including warm weather, shorefast ice hanging around town up north, wildlife sightings in Kaktovik and algae growth (?) in lakes/lagoons around Kotzebue:

7/8 in Wainwright: “wnw 5mph temp 60f we have been packed in for more than a week now with very little movement its been years since our ice has hung around this long” - Jase Ahmaogak

7/8 in Utqiagvik: “June was cooler than expected which delayed migratory birds to lay their eggs about 10 days later than normal near Barrow, July has brought warmer 40f to 60f but the sea ice is still up close but very little to no shore ice movement much due low winds. Not so much mosquito activity either but I must be careful with what I say. Everyone awaits the shorefast ice to move as it is time to hunt bearded seals!” - Billy Adams

7/8 in Kotzebue: “The weather has been quite nice the past few weeks. NWS long range forecast calls for scattered rain showers from Thursday through the weekend as a weak low skirts the Western Chukchi. God knows we need the rain. NWS has a "high danger" for fire in NW Alaska with occasional thunderstorms. A little rain would be nice to water our garden and prevent tundra fires. Temperatures are forecasted to be in the mid sixties during the day with evening lows in the low 50's. West wind breezes are forecasted.

Subsistence fishermen are enjoying fresh salmon. The early run seems to be quite strong as folks report good catches in their nets. Commercial fishing starts on July 10. We deserve a good season as the last two Commercial Fish seasons were disastrous.

Alex Whiting Environmental Coordinator for the Kotzebue Tribe and I will be launching the algae mooring again next week. Once launched this mooring will monitor algae growth in the Kotzebue Sound for the entire summer. The mooring will be placed about one mile East of the mouth of the Noatak River.” - Bobby Schaeffer

7/6 in Kaktovik: “Another gorgeous day, we hit the high 50’s but with wind coming off the ocean it made it feel colder. The have had polar bears ,a brown bear and 5 caribou (one a baby calf) on the island. A lot of the geese have left. Some of the ice has moved back into the lagoon.
Other notes: 38F, ENE winds 11mph, scattered clouds, ice mirage and ice visible on the ocean, waterfowl, bears and caribou sighted as well as arctic char and ringed seal” - Carla SimsKayotuk

7/6 in Kotzebue: "The ice in the Chukchi is nearly all gone. Freight barges are finally delivering freight to Kotzebue. Ugruk hunting season is over and subsistence fishermen are catching salmon and preparing to set subsistence red king pots. Lots of gathering activity.
[Response to question about algae]: We had a lot of clear warm weather this Spring. I did call Alex about seeing algae growth in the warm shallows of Kobuk Lake. Suppose to reach 78 degrees here today. Hotter up the Noatak and Kobuk rivers. With excess heat, I know algae growth will be at or near record. I will assist with the development of the Tribes algae monitoring mooring in a few weeks." - Bobby Schaeffer

Good afternoon! We have several observations and photos to share for the beginning of June, including west winds up north, lots of migratory birds, a polar bear sighting, and fishing updates and ice conditions around Kotzebue Sound:

6/3 in Utqiaġvik: “ Finally 30f temperatures in Barrow! Some open water but closed up very fast as westerly winds and currents from the south worked together to bring the ice in. The migratory birds have arrived to nest, the usual time for birds to lay eggs near Barrow is around June 6th and this year we still have much snow around so timing for gathering eggs could mean that the event could be delayed. Once again it is good to see healthy birds and very enjoyable to hear their joyful songs upon their arrival. Stay safe and remember to be respectful to the birds and animals as they are replenishing the populations this time of the year.” - Billy Adams

6/3 in Wainwright: “the rains have arrived and the melt is fast today wsw 10-15 mph 34f today the crews went out boating for a few hours they seen a few herds of walrus on the ice flows almost time to switch season and put away whaling gear

Live to hunt another day” - Jase Ahmaogak

6/2 in Point Hope: “Good morning. 42⁰ clear skies calm winds yesterdays forecast and pictures. Good day out in the ocean” - Guy Omnik

6/1 in Utqiaġvik: “The fog and light westerly winds comes to play to bring in polar bears to the shorefast ice and to shore for looking for resident seals that have made breathing holes and lairs throughout the winter on the shorefast ice, the bears also are opportunistic to find any kind of carcasses that have washed ashore during the summer and fall to feed on, bears are also curious what they smell in communities . Here is a young healthy bear approximately a 7 footer that has made its way to land. “ - Billy Adams

6/1 in Kotzebue: “Gooday Donna. Nice photos of the Chukchi and Kotzebue Sound ice. The Kobuk Channel is still closed as no new cracks in the Kotzebue Sound has formed. Looks to be quite solid yet. So does the Eastern Chukchi save broken ice near the shore. The rest of the Chukchi is open water from Kivalina North. Amazing.

I.m back in Kotzebue. Time to do my yearly maintenance on my outboards as Ugruk hunting and subsistence crabbing is just around the corner. Oh, In haste to catch the charter two weeks ago, I forgot my iphone therefore didn't have a camera to record the Spring activities at camp. But, I did go and catch a few Pike and Shee. I caught a 40 inch Shee and it was starving to death. It had nothing in its stomach and it was, by far, the skinniest large Shee I have seen. The herring usually bless the lake with their presence by this time but, for the first time that I can remember, no Spring herring showed up in the lake. The Shee showed up to meet them but, their prized meal did not show. I have a gut feeling that the herring took a beating during last Fall storms just as the smelt and tomcod. All three species of forage fish may have been decimated by these storms. I use "may" loosely as this is my best guess. Logic based on my observations. Not proven by scientific research.” - Bobby Schaeffer

Good morning! We have observations and photos to share from Kaktovik, Point Hope, Point Lay and Kotzebue this week, including lots of wildlife spotted, bird hunting and blowing snow. We also included here MODIS images from 5/25 for Kotzebue Sound and the North Slope:

5/25 in Kaktovik: “May 24th and I was camping at First Fish Hole about 30 miles up along the Hula Hula River! Usually this is the weekend that the Ukpiilak River goes out and we can no longer cross over to head up the Hula Hula River. There is more ponds and melt run off in the island than up inland. A lot of ground blowing snow still happening, whiteout conditions with freezing rain/snow. Lots (like a hundred) of ptarmigans on the island. A male polar bear has been coming into town during the day ( 3 days now) looking for food. He has long legs, and lean looking(not skinny).
Unusual conditions: The Hula Hula is flowing real strong but hasn’t pushed out all the ice yet and the Ukpiilak River hasn’t even overflowed yet, or at least it hasn’t reached where we cross over to the Hula Hula. There is so much snow yet and and we haven’t seen any ponds or melted water yet on the ground other than the Hula Hula River.
Other notes: 28F, east winds 23 mph, overcast and blowing snow with whiteout conditions, Amauligruaq (Common Eider), Avatalik (Snow Bunting), Brown birds, Kaŋuq (Snow Goose), Nauyaq (Gull), Niġliq (Goose), Qargiq (Ptarmigan), Quagak (Duck), Tulugaq (Raven), Ukpik (Snowy Owl), Nanuq (Polar Bear), Tiġiganniaq (Arctic Fox), Tuttu (Caribou), Umiŋmak (Muskox) and Iqalukpik (Arctic Char) sighted.” - Carla SimsKayotuk

5/23 in Point Hope: “35*north at 5mph cloudy. Pictures from a couple days ago at my camp. Brought my mix lab out to camp and he got my geese for me. He surprised me that day, he deserved and extra scooby snack, ha!” - Guy Omnik

5/22 in Point Lay: “This has been the windiest spring whaling for point lay. Crew has put their whaling gear away due to river water flowing into our lagoon. Hunters are out there inland hunting geese.
Unusual conditions: windy windy windy
Other notes: -3F, NE winds 22 mph, blowing heavy snow, Niġliq (Goose), Qiŋalik (King Eider), Quagak (Duck) sighted" - Robert Lisbourne

5/21 in Kotzebue: “The clouds have moved in and it is raining. This should speed up the melting process. I flew over Kobuk Lake a few days ago and it still looks solid. The only water was next to the beaches and the open water on the Little Noatak-Pike Spit channel. Most of the tundra is now snow free. The Kobuk River is breaking up a is making its way down river. It won't take very long to reach the Kobuk Lake. Folks up the Kobuk River are now out hunting via boat. Lucky folks.” - Bobby Schaeffer

Good afternoon! We have observations, photos and satellite images to share this week for Kotzebue, Point Hope and Wainwright:

5/21 in Kotzebue: “The clouds have moved in and it is raining. This should speed up the melting process. I flew over Kobuk Lake a few days ago and it still looks solid. The only water was next to the beaches and the open water on the Little Noatak-Pike Spit channel. Most of the tundra is now snow free. The Kobuk River is breaking up a is making its way down river. It won't take very long to reach the Kobuk Lake. Folks up the Kobuk River are now out hunting via boat. Lucky folks.” - Bobby Schaeffer

5/20 in Point Hope: “Gm. 32* calm winds. Foggy. Yesterdays geese hunt... may 16 pho landed its 8th whale of the season, i think there is 1 more strike ..” - Guy Omnik

5/18 in Wainwright: “winds ene 15-18 mph temp 27f white out conditions what a cold spring but the geese have arrived once we warm up it will all melt fast wainwrights second whale was landed 2 days ago been a busy few days her in ulguniq” - Jase Ahmaogak

Good afternoon! It has been a busy and bustling spring for us this season. We have observations to share from Point Hope, Kaktovik and Wainwright today, including successful bowhead harvests and lots of wildlife sightings. Wishing all the crews a safe and bountiful spring whaling season!

5/11 in Point Hope: “Good evening. Yesterday around 35* mostly sunny calm winds. Today cloudy 34* north 10-15 mph. Yesterday pho caught its 7th whale of the season.” - Guy Omnik

5/9 in Kaktovik: “These last 2 weeks we have seen the sun, rain and snow blow. Today it is a combination of fog and wind and clear weather. The geese are flying. The Hula Hula River is overflowing but has also refrozen in certain areas. Last weekend a group of 8-12 went up to first and caught over 20 arctic char.
Other notes: 23F, NE winds 21mph, blowing snow, overcast, visibility up to 1 mile, start of breakup on lakes, lagoons and rivers, and bears foxes and waterfowl sighted” - Carla SimsKayotuk

5/9 in Wainwright: “wainwrights 1st whale has been landed 2 days ago we had beautiful weather light winds overcast ne winds 5-10 temp 31f we have a few days to recouperate today winds ese 20-25 mph temp 27f overcast causing white out conditions

Live to hunt another day” - Jase Ahmoagak

5/7 in Wainwright: “temp 30f winds ne 5-10 current coming from the south what we call qaisagniq we are 21 miles north of the village in our whaling camp boats are out scouting as i type lots of ring seals playing around near camp

Live to hunt another day” - Jase Ahmaogak

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Here's yesterday's 4/29/26 MODIS satellite image of the NW and North Slope of Alaska. Lots of clouds affecting the view in places, but also starting to see tundra becoming exposed in the NW Arctic Borough.

Here's the updated observation from Bobby Schaeffer yesterday in Qikiqtagruk (Kotzebue):
"The seagulls have been here for over a week since the first thaw began. But, no report of waterfowl yet. With so much water on top of the ice, it's hard to travel safely. Could get stuck in deep water but, once the water soaks through the ice, travel is safe again. The evening temperatures dip below freezing and freezes the snow making snowmobile travel possible before the daytime heat starts to melt it again.It's melting quickly so most of the tundra is showing now however, the creeks and willow areas is still white.

The weather has been quite warm for this time of the year. With the hot sun and mid-thirties temperatures, there has been a tremendous amount of snow melt. The Buckland River area snow melt was so fast that the water from the melting snow caused the river to fill up with water and the water started to flow downstream on top of the ice. I saw a few pictures from upper Kobuk where the Kobuk River is filling up with water as well. The warm weather is to continue for the next week with high temperatures in the mid-thirties to low forties and evening temperatures in the mid-twenties. "