Waters off Sitka were warm enough to lure fish from the south, and local anglers took advantage of conditions to harvest species that make rare appearances in Alaska.

Petersburg, Ketchikan, Haines, and Skagway all received record amounts of rainfall in May. Across the panhandle, many communities saw double or triple the amount of rainfall they normally get during the month. Most communities also experienced colder-than-average temperatures.

A brown bear and one of her two cubs were shot and killed by a Sitka resident early Thursday after the animals entered into a storage building in the 4200 block of Halibut Point Road, in the vicinity of the Sitka Sound Cruise Terminal, and were trying to get into freezers.

The invasive orange hawkweed, known for its striking appearance, is rapidly spreading across Southeast Alaska, threatening local ecosystems by outcompeting native plants.

Observations and research across Alaska indicate shifting berry ripening times and unpredictable yields, with climate change as a key factor affecting these important subsistence and cultural resources.

In late March, a local whale biologist spotted something out of place in Sitka Sound. She’s still having a hard time believing it, but pictures suggest an incredibly rare sighting– a juvenile bowhead whale.

Hunters in Central Southeast Alaska have reported a record harvest of 141 bulls during the month-long moose hunt, surpassing the previous record of 132 bulls set in 2021, with the majority of the harvest occurring on Kupreanof Island. A couple decades ago, there were very few of them in the region — and the hunt was almost entirely relegated to the mainland. But over the years, he said he’s seen more moose cropping up on remote islands.

Last summer’s unusually warm weather fueled an explosion in the western blackheaded budworm, leaving masses of browning trees in many areas of Southeast. The worm, which is the larval stage of the budworm moth, is known to feed on the new growth of trees, leaving them with a brownish-red appearance.

The grounding ruptured one of the tug’s fuel tanks, which can hold around 13,000 gallons of diesel fuel.

Rainfall in Sitka broke records on Wednesday, and February is shaping up to exceed the month’s typical rainfall by leaps and bounds.

Orthione griffenis, or O. griffenis, eventually kills its host shrimp, and soon the remaining shrimp can’t find each other to reproduce, rendering a blue mud shrimp population extinct.

The man was buried between 5-8 minutes before two other skiers in his group located him with avalanche transceivers.

The Coast Guard reported the dead 47-foot female humpback to NOAA on Sunday evening. It had washed ashore on the south end of Kruzof Island. The whale looked healthy and its belly was full of fish — most likely herring. But they did find some evidence of blunt trauma.

"This is the earliest I have ever seen a hummingbird in this region."

The bear tore through a chain link enclosure around midnight on November 4, and killed a 125-pound mixed-breed dog belonging to Georgiana Smith — who immediately informed her Indian River-area neighbors of the incident on the Sitka Bear Report Facebook page.

“For the killer whales, I honestly don’t know if this is normal or not,” said Mandy Keogh, the Regional Marine Mammal Stranding Coordinator for NOAA Fisheries in Alaska. Dead killer whales simply aren’t seen that often.

This orca born in 2018 is called Tl’uk, a Coast Salish word for “moon.” Tl’uk is a greyish moon color, without the typical black and white pattern.

Luck was against these young cockles, which were likely washed up on to the beach during a storm and did not survive the cold air temperatures during low tide.

Southeast Alaska has suffered from a drought and warmer-than-normal temperatures for about two years now. The month of July broke more records.

Furry visitors have kept the residents of Angoon on their toes for the past few weeks. Several bears have made a habit of passing through town.