Looking seaward over the last week from almost all points along the coasts of Norton Sound, folks have been dazzled by bright blue horizons colored by open water.

A research vessel, Norseman II, was trapped in unusually dense sea ice for 14 days off the Seward Peninsula coast during a Pacific walrus study, but is now en route to Nome for repairs.

After alerting the region to very high levels of harmful algal blooms west of Kotzebue and Gambell two weeks ago, scientist onboard the research vessel Norseman II have found even higher numbers of Alexandrium catenella algae cells near Wales, Diomede and Shishmaref.

The Bering Sea’s cold pool, a critical part of the seafloor ecosystem, had shrunk to a worrying degree in recent years, but it is continuing to slowly return, according to the latest results of NOAA’s bottom trawl survey. Saffron cod, also called tomcod, seems to be bouncing back after a few bad years, and Arctic cod and blue king crab numbers were also better.

In February 2025, unexpectedly weak sea ice broke off near Nome, Alaska, marking the first recorded early detachment of shorefast ice. Local subsistence hunters and climate specialists warn the event could disrupt the regional ecosystem and traditional hunting practices.

A storm system with high winds and significant flooding impacted western Alaska, causing damage and disruptions in several communities.

High concentrations of harmful algae called Alexandrium catenella have been detected in the Bering Strait waters near St. Lawrence Island, Wales, and Little Diomede, posing a potential danger to human health and urging caution when consuming certain seafood.

“My boys told me my cabin went into the river,” said Rita Hulkill, who is 82. “My cabin had been there since the 70s. The water has never been that high ever.”

There has been a surge of plastic trash that has been washing up on beaches in Nome and across the Bering Strait Region.

On Sunday, Nomeites noticed that their internet wasn’t working and that cell service was spottier than usual. Large fiberoptic line was damaged by sea ice deep underneath the moving sea ice above.

On Sunday night, a plump ringed seal pup was spotted on the ice in front of Breaker’s Bar on Nome’s Front Street. UAF Alaska Sea Grant agent Gay Sheffield was called and moved the pup to a more secluded beach. The ice had likely gone out too fast and the mother finished up the normal weaning process on the ice chunks in front of Nome.

Residents across the Bering Strait have continued to report unusual amounts of foreign trash washing up on their beaches. After months of working on the models, NOAA has been able to pin the source of the debris as likely somewhere southwest of St. Lawrence Island in the Gulf of Anadyr.

Starting on the night of Wednesday, November 4, and continuing through Friday, a major storm ripped through the Norton Sound region, causing widespread closures and some damaging flooding.

By Diana Haecker

St. Lawrence Island, home to two native villages in the region, is also the summer home of several migratory seabird species, including kittiwakes, auklets, murre and shearwaters. Over the last several years, though, the bird colonies on the island have been shrinking, and no one has been able to determine why.

Researchers stepping off the research vessel Norseman II in Nome last weekend, brought significant news of having found very high concentrations of a phytoplankton called Alexandrium catenella in regional waters. Alexandrium is an algae that can produce saxitoxins, which can cause dangerous paralytic shellfish poisoning in people. The scientists issued an advisory, notifying Norton Sound Health Corporation, UAF Sea Grant and the Alaska Division of Public Health.

Alaska Sea Grant agent Gay Sheffield from Nome responded to report of a dead bowhead and a dead grey whale northeast of Shishmaref near Cape Espenburg.

High winds that pushed water high up on south facing shores of the Seward Peninsula cause shoreline erosion on the Chukchi Sea coast of Shishmaref, last week.  

Graves at the historic St. Michael cemetery in Alaska are eroding due to increased storms and erosion, prompting an archaeologist to recover exposed remains and coordinate efforts to re-bury them. Tom Wolforth’s prime mission was to appropriately handle the remains and make sure they could be reburied. He has been working closely with the tribe and the municipality to address their concerns. One concern, Martin said, was that these exposed remains could pose a risk of disease, especially if the dead had been buried during the time of the 1918 flu pandemic. But Wolforth assured them that if properly handled this shouldn’t be a problem.

Two more Russian LNG tankers made history earlier this month passing through the North Sea Route, which extends along the northern coast of Russian Asia, in late January, the latest commercial ship