Late freeze-up of sea ice along the shoreline

Sea ice conditions making it difficult for community to harvest seasonal fish.

Unusual weather patterns are pushing the sea ice away from the coast.

A snowmachiner was trapped on the quickly moving floe and he was rescued later by a helicopter.

Lack of sea ice affects seal hunting.

3-5-13 Changing sea ice - Unalakleet, Alaska, USA

The sea is our garden for food and other things.

10-17-13 No ice fishing yet - Shishmaref, Alaska, USA

11-4-13 Ice fishing hazardous - Golovin, Alaska, USA

1-26-14 Ice disrupts subsistence - Unalakleet, Alaska, USA

9-18-14 High surface water temperatures - Bering Sea

By this time of the year, we usually have 2-3 miles of shore-fast ice that sticks to our beach. We as a village have not done our winter harvest of seals and walrus, and we are worried that we will not be able to bowhead whale hunt.

South winds blew out most of the sea ice. Going to be bad ice if it refreezes for spring hunt.

No Permanent Winter Ice and Early Break Up For Nome

Sea ice is here and then disapears.

This fall freeze-up was somewhat delayed, not just in the Bering Straits region, but all the way up to Barrow.

No sea ice; hunters say it should not be like this today.

Residents use drones to show unusual sea ice conditions along the Chukchi coast.

Rough seas and moving sea ice.

Despite the time of year, there is still no snow on the Seward Peninsula.

10-15 13 Too wet for food preservation - Elim, Alaska, USA

10-24-13 Warm weather delays subsistence - Shaktoolik, Alaska, USA

1-3-14 Where is the snow - Solomon, Alaska, USA

1-20-14 Snow then rain - Shaktoolik, Alaska, USA

There has been a lack of snow in the Golovin area ever since the January 2014 warm spell.

11-13-14 Unseasonable warm - Unalakleet, Alaska, USA

Warm weather has made for unsafe traveling conditions, including a snowmachine race.

A heatwave in Unalakleet, Alaska.

Nome was hit by unseasonably warm temperatures and strong winds.

Recent storms and warm seas melted a vast stretch of ice in the Bering Sea, leaving some islands surrounded by water when they should be locked in ice.

Seal with hair loss observed in Bering Strait region

Ringed seal with sores found in Shishmaref.

Several sightings of dead baby belugas were reported on the shores of the community and in the area over the past few days.

10-19-13 Hairless seal - Shishmaref, Alaska, USA

We are spotting dead baby 'spotted' and 'ringed' seals washing up on the beach with no signs of lesions or signs of gun shots.

11-18-15 Bearded seal with hair loss - Shishmaref, Alaska, USA

Commercial and Subsistence Harvest

Residents of Chevak and Hooper Bay found two species of sea bird either dead or approachable near the mouth of the Kiuqliiviq and Aprun rivers near fish camps. Residents of Hooper Bay also found a dead sea mammal on the beach.

5-29-12 Unusual bearded seal - Shishmaref, Alaska, USA

Hunters noticed some herring were starting to spawn near Cape Denbigh. The herring scheduled to arrive on May 25th, are over a week early.

7-3-14 Kelp greenling - Golovin, Alaska, USA

10-20-14 Sleeper shark - Shishmaref, Alaska, USA

Three researchers from the NOAA Alaska Fisheries Science Center completed a trawl survey of the Northern Bering Sea in 2017 and found a dramatic increase in pollock. 

Blackline Prickleback (Acantholumpenus mackayi) caught along the Bering Sea Coast

Sleeper sharks are already known to range as far north as the Chukchi Sea, but reports of possible shark attacks on seal and sea lions have increased — and now come from further into the Arctic.

Ice in the north Bering Sea is diminishing, researchers aboard a Coast Guard ship report.