Bering Strait
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State biologists recommend a 26% cut to Norton Sound red king crab limit for 2027
State biologists are recommending a smaller Norton Sound red king crab catch for 2027. This year's harvest ran over its limits.
In an assessment posted Thursday for federal fishery advisers, Alaska Department of Fish and Game biologists Caitlin Stern and Katie Palof recommend a 2027 catch ceiling of 221,000 pounds, about 26% below this year's. They would also lower the overfishing limit to 315,000 pounds from 426,000.
This summer's commercial catch topped the state's harvest target by 16.8%. The assessment points to the fishery's last two days as one factor: between the state's June 23 announcement that it was closing and the noon June 25 closure, catches ran higher than projected.
Counting estimated deaths of crab thrown back, the total ran 13.6% over this year's catch ceiling. It stayed under the overfishing limit, so overfishing didn't occur.
Males measuring 134 millimeters or more across the shell made up a record 34% of the summer catch, and average weight hit a record 3.7 pounds. The only other years above 20% were 1981 and 1982. The biologists suggest large males may be dying less often of natural causes, or moving in ways that put more of them in front of the fleet.
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Stories on what’s next
BSNC Shareholder Distribution Payment
Bering Straits shareholders will get $13.50 a share, its highest regular payout
Bering Straits Native Corporation shareholders will receive $13.50 per share this fall, the highest regular payout on record, with an extra $1,600 for eligible elders.
Interior Department and Marine Minerals Administration Regional Tribal Meeting
Nome mayor calls Kawerak's seabed mining draft inflammatory; city staff will write another
Nome's mayor called Kawerak's seabed mining moratorium draft inflammatory. The council didn't vote on it, and city staff will write a narrower resolution.
DOE Grid Resilience Program Application Deadline
Solomon tribe helps buy Nome's utility a bucket truck with federal grid money
The Village of Solomon put $125,000 toward a bucket truck for Nome's utility. It's the first tribe in its Bering Strait consortium to start spending its share.
Latest
Gusts to 60 mph expected on the Bering Strait coast through Tuesday
Gusts up to 60 mph are expected on the Bering Strait coast, Diomede and St. Lawrence Island into Tuesday, days after a storm flooded roads in Wales and Teller.
by Maggie AlaskaNews4d ago1 min read
More flooding possible on Bering Strait coast after storm swamps Wales and Teller roads
Friday's storm flooded roads in Wales and Teller. More high water and surf are coming through Tuesday, and Shishmaref could see more significant flooding.
by Maggie AlaskaNews6d ago2 min read
NOAA invites tribes to weigh in on Norton Sound red king crab limits
NOAA invited tribes to consult on next year's Norton Sound red king crab limits, after this year's catch ceiling was cut by about a third from 2025.
by Maggie AlaskaNews1w ago2 min read
Bering Sea storm could send waves 5 to 9 feet above high tide at Koyuk and Elim
Forecasters expect breaking waves 5 to 9 feet above high tide at Koyuk and Elim this weekend as a strong Bering Sea storm hits Friday, with another behind it.
by Walter AlaskaNews1w ago2 min readFollows: High surf advisories, storm watches cover Arctic coast from Point Hope to Utqiagvik
Diabetes program funding 22 Alaska tribal health groups faces a Dec. 31 deadline
A federal diabetes program pays for prevention and treatment at 22 Alaska tribal health organizations. Its authorization ends Dec. 31 unless Congress acts.
by Maggie AlaskaNews1w ago2 min readFrom 
Norton Sound salmon season draws the fewest commercial permit holders since 2007
Just 72 permit holders fished Norton Sound salmon commercially this year, the fewest since 2007, and king salmon missed every escapement goal in the region.
by Walter AlaskaNews2w ago2 min read
Kawerak backs moratorium on seabed mining off Alaska, sends resolution to AFN convention
Kawerak's board backs a moratorium on seabed mining off Alaska and will ask AFN to do the same. A federal lease sale could come as soon as December.
by Walter AlaskaNews2w ago2 min read
St. Lawrence Island high wind warning expires after forecast of 65 mph gusts
A high wind warning for St. Lawrence Island expired Thursday after forecasting gusts up to 65 mph that could damage property and knock out power.
by Walter AlaskaNews3w ago2 min read
Nome Common Council certifies Oct. 6 municipal election results
Nome Common Council certified Oct. 6 election results Thursday, with all races uncontested and winners taking 89 percent or more of votes cast.
by Walter AlaskaNews3w ago1 min read
Bering Straits Native Corporation shareholders elect three directors, reelect two
Bering Straits Native Corporation shareholders elected three directors and reelected the board chair and vice chair. The board will fill a fourth seat.
by Walter AlaskaNews3w ago2 min read
Choi-Wan remnants could push water 4 to 6 feet above high tide on Bering Strait coast
Typhoon Choi-Wan remnants will push water 4 to 6 feet above normal high tide on the Bering Strait coast Thursday and Friday, with a coastal flood advisory through 4 am Saturday.
by Walter AlaskaNews3w ago3 min read
Bering Straits Native Corporation honors 14 Elders of the Year from across the region
BSNC named 14 Elders of the Year, from a 90-year-old Little Diomede postal pioneer to a Golovin man who brought ancestors home from the Smithsonian.
by Maggie AlaskaNews3w ago3 min read
Heating fuel in surveyed Alaska communities rose nearly 23% since winter, state finds
Heating fuel in surveyed Alaska communities averaged $7.97 a gallon this summer, up 23% since winter. Western Alaska paid the most, at $9 a gallon.
by Walter AlaskaNews4w ago1 min read
Federal regulators approve Norton Sound group's trade of unused flatfish quota for 900 tons of rock sole
Nome-based NSEDC traded unused flathead and yellowfin sole quota for 900 more metric tons of rock sole, so its community quota fleet can keep fishing.
by Bill AlaskaNews4w ago2 min read
Norton Sound Health Corp. gets federal grant for youth sexual health and life skills classes
Norton Sound Health Corp. will teach sexual health and life skills to young people in Nome and 15 Bering Strait villages under a five-year federal grant.
by Maggie AlaskaNews1mo ago2 min read
Norton Sound Health Corporation gets $250,000 federal grant for produce prescription program
A $250,000 Indian Health Service grant will help Norton Sound Health Corporation give food-insecure households monthly produce vouchers or shipments.
by Maggie AlaskaNews1mo ago2 min read
ICE places $7 million, one-month El Paso detention order with Anchorage-based Paragon
ICE placed a $7 million, one-month order with Paragon, a Bering Straits Native Corporation subsidiary, to keep providing detention services in El Paso.
by Melinda Communities.News1mo ago1 min read
Troopers investigating death of Elim woman after reported injury
A 40-year-old Elim woman died early Saturday after an injury at a house in the village. Alaska State Troopers and the medical examiner are investigating.
by Walter AlaskaNews1mo ago1 min read
Four years after Merbok, Alaska is hiring a contractor to start rebuilding homes
Four years after Merbok, Alaska is hiring a contractor to rebuild 77 homes by 2029. The bid notice also puts one region in the wrong funding tier.
by Walter AlaskaNews1mo ago2 min readFollows: Alaska declines to move Kuskokwim villages into its larger Merbok tier
Bering Strait homeowners waited 184 days for storm repair loans
Bering Strait homeowners waited 184 days for SBA storm-repair loans that neighbors got in nine. The state's request is dated April; the records don't say why.
by Walter AlaskaNews1mo ago3 min readFrom 
Alaska declines to move Kuskokwim villages into its larger Merbok tier
Alaska won't move Lower Kuskokwim villages into the larger tier of its $38.5 million Merbok grant, saying its survey found other regions hit harder.
by Walter AlaskaNews1mo ago2 min read
Alaska has $272 million to change rural health care. The requests reached $2.5 billion.
Alaska has 217 preliminary rural health awards worth about $209 million — enough to replace equipment and add services, but not to replace Medicaid coverage.
by Walter AlaskaNews1mo ago4 min read
Moose hunting closes early west of the Darby Mountains
Moose hunting west of the Darby Mountains closes Sunday, a day early, as the last of several quota-driven closures around Nome this season.
by Bill AlaskaNews1mo ago1 min read
Wind watch upgraded to warning for the Western Arctic Coast and Shishmaref
National Weather Service raised Western Arctic Coast wind gusts to 65 mph from late Wednesday through Friday, with high surf and beach erosion expected.
by Maggie AlaskaNews1mo ago2 min read
High wind warnings for the northwest coast as Arctic logs warmest summer since 1950
The Arctic had its warmest summer since 1950, and the water off Alaska's northwest coast still ran cold. That coast now gets gusts to 65 mph.
by Maggie AlaskaNews1mo ago2 min read
Storm to raise water up to 5 feet above the tide line, Golovin to Wainwright
Coastal flooding could push water 2 to 5 feet above the high tide line along much of western and northern Alaska this week, across several tide cycles.
by Walter AlaskaNews1mo ago2 min read
An Anchorage company will run the ATF's supply operation
An Anchorage company won $5.3 million to run the ATF's supply operation. Its federal small-business certification expires six weeks into the contract.
by Alaska News1mo ago1 min read
Norton Sound commercial salmon fishing closed for the rest of 2026
Norton Sound's commercial salmon fishery is closed for the rest of 2026 after most of the state's fish-counting projects failed, leaving too much uncertainty.
by Walter AlaskaNews1mo ago2 min readFrom 
Alaska Supreme Court bars Nome from taxing hospital staff housing
The Alaska Supreme Court says Nome cannot tax the building where its hospital houses doctors and nurses, a ruling that reaches every borough in the state.
by Walter AlaskaNews1mo ago4 min readFrom 
Norton Sound's health corporation is in line for $7.2 million
Norton Sound Health Corporation would get about $7.2 million in federal rural health money, most of it replacing end-of-life computers in 15 village clinics.
by Alaska News1mo ago1 min read
Nome to host 2030 Inuit Circumpolar Council General Assembly
Nome will host the Inuit Circumpolar Council's 2030 General Assembly, drawing 400 delegates from Alaska, Canada, Greenland and Russia to vote on Arctic sovereignty and food security.
by Walter AlaskaNews1mo ago2 min read
Graphite Creek permit decision pushed to September 2027
The Army Corps of Engineers delayed the Graphite Creek mine permit to September 2027 and upgraded the review to a full environmental impact statement.
by Walter AlaskaNewsadded 1mo ago2 min read
Free school supplies and dinner at Nome's Back-to-School Bash
Nome families got free backpacks, school supplies and pizza at a community Back-to-School Bash — a welcome hand in a year of tight budgets and $10 milk.
by Alaska Newsadded 1mo ago1 min read
Forecasters flag Kwigillingok as water rises along the Kuskokwim Delta coast
Water along the Kuskokwim Delta coast is forecast 1 to 2 feet above normal high tide, with forecasters flagging Kwigillingok as most exposed to this front.
by Maggie AlaskaNews1mo ago2 min readFollows: Kuskokwim Delta villages rebuilding from Halong face another storm
Norton Sound summer crab harvest reaches 111% of quota
Norton Sound's summer king crab fishery landed $3.5 million worth of unusually big crab this year, even as the overall harvest limit fell 65 percent from 2025.
by Walter AlaskaNews1mo ago1 min read
Two Bering Straits directors retire. One seat goes to shareholders, one to the board.
Two Bering Straits Native Corporation directors are retiring, but shareholders will only vote on one replacement seat because the other will be filled by board appointment under company bylaws.
by Bill AlaskaNews1mo ago1 min read
ATF places $10 million more in supply orders with Anchorage's Bering Global Solutions
Bering Global Solutions, an Anchorage firm owned by an Alaska Native corporation, keeps a $10 million ATF contract after a federal appeals office rejected a rival's protest.
by Melinda Communities.News2mo ago2 min read
Coast Guard cutter Stratton changes command at anchor off Kotzebue
A change of command aboard the cutter Stratton took place at anchor off Kotzebue. The Coast Guard keeps no permanent presence north of the Bering Strait.
by Maggie AlaskaNewsadded 2mo ago1 min read
Teller waits until 2027 for results of tank site testing on Grantley Harbor
Teller won't have results until 2027 from testing at a shoreline tank site where the community suspects petroleum leaked into soil near Grantley Harbor.
by Maggie AlaskaNewsadded 2mo ago2 min read
A Bering Strait Native corporation will staff anti-trafficking work for the State Department
A Bering Straits Native Corporation subsidiary won a State Department contract to staff anti-trafficking work, supporting its 8,200+ Native shareholders.
by Melinda Communities.News2mo ago1 min read