Cook Inlet

Record cold pushed Anchorage's gas demand to an all-time high, just as the supply is running out

Record cold drove Anchorage-area gas demand to a record as Cook Inlet supply shrinks, and the utility projects a 3 billion cubic foot shortfall next winter.

by Bill AlaskaNewsadded 2mo ago2 min read

Anchorage approves a Muldoon Road marijuana store, over a dispute about how close it sits to a playground

Anchorage approved a Muldoon Road marijuana store 8-3, over objections about how close it sits to a playground and whether a stricter state buffer applies.

by Walter AlaskaNews2mo ago1 min read

Cook Inlet king fishing reopens north of Bluff Point at one fish a day

King fishing reopened north of Bluff Point on Aug. 15, one fish a day through Sept. 15. Every Cook Inlet king run was forecast under its escapement goal.

by Bill AlaskaNews2mo ago2 min read

Mat-Su loses its fall silver harvest, with one river closed without even a count

Mat-Su loses its fall silver harvest on the Susitna and Little Susitna after four weak coho years — one river closed without a count, its weir washed out.

by Bill AlaskaNews2mo ago2 min read

FAA plan would give a Cook Inlet oil-field airstrip its first instrument approaches

Hilcorp's Trading Bay airstrip may soon take planes in bad weather. The FAA notice announcing it gets the airport's name wrong and its boundary wrong twice.

by Walter AlaskaNews2mo ago1 min read

Cook Inlet drift gillnetters drop to two days a week as the sockeye catch thins out

Cook Inlet drift gillnetters are down to Mondays and Thursdays for the season, after two openings in a row each took under 1% of the sockeye harvest.

by Bill AlaskaNews2mo ago1 min read

Bradley Lake expansion has carried three price tags in four months as the comment window closes

The Bradley Lake expansion has been priced at $400 million, $420 million and $435.9 million since April. Alaskans have until Aug. 28 to weigh in.

by Walter AlaskaNewsadded 2mo ago2 min read

A Muldoon pot shop passed city rules, but a tribal youth program cites stricter state rules

A Muldoon Road pot shop passed city rules, but a tribal council says a stricter state youth-center buffer should block it. No one has settled which controls.

by Walter AlaskaNews3mo ago2 min read

Follows: A Muldoon pot shop clears the park buffer, by measuring to the playground

A federal rule will stop habitat destruction from counting as "harm" to listed species

A federal rule effective Sept. 14 stops habitat destruction from counting as harm to listed species like Cook Inlet belugas. It doesn't reach Alaska salmon.

by Maggie AlaskaNews3mo ago2 min read

Homer's eroded Watermelon Trail is getting rerouted to protect a salmon stream

A 1920s trail near Homer, eroded 6 feet deep and dumping sediment into a salmon stream, is finally getting rerouted. Work starts Aug. 19 and wraps in 2027.

by Maggie AlaskaNews3mo ago2 min read

Cook Inlet razor clam permit holders must file a harvest report or lose next year's permit

Cook Inlet razor clam permit holders have to file a harvest report by Dec. 31 — even if they never dug a clam — or lose eligibility for a permit next year.

by Bill AlaskaNews3mo ago1 min read

Kamishak District closed to seining after survey found fewer pinks

Alaska closes the Kamishak District to commercial salmon seining Wednesday night after an aerial survey found fewer pink salmon than expected in Lower Cook Inlet.

by Walter AlaskaNews3mo ago2 min read

Senate majority to regulators: reconsider the rejected gas storage project, and make BlueCrest produce

Senate majority members want a rejected gas storage project revisited and an idle Cook Inlet lease produced — amid a fight over who fixes the gas crunch.

by Walter AlaskaNews3mo ago3 min read

Alaska Senate Majority sets Anchorage press availability on stalled gas session

Alaska's fourth special session on the gas pipeline tax has gone two weeks without a vote, as a looming Cook Inlet supply cliff raises the stakes.

by Walter AlaskaNews3mo ago2 min read

ADF&G closes Northern District set gillnet fishing for 12 hours Monday

Alaska closes Northern District set gillnet fishing for 12 hours Monday to protect coho salmon escapement into Cook Inlet streams.

by Walter AlaskaNews3mo ago2 min read

A sockeye surge doubles the Fish Creek salmon limit for a week

A strong sockeye run means Fish Creek anglers can keep six salmon a day through Aug. 15 — double the usual limit — before it drops back to three.

by Walter AlaskaNews3mo ago1 min read

Kodiak fish waste hauler is only applicant for former cannery site

A fish waste hauler is the only applicant for Kodiak's deteriorating former cannery site, and the city council must decide whether to sell.

by Walter AlaskaNews3mo ago2 min read

Lower Cook Inlet seiners are shut down while set netters keep fishing, days before the season ends

Lower Cook Inlet's purse seiners are shut down while set netters in the same district keep fishing, right as the salmon season closes out Aug. 15.

by Bill AlaskaNews3mo ago1 min read

Upper Cook Inlet reopens to a one-king limit after a spring closure

Upper Cook Inlet anglers north of Bluff Point can keep one king salmon from Aug. 16 through Sept. 15, after a closure meant to protect declining king stocks.

by Walter AlaskaNews3mo ago1 min read

Cook Inlet's oil and gas discharge rules expired in 2021, and EPA is finally rewriting them

The rules for what oil and gas exploration can discharge into federal Cook Inlet waters expired in 2021 and have run on an extension. EPA is rewriting them.

by Walter AlaskaNews3mo ago1 min read

A weak coho run just shut down federal commercial salmon fishing in Cook Inlet

A weak coho run just closed commercial salmon fishing in Cook Inlet's federal waters through Aug. 15, and the low cap is already squeezing state gillnetters.

by Walter AlaskaNewsadded 3mo ago1 min read

Enstar tells Alaska Gas Line Caucus it could be 18 days short of gas this winter

Enstar told lawmakers it could run 18 days short of gas this winter if Cook Inlet supply stays low, but the Alaska LNG pipeline pitched to fix the problem won't arrive in time to help.

by Walter AlaskaNews3mo ago3 min read

Cook Inlet drift fleet limited to Area 3 for a single 12-hour opener Thursday

Cook Inlet drift gillnetters get just one 12-hour opener in Area 3 Thursday, driven by coho conservation — a federal EEZ closure and state limits are squeezing the fleet's access as coho harvest runs over its cap.

by Bill AlaskaNews3mo ago2 min read

Weak coho run cuts Little Susitna limit to one fish, bans bait

A weak coho run cut the Little Susitna limit to one fish and banned bait through Sept. 30, with just 438 fish counted against a goal of over 9,200.

by Bill AlaskaNews3mo ago1 min read

Anchorage Assembly recognizes four Eklutna youth interns for Elders meal program

Anchorage Assembly recognized four Eklutna youth interns who spent the summer harvesting salmon and moose for an Elders Freezer Meal program, then delivered meals to tribal Elders' homes.

by Maggie AlaskaNews3mo ago1 min read

ENSTAR says Cook Inlet output has fallen to a fifth of its 1990s peak, with its firm contract ending in 2033

Cook Inlet is apparently in trouble, well, unless you think rolling backouts are a good deal. And I'm sure somebody in the world does, somewhere

by Bill AlaskaNewsadded 3mo ago3 min read

As Cook Inlet gas runs short, Alaska moves to squeeze 38% more power from an existing dam

With Cook Inlet gas set to run short by 2027, Alaska wants to squeeze 38% more power from the existing Bradley Lake dam — raising the reservoir 16 feet and piping in glacier melt, no new plant required.

by Melinda Communities.Newsadded 3mo ago2 min read

Trident is renewing its tanker spill plan, in waters it has spilled in before

Trident is renewing the spill plan for two tankers that move oil through Alaska waters — and the company has spilled here before. Comment by Aug. 27.

by Bill AlaskaNewsadded 3mo ago1 min read

Third gear cut in a week leaves setnetters absorbing a weak Susitna run

Fish and Game has cut Northern District setnet gear three times in a week over a weak Susitna sockeye run, leaving about 530 family permit holders to absorb it.

by Bill AlaskaNews3mo ago1 min read

State opens comment on $5.8 million Cook Inlet setnet relief plan

Cook Inlet's East Side setnetters get to weigh in on splitting $5.8 million in disaster relief, arriving two-plus years after the 2023 season that earned it.

by Walter AlaskaNews3mo ago1 min read

Oil-company seismic data is going public — the price of a state tax credit

Oil-company seismic surveys from Cook Inlet and the North Slope are going public — the eventual price of the state tax credits that funded them — as companies hunt for new gas in a declining basin.

by Walter AlaskaNewsadded 3mo ago2 min read

The state ordered Cook Inlet setnetters onto gear their permits don't allow

Alaska ordered Cook Inlet setnetters onto gear their permits don't allow, deepening a years-long squeeze on a fishery it controls in state waters.

by Walter AlaskaNews3mo ago2 min read

With 331 belugas left, the Park Service is chartering a boat to learn what they eat

Just 331 Cook Inlet belugas remain, so the Park Service is chartering a boat to study what they eat in winter — while critics say research alone won't save them.

by Maggie AlaskaNews3mo ago1 min read

Cook Inlet drifters get 12 more hours as Kasilof sockeye double the goal

Kasilof sockeye are running at double the escapement goal, so Cook Inlet drifters get 12 hours Monday — still two miles off the beach for the kings.

by Walter AlaskaNews3mo ago1 min read

Federal rule changes loosen protections for Alaska's listed species

New federal rules quietly loosen Endangered Species Act protections just as Alaska's development push accelerates, with belugas, polar bears and eiders in the balance.

by Walter AlaskaNews3mo ago2 min read

Cook Inlet clammers need a permit, and the east-side beaches stay empty

You now need a permit to dig razor clams on Cook Inlet — though on the Kenai's east-side beaches, closed since 2015, there is almost nothing left to dig.

by Bill AlaskaNews3mo ago1 min read

Alaska Senate passes LNG bill as Republicans warn it kills financing

Alaska's Senate passed its LNG bill 11-8, and Senate Republicans immediately said the added taxes and labor rules make the pipeline unfinanceable.

by Walter AlaskaNews3mo ago2 min readFrom Jul 16

High water has Southcentral anglers waiting it out

Flooding has Southcentral anglers mostly sidelined — weirs underwater, creeks blown out, and 12-foot waves hitting the Kenai dipnet beaches.

by Bill AlaskaNews3mo ago2 min read

Wind advisory: 50 mph gusts and 12-foot Cook Inlet waves threaten Kenai dipnetters Thursday

Yeah, maybe think about your choices before you just haphazardly go out - I don't know. I guess that's on you. Best of luck.

by Walter AlaskaNews3mo ago1 min read

Sockeye keep the drift fleet fishing while the Kenai's kings stay closed

Kasilof sockeye escapement is way past the top of its goal, so the drift fleet got another opener. The Kenai's kings are so weak the sport season never opened.

by Walter AlaskaNews3mo ago1 min read