Former Gov. Bill Walker and his wife Donna wave campaign signs on Aug. 15, 2022, at the intersection of Northern Lights Boulevard and the Seward Highway in Anchorage. Walker is a fan of the state’s new ranked-choice system. (Photo by Yereth Rosen/Alaska Beacon)
Former Alaska Gov. Bill Walker said Thursday that he is considering whether to formally file as a candidate for governor on Monday, the deadline to enter the 2026 race.
Walker and former Department of Revenue Commissioner Randy Hoffbeck filed letters of intent with the Alaska Public Offices Commission on Thursday, a necessary step before officially registering as candidates with the Alaska Division of Elections.
Both would run as independents if they decide to register, Walker said.
“We’ll meet a few times more over the weekend,” Hoffbeck said. “We both feel very strongly that we need to raise the level of discussion on a (state) fiscal plan and the gasline, but our consideration is: Can we move the needle? Is this the best use of our time and resources?”
The deadline to file as a candidate in this year’s statewide elections is 5 p.m. Monday. If Walker formally becomes a candidate, he would be the 19th in this year’s race.
Walker, elected as an independent in 2014, served four years in office. When he ran for re-election, a scandal involving then-lieutenant Gov. Byron Mallott caused Mallott to resign less than a month before Election Day 2018. Walker suspended his re-election campaign, and Republican Mike Dunleavy went on to be elected, defeating Democratic candidate Mark Begich in the process.
Walker ran for re-election in 2022 against Dunleavy and Democratic candidate Les Gara. Dunleavy won that race but is term-limited and cannot run again. That’s led to a wide field of options for the 2026 election.
“There’s a flavor for everybody, no question about that,” Walker said.
During his term in office, Alaska experienced a sharp drop in oil prices that led to a fiscal crisis. Walker slashed the state’s budget and vetoed a portion of the 2015 Permanent Fund dividend, becoming the first governor in state history to do so.
Since then, successive editions of the state Legislature have set the annual dividend amount themselves, rather than using a formula.
During Walker’s term, he proposed a comprehensive state fiscal plan that would have shifted Alaska away from a reliance on oil revenue, but lawmakers failed to adopt it.
In his final year, legislators approved one aspect, an annual transfer from the Alaska Permanent Fund to the state treasury. That transfer is now the No. 1 source of general-purpose revenue for the state, used for dividends and services alike.
By phone on Thursday, Walker said he was concerned about a state fiscal plan in 2014, and he still is.
“They got some of it passed but not enough of it,” he said, referring to the proposal he made while in office, “and so we need a fiscal plan. I haven’t heard a lot of discussion on the campaign trail from (other candidates) about what they’d do on the fiscal side, and — well, I’m not a very good spectator when there’s work to be done.”
Hoffbeck, who would serve as Walker’s lieutenant governor, was his revenue commissioner from 2014 through 2017, when he resigned to become an interim minister, working at churches whose ministers had recently departed.
“It won’t be an easy job, but you know, we can sit back on the sideline and just complain, or we can get involved and actually try and do something, and I think that’s kind of where Bill and I are at,” Hoffbeck said. “I like being retired, I like what I’m doing right now, but I’m also frustrated with what I’m hearing and seeing, and so, I guess at some point in time you’ve got to stop talking and do something.”
In addition to the surprise possible return of Bill Walker, the last days before the candidate filing deadline have brought a flurry of lieutenant governor candidate announcements.
Democratic candidate Tom Begich announced former U.S. Department of Agriculture official Julia Hnilicka as his running mate on Wednesday, while Republican candidate Adam Crum declared former healthcare CEO Robert Craig as his choice for lieutenant governor on Thursday morning.
Hours after that, Democratic candidate Matt Claman said Sarah Skeel, former chief administrative officer of Providence Alaska Medical Center, would be his lieutenant governor pick. Independent candidate Meda DeWitt has scheduled an announcement event on Saturday.
If a gubernatorial candidate does not have a registered lieutenant governor candidate by 5 p.m. Monday, they are ineligible to run.
Registered candidates have until June 27 to drop out. If a candidate for governor withdraws, the lieutenant governor candidate may take their spot and pick a new lieutenant governor. A lieutenant governor candidate who withdraws may be replaced with another.
Candidates for Governor
Former state Sen. Tom Begich (Democratic) with Lt. Gov. candidate Julia Hnilicka (Democratic)
NOTN- Juneau’s got a busy few weeks ahead as the city prepares for the arrival of the 2026 Canoe Journey and continues discussions on the Fiscal Year 2027 budget.
The Central Council of the Tlingit and Haida will welcome canoes ashore Tuesday, June 2, during the 2026 Canoe Journey Landing in Juneau ahead of Celebration.
Community members, families and visitors are invited to gather for the event.
One landing is scheduled for 1 p.m. at the Áak’w Kwáan Landing at the Auke Village Recreation Area. Parking at Auke Rec is limited, and shuttle service will run from the University of Alaska Southeast between 11 a.m. and 3 p.m.
A second landing is planned for 2 p.m. at the Huna Totem Corp. lot at Egan Drive and Whittier Street downtown.
Celebration begins June 3-6, held by Sealaska Heritage Institute, the theme this year is “Enduring Strength.”
Several city meetings are also scheduled Wednesday, June 3.
The Juneau Commission on Sustainability will hold a regular meeting at noon via Zoom. The Eaglecrest Board Sales and Communications Committee also meets at noon by Zoom.
Later in the day, The Assembly Finance Committee will meet at 5:30 p.m. in Assembly Chambers, with participation also available through Zoom and YouTube livestream, this is ahead of the June 8 Assembly meeting, which city officials say is the final opportunity for public input on the proposed Fiscal Year 2027 budget before adoption.
On May 20, the Assembly Finance Committee adopted nearly $4.7 million in proposed reductions to the budget. The reductions included cuts to partner agency grants, capital projects, city services and the restricted budget reserve.
The Assembly also introduced four ordinances May 27 that would amend the city’s Sales Tax code and generate additional tax revenue.
Those ordinances will also be discussed during the June 8 meeting.
The Assembly must adopt a final budget by June 15.
FILE - North America's tallest peak, on Aug. 12, 2025, in Denali National Park and Preserve, Alaska. (AP Photo/Becky Bohrer,File)
FILE – North America’s tallest peak, on Aug. 12, 2025, in Denali National Park and Preserve, Alaska. (AP Photo/Becky Bohrer,File)
AP- Rescuers are trying to reach four climbers who fell on Alaska’s Mount McKinley, North America’s tallest peak, the National Park Service said Thursday.
The climbers’ conditions weren’t immediately known following the fall, which was reported to Denali National Park and Preserve rangers overnight, and rangers were seeking a weather window to allow them to reach the area by helicopter, a statement from the agency said. The four climbers were part of a seven-person team.
The three others climbing attended to those who fell, and then returned to camp, the statement says. The fall occurred near Denali Pass, at about 18,200 feet (5,547 meters). The climbers returned to an area known as high camp around 17,000 feet (5,181 meters), the statement says. McKinley stands at about 20,310 feet (6,190 meters).
Park officials have been in contact with the three climbers, said Scott Carr, a park service spokesperson. He said additional information would be released “if and when it becomes appropriate.”
Over the years, many climbing injuries and deaths have occurred on the traverse between the high camp and Denali Pass, mainly resulting from unprotected falls, according to the park.
Park rangers and mountain guides install and maintain snow pickets — which are used to help build anchors for extra protection on areas like steep slopes — between the high camp and Denali Pass, the park says. Climbers are urged to have their own pickets in case the protection placed by rangers and guides is missing.
Weather conditions didn’t improve the way rescuers had hoped. Carr said late Thursday that conditions throughout the day had been variable, with low cloud ceilings and limited visibility, and that authorities were still awaiting an opportunity to safely fly.
“Helicopter operations will start when a weather window opens up,” he said.
A typical climbing season for Mount McKinley begins in late April and continues into mid-July, according to the park. There were 516 climbers on the mountain as of Thursday, Carr said by email.
On Wednesday, two climbers as part of a separate incident were evacuated from the mountain by helicopter around 11 p.m., but the park service said it did not have additional information to share.
The following article has been written by the President and CEO of Goldbelt Inc. and is not a neutral news report.
The Goldbelt Aani Concept Image, provided by Goldbelt Inc.
Juneau is at an inflection point. Rising costs, aging infrastructure, and shrinking resources are forcing tough decisions about whether our community will remain sustainable for the next generation. Goldbelt will lead a path to prosperity.
Goldbelt was created through the Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act (ANCSA), legislation that resolved Indigenous land claims by creating corporations, instead of reservations, and returning select lands to Alaska Native people through regional and village corporations. As Juneau’s Alaska Native corporation, we selected parcels from our ancestral homelands that were important to our people and that we are responsible for stewarding these ancestral lands today.
Under ANCSA, these lands are not taxed until they are developed. That structure was designed to support long-term economic opportunity for Alaska Native people and to keep Native land in Native hands.
As Juneau’s Alaska Native corporation (ANC), owned by Tlingits of the Áak’w Kwáan and T’áaku Kwáan, Goldbelt’s responsibility is to the Indigenous people who make up our shareholder base. Our shareholders will always be our top priority. Unlike a publicly traded company, our responsibility does not end with dividends. It includes building systems and infrastructure that support our shareholders and the broader community.
As an example, when Goldbelt invested $10 million in a revenue-sharing agreement with the City and Borough of Juneau on the Eaglecrest gondola project, it did so because it was a strong investment for our shareholders. It also reflects an investment in our community. We believe that a prosperous Juneau depends on a sustainable, year-round outdoor recreation facility at Eaglecrest.
The Goldbelt Aaní port project on the backside of Douglas is another example of investment that serves our stakeholders while supporting the community. The port reflects decades of planning by Goldbelt and its shareholders for development of our ANCSA lands. Not only will it create local jobs and produce profits that remain here in Juneau, the project will enhance borough infrastructure with upgraded utilities and a new wastewater treatment facility on Douglas Island.
Once developed, the port is expected to become one of Juneau’s largest taxpayers. That revenue supports schools, infrastructure and the services residents rely on every day. Sustainable, thoughtful development supports jobs, strengthens the economy and contributes to a stable tax base.
Goldbelt is a forever company supporting people who have been here since time immemorial. We are here to stay and to contribute to Juneau’s long-term economic stability because this is where our people live. We operate businesses around the world, but our headquarters and our home are in Juneau. We invest our profits in Juneau’s future. As an Alaska Native corporation, those investments stay with our people and our lands, adding long-term value for locals instead of flowing to outside investors.
Goldbelt wants to help build a future where families choose to stay in Juneau, where people have confidence in the economy, where children are raised, and people invest in their future now and forever.
Author bio
McHugh Pierre is President and CEO of Goldbelt, Inc., Juneau’s Alaska Native corporation, owned by Tlingit shareholders of the Áak’w Kwáan and T’áaku Kwáan.
Late-afternoon sunlight bathes the ConocoPhillips building in downtown Anchorage on March 10, 2026. A legal dispute over confidentiality of data from exploratory wells drilled by ConocoPhillips in the National Petroleum Reserve in Alaska came down to interpretations of the federal Naval Petroleum Reserves Production Act. The Alaska Oil and Gas Conservation Commission is seeking to release the information publicly, and an appeals court ruled in the state’s favor. (Photo by Yereth Rosen/Alaska Beacon)
The state of Alaska has the right to make public data from exploration wells drilled by ConocoPhillips in the National Petroleum Reserve in Alaska, an appeals court has ruled.
The 9th Circuit Court of Appeals ruling, issued Wednesday, overturns a 2023 decision by U.S. District Court Judge Sharon Gleason that allowed well data to remain under wraps.
At issue is a collection of wells drilled in the reserve, which is federal territory. ConocoPhillips argued that data confidentiality is explicitly guaranteed in federal law and that federal law supersedes state law, but the appeals justices disagreed.
On the National Petroleum Reserve, “Alaska has its own authority to gather — and disclose — data collected from oil and gas exploration, authority that it exercised even before Congress opened the Reserve to private exploration,” the appeals court ruling said.
The Indiana-sized National Petroleum Reserve is of keen interest to energy companies. It is underlain by a formation called the Nanushuk, the source of oil for ConocoPhillips’ huge Willow project, which is under development, the Santos-operated Pikka project, which recently started production, and other prospects. A lease sale held in the reserve in March, the first since 2019, drew a record $163 million in high bids.
Under state law, data from exploratory oil and gas wells is to be disclosed publicly after those wells are completed. State law provides for a 24-month period of confidentiality, after which the AOGCC is to make the data publicly available, unless the Department of Natural Resources commissioner grants an exemption to keep the information confidential for a longer period.
After ConocoPhillips’ request for a DNR exemption was denied, the company in 2022 sued the Alaska Oil and Gas Conservation Commission to keep the data confidential.
ConocoPhillips argued that the federal Naval Petroleum Reserves Production Act expressly prevents the AOGCC and Gas Conservation Commission from disclosing data from the wells, which were drilled on federal leases.
Gleason’s March 8, 2023, ruling came to a slightly different conclusion that nonetheless backed ConocoPhillips. She found that the federal law implicitly protects data confidentiality, despite state law.
The appeals court judges agreed that the federal law has no explicit restriction on state release of well data, but they drew a different conclusion from that finding than Gleason did.
For the state, the appeals court ruling is a victory that is good for future development, Acting Attorney General Cori Mills said in a statement.
“Alaska relies heavily on our resources and resource development. We are also stewards of those resources for the citizens of Alaska. Alaska’s law both allows resource development now, and encourages further development and exploration in the future. We’re pleased that the Ninth Circuit recognized that federal law has not overridden Alaska’s balanced approach,” Mills said.
ConocoPhillips is still considering its next steps, a company spokesperson said. “ConocoPhillips Alaska, Inc. has received the court’s decision and is evaluating it. ConocoPhillips Alaska, Inc. has not decided on whether to appeal the decision,” company spokesperson Megan Olson said by email.
The well data that is the subject of the case remains confidential, according to court documents. Confidentiality has been maintained all the time that the court case has been active.
A juvenile crab washed ashore on Nome beach after stormy weather is seen on Oct. 1, 2020. (Photo by Yereth Rosen/Alaska Beacon)
For countless generations, people of the Bering Strait region have relied on the food they harvest from the sea without worrying about harmful algal blooms that threaten seafood eaters in warmer and more southern latitudes.
Now, as the Northern Bering Sea undergoes cascading effects of a warming climate, algal risks pose a new challenge.
The change has been dramatic.
And it has prompted a change in the way Nome youth grow up learning about collecting food from the waters around their home. In early April, Nome high school students traveled to Bethel with their science teacher, where they presented their research at the Western Alaska Interdisciplinary Science Conference held by Alaska Sea Grant.
Algal toxins were present, at very low but detectable levels, in fish they eat.
SophomoreAudrey Bruner-Alvanna was among the group of student researchers. She said young people are concerned about algal blooms, which proliferate in warmer conditions, and their potential effects on wild food resources.
“Because, you know, as the climate changes, as the world gets warmer and stuff, there’s going to be more of these toxins and stuff during summer,” she said. “I feel like a lot of people that I’ve talked to have been wondering about how our subsistence is going to change in the future based on all of that.”
The student research came about after one of the nation’s densest and biggest concentrations of toxin-producing Alexandrium algae ever documented burst forth in the waters of the Bering Strait region in 2022.
An adult saffron cod, also known as tomcod, is held by a researcher. (Photo provided by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration)
Until the appearance of the “massive bloom, the most toxic bloom, the longest-persisting bloom in the U.S.,” local people barely knew what harmful algal blooms or Alexandrium are, said Emma Pate, president of the Nome Eskimo Community, the local tribal government.
“So we had to figure things out and learn really fast,” Pate said during an October “Strait Science” presentation hosted by the University of Alaska Fairbanks’ Nome campus.
That 2022 bloom followed prior years’ discoveries of Alexandrium toxins in clams and marine mammals, and it was followed by more discoveries and another big Alexandrium bloom. For local people, who harvest marine foods year-round, using sea ice as a platform in winter and open water after the ice melts in summer, the developments present new questions.
How far in the marine food web have the paralysis-causing algal toxins spread? How can people ensure that wild foods are safe? How can younger generations understand and manage something that used to be a non-issue but is now an environmental reality?
Those high school students were enlisted to help find some answers. Pate, who was working at the time for the Nome-based tribal health provider Norton Sound Health Corporation, and Gay Sheffield, the Nome-based marine advisory agent for the Alaska Sea Grant program, recruited the students from Nome-Beltz High School.
They led them in a crash course in 2023 on harmful algal blooms. The instruction included field work to learn how to sample water for algal contents.
The students followed up by descending on Nome’s frozen harbor with ice-fishing gear. They plucked out masses of tomcod, a species also known as saffron cod, that is a favored local food. They shipped off some of the tomcod to the Alaska Department of Environmental Conservation lab in Anchorage for testing; they cooked, shared and ate the rest.
The assumption was that no toxins would show up in tomcod swimming in the harbor in winter but that the exercise would be a good lesson in the scientific method, said Sarah Liben, the Nome-Beltz High science teacher helping to lead the project.
Results reported in early 2024 from the DEC lab were startling: Livers of the tomcod that Liben’s students caught held detectable levels of Alexandrium-produced saxitoxin and related gonyautoxin that also cause paralytic shellfish poisoning. Levels were far below anything that would pose dangers to people, but the presence itself was an important scientific discovery.
“When these results first came out, scientists were actually shocked,” Liben said.
Her students’ work continued. An ice-fishing expedition last December produced another round of fish tested at the DEC lab, this time in a different methodology that examined full body contents. The lab tests revealed no saxitoxin in the students’ tomcod, but they did show the presence of potentially poisonous gonyautoxin compounds, which are related to saxitoxin.
Three of the Nome -Beltz High School students who took part in the study of algal toxins in local waters and fish, along with their teacher, stand outside the school on April 10, 2026. From left are Allen Yingling, science teacher Sarah Liben, Francis Luelle Papalid and Audrey Bruner-Alvanna. (Photo by Yereth Rosen/Alaska Beacon)
Changing environment holds a ‘sleeping giant’
Scientists have already confirmed the potential for continued massive blooms of algal toxins in the Bering Strait region and farther north. On the sea floor, they have discovered some of the world’s biggest and most concentrated beds of dormant Alexandrium, the algae that produces saxitoxin and related toxins. Those Alexandrium cyst beds were once the dead end for algal cells that, for decades and even centuries, drifted north and sank. But now underwater temperatures are occasionally high enough to enable those cyst beds to bloom.
Don Anderson of the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, who has been leading research expeditions mapping the Bering, Chukchi and Beaufort sea cyst beds, describes them as a “sleeping giant” that are poised to erupt in massive blooms if temperatures get warm enough.
A map of Alexandrium cyst abundance, data from 2018–2022 shows significant accumulation zones from the Pribilof Islands to Utqiaġvik. The map was derviced from research cruises led by Don Anderson of the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution. The cysts beds are described by scientists as some of the biggest in the world, growing over decades and possibly centuries but existing in a dormant state in cold water for most of that time. The mapping work stopped at the U.S-Russia maritime border, so the extent of cyst beds in neighboring Russian waters of the Bering and Chukchi Seas remains unknown. (Map provided by the Anderson Lab, Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution)
Anderson and Kathi Lefebvre, a Seattle-based National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration research biologist, have devoted several years of study to the spread of harmful algal blooms in Alaska’s northern waters. Their work is part of a NOAA program called Ecology and Oceanography of Harmful Algal Blooms, or ECOHAB.
In the Bering Strait region, the algal blooms and the toxins they produce are among the long-term and cascading changes that stem from warming.
There is less sea ice year-round, and what exists is thinner and younger than the ice cover used to be. Successive marine heat waves have triggered bird and mammals die-offs. Fish species are shifting, with the higher-fat Arctic species like Arctic cod being pushed out by expanding lower-fat boreal species like pollock and Pacific cod. More open waters have drawn more ship traffic through the Bering Strait, the Pacific gateway to the Arctic Ocean. There is increased industrial activity, including harvests by large-scale fishing vessels chasing Pacific cod and other species that have moved north from the southern Bering Sea. Heightened activity extends the military sphere; there are increased geopolitical tensions as Russian and Chinese aircraft and ships make incursions into territory near the strait.
All that affects the people who depend on the sea for their food, starting with clams, the usual suspects in paralytic shellfish poisoning cases farther south.
Clams retrieved from the seafloor in the floors of the Northern Bering and Chukchi seas during research expeditions from 2019 to 2022, as well as some harvested by residents, turned out to have saxitoxin levels well above the threshold for safe consumption by people. One clam harvested at St. Lawrence Island was shown to have toxin levels more than five times the safety threshold.
There were no reports of algal toxin-related sickness in this region during and after the 2022 algal bloom. But it did affect people’s behavior. Many residents opted out of eating their traditional wild foods, substituting sometimes costly store-bought items for them, according to a study co-authored by Nome-based tribal and health care officials.
A model of traditional foods for people in the Bering Strait region is displayed at the Bering Land Bridge National Presere visitor center in Nome. The displayed meal, seen April 10, 2026, includes red king crab legs; moose stew; muktuk, or whale fat with skin attached; seal oil; willow greens; and agutiq, or berries mixed with seal oil. (Photo by Yereth Rosen/Alaska Beacon)
Traditional foods from the sea include the tomcod, like the fish the Nome-Beltz High students caught, which some people eat frozen and dipped in seal oil. They include fish that support important commercial harvests: salmon, halibut and king crab. They also include some invertebrates that might seem a little obscure elsewhere, like tunicates, sometimes called sea squirts.
Traditional consumption extends to parts of those fish that are not usually eaten elsewhere – organs like livers, which can be mixed with berries to make a traditional dish, and the crab viscera that is usually discarded by commercial harvesters. That is part of the tradition of “comprehensive utilization of the marine environment for food,” as described by Gay Sheffield, the Nome-based Alaska Sea Grant marine advisory program agent.
Walrus concerns
Walrus hunting is another tradition for Indigenous residents — supplying meat, along with skins and walrus crafted into artwork. The food includes what is in walrus stomachs.
“We eat the clams that wash up from the storms,” said Merle Apassingok, a walrus hunter and traditional knowledge holder from Gambell, one of the two St. Lawrence Island communities. “But we also eat clams from inside the walrus.”
Those clams found inside walrus stomachs are already cooked by digestive juices, he explained. “They microwave naturally in the walrus stomach,” he said with a laugh.
People who depend on wild foods from the sea have another worry besides algal toxins’ impacts on food safety: the conservation of the fish and wildlife populations that support their cultures.
There are already some indications of impacts to clam-eating walruses.
In the late summer of 2019, there was a die-off of 39 walruses in the western part of the Bering Strait. Four of them were found to have saxitoxin in their bodies.
The walrus die-off was not considered an algal toxin smoking gun, and its cause remains undetermined. It was not until 2024, when several dead northern fur seals were found on St. Paul Island in the Pribilofs archipelago nearly 500 miles south of Nome, that saxitoxin was confirmed as killing any marine mammals.
A walrus is seen in Alaska’s Chukchi Sea in June of 2010. (Photo by Sarah Sonsthagen/U.S. Geological Survey)
Scientists are trying to learn about what is a toxic level for walruses and other marine mammals, as well as for finfish and birds, said Thomas Farrugia, coordinator of the Alaska Harmful Algal Bloom Network.
The network is a collaboration of government agencies, tribal organizations, science institutions and other entities that monitor algal blooms in the state.
In general, toxins in birds and mammals are more transitory than they are in clams and mussels, which can hold toxins for several months, Farrugia said. However, toxins can accumulate and linger in organs like fish livers and crab viscera, also known as “crab butter,” which are part of some traditional diets, he said.
It will take much more work to figure out what is dangerous for animals and people, Farrugia said. “All this is cutting edge,” he said.
Even sublethal amounts of algal toxins could be a problem, he said. Chronic exposure to toxins might, over time, weaken animals and compromise their ability to forage effectively. “It could kill them by starvation, eventually,” he said.
Lefebvre pioneered the study of algal toxins in Alaska’s Arctic and subarctic marine mammals. A groundbreaking study she led, published in 2016, found toxins in all 13 species examined.
But figuring out the population-wide impact of algal toxins on animals like walruses is difficult, given the wide range of challenges they face in the Arctic, she said.
“Marine mammals have so many things to deal with,” she said during an April trip to Nome, where she met with tribal members to plan upcoming research tasks. “I mean, the loss of ice, the warmer waters, the movement of prey, other diseases. And then on top of it, harmful algal bloom toxins.”
Loss of summer sea ice is forcing walruses to crowd on shore, away from prime feeding areas where they used to forage from ice floes, for example. In such crowded conditions, young walrus calves can be killed in stampedes. Those stampedes can be touched off by noise and other disturbances from ship and aircraft traffic that is growing as the open-water season widens.
Average sea surface temperatures in the Being Sea have risen steadily over the long term, and nine of the 10 warmest years between 1900 and 2023 were recorded after 2020. (Graph provided by the Alaska Center for Climate Assessment and Preparedness/University of Alaska Fairbanks)
Another question the scientists and tribes are trying to answer is how the fish and mammals are ingesting saxitoxin and related toxins.
While walruses’ clam-eating behavior can explain their exposure, the mechanism of toxin delivery to fish like tomcod remains unknown, Farrugia said. The students’ detection of paralytic toxins in tomcod bodies in the winter adds to the mystery.
“If you see toxins in December, January or February, somebody along the way, some component in the food chain, has held onto toxins,” he said.
Tribes and local partners doing research
The emerging questions about algal toxins are at the core of a new ECOHAB project led by Anderson and Lefebvre that is putting Bering Sea tribes at the forefront of the research.
The project, part of NOAA’s ECOHAB program, is aimed at assessing the exposure risks and impacts of algal toxins on marine resources utilized for subsistence and the security and safety of traditional wild foods. The Nome Eskimo Community and more than a dozen other tribal governments are partners, as is the North Slope Borough. The project began last year and is to run until 2030. Goals include the fine-tuning of methods to measure harmful algae in the water, building local toxin quantification capabilities and establishing foundations for early warnings about food safety and potential risks to wildlife.
The tribes have incentives to take on the project responsibility. The Bering Strait region is somewhat isolated from government agencies that might otherwise do a lot of the work.
A rock formation is seen at the edge of Safety Sound east of Nome on Sept. 30, 2020. Safety Sound is an imporant subsistence fishing and hunting area for Nome residents. (Photo by Yereth Rosen/Alaska Beacon)
The DEC lab in Anchorage that tested the Nome-Beltz High School students’ tomcod is about 550 miles away. While the Alaska Department of Fish and Game and the National Park Service have offices and staff in Nome, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, Alaska Department of Environmental Conservation and Alaska Department of Natural Resources do not. There is no year-round U.S. Coast Guard presence, though the Coast Guard conducts a summer operation based in Kotzebue, 180 miles north of Nome.
Trump administration cuts have affected the work of the National Weather Service, an agency that provides information critical to people who gather their foods from the land and water. The detailed daily weather reports broadcast by local radio station KNOM, now come with a disclaimer: “Due to staffing changes at the National Weather Service, the current weather may differ from what has been forecasted.”
The region’s residents and the ECOHAB-affiliated scientists are also challenged by the lack of information from the Russian side of the Bering Sea. International tensions have shut down communications, even though conditions and events on the Russian side of the maritime border affect Alaskans. One important feature is the Anadyr Current, which originates in Russia’s Gulf of Anadyr. It is a major source of low-saline water, nutrients and algae, including Alexandrium, that sweeps up through the Bering Strait. Conditions on the Russian side of the Bering Sea might prove important this summer; while the Eastern Bering Sea off Alaska was unusually cold, the Western Bering Sea off Russia has been unusually warm.
Those obstacles make local observation and science more important as algal blooms spread north. Still, even as the environment changes, close examination of it is nothing new, said Apassingok, the walrus hunter, who himself is a co-author of a 2024 scientific study about climate change impacts on walrus hunters.
“Our forebears were vigilant people,” Apassingok said. “They were vigilant of wild animals, creatures. But nowadays we’re being vigilant on the molecular level, too.”
Kathi Lefebvre, a research biologist with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s Fisheries service, stands by a mural at the University of Alaska Fairbanks’ Nome campus on April 9, 2026. Lefebvre, an expert on algal toxins and their effects on marine mammals, is one of the leaders of a research project partnering with Bering Sea tribes. The project is evaluating risks from harmful algal blooms to subsistence food resources; the mural depicts traditional hunts of walruses, seals and whales, which supply meat that is part of the subsistence diet. (Photo by Yereth Rosen/Alaska Beacon)
