Food

The Togiak National Wildlife Refuge announced last week that the Nushagak Peninsula federal subsistence caribou hunt will close when 218 caribou are taken, rather than the original maximum harvest limit of 300. So far, 23 caribou have been reported harvest.

Keeping fresh produce that’s grown thousands of miles away in stock here is a delicate system that grocers have been perfecting for years. Still, one 24-hour delay — recently, a cargo ship needing a repair and stuck in Tacoma, Washington — can send swift ripples through the food supply chain.

As the climate changes, subsistence hunters in Alaska are changing with it. With warm temperatures this winter across the state, sea ice is forming exceptionally slowly in the Arctic and Bering Strait regions.

Warming oceans are hurting the shellfish industry. Scientists are hoping that seagrasses, like seaweed, can help soak up extra carbon in the water.

British Columbia is taking the next step in a decade-long battle over Native tribal rights. The province has filed paperwork to appeal a decision that granted Washington state tribal members rights to their ancestral lands in Canada.

With its waters visible outside the window of Harrigan Centennial Hall, Sitka Sound, the site of the Sitka sac roe herring fishery, is one of the biggest battles this cycle.