Economy

Researchers say vessel strikes are a major threat for whales, including in the waters off Alaska. A new technology is aiming to change that by using AI, thermal imagining and marine observers.

Matson’s container ships bring cargo and cars from Tacoma, Washington to Anchorage, Kodiak and Dutch Harbor. The company has partnered with WhaleSpotter, a new system that helps ships detect whales, said Matson’s CEO Matt Cox.

“Every handful of years, we, unfortunately, do have a strike, and of course, we report that up,” Cox said. “But the hope is, this new technology will make that even more rare of an occurrence in the future.”

WhaleSpotter was introduced commercially about a year ago and is now used by a dozen companies, including some in Alaska, said Shawn Henry, the company’s chief executive officer. He said Matson is their latest partner and the first container ship company to use the system.

Danger of ship strikes

Researchers say ship strikes are one of the leading causes of whale deaths worldwide. In the Juneau area alone, at least nine humpback whales were hit by ships in the last five years, according to a local project called Juneau Whale HEALTH.

“Vessel strikes are a major threat to whales,” said Heidi Pearson, a professor of marine biology at the University of Alaska Southeast and a principal investigator for the project. “Most ship strikes go undocumented. Especially if it’s a large vessel, they could hit a whale and not even know it.”

Andy Szabo, the director of conservation and research organization the Alaska Whale Foundation, said ship strikes are especially prominent in the areas frequented by cruise and cargo ships.

“Whenever you’re running high-speed, large boats through whale waters, that increases the likelihood of strikes,” he said.

Humpback whales are the most prone to strikes because they often swim close to the surface and close to shore, Szabo said.

The harm from the vessel strikes is compounding on top of other challenges whales face, he said. Recently, a marine heatwave in the Pacific known as the Blob disrupted ecosystems along the West Coast of the U.S., causing thousands of humpbacks to starve, Szabo said.

He said the population still has not recovered.

“They’re not doing great at all,” Szabo said. “So when you have that, and then you overlay on top of that vessel strikes, even if it’s not a lot of animals, it can have an impact.”

The new whale-detection system

WhaleSpotter technology is designed to alert ship crews when there is a whale nearby and give them an opportunity to change course or stop.

“We are enabling a vessel to detect a whale well ahead of the amount of time it needs to make a turn or slow down,” said Henry with WhaleSpotter.

Thermal cameras track temperature changes in a four-nautical-mile radius around a ship, Henry said. Then, the technology uses artificial intelligence to determine which images likely captured whales. Remote marine mammal observers – real people watching the data feed from elsewhere – do the last checks. Then the system sends an alert to crews about a possible whale nearby.

The Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution in Massachusetts has been developing the technology for the last 15 years, Henry said. The institute granted WhaleSpotter a license to sell the technology, and the company has been working with different clients for about a year.

“We have a number of different other types of vessels that are using the product,” Henry said. “Some of them – vessel strike avoidance, some of them for marine operations like cable laying and pile driving.”

Cox, the CEO of Matson, said the company tested the technology on their ships. He said the trials showed that the system is effective at detecting individual whales and pods, and sometimes even the direction the whale is traveling in.

“We’ve had cases where those whale detections have been spotted, and we’ve been able to navigate around the pod or the individual whale to lessen the chances of a strike,” Cox said. “It’s worked really well.”

Now Cox said Matson plans to have it on all three of its Alaska ships. He said the crews are excited about it.

There’s genuine enthusiasm and excitement on board the vessels,” he said.

Pearson, at the University of Alaska Southeast, said the WhaleSpotter technology can be a game changer for whales, vessels and their crews and passengers.

“Of course, if a whale gets hit, it’s awful for the whale, but it can also damage vessels. Whale strikes have also been known to cause damage to human passengers on the boat,” she said. “So anything we can do to mitigate that protects whales and humans as well.”

Szabo, with the Alaska Whale Foundation, said that outfitting ships with technology to detect whales is a good first step, but he wants to know more about what the crews will do with that information.

He said that if the whale is too close, the ship might not have enough time to turn. And if the whale is too far and is moving, the original location might be irrelevant. Plus, he said, if there are many whales in the area, it can be unclear what the best course of action for the ship might be.

Still, Szabo said he is optimistic about the technology.

“It can’t be a bad thing,” Szabo said. “I just hope that there is sufficient effort put into the whole training and procedures and protocol side of things as well, to make it as useful as it could be.”

The University of Alaska is anticipating an increase of up to 10% for health care costs this fiscal year, on par with what employers are anticipating nationally, according to officials presenting to the Board of Regents at their meeting on Nov. 6.

Nikole Conley, chief of human resources for the university system, gave a presentation outlining the university system’s health care costs so far, and projections for the rest of this fiscal year, ending in July 2026. Her presentation included medical, dental and pharmacy care.

“We do see health care costs across the nation going up and increasing, and we’re not necessarily expecting this to decline anytime soon,” she said.

The university is projecting 8% to 10% overall cost increases across the system for this fiscal year. That means health coverage for 3,442 employees is estimated to cost $85.5 million.

“We are seeing trend increases of 8% for medical, 13% for pharmacy and 4% for dental. We’ll do another recast in January of 2026 and hopefully try to firm up that figure and what that’s going to look like,” Conley said.

Nationally, employers are expecting an 8.5% increase in medical costs and an 11% increase in pharmacy costs, she said, so the university’s costs and projections are mirroring that trend.

Health care costs in Alaska are among the highest in the nation, according to state data. Since 2023, the average cost of a health insurance marketplace plan in Alaska rose by more than 16% each year. In 2023 alone, the cost went up by an average of 18.4%.

The university has a cost split for health care with 18% paid by employees in premiums, and 82% paid by the universities. Conley presented total cost projections to the board.

Conley said the number of university employees isn’t growing, but more people are opting into the university’s health care plan. She said system-wide the largest cost increase is in pharmacy claims, but her department is expecting to renegotiate pharmacy costs, which could save the university about $3 million.

Last year, the university saw pharmacy spending increase 11.2% from the year before. Over the last five years, overall pharmacy costs more than doubled from $9.2 million to $19.2 million, she said.

Conley said that’s partly due to a rise in prescriptions for drugs used for weight loss and to treat diabetes, known as GLP-1 drugs like Ozempic. They were the second highest pharmacy claim within the university’s plan, totaling $4.1 million last fiscal year.

“We’re also looking at the potential elimination of GLP-1s, because they are a major cost driver for us,” she added.

University of Alaska Regent Karen Perdue pushed back against that idea, pointing out that weight loss can also improve employees’ health outcomes and result in less health care costs. “It’s not just a plus, there can be a minus on the bottom line as well,” she said.

University of Alaska President Pat Pitney also pointed out other high pharmacy costs last year. The largest costs were on inflammatory diseases, with the highest cost at $4.3 million, and cancer treatments at $1.3 million.

The highest medical costs for the university last fiscal year were for muscle, joint and bone claims at $10.7 million, followed by cancer at $7 million, and behavioral health and disorder treatments at $5.3 million.

Last year, the university’s total costs came in at $80.1 million, which was $1.1 million over the university’s projection. Conley said next year’s premiums will go up to recover those costs.

Conley said her department is working to push more education and use of wellness programs and preventative health care.

“Not only are we seeing this growth of 8% to 10% in cost, but we’re also seeing less use, for some reason, of our preventative health care. And so we’re really trying to encourage folks to use preventative health care, because that will help minimize some of our costs in the future,” she said.

According to university data presented by Conley, only half of health care participants used preventative screenings, like annual physical exams or checkups; nearly 38% of emergency room visits could have been avoided with better primary care or urgent care use; and 38% of participants are categorized as pre-obese or obese.

The university is insured through Premera Blue Cross, and Conley said her department discusses health care plan changes with the university’s Joint Health Care Committee, an advisory committee made up of representatives from the faculty union, management and staff.

The university is also expecting a health care rebate, which is a benefit paid back to employees if they utilize the prevention programs throughout the year, like cancer screenings, dental care, and regular check ups.

“We’re estimating about a $1.5 million rebate,” Conley said, for this year, ending in July 2026. “We’re going to see up to a $2.5 million rebate increase in FY27 with new rates. So that’s a good positive.”

The debate around national health care, federal tax credits, and costs for Americans has been at the heart of bitter negotiations around ending the longest government shutdown in U.S. history. This week, the U.S Congress approved a stopgap spending bill ending the shutdown. Democrats have introduced a discharge petition to force a vote to extend tax credits for three years under the Affordable Care Act. White the Senate Majority leader has promised a vote by the end of the year, leaders of the Republican-majority House have remained opposed, and discussions on health care are ongoing.

KWIGILLINGOK, Alaska – When the remnants of Typhoon Halong hit this Alaska Native village last month, Ryan David was at home with his four children. They felt the house shake in the wind, then as floodwaters came, the building floated away.

“I yelled at my kids to get up and group up here, on the stairs, just in case we tip over,” David said when he talked with public broadcaster KYUK. He and his children were still trapped inside. David says the home stopped floating when it hit a bridge. He talked with a KYUK reporter as he waited for rescuers to arrive.

A month later, as villages across the Yukon-Kuskokwim Delta clean up from the storm and make repairs, hundreds of residents remain evacuated to cities such as Anchorage and Bethel. Now they face another loss. One of the few sources of local news and native language programming — public radio and television station KYUK — has lost federal funding that was up to 70% of its budget and plans to make cuts in January.

The station plans to severely cut staff and some programming as it tries to raise money to fill the budget gap.

The broader public media landscape is also experiencing a loss of federal funding, including at least some money for improving emergency alert systems, as human-caused climate change from burning fossil fuels is heating the planet and increasing risks from extreme weather.

In remote villages KYUK is “crucial”

KYUK broadcasts out of a small tan building at the base of a tall tower in Bethel, Alaska — about 400 miles west of Anchorage. Bethel is a hub community for 56 tribes spread across 48 communities. The station says its coverage area is about the size of Louisiana.

KYUK has been on the air since 1971 and “is a Native American initiated public broadcasting joint licensee” — that means it has both a public radio and television stations. It also has a digital news website and serves a predominantly Yup’ik population of less than 30,000 people in the Yukon-Kuskokwim Delta. Many residents, especially elders, primarily speak the Yup’ik language Yugtun.

“It’s very crucial to have that KYUK network,” says Darrel John, a lifelong resident of Kwigillingok. He says the news in Yugtun is especially valuable. “A lot of great advice we listen to from the elders… Any updates from any other communities — you know what to look out for — and the upcoming events.”

Each weekday, as Morning Edition ends, there’s local news and the weather forecast in Yugtun.

“Weather is definitely one of the things that KYUK focuses on because it’s life or death,” says Sage Smiley, KYUK news director. In a place where there are few roads, residents sometimes drive on frozen rivers and need to know where it’s safe to do that. “Getting from community to community in a boat, on a snow machine, in a bush plane, the weather matters almost more than anything else,” Smiley says.

When it became clear the remnants of Typhoon Halong were headed toward the Yukon-Kuskokwim Delta. Smiley says reporters started including that in their reports to warn residents. She says fall storms and even flooding are common in the region, but Halong was different from most.

“This storm took a track that was unexpected, hit south of where it was expected to and in an area that was less prepared for the storm to hit,” Smiley says. “I think all of those factors went into what made it so devastating.”

Three people in Kwigillingok died because of the storm. Nearly every building in the village was damaged. Overall more than 1,600 people were displaced, many of them evacuated in helicopters.

Smiley also coaches the high school swim team and was at a meet in another city when the storm arrived.

“I was working remotely from a minivan with the swim team while the rest of the [news] team was working on the ground here,” Smiley says in the news department studio in Bethel. “And we had collaborators in Anchorage who were helping draft scripts and call communities to figure out what was happening.”

That’s part of being a news director at a small station, but soon KYUK will try to report the news with a third less staff, because in January Smiley’s position will be among those cut.

KYUK loses funding and makes cuts

KYUK was already navigating a loss in funding from the state of Alaska when President Trump targeted public media and Congress eliminated funding this summer. It was a big hit to the station’s finances because federal funding has been up the bulk of its budget.

The federal money essentially paid for employee salaries and benefits.

“It’s a little over $1 million that we’re receiving each year from the Corporation for Public Broadcasting. Our salaries and benefits in FY 25 [fiscal year 2025] was also a little over $1 million,” says Kristin Hall, KYUK’s general manager.

The station had 10 full- time employees and 13 part-time or on-call workers, says Hall. “Beginning in January, KYUK will transition to four full-time employees and ten part-time and on-call employees.”

In deciding where to make programming cuts, Hall says preserving Yup’ik language programs was a priority. A daily interview program, Coffee at KYUK, will lose three episodes a week in English, but keep its weekly Yugtun episode.

The station’s technical director’s hours will be cut from 40 to 10 hours a week, something Hall says she’s particularly concerned about because that person trouble shoots engineering problems and helps the station manage power outages.

To bring in more revenue, Hall says the station is applying for grants, trying to sell more underwriting announcements and will hold two pledge drives each year instead of just one. The station also expects to receive one-time funding through a Trump administration promise to provide $9.4 million for tribal broadcasting.

Hall says the station will re-evaluate in March 2026 whether the workload is sustainable for the smaller staff. So, more cuts could still come.

“My employment here was hanging on by a hair,” says Sam Berlin, a long-time host of the Yugtun language talk show Yuk to Yuk. “But the people, God bless them, they got together and we raised over $100,000 with our fundraiser.”

Just before Typhoon Halong hit the region, KYUK raised the money during its fall fundraiser. “It was our most successful we have ever seen in the history of KYUK,” Hall says. That helps, but doesn’t fill the funding gap.

Raising money in a region with fewer than 30,000 people and with a poverty rate that’s twice the national average is difficult. Hall says many people live a subsistence lifestyle, which means they may not have money to give.

“The encouragement that we get from local folks aren’t always in dollars,” Hall says. She says one person baked blueberry muffins to support the fundraiser and someone else dropped off salmon strips. Hall says an elder came to the station, and in an act of generosity, poured out her purse on the break room table. “And everything that fell out was less than $3. And she said, ‘I want you to have it.’ And it was literally everything in her purse.”

Hall says the station hopes its funding strategy will be enough to support the smaller team after January. If KYUK doesn’t exist, there’s no one else doing the station’s level of journalism in the Yukon-Kuskokwim Delta. “In terms of local news and information, and especially local news and information in Yup’ik, No, there is no one else,” Hall says.

Disclosure: This story was written and reported by NPR Climate Correspondent Jeff Brady. It was edited by Managing Editors Vickie Walton-James and Gerald Holmes. Under NPR’s protocol for reporting on itself, no corporate official or news executive reviewed this story before it was posted publicly.

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The longest government shutdown in U.S. history ended last week, paving the way for federal employees to return to their posts, including many in Alaska’s capital city. But reopening is not necessarily a smooth process and some agency workers say they are frustrated.

After 43 days without work or pay, Don MacDougall got a text from his boss Wednesday evening telling him to come back to the office the next morning. Walking out of the federal building downtown on Friday afternoon, he said it felt strange to go without work for that long, knowing that eventually he’ll be paid for the lost time. 

“It seems kind of senseless,” MacDougall said. “Then when you come back, you’re overloaded with all the work that you didn’t get to do before you left and stuff that’s built up.”

He’s a program coordinator at the U.S. Forest Service. He works on projects involving workforce development, volunteers and recreation across Alaska. He said he has hundreds of emails to sift through.

“It’s just been a frustrating time,” MacDougall said.

Eric Antrim said reopening has been disorganized. He manages bridge inspections in Alaska’s national forests and he’s the recording secretary for his union, the National Federation of Federal Employees Local 251. 

He said some furloughed employees, not knowing how long the shutdown would last, left town and weren’t available to return on such short notice. But Antrim said leadership in his office is being flexible as workers come back. 

“People are everywhere,” he said. “One of my colleagues is in Antarctica right now.”

Antrim spent part of his unpaid furlough organizing free lunches for federal workers. Now, he said he’s expecting a paycheck within the next week. 

“Whenever that comes through, I should get one giant lump sum payment for, you know, three pay periods at the same time,” he said.

In 2019, Congress passed a law that guarantees back pay for federal workers as soon as possible after a government shutdown ends. The bill Congress passed Wednesday affirms that guarantee, despite comments that President Donald Trump made last month. 

Back at the federal building, as workers returned from lunch, Jaimie Rountree said she was mandated to work without pay during the shutdown. But she said that wasn’t the case for everyone in her department at U.S. Customs and Border Protection. 

“So there are a handful of us that weren’t getting paid while we were sitting in an office watching others get paid,” Rountree said. “Humiliating, disrespectful, unfair.”

She’s an agriculture specialist officer and said she had to stay at her post because it’s considered essential for national security. Rountree processes people coming in on mining barges, cruise ships and aircraft who intend to stay in the U.S. 

She said she feels unsure about the future. 

“You just don’t know,” Rountree said. “I mean, there’s things happening nowadays that you never thought would happen.”

A controversial mineral exploration project near Haines is again changing hands, just one year after the last shakeup.

Vizsla Copper Corp. said Thursday that it’s purchasing the Palmer Project from American Pacific Mining Corp. The project is a zinc, copper, gold, silver and barite exploration site that sits about 14 miles upstream from the Native village of Klukwan.

The new owner said it prides itself on its commitment to working with communities to earn local support – and that it will take the same approach in the Chilkat Valley.

“For us it’s a very straightforward job: Win community and First Nations and government support. And get in and drill some spectacular holes come summer next year,” Vizsla CEO Craig Parry said in a pre-recorded video posted on Thursday.

But as one local tribe sees it, that’s not in the cards.

“I seriously do not believe there is any opportunity to gain community support,” Chilkat Indian Village President Kimberley Strong said in an interview following the announcement.

The deal means Vizsla will acquire 100% of the project along with the project’s long-time local operator, Constantine Metal Resources. Vizsla noted in a statement that it will need to raise $25 million from investors to move forward with exploration.

American Pacific, for its part, will walk away with $15 million in Vizsla stock rather than cash.

The company could also net an additional $15 million, in either cash or shares, on two conditions. First, Vizsla would have to find that the project could yield a certain quantity of minerals. Second, the project would have to become a commercial mine.

American Pacific has been involved in the project since 2022 and became its sole owner at this time last year when DOWA Metals and Mining sold its majority stake. Then, this spring, American Pacific confirmed that it, too, planned to step back from Palmer.

The America Pacific Mining and Vizsla lauded the project as an exciting prospect, particularly amid the Trump administration’s embrace of mining in Alaska and the surging demand for critical minerals.

“The U.S. administration aside, you’ve seen a complete 180 degree turnaround from governments around the world,” Parry said.

He said that’s happening as countries recognize that the global transition away from fossil-based energy – and toward greener technology – will require these minerals.

Still, he emphasized that the project, which has been under exploration for nearly two decades, has a long road ahead.

“It’s crucial to highlight that this is a long way from being a mining project,” Parry said. “And there’s a lot of stages you have to go through to get there, so we’re many, many years away from that.”

The project has long fueled local debate over what a mine would mean for the Chilkat Valley. While some say it would boost the local economy, others contend it’s not worth risking impacts to the Chilkat watershed.

Parry, of Vizsla, acknowledged that the mining industry needs to do a better job of seeking and acting on community feedback. But he says his company has made that a priority, including on its Panuco Project, a silver and gold exploration site in Western Mexico.

“We’ve demonstrated that not only do we listen, but we act on what we hear from communities and First Nations groups and look to work in partnership with those guys,” he said.

The Chilkat Indian Village of Klukwan has opposed the project out of concern that it would contaminate the Chilkat River, which supports runs of all five species of pacific salmon.

Strong, the tribe’s president, said that concern will stand regardless of ownership. She is skeptical about any mining companies that claim to prioritize engagement with tribes, particularly given her experiences with the companies that have already had a hand in the local project.

“The moment we sit down with them, it’s considered engaging with the tribe,” she said. “They’ll come and listen, but they’ll still do whatever they want.”

On Friday morning, about a dozen people pulled items out of their makeshift homes along Teal Street, and packed them into black trash bags or tote boxes.

A dusting of snow had already started settling on the tents and shelters. Police stood on the sidewalk, and volunteers and nonprofit workers passed out eggs and potatoes from a tent nearby. 

Willow Williams sat in a wheelchair across the street from his tent. He has severe health problems: he has a colostomy bag and a hernia, alongside a slew of injuries. A lot of people at the encampment were worried about him, and they came by to bring him food and ask what else he needed, as others helped him pack up his shelter.

“My friend built that place, and he let me move in there, because, you know, it was hard for me with everything,” he said, pointing to his colostomy bag. “And I got a bed in there, and it kept me out of the wind. It kept me away from the rain.” 

Williams said he’s been comfortable there. It’s close to the Glory Hall shelter where he receives help with his health conditions. He said he hopes he’ll get a bed in the shelter soon.

Last year, the city closed a summer campground that unhoused people in Juneau frequently used, and instructed people to camp in small groups on other public land.

This past spring, large groups of tents cropped up in the Teal Street area. And they have been the subject of public debate and safety concerns. The city already cleared the encampment at this spot at least once this year. 

Then in August, because of safety threats to Glory Hall staff and residents, the nearby shelter stopped offering day services. 

Friday morning, the city forced people out of the encampment after giving notice earlier in the week. 

Juneau Police Commander Jeremy Weske was on site, along with several other officers. He said that this encampment isn’t safe in the winter months. 

“We don’t want people being on streets or in ditches and snow plows coming through and having a tragedy,” he said. “So that’s why this is happening now.” 

Smaller groups of people are allowed to camp on what the city calls “unimproved public land,” but officials haven’t offered more concrete guidance. Friday, city officials advised people to go to the city-funded emergency warming shelter in Thane, which only operates overnight.

Williams needs to make it through the next few days, or however long it takes before he can go to the Glory Hall. He said he hasn’t been able to sleep at the emergency warming shelter in the past due to discomfort from his medical issues, but he’s hopeful accommodations have improved.

Director Kaia Quinto said the Glory Hall has been at capacity every night so far this year. 

“Usually when we have somebody move out, there’s like that hour of space where we’re helping them clean and pack up their belongings,” she said. “And then someone else is right in their bed afterwards.”

But she said staff is trying hard to get Williams into the shelter.

“We don’t have any beds,” Quinto said. “But Willow is a high priority for us, to get him in before the weather gets too bad.”

Back on Teal Street, Doug Worthington and his partner Nathaniel Hensley-Williams were strategizing where they could store their stuff, and where to go next. Worthington said they can stay at the Thane warming shelter at night. 

“The other half of the problem is, where are we gonna go during the day?” he said.

“Well, that’s when we just set up our tent during the day and collapse it during the evening,”  Hensley-Williams said. “Because I have thought about that.”

Worthington is from Juneau and said he has been living outside without stable housing for about a year now. 

Initially, people camped here on Teal Street to access the Glory Hall’s day services, but since those stopped, Hensley-Williams said people stay because it feels safer here than other parts of town. 

“Staying here is where we’re not getting f—– with,” he said. “That’s the only reason we have stayed here.”

As an excavator picked up tents and platforms and dropped them in a dump truck, Worthington stood with his and his partner’s stuff, packed into a tower of totes. He said the city isn’t giving his community the help they need. 

“And they say they hate it because they don’t want to be doing this. But yet, here they are,” he said. “They say they want to help us, and yet they’re kicking us out. We’ve all built our homes right here. 

Worthington said he’s been moved around to different parts of the city, but people always complain about people camping, no matter where they go.