Alaska Beacon
January 9th, 2024
By Linda Behnken and Kate Troll
NOAA now confirms that another critical Alaska fishery is in decline due to successive marine heat waves. First there was the loss of 10 billion snow crabs and the close of the once-lucrative Bering Sea crab fisheries; now we know that climate change (warming seas) is the culprit behind the crash of chum salmon on the Yukon and Kuskokwim rivers. Both these fisheries are the lifeblood to many Alaska communities and villages. From the Yukon to Kodiak, from the Arctic to Ketchikan, Alaska’s coastal fisheries must now confront the dual threat of heat waves and ocean acidification.
Even though Alaska alone cannot solve the climate crisis and save Alaska’s fisheries we can do our part to address climate impacts head-on. We are still nowhere near the scale and pace of emission reductions required to put us on track toward limiting warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius (a goal of the Paris Accords). As a result, warming oceans and ocean acidification remain active, serious threats to Alaska’s fisheries. Whether it’s out of concern for the oceans, storm events, landslides, and/or wildfires, it’s clearly a moment when we need “all hands-on deck” to deal with the climate crisis.
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