ARCTIC: Alaska’s Fishing Industry Collapsing & more – 15th Oct 2024

Góðan daginn from Keswick Village! This is the Rorshok Arctic Update from the 15th of October twenty twenty-four. A quick summary of what’s going down North of the Arctic Circle!

According to a report released by the US Fisheries Department on Friday the 11th, Alaska’s once-thriving seafood industry is facing a dramatic collapse. The report paints a grim picture, revealing that Alaska’s seafood industry lost nearly $2 billion dollars in twenty twenty-three, with ripple effects felt across the entire US economy. The industry’s downturn contributed to the loss of almost 40,000 jobs and over $4 billion dollars nationwide. The report points to a mix of factors behind this decline, including the impact of Covid, competition from Russia, trade disruptions, and marine heat waves that have devastated marine life in the region.

In an effort to recover some of Alaska’s fishing industry, on Friday the 11th, the Alaska Department of Fish announced that fishermen in the Bering Sea will be allowed to harvest snow crabs. Snow crab fisheries have been closed since a devastating heat wave killed over ninety percent of its population in twenty twenty-two, but the state believes there has been enough recovery in the snow crabs that a small catch of about 5 million pounds, that is, over 2 million kilograms, can be authorized. This allowance is only a tenth of the twenty twenty quota size.

In other news, keeping the ocean healthy is a challenge, and it turns out pollution is coming from an unexpected source. In research published by the McGill Institute on Wednesday the 9th, scientists have found that migrating seabirds that breed in the Arctic have been bringing toxic chemicals from around the world into the Arctic. Every year, about 15 million kittiwakes travel from southern latitudes to their breeding grounds in the North Atlantic and Pacific Oceans, but they come from population centers where humans are dumping plastics and other toxic materials into the sea, which get eaten by fish and subsequently eaten by the kittiwakes.

When sudden heat waves or other climate shocks hit the Arctic, we all hope the environment will bounce back once the shock ends. However, this hope is being challenged. In new research published on Thursday the 10th by the Ohio State University, scientists studied the resilience of plants in northern Alaska and Canada between two thousand and twenty nineteen to measure how well the environment recovers from environmental incidents like wildfires, drought, or flooding. The results of this study have found that the boreal forests of North America are notably less able to recover from natural damage, and there is a risk that the forests could completely disappear in the near future.

In some political news, in a surprise press conference on Sunday the 13th, Bjarni Benediktsson, Iceland’s Prime Minister, announced he is disbanding the nation’s coalition government and calling for elections by the end of November. The coalition government of the Independence Party, the Progressive Party, and the Left-Green Movement has been in power together since twenty seventeen. This coalition has been increasingly unpopular with the public, with a recent national poll garnering only twenty percent support for the three parties combined. Benediktsson has only been Prime Minister for six months after the preceding incumbent resigned, but the political turmoil has only increased to the point of governmental collapse.

In Canada’s Northwest Territories, remote communities in the Sahtu and Beaufort Delta regions are facing severe challenges after the Mackenzie River dried up this summer, cutting off essential barge deliveries of food and fuel ahead of winter. To address the situation, the territorial government announced on Wednesday the 9th a $1.3 million US dollar rescue package for businesses in these areas. The funds will cover alternative delivery methods to ensure emergency supplies reach the communities, offering a crucial lifeline as winter approaches.

This very topic was on the agenda at the Indigenous leaders’ conference in Ottawa on Tuesday the 8th. Danny Gaudet, the leader of the Délįnę Got’įnę Government, spoke at the meeting about the soaring cost of living in Sahtu because of the barge issues. The Indigenous leaders called on the federal government to invest in Canada’s north. On the agenda are their hopes to advance plans for building the Mackenzie Valley highway, a project expected to cost over $1 billion US dollars that would bring modern transport options to even the most remote of Canada’s communities.

Other Indigenous communities in Canada received welcome news this week. On Tuesday the 8th, Iqaluit city councilors unanimously voted to approve almost $4 million US dollars in a food voucher program for Inuit families. Paid by federal funds, the program will help any Inuit children under eighteen receive vouchers for food and other necessities like medicine. The council believes around 1,300 families in Iqaluit may benefit from the program. This funding will be available until next March but there is no report on whether the program will be renewed next year.

Next up, Sami languages are under threat across Scandinavia. The Finnish Sami Parliament released a statement on Friday the 11th announcing they have partnered with the Sami governments of Sweden and Norway to create a new organization, Sámi Giellagáldu. This organization will work to standardize the teaching of all nine Sami languages across Scandinavia to ensure that every Sami language is given the same development and funding opportunities, regardless of which border they lie within.

In Norway, the Sami council is doing its best with its limited budget, announcing on Thursday the 10th that numerous grants will be awarded across Norway’s Sami communities. About $2 million US dollars have been awarded for the development of teaching Lule, Southern and Northern Sami languages.

To learn more about the culture and history behind the different Sami languages, check out the link in the show notes!

In Russia, the government still believes it can create an Arctic region attractive to residents. On Monday the 7th, the Department for Arctic Development announced that over $30 billion US dollars had been allocated for the social and economic development of sixteen Arctic settlements, including Murmansk, the Arctic capital of Russia. The government hopes to attract further private investment in the region to create a prosperous Arctic by twenty thirty-five.

However, Russia’s Arctic settlements are not doing great. Murmansk released its latest population statistics on Wednesday the 9th, showing that this year marks yet another annual population decline in the city. Almost 3,000 people have left Murmansk this year, with the population decreasing every year since the nineteen nineties when the city boasted 1.2 million people.

In Greenland, Denmark's lack of national security support has come under fire. On Tuesday the 8th, Mette Frederiksen, the Danish Prime Minister, admitted that Denmark has failed to meet its security commitments to Greenland. Speaking to the Danish news agency Alting, Frederiksen was pressed about the absence of military aircraft for patrol, search, and rescue operations for over a third of twenty twenty-three, a gap confirmed by figures from Denmark’s Ministry of Defense. Frederiksen acknowledged the issue, calling it unacceptable, and assured that her government is working to improve military readiness across Danish territories.

An article by Elizabeth Kolbert published in The New Yorker discusses the melting of the ice sheet in Greenland, accelerated by climate change, with the Russell Glacier shrinking quickly. The author says that the country has lost approximately six trillion tons of ice. Climate change feedbacks, which are natural processes impacting how much temperatures will increase for a given amount of CO2 emissions, could be so intense that it could lead to the ice sheet's collapse.

Kolbert also added that the Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation (or AMOC) transports energy from the tropics to the poles. Now the AMOC is slowing and at risk because of increasing water from the melting Greenlandic ice. The collapse of the AMOC could bring drastic climate changes. She also noted that rising temperatures can lead to elevation loss, darker ice, and melting.

Also, according to Kolbert, increased tourism and air travel exacerbate the melting of the ice.

And to wrap up this edition, the results of Alaska’s annual Fat Bear Week are in! Last week, we told you about the annual contest that has webcams set up in Katmai National Park so that the public can vote for the fattest bear of the year. Explore.org, the event organizers, announced on Tuesday the 8th that Grazer won her second Fat Bear Contest. In a storyline worthy of primetime, she defeated second-place place rival, Chunk, who this summer killed Grazer’s cub. Grazer’s other surviving cub won second place in the junior fat bear category, so the Grazer family’s winning heritage seems to be in safe hands.

Aaand that’s it for this week! Thank you for joining us!

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