Environment

Many locals will tell you that their garden is one of the best places to be on a sunny summer day. Master Gardener and professional photographer, Marion Owen has some tips on how to preserve those special times with photographs. She was our guest on this week’s Talk of the Rock program and spoke with KMXT’s Maggie Wall.   Click …

Slugs. The bane of Kodiak gardeners. There are those who think the only thing worse than finding a slug in their garden or flower bed is to find one in a salmonberry they just bit into. Yuck! You may have thought they dried up and died during that recent stretch of dry, sunny weather. Wrong. Kodiak master gardener Marion Owen …

Yet another gray whale washed up in Alaska this month, this time on Kodiak’s Surfers’ Beach. These strandings are becoming increasingly common, but scientists still don’t have a solid picture of what’s going on with the population. The stranded gray whale was discovered on Surfers Beach the first week of July. Necropsy samples were collected under the MMHSRP Permit #18786. …

Another dead gray whale washed up on Kodiak late last week, this time near Surfers Beach. A team of volunteers, led by local veterinarian Dr. Emily Iacobucci and NOAA Fisheries Special Agent Brent Pristas, headed out the road on Saturday morning to begin a necropsy on the specimen. It was a labor-intensive process involving hours of stripping blubber off the …

            The Kodiak area was hit with two earthquakes over the weekend.             The first occurred on Sunday morning, the other in the early hours Monday.             Sunday’s quake was a magnitude 4.6 which struck at 8:03 a.m. It was located 150 miles southeast of the City of Kodiak at 17 miles deep.   Graphic from National Teachers’ Association via …

  Petty Officer 1st Class Abraham Medrano, a marine vessel inspector with Marine Safety Detachment Kodiak, observes timber cargo operations as part of a port state control exam aboard the motor vessel Alaska near Afognak Island, Alaska, north of Kodiak Island, June 18, 2019. The Alaska, a 600-foot, Panama-flagged cargo vessel, is required to be inspected by the Coast Guard …

Erosion is an ever-present issue for coastal highways. It’s of particular concern for Kodiak, where a large portion of the major road system sits right alongside the ocean. Starting this spring, the Alaska Department of Transportation & Public Facilities has been working on a months-long construction project to slow the inevitable. Exposed guardrails at Mile 25.5 of the Chiniak Highway. …

  Today our guest is Nora Weisz who is this summer’s naturalist at Fort Abercrombie State Park. Weisz shares what she’s learned as a local naturalists and provides information on special programs at Ft. Abercrombie, including speakers every Saturday evening in July.  

Last week two dead gray whales were confirmed off Kodiak Island adding to concerns by biologists that something is adversely affecting the population as it migrates north to summer feeding grounds in Arctic waters. In an email update, NOAA spokesperson Julie Speegle said the first whale had been reported on the June 5 but was not sited during an aerial …

It might still be technically spring for a few more weeks, but for all intents and purposes, summer has arrived in Kodiak. And with it, weekly activities for kids hosted by the Kodiak National Wildlife Refuge. 7-year-old Harper shows off her new Kodiak National Wildlife Refuge Junior Ranger badge and certificate. (Photo by Kavitha George/KMXT) On Thursday, Ranger Ayisha Jaffer …