The University of Alaska wraps up the spring semester with commencement on May 3rd. Homer’s Semester by the Bay offers a marine mammals concentration in the Fall and an environmental conservation concentration in the spring. The students in the spring program finished their semester with multiple events and KBBI’s Emilie Springer was able to observe several of these.

A section of the Sterling Highway near Cooper Landing will close again tonight for blasting work; the University of Alaska system holds spring commencement ceremonies across all state campuses in early May 2026; and interest in aquaculture is booming in Alaska, and the federal government is trying to help the industry grow by mapping out “aquaculture opportunity areas” – specific patches of the ocean where kelp and oyster farming are most likely to succeed.