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The 31st Annual Kachemak Bay Shorebird Festival kicked off Wednesday and welcomes back migratory birds, visitors and locals for four days of guided bird walks, boat tours, presentations and activities around the bay.
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Mount Saint Augustine volcano is a familiar and majestic sight across Cook Inlet. It's also one of the most highly active in Alaska, erupting six times in the last two hundred years, most recently in 2006. Scientists are now looking into the past of the volcano to better understand its future.
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Two harbor seal pups who were rescued earlier this summer after being abandoned on a beach in Kasilof were released back into Cook Inlet last week.The seals spent the past two-and-a-half months being rehabilitated at the Alaska SeaLife Center in Seward. After passing their health checks and learning to catch and eat fish, care specialists decided it was finally time for the pair of seals to return to the water.
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Admiral and Cobalt, two rescued harbor seal pups, rested on the cement in an enclosure at the Alaska SeaLife Center in Seward on a recent rainy afternoon. Dead fish floated beside them in the water.SeaLife Center staff call it the “big kid pool,” and it’s the last place the silvery-spotted seal pups will live at the center before heading back to the wild on Wednesday afternoon.
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It’s time to count cranes again in Homer. Homer’s Crane Count starts back up on Saturday, and the event — put on by Kachemak Crane Watch — needs residents to help spot the large, long-legged birds.
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Researchers at the Kenai Fjords National Park have long known that many of the glaciers in the park are retreating. But now, they have data that quantifies that change over time.
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There’s a special “youth-only” fishing opener on the Homer Spit this Saturday. A portion of the Nick Dudiak Fishing Lagoon will be open from 12:01 a.m. to 11:59 p.m. for youth anglers age 15 years and younger looking to catch coho salmon.
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The topic is flowers. Rachel Lord of Alaska Stems discusses the business of cut flowers. We also visit Teena Garay’s garden off of West Hill. Teena has collected seed from other countries with a similar climate to Homer and propagates rare perennial flowers and shrubs.
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A record number of sockeye salmon passed through the sonar on the Kasilof River on Wednesday. About 125,628 sockeye were recorded at the sonar there — a new daily record for the run, according to Brian Marston, Alaska Department of Fish and Game's area manager for Upper Cook Inlet commercial fisheries. The surge brings the sockeye run on the Kasilof to 568,703 fish this run.
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Three days after they were ordered to take their nets out of the water, Cook Inlet set-netters are suing the state over the fishery’s closure. In a case filed in state court this week, the Cook Inlet Fishermen's Fund, representing Cook Inlet fishermen, said the state’s mismanaging the east-side set-net fishery to the benefit of other user groups. It’s asking the state to immediately reopen the fishery this season to its 440 or so permit-holders, to pay fishermen back for what they lost and to revise the plan that closed it in the first place.
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Two locals are trying to bring the Civil Air Patrol back to Homer. The program is the “civilian arm” of the U.S. Air Force, and is made up of cadet and adult volunteers. In Alaska, there are about 750 members who belong to 17 squadrons located throughout the state, including one in Kenai.
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Soon-to-be seven-year-old Isa Santiago splashed through a tidepool at Bishop’s Beach Friday morning. She shrieked excitedly when she spotted a dark pink sea star glued to the rocks, surrounded by dark gray and green stars. Isa and her family made the four-and-a-half hour drive from their home in Eagle River to tidepool during one of the lowest tides of the year in Homer. Her mom, Kyra Santiago, said she started planning the trip nine months ago.