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Bears are starting to wake up from their winter dens around the Kenai Peninsula, with spring around the corner. That also means it's time to secure bear attractants and prevent hungry bear visitors.

The Alaska Department of Fish and Game issued several emergency orders this week. Nick Dudiak Fishing Lagoon and waters of the Homer City dock will be open for snagging beginning June 29 through Friday, July 1. But all sport fishing in the Ninilchik River, Deep Creek and the Anchor River will be closed through July 15.

Bristol Bay's Nushagak District broke its record for the largest single-day harvest. Fisherfolk caught 2.46 million salmon on Thursday. That’s about 600,000 fish over last year’s record daily harvest, which was set last year. The district had back-to-back record harvests exactly one year ago, when fleets caught 1.7 million on June 30 and 1.82 million on July 1.

The Alaska Department of Fish and Game anticipates sockeye salmon in the Kasilof River will exceed the department’s escapement goals for the run and is increasing how many sockeye anglers can take, effective Thursday.

There won’t be an oil and gas lease sale in Cook Inlet this year, or the year after that. An Obama-era proposal to hold a sale in the inlet was canceled this May due to a cited lack of industry interest. But the Biden Administration may offer another sale down the line.

A new five-year plan from the NOAA Fisheries Alaska Regional Office lays out institutional values and goals for Alaska fisheries and for working with their many stakeholders. The plan was published in early September. In an opening letter, Regional Administrator Jon Kurland reminds readers that Alaska fisheries produce more than half of the seafood caught in U.S. waters and contribute more than $7 billion to the national economy.

The Alaska SeaLife Center in Seward has admitted two new patients to its wildlife rehabilitation program. SeaLife Center staff rescued a young male harbor seal and male sea otter pup in late August and early September, respectively.

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.

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.

After a two-year break due to the COVID-19 pandemic, Saturday, Sept. 17, marks the return of Belugas Count!, a public science event that aims to catalog Cook Inlet’s beluga whale population. The event is hosted by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, and will take place across 14 public viewing stations in communities from Anchorage down to the lower Kenai Peninsula.