Cook Inletkeeper

A dry heat wave across Southcentral Alaska has raised temperatures in Cook Inlet streams, and there’s fear the sunny weather and warm water could be bad news for salmon.

Sue Mauger has tracked non-glacier stream temperatures in Cook Inlet for years. And she says she hasn’t seen readings like these.

“We saw the highest recorded temperature we've ever measured in 15, 16 years,” she said. “That was 81.7 degrees on the Deshka River.”

That’s a north-south river between Talkeetna and Anchorage known for its premier sportfishing.

Environmental groups are protesting the state's move to renew a federal permit that allows oil and gas producers to release a variety of pollutants into Cook Inlet.

This is the first time the state has issued the permit. Environmental groups say the state should move the oil and gas industry away from the practice, and those groups are also pushing back against the state raising the volume of oily wastewater producers are allowed to discharge.
 

Cook Inletkeeper  observed the 30th  anniversary of the Exxon Valdez oil spill by hosting a discussion on  building a sustainable and healthy future.

On this membership drive edition of Kachemak Science , Kachemak Bay Birders name the lesser sandhill crane their Bird of the Month on Bird Rhythms.
Also,  McNeil Canyon Elementary students, Hudson Loboy and Gautoma "Bubba" Schuett-Iwamura, present their data on dissolved oxygen and macroinvertebrates.  And, you'll hear part one of Sue Mauger's conversation with Kachemak Science on her recent trip to Antarctica.

Recently, Cook Inletkeeper sponsored a panel discussion to commemorate the 40th anniversary the Kachemak Bay oil and gas lease buyback. The buyback prevented oil and gas development in the Bay and protected it as a critical habitat area. 

The Randolph Yost drill-rig came to Homer from Singapore. A Homer environmental group is worried the Yost, now docked in the Homer port, could have brought invasive species into Alaska waters. The group is criticizing the Department of Fish and Game for not checking the rig before it docked in Kachemak Bay.