Excerpt:
NOAA Fisheries releases their annual Ecosystem Status Reports including a new report card for the northern Bering Sea which shares some promising news about sea ice conditions

The Gulf of Alaska and Aleutian Island waters were on the warm side for a good part of the year. In fact, winter sea surface temperatures in 2023–2024 were among the 10 warmest years since 1900 in the Aleutians. The eastern Bering Sea appears to be in a period of transition as it continues to recover from record heatwave conditions (2014–2021). 

This year’s Ecosystem Status Reports provide a comprehensive look at 2024 conditions and trends over time (whether some indicators were increasing or decreasing) for key indicators. Scientists use these indicators to monitor Alaska marine ecosystem health.

“We look at numerous indicators that tell us about the ocean environment, the animals that live there, what they’re eating, who is eating them and how healthy they all are. That includes everything from water temperature, pH, ocean currents, and weather patterns to abundance of plankton, fish, crabs, seabirds, marine mammals and other species,” said Bridget Ferriss, author of the Gulf of Alaska Ecosystem Status Report…

Ecosystem Status reports are developed each year with input from many sources.

“All of this is possible, because of the critical contributions we receive from numerous partners,” said Ivonne Ortiz, author of the Aleutian Islands Ecosystem Status Report. “Federal, state, and academic researchers, fishermen, coastal community members, tribes, and a host of others contribute to these reports. We couldn’t do it without their help and knowledge…”