Alaska and Hawaii

"The common murre on Sarah Schoen's examination table lived a short, hungry life."

"How weird has Anchorage's weather been this winter? Weird enough that an Alaska Railroad spokesman said Monday that a train will deliver seven rail cars loaded with snow to the state's largest city this week in time for the Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race ceremonial start on Saturday."

"A 187,000 square-mile swath of land and sea in Alaska was restored by a federal appeals court as a “critical habitat” for polar bears, a boon for the endangered species and yet another blow to Alaska’s tumbling petroleum industry."

"HILO, Hawaii – Hawaii County Mayor Billy Kenoi has declared a state of emergency over a dengue fever outbreak on the island of Hawaii, commonly called the Big Island."

"Is this where North Pacific humpback whales practice their songs?"

"Alaska Inuit hunter John Goodwin for decades has hunted oogruk, the bearded seal, a marine mammal prized for its meat, oil and hide.

The largest of Alaska's ice seals uses sea ice to rest and birth pups, and after the long winter, when ice breaks into floes, there's a window of opportunity for Goodwin to leave his home in Kotzebue and motor his boat between ice panels, shoot seals and butcher them before they migrate north through the Bering Strait.

"A newly discovered fungus is killing a tree that's critical to Hawaii's water supply, endangered native birds and Hawaiian cultural traditions like hula."

"A study of yellow cedars in Alaska's Glacier Bay National Park and Preserve suggests that climate change calls for new models of conservation and preservation."

"The state and federal governments have decided not to pursue $92 million in additional damages from Exxon Mobil Corp., citing the recovery of ducks and sea otters in Alaska's Prince William Sound following a devastating oil spill more than two decades ago."

"One of the most eroded Native Alaskan villages on the state’s coast is being considered as a possible national model for moving entire communities whose futures are threatened by natural disasters escalated by climate change."