Virtual Arctic Refuge Bird Festival

Migratory birds connect us to the wider world. In spring, when birds arrive from hundreds or even thousands of miles away, we marvel at the distances they’ve traveled, the places they’ve been. Birds don’t heed borders or language barriers. They transcend them in every sense, soaring beyond the confines of the human-built world and showing us — when we take the time to look — how interconnected we are as inhabitants of this planet.

Spring migration brings birds from around the world to Arctic National Wildlife Refuge to breed. Many of the birds migrating through the lower 48 eventually make…

Careers

In Alaska, the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service employs a small army of dedicated and passionate staff with a large spectrum of roots. Some were born and raised in Alaska. Others have come from around the world. Regardless, some stay to do a job they feel is important enough to spend a lifetime doing. Like Greg Siekaniec, who has served the people of Alaska in numerous roles across the state for nearly two decades.

Where are you from? How did you get introduced into nature?

I grew up in Minnesota—the western prairie region—and was fortunate enough to have exposure to what I call the “lakes country.” My parents had a cabin…

All The Fish

Metallic. Salmon turn steely too when they enter the salt as young smolts. And while they may share the same genus and species as Rainbow Trout, something bigger draws Steelhead to leave their birth rivers for the open water.

Listen to the full conversation with Trout Unlimited’s Mark Hieronymus and retired Alaska Department of Fish and Game biologist Roger Harding about this special variety of Rainbow Trout on episode 17 of Fish of the Week!

Shorebirds

I read that Lesser Yellowlegs are under-studied on their breeding grounds because they nest in inhospitable environments: difficult to access and mosquito-ridden, boreal bogs. That doesn’t sound like the most romantic fieldwork location, and those conditions definitely weren’t how I imagined wild Alaska prior to visiting the state. However, where the birds are, the birders are — and in this case, the ornithologists.

All The Fish

We sat down with sturgeon biologists Laura Heironimus and Ken Lepla to talk about two living dinosaurs found along the Pacific Coast. (Listen to the full conversation on episode 16 of Fish of the Week!).

Green and White Sturgeon are found throughout the major river basins on the West Coast of North America—the Columbia, Sacramento-San Joaquin, Snake and Fraser. That said, these wanderers can be found from California to Alaska in freshwater, in saltwater, and all the estuaries in between.

All The Fish

(Listen to the full exchange on episode 14 of Fish of the Week!)

Rockfish are amazing. Reproduction-wise, for instance, they actually copulate and give live birth. In Alaska, they’re either full of eggs or starting to release larvae anywhere from April to July. They give birth to a lot of babies. The larvae are swept away and the survivors settle on the ocean floor, hiding in rocks, kelp, and eelgrass.

Why are they called “rockfish”?

Rockfish are in the Sebastes family and there are over 30 different species in Alaska’s waters. They tend to like rocks!

All The Fish

Kodiak-born angler Stewart Valladolid gave an enthusiastic “Sablefish all the way to the grill!” when we asked which fish he wanted to talk about. So that’s our Fish of the Week!

Sablefish (Anoplopoma fimbria) are a deep-sea fish common to the North Pacific.

How’d you get hooked on Sablefish?

My background with Sablefish was through my dad. He ran a processing plant out of Kodiak and would buy Sablefish from the boats. He’d bring them home—black cod is what we called them. It was a staple in our household. It was really, really good.

“Taking a bite of Sablefish is…I don’t know how to explain it…

All The Fish

In part 1, we learned about gar biology. Now we’re going fishing and will learn about the culinary traditions in gar country. (Listen to both podcast episodes here).

We’ve never gone fishing for alligator gar in Louisiana before. Where should we go? We’re blank slates and need some advice.

It says on the license plate Sportsman’s Paradise, so there are plenty of places to go fishing. You can get alligator gars in the bayous, lakes, and also along the coast. Say you’re flying into New Orleans. There are even places around the outskirts of the city where you can catch alligator gar like Lake Pontchartrain.

If you head north you’re going to be in oxbow lakes off the Mississippi River and…