Going out to eat isn’t usually rife with danger. Worst case scenarios: bad company, bad service, food poisoning. But not typically death. That’s our reality. Fish have a different reality. Especially in Arctic Refuge, where salmon-sized Dolly Varden play a high stakes game of eating out or staying in. Seafood Buffet When…

Set in motion at birth, the fate of Pacific salmon is like clockwork: each year a new generation returns from sea to spawn. Then, death.

Wintertime fun and table fare with Alaska’s ambush predator Toothy and sleek, there are all kinds of aggressive nicknames for this sit-and-wait predator: Northacuda. Slough Shark. Hammer Handle. Water Wolf.

Hard water love in the Alaska winter — Burbot (Lota lota) are the only freshwater gadoid (cod) in North America (check out that chin whisker!). And with a circumpolar range, they’re one of the most widely distributed freshwater fishes in the world. Hard Water Love Winter is a great time to fish for Burbot as they move slowly along river…

The Arctic’s only air-breathing fish — Although rarely exceeding 8 inches in length, this tiny Esocid is arguably the hardiest of Alaska’s fish. Most notably, they’re the only air-breathing fish in the Arctic. In fact, only a few fishes in the world can breathe atmospheric oxygen. Thanks to a modified, gas-absorbing esophagus, the Alaska Blackfish…

get the most out of your winter — Looking for a way to beat the winter blues and teach a young person important life skills? Try ice fishing. You’ll learn about fish and lakes, gain patience, get outside, and maybe even get some clean healthy meals out of it.

Primeval Instruments of the Imagination — The lamprey. Your standard Sea Lamprey and Pacific Lamprey are roughly flute-sized. Arctic Lamprey? Piccolo. But that jawless maw is not a embouchure hole, so you won’t want to put your mouth on it. And those aren’t finger holes, they lead to gills. Agnathans (a superclass of cartilaginous jawless…

Ice fishing for Alaska’s largest whitefish —

A conversation with Fish Biologist Randy Brown — We sat down with Randy Brown (a Fish Biologist in the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service’s Fairbank Fish and Wildlife Conservation Office) to talk about North Slope Dolly Varden.

Winter saltwater fishing for Chinook Salmon in Alaska — When you think about Chinook Salmon (Kings) you may picture the runs that happen in the summer when fish are returning to spawn. But you can also target these fish when they’re at sea during the ocean phase of their life cycle. Where are these kings originating from and what are they doing in Kachemak Bay this time of year? They’re from all over the place. It’s…

The case started when Northern Pike (a fish that’s found naturally north of the Alaska Range but is considered invasive south of it) were discovered by the Alaska Department of Fish and Game in Vogel Lake within the Kenai Peninsula’s Miller Creek watershed. …

Get to know the cutthroat family — If variety is truly the spice of life, then cutthroat trout — known best for a splash of red on their lower jaw — are pretty spicy (so are rainbow trout). With over a dozen recognized subspecies representing four major evolutionary/geographical groups, these trout vary wildly in size and…

Q&A with Dr. Solomon David — Part 1 — Alligator gars are one of the largest freshwater fishes in North America, the largest freshwater fish in the Mississippi River Valley, and the apex predator in that system. How did you first learn about gar? I was always interested in dinosaurs. If you think of prehistoric animals, of course dinosaurs come to mind, but gars have…

Q&A with Dr. Solomon David — Part 2 — In part 1, we learned about gar biology. Now we’re going fishing and will learn about the culinary traditions in gar country. 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…

Denizens of the Deep — 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. 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…

Conversation with Fishery Biologist Brittany Blain — 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. …

Living Dinosaurs of the Pacific Coast — 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.

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.

Harbingers of spring and fresh hope — Adapted from a conversation with guests Ted Hart from the Chilkoot lndian Association and Meredith Pochardt from Haines, Alaska. Listen to the full “Fish of the Week” podcast episode about Eulachon here. What’s in a name? The American Fisheries Society has settled on Eulachon, but there are others. The local name I hear…

A conversation with Fish Biologist Randy Brown — We sat down with Randy Brown (a Fish Biologist in the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service’s Fairbank Fish and Wildlife Conservation Office) to talk about North Slope Dolly Varden.