Images

Photo of Pacific capelin trawl catch in Cook Inlet Alaska. Capelin are cold water forage fish that play a key role in transferring energy between plankton and top marine predators. Seabirds, and their forage fish prey, serve as practical indicators of change in the marine environment— natural or human induced— and can be readily monitored at sea.

Bar-tailed godwit habitat on the Seward Peninsula near Nome, Alaska. Researchers from the Max Planck Institute, U.S. Geological Survey, and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service conducted a study to track the migration of juvenile (hatch year) bar-tailed godwits from breeding sites near Nome, Alaska.

Illustrates where Long-tailed Ducks were tracked using Argos Wildlife Tracking.

Lake in Wrangell St. Elias National Park. This is part of a study examining mercury in lake food webs.

Fishing for lake trout (Salvelinus namaycush) in Wrangell St. Elias National Park. Sam Graf (NPS – LACL) and Ashley Stanek (USGS – ASC) angle for lake trout (Salvelinus namaycush) in Wrangell St. Elias National Park as part of a study examining mercury in lake food webs. 

Burbot in Wrangell St. Elias National Park. Burbot (Lota lota) were collected as part of a study examining mercury in lake food webs.

Round whitefish in Wrangell St. Elias National Park. Round whitefish (Prosopium cylindraceum) were collected as part of a study examining mercury in lake food webs.

Longnose sucker in Wrangell St. Elias National Park. Longnose suckers (Catostomus catostomus) were collected as part of a study examining mercury in lake food webs.

Fyke net in Wrangell St. Elias National Park. Sam Graf (NPS – LACL) adjusts a fyke net installed in a lake in Wrangell St. Elias National Park. Fyke nets are used to non-lethally capture fish.

Arctic grayling (Thymallus arcticus) in Wrangell St. Elias National Park. Arctic grayling were collected as part of a study examining mercury in lake food webs.

Lake trout with stomach contents in Wrangell St. Elias National Park. Dorsal muscle collection and stomach content analysis are used to evaluate biomagnification of mercury in Lake trout (Salvelinus namaycush). Stomach contents visible below the fish consist primarily of slimy sculpin (Cottus cognatus).

Collecting benthic macroinvertebrates in Wrangell St. Elias National Park. Sarah Laske (USGS – ASC) collects benthic macroinvertebrates using a kick net in a lake in Wrangell St. Elias National Park, Alaska, as part of a study examining mercury in lake food webs.

Sam Graf (NPS – LACL) collects benthic macroinvertebrates using an Eckman grab in Wrangell St. Elias National Park as part of a study examining mercury in lake food webs. Disclaimer statement: Any use of trade, firm, or product names is for descriptive purposes only and does not imply endorsement by the U.S. Government.

Sarah Laske (USGS - ASC) collects zooplankton from a lake using a plankton net in Wrangell St. Elias National Park as part of a study examining mercury in lake food webs. Sam Graf (NPS - LACL) angles. 

Example of a screen capture of machine learning assisted image processing with OtterChecker9000 from the USFWS aerial survey for sea otters in Southeast AK.

Tributary of Agashashok River located in the Noatak National Park and Preserve, Alaska. Recent observations from Arctic Alaska indicate that waters draining permafrost landscapes may be susceptible to iron and carbon mobilization following thaw.

Sea World Orlando marine mammal trainers, Kelly Trotto, Josh Boepple and Matt Oddi, measure a healthy mature female walrus in support of a USGS study that seeks to develop methods to monitor walrus body condition from survey drones flown high above walruses where they rest on shore. With this new tool, USGS intends to examine the environmental factors that affe

Graduate student Laura Geissinger looks through a spotting scope. The student is watching sea otters in Kachemak Bay forage. USGS researchers spend hundreds of hours annually observing sea otter foraging behavior to document prey composition and energy recovery rates.

An adult female walrus being positioned by marine mammal trainers at SeaWorld Orlando, Florida for measurement using aerial photographs (see camera at the top of the image). These images were taken as part of a USGS study in collaboration with zoos and aquaria in the United States and western Europe for validating aerial imagery as a method for monitoring the b

Image depicting the new camera system USGS, FWS, and NPS are using to conduct photo-based aerial surveys for sea otters.

The Teshekpuk Lake region was designated as a Special Area in 1977 by the Secretary of the Interior, Cecil Andrus. The map shows the approximate boundary of the Special Area in 2008, 2013, and 2020.