Images

A sea otter mom nursing her pup. Photo taken in Prince William Sound, Alaska. A new born sea otter needs to stay with its mother for six months to learn how to survive on its own. 

Infographic showing water temperature and discharge (flow) data from rivers with heat-related salmon mortality, drought-related salmon mortality, and normal salmon survival in Alaska during 2019.

Red plumes burst out from the tops of these chemosynthetic tubeworms, capturing hydrogen sulfide and oxygen from the surrounding water to feed their bacterial endosymbionts. The tubeworm tubes provide a habitat for several benthic animals, including the pale pink branching octocorals seen here

The USGS crew heads upriver early one winter day and sees an increible sunrise on the Stikine River.

The USGS boat at the Stikine River gage site, Alaska. The Stikine River is one of the transboundary watersheds of Southeast Alaska. Visit USGS Transboundary River Monitoring in Southeast Alaska for more information about our research.

USGS Geneticist Damian Menning is performing eDNA sampling at Grant Point in Izembek National Wildlife Refuge, Alaska. This eDNA sampling is part of a project looking for eelgrass (Zostera marina) pathogens in the North Pacific. Izembek NWR is on the Alaska Peninsula located between the Bering Sea and the Gulf of Alaska.

Keychain developed for USGS outreach activities about bird banding and reporting in Inupiaq and English. Inupiaq translation provided by Qaiyaan and Jana Harcharek.

USGS Hydrologist Randy Host performs compass calibrations for discharge measurements at the Unuk River. The Unuk River is one of the transboundary watersheds of Southeast Alaska. This site has a Super Gage which is a conventional streamflow gage equipped with continuous water-quality monitors.

USGS scientists Matthew Smith, Caitlin Marsteller, and Danielle Gerik necropsy Common Murres and harvest tissues to test for harmful algal bloom toxins.

Tundra swan on the Colville River Delta, Alaska 2013.

Beaver dam complex and lodge at the confluence of Wrench Creek and Kelly River, Noatak National Preserve

Beaver dam and lodge on the Wrench Creek, Noatak National Preserve

Adult Pacific salmon (Oncorhynchus nerka) caught in impounded water above beaver dam. >25 rKM (river KM) from coast.

Caitlin Marsteller stands on top of Duck Island, on the west side of lower Cook Inlet, after collecting time lapse cameras. Duck island is home to a breeding colony of Common Murres where time lapse cameras collect data, such as the number of eggs laid and the number of chicks hatched, to help estimate breeding productivity.

Squid, adult walleye pollock, herring, eulachon, northern smoothtongue, capelin, juvenile walleye pollock, krill, and shrimp are forage species that are caught by a modified-herring trawl in Prince William Sound, Alaska during the Fall Integrated Predator-Prey Survey.

Photo of young of the year walleye pollock, Prince William Sound, Alaska. Although adults are targeted in one of the largest commercial fisheries in the world, young of the year walleye pollock are important in diets of many marine predators.

Pacific herring in Prince William Sound, Alaska

Caitlin Marsteller (USGS) and April Sturgess (USGS) throw the cod end of the modified herring trawl overboard on the USGS R/V Alaskan Gyre during the Fall Integrated Predator-Prey survey in Prince William Sound, Alaska.

Keychain developed for USGS outreach activities about bird banding and reporting in Yup'ik and English. Yup'ik translation provided by Jakob Sipary, Alaska Native Science and Engineering Program (ANSEP).

Laura Hubbard of the USGS Upper Midwest Water Science Center takes water chemistry measures on the Alaska Peninsula as part of research to understand how long influenza viruses remain viable in the environment.  

Harbor seals poking their heads above water near shore in Russell Creek, Cold Bay, Alaska.