HILO, HAWAII - A trash collection device that broke apart while deployed in the Pacific Ocean between California and Hawaii was scheduled to arrive to the Big Island on Sunday.

The Department of the Interior’s Bureau of Land Management (BLM) has released its Draft Environmental Impact Statement (DEIS) for development of oil and gas (O&G) resources on the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge (ANWR) Coastal Plain. The DEIS is required by the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) and would cover leasing only; actual development would be subject to additional NEPA review and is not likely to begin for many years.

The concerns are over the United States over plans to open the calving grounds of a large cross-border caribou herd to energy drilling, despite international agreements to protect it.

FAIRBANKS - Alaska villages facing coastal disasters may be able to use new erosion-monitoring tools as part of their decision-making arsenal, thanks to a pilot study led by the University of Alaska Fairbanks.

HILO — A North Kona developer’s representative made repeated promises Tuesday that its shoreline will be opened to the public within a year, but most County Council members want it in writing.

HONOLULU (KHON2) - Honolulu Ocean Safety officials are keeping a close eye on a dead whale floating off Oahu's south shore.

A new book highlights the changes endured by inhabitants of the Arctic, serving as a harbinger of what’s to come in lower latitudes

An international team of scientists is heading to the Gulf of Alaska for a ground-breaking research survey to uncover the secret lives of Pacific salmon in the winter.

The village of Newtok, surrounded by the Ninglick River, is losing land to erosion at a rate of about 70 feet per year. Long-term plans to relocate the village to Nelson Island have been aided lately by the completion of an environmental impact statement and a fresh infusion of federal funds. (Courtesy photo)

My spoon slides through an unidentifiable substance, unexpectedly similar to foie gras, as I glance over my menu to double-check the dish in front of me. “Eat Your Invasives,” it reads. It’s a kiawe flour paté — and it’s delicious..

A stunning shortage of Bering Sea ice in spring and record warmth in autumn marked what scientists say will be one of the warmest years recorded in Alaska, raising questions about everything from the future of commercial fishing to new agricultural opportunities.

The professional bodyboarding circuit is returning to Banzai Pipeline, in Hawaii, after a one-year hiatus.

A stunning shortage of Bering Sea ice in spring and record warmth in autumn marked what scientists say will be one of the warmest years recorded in Alaska, raising questions about everything from the future of commercial fishing to new agricultural opportunities.

The federal government shutdown is already causing problems for participants in the upcoming fishing season in the Bering Sea, which are likely to escalate if the stalemate in Washington, D.C. continues.

By all measures, 2018 was an extreme year for Alaska’s Bering Sea. For the first time since 1850, the body of water in the northern Pacific remained virtually free of sea ice. Scientists traced the impact of this lack of ice on water temperature and fish populations throughout the year to try to figure out what happens when an ecosystem built around ice suddenly has none.

Alaska is the nation’s superpower when it comes to seafood. American fishermen landed just shy of 10 billion pounds of fish and shellfish last year valued at $5.4 billion, both up slightly from 2016. Of that, Alaska accounted for 61 percent of total landings (6 billion pounds) and 33 percent of the value ($1.8 billion).

The US Bureau of Land Management released a draft environmental impact statement for oil and gas leasing on the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge Coastal Plain a year after President Donald J. Trump signed federal tax legislation which included a mandate for the US Interior secretary to establish such a program.

Built in the 1960s, the Port of Alaska in Anchorage needs more than $1 billion to replace old docks and remove what it says was earlier botched construction work. The port was spared from serious damage by the magnitude 7.0 earthquake that rocked the south central part of the state on Nov. 30, but it says more than $1 billion of work may be needed if the port is to remain viable beyond the next decade.

ANCHORAGE, Alaska — Federal regulators are preparing an environmental review for a possible offshore lease sale in Alaska’s Beaufort Sea and environmental groups are calling foul.

You do not need to be interested in surfing to be excited and moved by Jeff and Michael Zimbalist’s excellent, eloquent documentary “Momentum Generation,” which premiered Tuesday on HBO. A surf film might not be the first thing you’d expect to bring you repeatedly to tears, but I can say with authority it is possible.

Longtime Alaska fisherman Bill Harrington has a few choices words about killer whales. "As far as I'm concerned, they're only thieves in tuxedos," Harrington says. In the coming years, longline fishermen in western Alaska will be allowed to catch halibut in longline pots, also known as traps in other parts of the country.

Nearly 2 million tons of sand have been removed from Central Maui since 2006, leaving it either depleted or very soon to be depleted and unable to replenish the island’s beaches that need some 158,000 tons of sand, according to a new study released Tuesday on sand availability in the county.

The US Bureau of Ocean Energy Management has extended the public comment period for a proposed environmental impact statement (EIS) relating to a proposed 2019 Beaufort Sea oil and gas lease sale, the agency’s Anchorage office said on Dec. 11.

All the glue that has held the Arctic together for millennia is being dissolved by climate change, right down to the ground beneath millions of people’s feet.

Policies to conserve and enhance beaches, public access, and coastal open space are failing in Hawaiʻi according to a recently published study by researchers at the University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa.

LAHAINA — With sea levels expected to rise by more than 3 feet by the next century, developing and implementing strategies to deal with the problem, which could include moving developments away from the shoreline, will include much discussion, money and difficult decisions, experts said Friday.

The North Pacific Fishery Management Council (NPFMC) approved a 25,001-metric-ton reduction in the Gulf of Alaska (GoA) pollock total allowable catch (TAC), which almost offsets the increase in the eastern Bering Sea.

While construction is still years away, a proposal to streamline shipping traffic through the Port of Dutch Harbor has cleared several early hurdles. In 2018, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers finished a two-year feasibility study, recommended a dredging project, and won initial approval from the Unalaska City Council.

In 1977, the International Whaling Commission imposed regulations on the whaling practices of the Inupiaq people in Alaska. Decades later, the group has finally gained the ability to hunt more freely, even as offshore oil drilling threatens their livelihood once more.

WAIKIKI (HawaiiNewsNow) - With beach erosion a growing problem, experts have been closely watching a Waikiki Beach mediation project — and so far the results are positive. A year ago, crews installed a 100-by-12 foot sand-filled mattress as an emergency measure to stabilize the shoreline.

Alaska fishermen are bracing for more cuts to their halibut harvest next year. The results of this year’s surveys showed that the Pacific stock from California to the Bering Sea continues to decline, and will likely result in lower catches.

Stable ahi prices are expected during the holidays, but environmental groups are concerned about the longterm health of fish stocks.

FAIRBANKS, Alaska — It is the last great stretch of nothingness in the United States, a vast landscape of mosses, sedges and shrubs that is home to migrating caribou and the winter dens of polar bears.

WAILUKU — With its abundant use of solar power and ambitious renewable energy goals, Hawaii is becoming a model for other states — but some of the most difficult steps lie ahead, says Chip Fletcher, a professor at the University of Hawaii at Manoa and vice chairman of the Honolulu Climate Change Commission.

November 26 was a day that will go down in history. It was the day a big wave contest was called off because it was too big. It was probably the right call, at least morally. But from a spectator standpoint, man-oh-man, was it a crushing blow.

The National Weather Service has issued a high-surf warning for the north-facing shores of Maui and the north- and west-facing shores of Molokai through 6 p.m. Tuesday.

KAILUA-KONA — Almost two years after Conservation International Hawaii and the Western Pacific Fishery Council released a feasibility study on a regulatory system for noncommercial fishing in Hawaii, contributors are touring the state to discuss it with the public.

LIHUE — Next-level hurricanes, intense heat waves, death for corals and habitat loss for rare species are all potentials for the next hundred years, as well infrastructure wipe-out from a 3.2-foot sea level rise, according to scientists. All that and more is included in the Hawaii-Pacific Islands chapter of the Fourth official U.S. National Climate Assessment, released Friday, in which authors say communities need to start making a plan.

“What’s happening is the increased accessibility of going through the Bering Strait for a longer period of time each year because of climate change and the opening up of what is referred to by many as a new ocean. And that would be the Arctic.”

Federal fisheries managers are set to take final action at their December meeting in Anchorage on charter halibut management measures for Southeast and Southcentral Alaska for 2019.

Alaska - Shishmaref is the only town on Sarichef Island. And everywhere you go, you can see the waves and hear the constant roar of the ocean. The island is only about a quarter of a mile wide — and it's getting smaller.

A battle over a Portlock gate blocking access to a beach path is far from over.

One of Alaska‘s great success stories is the resurrection of our salmon fisheries after a virtual collapse that occurred under federal management in the years before statehood.

The U.S. Department of the Interior’s Bureau of Ocean Energy Management will prepare an Environmental Impact Statement in support of a potential 2019 oil and natural gas lease sale in the Beaufort Sea off Alaska’s north coast, Kallanish Energy reports.

2019 could be another down year for pink salmon fishing in Southeast Alaska. The Alaska Department of Fish and Game and scientists with NOAA Fisheries Auke Bay Lab are forecasting a commercial harvest of 18 million fish, which would fall in the weak category for catches over the past six decades.

Artificial Intelligence has been used for everything from teaching computers to play chess to helping speed ride-sharing services on thei rway. And now one government agency is using it to track humpback whales in the Pacific.

The five amateur divisions finals were run and won in stunning Ho’okipa conditions today. The red-hot favorites all held their nerve under the intense pressure of expectation to win their respective divisions with power and style.

The GOES-17 Advanced Baseline Imager (ABI) has sent its first images from the satellite's new vantage point over the Pacific Ocean.

HONOLULU (AP) — A team of divers hauled in nearly 165,000 pounds of abandoned fishing nets and plastic waste during a cleanup expedition at Papahanaumokuakea Marine National Monument, federal officials said.

After the first year of electronic monitoring on fishing vessels in Alaska, the National Marine Fisheries Service is expanding the pool for boats that want to get in on it.

Residents oppose seawalls; other options considered for Lower Honoapiilani Road NAPILI — Maui County Public Works officials are mulling long-term shoreline repair solutions for a 30-foot section of Lower Honoapiilani Road, which is in danger of collapsing and shutting down utilities for nearby residents if another major storm were to hit.

Scientists will continue the work of the late Ruth Gates to develop corals that are more resistant to the effects of climate change and create reefs that provide natural coastal protection.

This season was a sour one for salmon fishermen across the Gulf of Alaska, and participants in multiple fisheries are seeking funding for relief. The Board of Fisheries and Gov. Bill Walker already granted a disaster declaration for Chignik, which harvested next to zero sockeye salmon this year due to an unprecedented poor return to the Chignik River on the Alaska Peninsula. Sockeye salmon runs across the Gulf of Alaska failed to deliver this year, either in timing or in size, at a huge cost to fishermen.

The 5.5-mile stretch of permafrost coastline at Drew Point is losing 30 football fields of land per year.

Text Size:AAA A new study led by researchers at the University of Hawai‘i at Mānoa indicates that as climate changes over the coming decades, hurricanes have a higher chance of landfall over the Hawaiian islands. Researchers from the universityʻs School of Ocean and Earth Science said this new pattern could pose severe flood risks along the coast and further inland.

The eight Pacific island states that make up the Parties to the Nauru Agreement may look like dots on the map, but they command an expanse of ocean greater than the size of Europe and are global powerhouses when it comes to tuna.

Greenpeace recently concluded an expedition to the Great Pacific Garbage Patch that found 11 times more microplastics in the middle of the Pacific than near major U.S. cities.

A $250,000 check was presented to CNMI governor Ralph Torres and Department of Lands and Natural Resources secretary Anthony Benavente