NOAA's Office of Law Enforcement in Alaska regularly sees illegal activity related to the transferring and selling of recreational caught fish in other states.
Overall the harbor seal population in Alaskan waters is fairly healthy. But there are some places like the western Aleutian Islands, where harbor seal populations have declined and scientists still don’t know why.
A team of NOAA Fisheries scientists set out on a month-long research survey onboard the NOAA ship Reuben Lasker to try to locate the rare North Pacific right whale, possibly the most endangered marine mammal to visit U.S. waters.
