Yakutat Salmon Paleontology Project
The City and Borough of Yakutat is working on a paleontology project to get a glimpse at historic salmon runs of the past on the Situk River. In partnership with the University of Idaho, University of Alaska, and the Army Corps of Engineers, the project will combine paleontology and genetics work to gain a better understanding of what sockeye runs on the Situk River looked like years ago. The Nunatak and Hubbard glaciers are part of one of the largest ice fields on earth and are melting rapidly, which is causing the glaciers to surge. Flooding of the Situk River occurred in the nineteenth century and it is likely that a flooding event will occur again, which may severely impact many of the species on which…