Alaska officials seized more than 317 pounds of illegal drugs at the Ted Stevens Anchorage International Airport in 2024, about a third of which was fentanyl, a synthetic narcotic responsible for an epidemic of overdose deaths, law enforcement authorities said Thursday.

The volume of dangerous drugs seized at the airport complex this year, 143,911 grams, was nearly twice the amount confiscated in 2023, continuing a trend of increasing volumes of drugs intercepted there in recent years.

The volume of fentanyl seized this year amounted to 23 million potentially fatal doses, authorities said. Other drugs seized included cocaine, heroin and methamphetamine, said Austin McDaniel, spokesperson for the Alaska State Troopers.

The seizures were conducted by 22 different federal, state and local law enforcement agencies that are partners in Alaska’s High Intensity Drug Trafficking Area Initiative, or HIDTA. The drugs were found in various airport operations, including cargo, parcel, mail and passenger-carry, the troopers said. The total also includes drugs intercepted at Merrill Field, the smaller airport operated by the Municipality of Anchorage, McDaniel said.

The volume of drugs seized at the Anchorage airport is generally a little over half of the statewide total, McDaniel said.

Anchorage’s international airport is one of the world’s busiest air cargo hubs. In 2023, it ranked fourth globally in the volume of cargo handled. The total cargo volume passing through Anchorage in 2023 was 3.4 million metric tons, placing the Alaska airport behind Hong Kong, Memphis and Shanghai, according to the trade organization Airports Council International.

The High-Intensity Drug Trafficking Areas program was created by Congress in 1988. The statewide Alaska initiative started in 2018 and is funded by the U.S. Office of National Drug Control Policy, the troopers said.

Through that initiative, Alaska State Troopers and the U.S. Postal Inspection Service have stepped up identification and interception of drugs going through the mail. The troopers, officers with the Anchorage Airport Police and Fire Department and other agencies have increased their work at airport passenger terminals. The U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Alaska has also boosted its efforts to process search warrants targeting parcels sent through the mail, the troopers said.

“In 2024, our office assigned multiple attorneys to handle search warrants for U.S. Postal Service parcels suspected of containing illicit substances, quadrupling the number of search warrants processed compared to last year. Because of this prioritization and our strong partnership with the U.S. Postal Inspection Service and the Alaska State Troopers, parcel drug seizures have increased, preventing large quantities of dangerous drugs from reaching our communities,” S. Lane Tucker, U.S. attorney for the District of Alaska, said in a statement released by the troopers.

“Alaska’s local, state, and federal law enforcement agencies are committed to doing our part to address the high rate of drug trafficking and overdose incidents occurring across our great state,” Alaska State Trooper Col. Maurice Hughes said in the statement.

Alaska has been particularly hard-hit by the national fentanyl epidemic, bucking the national trend of decreasing overdose deaths.

Alaska last year had a record number of drug overdose deaths, the majority of which were connected to fentanyl. Fatal overdoses jumped by 44.5% from 2022 to 2023, with 357 recorded – with more than half involving fentanyl, according to the state Department of Health. It was, by far, the biggest increase of all states.

In contrast, overdose deaths nationwide declined by 3% from 2022 to 2023, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Fatal overdose totals continued to increase in Alaska through the first half of 2024, according to the latest data available, which totals deaths for the 12 months that ended in July.

Alaska had 405 reported overdose deaths for that 12-month period, a 40.63% increase over the total for the previous 12-month period, according to the CDC’s preliminary figures. Alaska’s rate of increase was the highest in the nation for the period, and Alaska was one of only three states in which reported overdose deaths increased during that 12-month period, according to the CDC. Nevada and Utah were the only other states with reported increases in overdose deaths, according to the data.

Nationally, the number of reported overdose deaths declined by 19.3% from July 2023 to July 2024, according to the CDC’s preliminary data.

Of Alaska’s reported overdose deaths from July 2023 to June 2024, 338 involved opioids, according to the Alaska Department of Health.

The high death toll in Alaska has spurred action beyond law enforcement. The Alaska Department of Health has partnered with other entities to boost prevention education, and a new state law requires schools to be supplied with overdose-reversal kits.

FAIRBANKS, Alaska (KTUU) – Fort Wainwright opened a new $40 million aquatic center Thursday, which leaders say is intended to improve base quality of life.

“They can come in and do their physical fitness in the mornings, and they can come here and enjoy our beautiful pool with their families and friends during their recreation time. So it’s just like it’s just it gives them something to do in the long dark days during the winter here, and I believe it’s going to be greatly appreciated by the soldiers and our family here,” Ft. Wainwright Business & Recreation Chief Larry Watson said.

Families, soldiers, and political officials gathered at the new center on base to hear remarks from U.S. Army Garrison Alaska Fort Wainwright Garrison Commander Col. Jason Cole.

According to Cole, planning for the nearly 30,000-square-foot facility began in 2019.

Now open, the aquatic center offers lap swimming, a party room, and lessons, among other amenities.

Services at the aquatics center are free for active-duty military and children up to three years old.

Currently, lap swimming will be available from 6 a.m. to 9 a.m. Monday through Friday. Weekdays will also see open recreation swim from 3 p.m. to 6 p.m.

Weekend hours will be noon to 8 p.m. on Saturdays and 1 p.m. to 6 p.m. on Sundays.

Access to the base is required for entry. More information about the center can be found here.

See a spelling or grammar error? Report it to web@ktuu.com

Copyright 2024 KTUU. All rights reserved.

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A marine heat wave has killed approximately half of Alaska’s common murre population, marking the largest recorded die-off of a single species in modern history, research has found. The catastrophic loss points to broader changes in marine environments driven by warming ocean temperatures, which are rapidly and severely restructuring ecosystems and inhibiting the ability of such animals to thrive, according to a new study.

The Northeast Pacific heat wave, known as “the Blob,” spanned the ocean ecosystem from California to the Gulf of Alaska in late 2014 to 2016.

The event is considered the largest and longest known marine heat wave, with temperatures rising by 2.5 to 3 degrees Celsius (4.5 to 5.4 degrees Fahrenheit) above normal levels, said Brie Drummond, coauthor of the study that published December 12 in the journal Science.

Common murres, or Uria aalge, are known for their distinctive black-and-white feathers, resembling the tuxedoed look of penguins. These predators play a critical role in regulating energy flow within the marine food web in the Northern Hemisphere.

While murres have experienced smaller die-offs in the past as a result of environmental and human-induced factors, they typically recover quickly when favorable conditions return. However, the magnitude and speed of the die-off during this heat wave was particularly alarming to Drummond and her team.

The researchers determined the scale of this catastrophic population loss by tracking extreme population declines at 13 colonies across the Gulf of Alaska and Bering Sea that have been monitored long-term. By the end of the 2016 heat wave, Drummond and her team counted more than 62,000 common murre carcasses, which only accounted for a fraction of those lost since most dead seabirds never appear on land.

From there, biologists monitored the rate at which common murres were dying and reproducing and found no signs of the colonies returning to their previous size.

“The only reason we had this data and were able to detect this (event) was that we had these long-term data sets and long-term monitoring,” said Drummond, a wildlife biologist at the Alaska Maritime National Wildlife Refuge. “(Monitoring) is the only way we’ll be able to continue to look at what happens in the future.”

Before the 2014–2016 Northeast Pacific marine heat wave, a common murre census plot at the Semidi Islands, Alaska, had 1,890 birds (left). In 2021, the plot had 1,011 birds (right).

As temperatures in Alaska rose, the murres’ food supply dwindled, with one of their primary prey, Pacific cod, plunging by about 80% between 2013 and 2017, the study revealed. With the collapse of this key food source, about 4 million common murres died in Alaska within the period from 2014 to 2016, the researchers estimated.

“There are about 8 million people in New York City, so it would be like losing half of the population … in a single winter,” Drummond said.

Before the start of the 2014 heat wave, Alaska’s murre population made up 25% of the world’s population of the seabird species.

However, when comparing the seven-year period before the heat wave (2008 to 2014) with the seven-year span following (2016 to 2022), the study found the murre population in 13 colonies spread between the Gulf of Alaska and Bering Sea declined anywhere from 52% to 78%.

Drummond and her colleagues continued monitoring the murres from 2016 to 2022 after the end of the heat wave but found no signs of recovery.

While further research is necessary to fully understand why murres are not bouncing back, Drummond’s team believes the changes are driven by shifts in the marine ecosystem, especially those associated with food supply.

Reproductive challenges and relocation difficulties also may be contributing to the species’ lack of rehabilitation, according to Dr. Falk Huettmann, an associate professor of wildlife ecology at the University of Alaska, Fairbanks, who was not involved in the study.

Unlike some other species, seabirds such as murres take a longer time to reproduce, making repopulation a slower process, Huettmann said.

Additionally, Huettmann noted that murres are bound to the colonies they reside in, and as they are forced to relocate, it can be more difficult to adjust to new conditions.

While temperatures continue to rise in areas such as Alaska, tropical or subtropical waters are moving into different areas, Huettmann said, which creates conditions for an entirely new ecosystem.

With these environmental shifts, animals will either adapt or be unable to survive in the new climate.

Murres are not the only species in Alaskan waters undergoing significant changes. Huettmann noted the tufted puffin, a sensitive marine bird, has been seen migrating north because of poor conditions in southern areas of the North Pacific, including California, Japan and Russia, yet it’s struggling to adapt to its new home. King salmon, whales and crabs are other species grappling with finding their place, he said.

While heat waves have affected many species, other populations aren’t substantially impacted, Drummond said.

Half of the data collected from organisms such as phytoplankton and even homeothermic top predators presented “neutral” responses to the heat wave. Twenty percent of these apex predators even responded positively to the abnormal heat exposure, according to the study.

Homeothermic animals, including birds and mammals, have stable internal body temperatures regardless of the environmental temperature.

“That gives us perspective on which species might more readily adapt to these kinds of warming water events in the future and which will not,” Drummond said.

Although rising temperatures are the primary factor affecting animals like murres, other elements also may be contributing to marine life changes.

“From an ecological perspective … microplastics, ocean acidification, sea levels rising and chronic oil spills … are other massive mortality factors at play,” Huettmann said.

However, studies tracking the long-term effects of climate events on marine life are limited, so scientists are still uncertain about how these animals will continue to be impacted in the future.