The federal government has failed to give adequate information on deaths of killer whales and other marine mammals that become entangled in commercial trawling gear in Alaska waters, claims a lawsuit filed on Thursday in U.S. District Court in Anchorage.

The lawsuit, filed by the environmental group Oceana, targets the National Marine Fisheries Service, an agency of the National Oceanic and atmospheric Administration.

The whales and other marine mammals killed in fishing gear are subjects of what is known as bycatch, the unintended, incidental catch of species that are not the harvest target.

The lawsuit focuses on three Freedom of Information Act requests filed by Oceana from 2021 to 2023. Oceana asked for records, photographs and videos of animals that have been killed as bycatch in Alaska fisheries. The agency denied some requests and provided information in response to others, but that information was heavily redacted, with photographs blurred and made unrecognizable through a pixelation technique and text blacked out, the lawsuit said.

Distorted photos sent to Oceana included images of whales, Steller sea lions, a walrus, and bearded, fur and ribbon seals, according to the complaint, which seeks to compel the agency to provide more complete information.

NMFS justified the redactions and image distortions as necessary to protect confidentiality, according to the lawsuit. But Oceana, in its lawsuit, said those redactions “are not based on any valid legal requirement to protect confidential information and are not consistent” with applicable laws: the Freedom of Information Act, the Magnuson-Stevens Fishery Conservation and Management Act and the Marine Mammal Protection Act.

“Public access to information is essential to hold the government accountable and ensure U.S. fisheries are managed sustainably,” Tara Brock, Oceana’s Pacific legal director and senior counsel, said in a statement issued by the organization. “The unlawful withholding of information by the Fisheries Service related to the deaths of whales, fish, and other ocean life is unacceptable. People have the right to know how commercial fisheries impact marine wildlife.”

Oceana filed a related lawsuit on Thursday in the U.S. District Court of Central California over bycatch of various species of mammals and fish by the halibut trawl fishery that operates off that state’s coast.

An altered photo of a killer whale that died as bycatch in Alaska trawl gear is part of the evidence presented by Oceana in a lawsuit against the National Marine Fisheries Service. The lawsuit, filed onThursday, cites this an other photos provided by NMFS as evidence that the agency is withholding important information about marine mammal deaths in the Alaska trawl fisheries. (Photo provided by Oceana)

That halibut harvest “catches enormous quantities of marine species as bycatch,” which “results in the injury and death of thousands of fish and other animals,” including Dungeness crab, giant sea bass, elephant seals, harbor porpoises and cormorants, among other species. That halibut fishery “has the highest bycatch rate in the nation,” and it discards about 77% of the fish it catches, the lawsuit said.

The National Marine Fisheries Service declined to comment on the lawsuits filed Thursday.

The legal actions follow a period with an unusually high number of killer whales ensnared in trawl gear used to harvest Bering Sea fish. Nearly a dozen killer whales were found dead in 2023, compared to 37 cases of killer whale deaths in fishing gear that were recorded in Alaska from 1991 to 2022.

A different environmental organization, the Center for Biological Diversity, last year filed a notice of intent to sue NMFS over the trawl bycatch of whales and other marine mammals.

So far, no such lawsuit has been filed, said Cooper Freeman, the center’s Alaska director. Instead, his organization has been meeting with NMFS to try to find ways to reduce the dangers to marine mammals from trawling, he said.

“At this point we have not decided to bring a lawsuit although we continue to have very, very serious concerns about the fisheries and are tracking the harms,” Freeman said.

The agency has pledged some corrective action, Freeman said. It has committed to reassess harms to endangered species and it has promised to analyze Alaska’s killer whales as separate populations, one in the Bering Sea and the other in the Gulf of Alaska, he said. Lumping the two populations as one can understate the impacts of bycatch deaths, he said.

Originally published by the Alaska Beacon, an independent, nonpartisan news organization that covers Alaska state government.

Two petitions were filed this week in new efforts to repeal ranked choice voting and open primaries in Alaska.

Alaska voters narrowly approved retaining the voting system during the Nov. 5 election. The margin was 743 votes after a recount was requested by the Alaska Republican Party.

The dueling proposed initiatives are similar.

The first petition was filed by Philip Izon, the Wasilla resident who led the signature-gathering campaign for the recently defeated repeal effort.

Izon’s new ballot measure is all but identical to the first one. It would again repeal ranked choice voting and the top-four open primary system Alaska voters narrowly approved four years ago.

The second petition, filed by former Eagle River Republican Rep. Ken McCarty, would also eliminate the voting system. But it would go further.

McCarty’s initiative would repeal a provision intended to combat “dark money” that was also approved by Alaska voters in 2020.

That provision has required greater financial disclosures by groups giving money to state candidates.

In November, the U.S. Supreme Court declined to hear a challenge filed by conservative groups to Alaska’s new campaign disclosure rules.

Both repeal petitions were submitted to the lieutenant governor’s office Dec. 16 — the first step to getting an initiative on the 2026 ballot.

Republican Lt. Gov. Nancy Dahlstrom has until Feb. 14 to determine whether the petitions will be certified for signature gathering.

“It is clear that many Alaskans remain concerned about the impact of ranked-choice voting on our electoral process. I respect that these concerns are again being channeled into a legal framework for repeal,” she said Wednesday in a prepared statement.

Dahlstrom said she is working with the Alaska Department of Law to ensure the petitions meet requirements set out in state law. She said the process would be fair and transparent.

If certified, the initiative groups would have a year to collect just over 34,000 signatures from voters across the state.

Initiative petitions require signatures from three sponsors and 100 voters.

McCarty’s petition was signed by two prominent conservatives as sponsors: Bernadette Wilson, interim executive director of the Alaska Policy Forum, and Judy Eledge, president of the Anchorage Republican Women’s Club.

The club posted to social media Wednesday, saying “strong Republican women” would repeal ranked choice voting. The post encouraged supporters not to donate to any other group.

Izon said he had not been told a second repeal effort was being launched. He said that felt like “sabotage.”

The Alaska Republican Party supported the 2024 repeal effort. But Izon said he expected the party would back McCarty’s petition.

“I get along with lots of other states’ GOPs, but the Alaska GOP is not one of them,” he said in a Thursday interview.

McCarty, Wilson and Eledge did not respond to requests for comment.

Carmela Warfield, chair of the Alaska Republican Party, said the party’s state central committee unanimously approved a motion to oppose ranked choice voting in September. Warfield said she signed McCarty’s repeal application in a personal capacity, and believed it would be successful.

“Then, we can do what’s best for Alaska and return to a system of fair elections that all Alaskans — regardless of party affiliation — can be proud of,” she said.

Izon acknowledged that the two signature-gathering efforts could potentially divide supporters and be confusing.

If McCarty’s petition looks more promising, Izon said he would delay his repeal campaign until the 2028 election.

Izon’s petition was also signed by his wife, Diamond Izon, as a sponsor and Lee Hammermeister, a newly registered Democrat.

Hammermeister said that he was inspired to join the repeal effort because he saw voters confused by ranked choice voting.

The Alaska Democratic Party has supported retaining the voting system. The party declined to endorse Hammermeister as he ran against Eagle River GOP Sen. Kelly Merrick.

Ranked choice voting, open primaries and the new campaign disclosure rules were used in both the 2022 and 2024 election cycles.

“Results have proven that the system does not favor any party, it allows voters to more freely express their will and hold their representatives accountable,” said Juli Lucky, executive director of No on 2, the group that favored retaining the voting system.

“Alaskans have spoken on this issue, repeatedly, they want to keep the power of the electoral process where it belongs — with Alaskan voters,” she said.

North Pole, Alaska — ‘Twas the week before Christmas and plenty was stirring at the Santa Claus House in the city of North Pole, Alaska.

The iconic Christmas-themed store checked its list twice, realizing that it is far more naughty than nice if any of the gifts it sends out arrive late to their destinations around the globe.

“People are used to waiting until the very last minute to shop online, which presents a challenge for us having to process that order and ship it out from Alaska,” said Paul Brown, manager of the Santa Claus House, which for decades has been sending thousands of annual Santa letters to children worldwide.

In North Pole, which is located about 13 miles southeast of Fairbanks, candy canes double as street lights, and Christmas takes on special meaning for resident and FedEx driver Bill Soplu. 

“Yeah, this is a wonderful time of the year,” Soplu said. “Everybody’s so happy right now, so it makes our job a lot easier.”

The cold weather doesn’t diminish Souplou’s cheer.

“Just the other day it was 30 above, you know, and then you wake up the next morning, it’s 30 below,” he said.

Nor do the moose.

“We don’t want to mess around with those guys,” he adds.

The gifts Soplu is delivering come from an airfield 20 miles down a frozen road. There are only a few hours of daylight in Fairbanks during the winter months, and the temperature hovers around zero.

An average of 3,000 packages a day come through Fairbanks during the holiday season. Capt. Joseph Erikson is a delivery pilot for FedEx. 

“I know there’s a good chance there’s a special present on that plane, and it’s important to get that to that family,” Erikson told CBS News.

Before they reach Fairbanks, shipments from around the world first come through a sprawling FedEx sorting center at Ted Stevens Anchorage International Airport.

During the holidays, there are 33 delivery planes a day which fly in and out of Anchorage carrying about 80,000 packages. The planes run around the clock so gifts can span the globe in as little as 24 hours.

“We’ve been putting these plans in place for months so we can make sure we’re getting those packages to our customers,” said David Lewis, senior manager for surface operations for FedEx in Alaska.