Category Archives: Uncategorized

Killer Whale or Orca?

August 22, 2021killer whale, Kodiak Wildlife, Orca, Uncategorizedkiller whale, Killer Whale Predation, Killer whales near Kodiak Island, Kodiak Wildlife, Minke Whale, Robin Barefield, whales in Alaska, What do killer whales eat?admin

Do you refer to the sleek black and white animal pictured above as a killer whale or an orca? Of course, a killer whale is not a whale but is the largest member of the dolphin family, but let’s set aside that fact. What you call these marine mammals may depend on your experience with them. If you’ve watched them perform at a marine park, then the name “orca” fits their apparent playful, intelligent demeanor. If you’ve observed them in the wild, then “killer whale” might be a more apt moniker.

We are in the middle of our summer wildlife-viewing and sportfishing trips at our lodge here on Kodiak, and over the last few weeks, we’ve had several encounters with killer whales. One day, they breached, spy hopped, and slapped the water while we watched with delight. They were orcas that day.

Another morning, we had a very different experience. Soon after we left our mooring, we encountered a bull and a cow orca, and we watched and photographed the killer whales for a while, trying to get the perfect shot of the male with his large, majesti

c dorsal fin. Then, we realized the horrific scene playing out in front of us.

The killer whales slowly maimed, tortured, and ate a minke whale while we watched. They first ate the whale’s tail, probably so it couldn’t escape. The poor minke continued to attempt to swim while the orcas followed it, ripping pieces out of it as the whale slowly died. While we watched the killer whales toy with the dying minke, we did not doubt we were watching “killer whales,” not “orcas. They behaved as the apex predators they are, but to us, their actions seemed cruel. Later, when I thought about the incident, I wondered if the killer whales left the minke alive, so it wouldn’t sink, and they could more easily consume it at the surface. Perhaps their actions were practical and not cruel. To those of us watching the saga, it seemed that the whales enjoyed taunting their prey and reveled in watching it suffer.

Male killer whale following maimed minke whale

Our recent encounters with these beautiful, large dolphins have again made me question what we should call them. Where they sit at the top of the food chain, I think they would prefer the name “killer whales.” The title makes them sound majestic and fierce.

Killer whales have strong jaws and up to 52 interlocking teeth. Their powerful tail fluke can stun or kill prey by slapping the water at speeds as high as (52 km per hour). They often feed in groups and can communicate with each other with sonar and by other means. Observers recently reported 50 orcas stalking a blue whale, the largest of all whales.

In the 1970s, marine parks such as Sea World began capturing orcas and training them to do tricks for public shows. People watched these shows and thought the whales were cute and lovable. Many believed they did not deserve the name “killer whale” and began calling the animals “orcas.”

I tend to use both names, just as I have in this post, but it does this majestic animal a disservice to consider it docile and cute. Killer whales are very intelligent, and they are also the top predators in the ocean. They eat sharks, whales, dolphins, fish, seals, sea otters, octopuses, squid, and anything else they want to eat. They deserve our respect, and to watch them in the wild is a rare treat. I know the image of the large bull chewing on the live minke whale will stay with me for the rest of my life. I might never again call a killer whale an orca.

Kodiak Island Wildlife is now Available

Robin Barefield is the author of four Alaska wilderness mystery novels: Big Game, Murder Over Kodiak, The Fisherman’s Daughter, and Karluk Bones. Sign up below to subscribe to her free, monthly newsletter on true crime and mystery in Alaska, and listen to her podcast, Murder and Mystery in the Last Frontier.

This image has an empty alt attribute; its file name is Mysterious-Kodiak-Island-FB-3.png

Listen to my podcast about true crime and mystery in Alaska.

This image has an empty alt attribute; its file name is 1400-x-1400-1024x1024.jpg

Mystery Newsletter

Book Release: Kodiak Island Wildlife

May 19, 2021UncategorizedAlaska Brown Bears, Alaska wildlife, Bald Eagles, Kodiak Bears, Kodiak Island wildlifeadmin

I am thrilled to announce the release of my non-fiction book, Kodiak Island Wildlife. Learn about rugged, beautiful Kodiak Island and its amazing wildlife. Read about new and recent research on the animals on and near the Kodiak Archipelago, and enjoy the beautiful photographs by my husband, Mike Munsey.

Watch the trailer for more information about this book.

Kodiak Island Wildlife is available at: Amazon, Author Masterminds, and at other online booksellers. You can also order it directly from my publisher, Publication Consultants.

Listen to my podcast about true crime and mystery in Alaska.

Mystery Newsletter

The Warming North Pacific

February 21, 2021UncategorizedKodiak Island wildlife, Our Changing Oceans, Robin Barefield, Warming North Pacific, Wildlife in Alaskaadmin

The climate-change-induced temperature rise in the North Pacific Ocean has impacted flora and fauna from the tiniest phytoplankton to the largest whales. Since pre-industrial times, the oceans’ water temperature from the tropics to the poles has increased by 0.7°C. Scientists predict the water temperature will increase another 1.4°C to 5.8°C by the end of the century.

Melting sea ice and retreating glaciers offer the most visual evidence of these temperature changes, but our warming oceans’ impacts are many and varied. Most changes are subtle and occur slowly over time, but others explode into a mass mortality incident produced by something as seemingly innocent as a bloom of algae.

During the summer of 2015, warm weather across the North Pacific and West Coast of North America produced sea temperatures much higher than average. This warm water spawned massive algal blooms. While much of the algae was harmless, certain phytoplankton species in the bloom produced dangerous neurotoxins. Since plankton forms the base of the ocean’s food chain, this bloom negatively impacted marine life and fisheries from California to Alaska. Biologists identified nine dead fin whales near Kodiak Island in June and believed toxic algae caused their deaths.

During 2015, researchers noted extremely high levels of the algal toxin domoic acid, leading to closures of recreational razor clam harvests in Oregon and Washington. Fisheries managers also closed a large portion of the Washington state Dungeness crab fishery and some of the sardine and anchovy fisheries in California. Biologists measured the highest domoic acid levels ever recorded in Monterrey Bay, California, in May 2015.

Toxic algal blooms directly impact marine organisms, but ocean warming has also created many subtle changes to the biodiversity and population structures of organisms in the oceans, especially in the once ice-dominated areas of the northern Bering, Beaufort, and Chukchi Seas. Warming ocean waters have significantly affected gray whales in recent years. Increasing seawater temperatures in the Bering Sea have reduced winter ice cover in the region, which has led to a reduction in productivity. Primary productivity in the northern Bering Sea declined by 70 percent from 1988 to 2004. This previously ice-dominated, shallow ecosystem favoring large communities of benthic amphipods, the favorite food of gray whales, has been replaced by an ecosystem dominated by pelagic fish (i.e., those that dwell neither on the bottom nor on the surface). Gray whales have responded by migrating farther north, but biologists cannot predict what will happen if amphipod communities disappear from this region.

During the summer of 2018, the waters in the Bering Sea soared nine degrees Fahrenheit (5°C) warmer than average. Gray whales responded by migrating farther north to the Chukchi Sea. Still, amphipods might now be disappearing from this region as well, forcing gray whales to consume less nutritious krill, and krill might not contain the amount of fatty acids the whales need to build adequate blubber. By the spring of 2019, numerous reports noting gray whale carcasses washed up on beaches from Mexico to Canada were alarming whale biologists. By the end of that year, 214 dead gray whales had been sighted. Of these, 122 carcasses had landed on US beaches, 11 on the shores of Canada, and 81 on Mexico’s beaches. In the United States, 48 whales died in Alaska. Since most whales sink to the ocean floor when they die, the recovered carcasses probably represented only a fraction of the number of gray whales that died in 2019. Most of the whales died on their northward migration after a winter of fasting.

The warming ocean impacts the animals living in the sea and birds and animal that depends on the ocean for their food supply or any part of their life cycle. In Prince William Sound, surveys suggest the horned puffin population in that area declined 79% from 1972 to 1998. Biologists believe this decline in numbers is due to significant changes in the food base due to global warming. In the fall of 2016, hundreds of tufted puffins starved to death in the Pribilof Islands. Like the earlier deaths of horned puffins in Prince William Sound, researchers blamed their deaths on a shortage of food linked to higher-than-normal ocean temperatures in the Bering Sea.

In my recent posts on sharks, I noted that sharks have become more common in the North Pacific in the past decade. Pacific cod populations have crashed in recent years, and the numbers of halibut, pollock, crab, and salmon also seem to be on the decline. As the North Pacific warms, will other types of fish and invertebrates move in to fill the void left by the once-dominant species, or will the ocean become a toxic cesspool, lacking any life?

Robin Barefield is the author of four Alaska wilderness mystery novels, Big Game, Murder Over Kodiak, and The Fisherman’s Daughter, and Karluk Bones. Also, sign up below to subscribe to her free, monthly newsletter on true murder and mystery in Alaska, and listen to her podcast, Murder and Mystery in the Last Frontier.

Visit my podcast and listen to stories of true murder and mystery in Alaska

Mystery Newsletter

Salmon Shark (Lamna ditropis)

January 12, 2021Fish, Kodiak Wildlife, UncategorizedAlaska wildlife, Lamna ditropis, Lamnid Sharks, Robin Barefield, Salmon Shark, Sharks in Alaskaadmin

I am always thrilled when I see the dorsal fin of a salmon shark protruding from the water as it swims near the surface. I love seeing any apex predator, but sharks conjure an air of mystery and fear. I wonder if the shark is chasing prey or if it is just watching and waiting for a fish to make the fatal mistake of swimming into its strike range.

Salmon sharks (Lamna ditropis) are some of the fastest fish in the ocean, and their high metabolism makes them voracious eaters. Salmon sharks are closely related to great white sharks, makos, and porbeagle sharks. Because their body shape so closely resembles a great white shark’s shape, people sometimes mistake salmon sharks as juvenile great whites.

Like other species of lamnids, salmon sharks have a conical snout, dark, round eyes, and a keeled, lunate tail. The salmon shark and porbeagle shark can be distinguished from great whites and makos by their smaller secondary caudal keel below the primary keel at the base of the tail. While the porbeagle shark inhabits the Atlantic and Southern Pacific, the salmon shark lives in the North Pacific.

A salmon shark has a bluish-black to dusky gray back, fading to white on the stomach. It has long gill slits and large teeth. Salmon sharks can grow to over 10 ft. (3 m) in length, but they average 6.5 to 8 ft. (1.9 – 2.4 m). They can weigh more than 660 lbs. (300 kg). Females grow larger than males.

Like other lamnid sharks, salmon sharks manage to sustain elevated body temperatures, even in the cold North Pacific. Their core body temperature measures approximately 80°F (26.7°C). They maintain this warm body temperature because they have a counter-current heat exchanger of blood vessels, directing heated blood through their core and dark musculature. This elevated body temperature permits the shark to live and hunt in a wide range of depths and water temperatures. The warm blood flow allows their brain, eyes, and muscles to function at peak performance.

A salmon shark is a big marine animal with no fur or blubber to keep it warm. To maintain its body heat, it must consume a large amount of food each day. Like a great white shark or a mako, a salmon shark aggressively chases its prey and sometimes even explosively breaches out of the water while in pursuit. Salmon sharks feed on fish, squid, other sharks, seals, sea otters, and marine birds. A study done in 1998 determined that salmon sharks consumed twelve to twenty-five percent of the total annual run of Pacific salmon in Prince William Sound.

While salmon sharks are most abundant in the North Pacific Ocean near Alaska, they travel as far south as northern Mexico and the Hawaiian Islands. Researchers have recorded salmon sharks dives as deep as 2192 ft. (668 m). Although biologists do not entirely understand salmon shark migrations, they believe the sharks spend the summer in the northern part of their range, and then they migrate south to breed. In the western North Pacific, salmon sharks migrate to Japanese waters to breed, and in the eastern North Pacific, they migrate south to the Oregon and California coasts. Their migrations are complicated, though, and they segregate by size and sex. Their migrations also depend upon available prey species in various areas. Scientists have determined that although many salmon sharks migrate south in the winter, some remain in the Gulf of Alaska and Prince William Sound year-round.

Male salmon sharks mature at five years of age, while females do not reach sexual maturity until they are eight to ten years old. They breed in the late summer or early autumn. Embryos develop inside their mother for nine months until she gives birth to between two to five pups. The developing embryos consume any unfertilized eggs in the womb. The mother provides no parental care to her young after birth, and they must fend for themselves. Females usually produce a litter every two years.

Male salmon sharks have a maximum lifespan of 25 years, while females can live 17 years. Other sharks sometimes eat salmon sharks, but humans pose the biggest threat. In Alaska, no commercial fishery exists for salmon sharks, but some sport fishing companies specialize in shark charters. Salmon sharks are big, strong, aggressive fish, and they pose a challenge and thrill for sport anglers. Each angler is limited to two salmon sharks per year. Salmon shark meat reportedly tastes similar to swordfish.

In my next post, I’ll describe another species of shark common in Alaska. Pacific sleeper sharks were long ignored as large, sluggish fish, but research over the past few years suggests Pacific sleeper sharks might play an essential role in the North Pacific’s food chain.

Listen to my podcast about murder and mystery in Alaska.

Mystery Newsletter

Dungeness Crab (Metacarcinus magister)

January 12, 2020Uncategorizedadmin

Dungeness crabs (Metacarcinus magister) live nearshore along the coast of North America from the Aleutian Islands to Magdalena Bay, Mexico. The species derives its common name from a favorite habitat in a shallow, sandy bay inside the Dungeness Spit on the south shore of the Straits of Juan de Fuca in Washington state. Dungeness crabs prefer a sandy bottom. They usually inhabit depths less than 100 ft. (30 m), but they sometimes live as deep as 656 ft. (200 m). They can tolerate a wide range of salinities and sometimes live in estuarine environments. Juvenile Dungeness seem to favor estuaries where they can hide from predators amid the eel grass and other plants.

A Dungeness crab has a wide, oval, body covered by a hard brownish-orange shell made from chitin. Unlike a tanner or a king crab, a Dungeness crab has a smooth carapace, lacking spines. The legs of a Dungeness crab are much shorter than those of a king or tanner crab. A Dungeness has ten legs, four pairs of walking legs, and two claws. The crab uses the claws for defense and to tear apart its food. You can distinguish between a male and a female Dungeness by examining their abdomens. Females have a rounded abdomen, while a male’s abdominal flap appears triangle-shaped. An adult Dungeness with a carapace width of 6.5 inches (16.5 cm) weighs between two and three pounds (1 kg). A large male Dungeness can measure more than ten inches (25.4 cm) in width.

Dungeness crabs shed their shells nearly every year in a process called molting. Mature females molt between May and August, and males molt later. A male mates with a female only after she molts and before her new exoskeleton hardens. Scientists believe a female attracts a male and signals her readiness to mate by releasing pheromones in her urine. Male Dungeness are polygamous, meaning each male may mate with more than one female. After mating, the female stores the sperm in internal pouches and holds it until her shell hardens. A female can store sperm for up to two years, and older females sometimes used stored sperm to fertilize their eggs rather than molting and mating. Research shows many older females mate less than once a year. When the female is ready to fertilize her eggs, she extrudes the eggs through pores on her ventral surface. The eggs are fertilized as they pass through the stored sperm. The fertilized eggs then adhere to hairs on the abdominal appendages, and the female carries the eggs inside her abdominal flap until they hatch. An old, large female Dungeness can carry 2.5 million eggs.

When the eggs hatch, the planktonic larvae swim free. Larval development takes between four months and a year, and the larvae pass through several stages before they finally resemble a crab and settle on the bottom. During their first two years, male and female Dungeness grow at a similar rate and may molt as many as seven times, growing with each molt. Adult Dungeness molt only once a year. After two years of age, males begin to grow more quickly, and they grow larger than females. Dungeness crabs have a maximum lifespan of eight to thirteen years.

Dungeness eat live clams, worms, fish, and shrimp, and they also scavenge dead fish and invertebrates. Predators of Dungeness include sea otters, and several species of fish, including halibut. Many species of fish, marine mammals, and invertebrates prey upon juvenile crabs. Dungeness are susceptible to pollution, ocean acidification, habitat damage, and overfishing.

In my next post, I’ll describe the commercial fishery for Dungeness crabs and explain how they are managed.

This image has an empty alt attribute; its file name is IMG_1316-4-768x1024.jpg

Robin Barefield is the author of four Alaska wilderness mystery novels, Big Game, Murder Over Kodiak, and The Fisherman’s Daughter, and Karluk Bones. You are invited to watch her webinar about how she became an author and why she writes Alaska wilderness mysteries. Also, sign up below to subscribe to her free, monthly newsletter on true murder and mystery in Alaska, and listen to her podcast, Murder and Mystery in the Last Frontier.

Alaska Wilderness Mystery Novels by Author Robin Barefield: Big Game, Murder Over Kodiak, The Fisherman's Daughter, and Karluk Bones. — Write caption…

Mystery Newsletter

Safety Regulations Forced Upon the Commercial Fishing Industry

November 3, 2019UncategorizedCommercial Fishing, Dangers of Crab Fishing, Fishing in Alaska, Making Fishing Safer, Manditory safety regulations for commercial fishermen, Robin Barefield, Safety for Commercial Fishingadmin

In the 1970s and 80s, commercial crab fishing earned a deadly reputation, but fishermen opposed mandated safety regulations. With powerful politicians behind it, the commercial fishing industry fought against government interference of any kind, but when a bereaved mother took up the fight, Congress finally forced safety upon the most dangerous occupation in the United States.

Each summer, young men and women flock to Alaska, looking for adventure and a chance to make good money for a few months of work. They’ve heard the stories and watched shows like The Deadliest Catch, and they dream of adventure and riches. Unfortunately, though, the truth is not nearly as glamorous as the shows they’ve watched or the stories they’ve read. Topline fishing operations only want to hire experienced crew members who know what they are doing. The least appealing hire to the owner of a fishing boat is a kid out of college for the summer who wants to “experience life.” These eager young people are likely to find jobs on lower tier boats, the ones struggling to make ends meet.

In 1985, Peter Barry, a 20-year-old Yale anthropology student, flew to Kodiak Island for a summer adventure. He was one of the annual 15,000 summer workers in the Alaska fishing industry. Barry met Gerald Bouchard on a dock in Kodiak, and Bouchard, the captain of the Western Sea, offered Barry a job as a crewman on his salmon seiner. Peter jumped at the opportunity to work aboard a fishing boat in Alaska, and he called his parents with the good news.

After a few days aboard the Western Sea, Peter sent his parents a letter, and his tone sounded much less optimistic. He reported the boat didn’t seem seaworthy, and the captain’s temper often flared, his behavior erratic. Peter wanted to leave the vessel, but the captain threatened him, and Peter decided to stay aboard awhile longer.

On August 20, 1985, a fisherman spotted the body of a young man floating in the water near Kodiak Island. In the man’s pocket they found a letter addressed to Peter Barry. The Western Sea was lost, and out of a six-man crew, searchers found the bodies of only two other men. One of the bodies recovered was Captain Gerald Bouchard’s, and a toxicology exam on Bouchard’s body indicated he was high on cocaine the day the Western Sea went down.

Peter Barry’s father, Bob, flew to Kodiak and demanded answers. Bob Barry was the former U.S. Ambassador to Bulgaria and the current head of the U.S. delegation to the Conference on Disarmament in Europe. When Barry asked questions, he expected answers, but what he learned in Kodiak appalled him. The crewman Peter had replaced on the Western Sea told Barry the old wooden boat, built in 1915, was rotten and leaky and had no pumps. The captain refused to spend money on safety gear, so the vessel had no life raft, survival suits, life preservers, nor an EPIRB to transmit a distress signal. The Western Sea was nothing more than a death trap with a captain fueled by rage and cocaine.

What shocked Bob Barry and his wife, Peggy, more than anything, though, was when they learned commercial fishing boats were not required to carry safety gear or have annual inspections. Even though it was the most dangerous industry in the United States, commercial fishing remained mostly unregulated from the standpoint of safety.

Peggy Barry sank into depression after her son died, but then she began to receive phone calls from others who had lost loved ones on fishing boats. Peggy decided she needed to spearhead the movement to incite change. Something needed to be done to regulate safety equipment and procedures on commercial fishing boats.

Fishermen did not appreciate Peggy Barry’s interference, and she was thought of by the industry as a “privileged outsider.” National Fisherman quoted a lobbyist as saying, “Fishermen have been dying for years, then one Yalie dies, and the whole world seems up in arms.”

Peggy ignored the push-back from fishermen and continued to approach senators and representatives with her concerns. Representative Gary Studds from Massachusetts agreed with Barry and took up her cause.

Because so many fishing boats, especially in Alaska, sank in the mid-eighties, insurance premiums for commercial fishing boat owners jumped dramatically. Insurance premiums on an average fishing vessel rose from $34,000 in 1976 to $169,000 in 1986. Congressmen from states supporting robust fishing industries rushed to pass a bill for insurance relief. Studds saw this as a chance to further his cause. If Congress could agree on a law requiring stiffer safety regulations along with lower insurance premiums, perhaps it could mandate safety for crew members on fishing boats.

Peggy Barry contacted the parents and wives of young men (most lost crew members were young men) who had died on fishing boats, and with an unflinching Peggy Barry by their sides, they addressed the Congressional subcommittee on merchant marine and fisheries. Each loved-one told his or her story and pleaded with the congressmen for safety reform in the commercial fishing industry.

In the end, Peggy Barry and her comrades made some progress. The Coast Guard could not support a provision in the proposed bill requiring all fishing vessels to undergo stability tests. The Coast Guard also felt it could not demand licensing for captains and crews. The final law required commercial fishing vessels to carry life rafts, survival suits, and emergency radio beacons. All crewmen must also take safety training, and a $5,000 penalty could be imposed for failure to comply. The bill ordered the Coast Guard to terminate the unsafe operation of any fishing vessel.

While this bill was a watered-down version of what Peggy Barry wanted, it brought much-needed safety regulations to the most dangerous industry in the U.S. While fishermen were not happy with the new law, indisputable proof shows the new measures made their jobs less deadly. In the year 1983, long before the bill demanding new safety measures, 245 commercial fishermen died at sea. Over time, the death rate has dropped. Between 2000 and 2014, over 14-years, 179 individuals died in fishing-related incidents in Alaska. The mortality rate has fallen to an average of 13 crew members per year. While this number is still too high, it is an improvement.

If you would like to read more about the dangers of commercial fishing, I suggest the book, Lost at Sea by Patrick Dillon. He tells the true story of two ships mysteriously capsizing in the Bering Sea. I’ve read the book three times and was captivated each time by the way Dillon recounted this tragic tale.

This image has an empty alt attribute; its file name is Mysterious-Kodiak-Island-FB-3-1.png — Write caption…

Mystery Newsletter

Alaska Crab

August 11, 2019Uncategorizedadmin

One of the many images the name “Alaska” conjures is a platter of steaming crab legs accompanied by a ramekin of drawn butter. King crab ranks with lobster as one of the premiere shellfish delicacies in the world.

While shellfish connoisseurs have long appreciated king crab, tanner crab (snow crab), and Dungeness crab from Alaska, the television series The Deadliest Catch made folks aware of the rigors and dangers involved in catching the beautiful crabs they craved. Although the show is sometimes overly dramatic, there is no question that while crab fishing can be highly profitable, it is often dangerous.

Over my next several posts, I plan to explore in detail some of the species of crabs inhabiting Alaska’s waters, and then I will describe the seasons, techniques, and perils of fishing for these crabs.

I have been busy lately. Not only did I leap into podcasting, but I recently finished writing my fourth novel, Karluk Bones. The book is now in my publisher’s hands and should be available soon. I completed the rough draft of this novel last December and finally finished editing it in July. It is a tremendous job to write and edit a book!

I have also been working with the incredible actress Carol Herman to produce an audiobook of The Fisherman’s Daughter, and I am happy to announce Carol finished her narration, and the book should be available soon. I like to provide audiobook editions of my novels because I enjoy listening to audiobooks. Between my work at our lodge and my writing career, I have little spare time to read, so I listen to audiobooks while I work in the yard, cook, paint, or run the boat. I love listening to a good story.

With two big projects out of the way, I can now focus on new challenges. My first goal is to finish my wildlife book, and my second is to work on my next novel. Meanwhile, I will continue with my mystery newsletter, my podcast, and my blog.

I am looking forward to learning more about crab, and my next post will delve into the types and ranges of the four commercially valuable king crab species in Alaska.

As always, I would love to have you leave comments, questions, ideas, and even critiques. Thank you for reading!

If you would like to receive my newsletter on murder and mystery in Alaska, sign up below. Also, don’t forget to listen to my podcast, Murder and Mystery in the Last Frontier. I now have six episodes available to stream or download.

Robin Barefield is the author of three Alaska wilderness mystery novels, Big Game, Murder Over Kodiak, and The Fisherman’s Daughter. To download a free copy of one of her novels, watch her webinar about how she became an author and why she writes Alaska wilderness mysteries. Also, sign up below to subscribe to her free, monthly newsletter on true murder and mystery in Alaska.

Mystery Newsletter

Rockfish of Alaska

January 20, 2019Fish, Kodiak Wildlife, UncategorizedBlack Rockfish, Fish of Alaska, Rockfish, Rockfish in Alaska, RockfishBiology, Yelloweye Rockfishadmin

Scientists have identified more than 102 species of rockfish belonging to the genus Sebastes, and over thirty species live in Alaskan waters.^] Although anglers sometimes refer to yelloweye rockfish as red snapper, and many call black rockfish black bass, there are no snapper or bass in Alaska.

Rockfish belong to the family Scorpaenidae, the “scorpionfishes.” Scorpionfish have venomous spines in their fins, and the venom in some species is extremely toxic. Rockfish venom is only mildly toxic, but it causes pain and swelling and can lead to infection. In most species of rockfish, the venom sacs are located at the base of the dorsal and anal fin spines, but in a few species, other fin spines are also venomous. They use their venom to defend themselves.

A rockfish has large scales, and in addition to its fin spines, it has smaller spines on its head and gill covers. Species range in color from bright reddish orange and yellow to gray and black. Individuals of some species grow to 40 inches (101.6 cm) in length.

Scientists divide rockfish species into two groups based upon their preferred habitats: Pelagic and Non-Pelagic. Pelagic species can be found at any depth and usually swim in large schools above rocky shelves. Pelagic species include black, dusky, dark, and yellowtail. Solitary non-pelagic rockfish remain near the bottom in rocky areas, sometimes hiding in cracks or under rocks. They usually live at a greater depth than pelagic species. Non-pelagic species include yelloweye, tiger, quillback, silvergray, China, copper, rougheye , and shortraker.

Rockfish are some of the longest living vertebrates. A yelloweye caught in Southeast Alaska was 121 years old, and shortraker rockfish can live over 150 years.^]

Some species of rockfish reach sexual maturity at five to seven years old, but others do not begin to reproduce until they 15 to 20 years of age. Most fish lay and fertilize eggs externally, but rockfish mate internally, and the female carries and nourishes the eggs for several months before giving birth to thousands or even millions of tiny larvae. The larvae are at the mercy of the ocean currents and wind, and most get swept out to sea and don’t survive. Those that do survive, are subject to predation. The larvae feed and grow in the ocean column for several months before they settle onto the ocean floor where they can seek protection in the kelp and rocks. As the young mature, they move into deeper water.

Researchers have found that while pelagic rockfish sometimes travel hundreds of miles, most maintain a range of only twenty miles. Non-pelagic species have very small ranges of only a few-hundred yards, and some spend their entire lives on the same rock pile.^] Because non-pelagic species do not travel far from their rocky homes, they are easy targets for anglers and are vulnerable to overfishing.

Rockfish eat plankton, crabs, shrimp, and small fish, including smaller rockfish. They are preyed upon by Pacific cod, lingcod, sablefish, other rockfish, halibut, king salmon, sculpins, sharks, seabirds, marine mammals, and humans.

Non-pelagic rockfish are more susceptible to overfishing than most fish species. Not only are they easy to find and catch, but they rarely survive catch-and-release fishing because their air bladder or swim bladder has no vent. A fish uses its swim bladder to adjust buoyancy, and when a rockfish is caught in its deep home and reeled to the surface, the balloon-like swim bladder rapidly expands and pushes against its internal organs. By the time the fish reaches the surface, the expanded swim bladder often shoves the stomach into the mouth. Once it is at the surface, the fish is unable to deflate the swim bladder, and if the angler releases it, the fish will float at the surface and die.

_______________________________________________________________________

In my next post, I will discuss yelloweye rockfish in more detail, and in the following post I’ll focus on black rockfish. Then, I’ll talk about rockfish management and techniques anglers can employ to preserve non-pelagic rockfish populations.

I have been traveling for the past two weeks and will be on the road for another three weeks, so my posts have been less frequent than usual, and I probably won’t return to a steady schedule until I get home. Thanks for reading, and I hope you are enjoying a great winter.

_________________________________________________________________________

Mystery Newsletter

Happy Holidays

December 23, 2018Living in the wilderness on Kodiak Island, Uncategorized, WritingJane Marcus, Kodiak Island, Robin Barefieldadmin

Wherever you are and whatever holiday you celebrate this time of year, I wish you peace and happiness. I celebrate Christmas, and I thought this year it would be fun to follow my friend, Author Mary Ann Poll’s lead. For my Thanksgiving post, Mary Ann sent a note from her protagonist, Kat, describing how Kat celebrates Thanksgiving in Ravens Cove, Alaska. So, for my Christmas post, I decided to look in on my main character, Jane Marcus, and see how she celebrates the holiday.

For those of you who don’t know Jane, she is a fisheries biologist at the Kodiak Marine Center. She is unmarried but has a long-distance relationship with an FBI agent who lives in Virginia. Let’s see how she’s doing this holiday season.

I disconnected with my father and wiped the trickle of tears from my face only to open the dam for a full flood. I knew now I should have flown back to Kansas for the holidays. Nothing happens at the Marine Center during the Christmas break, and I could have taken leave for a week or two to fly home to see my father. He sounded lonely on the phone, and although he told me he’d spent a nice afternoon with my brother and his family, I could tell he missed me, and I missed him. I hadn’t seen him in a year.

I’d made the trip to Kansas the previous year for Christmas, but I hated flying during the holidays, and the family obligations overwhelmed me. This year, I wanted peace and quiet, so I stayed in Kodiak, and now I wanted my family. I laughed at myself. I needed to adopt a cat or maybe a goldfish.

I didn’t plan to spend the entire day at home alone. My friend, Dana, invited me to a Christmas party. I think Dana and her current boyfriend, Jack, invited half the town of Kodiak to their Christmas buffet. Jack volunteered to host the event at his place since Dana’s tiny house wouldn’t hold a crowd larger than three.

As I walked down the hall to my bedroom to change my clothes, I heard my phone chirp in the living room. I hurried back, grabbed the phone from the coffee table, and felt a smile play across my mouth when I read the phone’s display.

“Merry Christmas, Agent Morgan,” I said.

“Merry Christmas to you, Jane. Where are you?”

“I’m at home in Kodiak, and you?”

“I’m in my apartment in Virginia right now, but I’m flying to Miami tomorrow on a big case. I’ll be there for a few weeks,” Morgan said

“I thought you were working on a string of murders in Indiana.”

“I was,” he said. “My involvement in the case ended yesterday.”

“Did you catch the killer?”

“We did, but not until after he’d murdered six women.”

“At least you got him,” I said.

Morgan didn’t say anything for a moment, and then, “I’m sorry Jane. I have another call, and I need to take it.”

“Maybe I’ll see you one day again.” I hoped I hid the bitterness I felt.

“You will,” he said. “Take care.”

I sank into the couch and began to cry again. Once the tears stopped, I realized I was in no mood for a party. I called Dana. She must have been busy because she didn’t answer until the sixth ring.

“Where are you?” She asked.

“I’m sorry Dana, but I don’t feel well. I won’t be able to make it to your party.”

“What? Nonsense. I’ll send Jack to pick you up. He has agreed not to consume alcohol tonight, so he is our designated driver for the evening.”

I thanked Dana but told her I was in no mood for a party. I headed to my kitchen, grabbed a bag of potato chips, poured myself a glass of wine, and turned on the television, quickly flipping past a parade of holiday shows until I found an old episode of Dateline. I settled on the couch and tried to concentrate on the show.

Fifteen minutes later, my doorbell rang. I opened the door a crack, and saw Jack’s smiling face.

“What are you doing here?” I asked. “I told Dana I wouldn’t be able to make it to the party.”

Jack smiled and shrugged. He looked even more handsome than usual. His black parka matched his eyes, and even in the fading light, I could see the dimple on his right cheek.

“You know Dana,” Jack said. “She gets what she wants, and I do as she says. She told me to collect you using any means necessary and bring you to our party.”

I laughed. “Do you plan to kidnap me?”

He shrugged again. “Speaking of kidnapping, Dana said to tell you we are discussing the recent abduction in Anchorage.”

“What abduction?” I asked

“You didn’t hear about it?”

I shook my head.

“A big oil executive. I can’t remember which company, but anyway, three masked men entered his house while he and his wife and kids were celebrating Christmas Eve. One of the guys pulled a gun and told him to come with them, or they’d start shooting his family.”

“Whoa,” I said. Then I took a step back and narrowed my eyes at Jack. “Are you making this up just to get me to go to your party?”

Jack held his hands in the air. “It’s true. You can check the Internet. Dana says with your detective skills, we need your input on the crime.”

“You’re playing dirty, jack,” I said. “You know I can’t resist discussing a crime.” I pushed the door open and let Jack into my house. “Have a seat,” I said. “I need to change my clothes.”

Have a wonderful holiday, and I will be back here next week to discuss my New Year’s resolutions. Meanwhile, leave a comment and tell me about your resolutions.

Mystery Newsletter

Introducing Author Masterminds’ Readers and Writers Book Club

December 16, 2018UncategorizedBook Club, Readers and Writers Book Club, Robin Barefieldadmin

As a way of saying THANK YOU for supporting me as an author, my publisher has authorized me to give my blog readers a free gift—a LIFETIME membership to the new Readers and Writers Book Club.

Memberships will soon be selling for $99–but you’ll never have to pay, as long as you accept my gift and sign up soon.

Your free lifetime Readers and Writers Book Club membership includes:
– Member Newsletter: Hear directly from authors in your inbox!

-Members Only Access: Unlock the private members’ area and exclusive content from the club’s authors.

– Community Access: Inside our private Facebook group you’ll have direct access to authors and will be able to share in the fun with other readers as well!

Here’s how to claim your gift (worth $99) to receive a lifetime membership for FREE!

Step One: Go here>> http://www.readersandwritersbookclub.com/join-the-club and enter your email address to claim your FREE lifetime membership to the club.

Step Two: Create your username and password on the following page.

Step Three: Login to the members’ area and enjoy the goodies published there!

You’re also allowed to give these memberships as a gift, as long as you forward this email or the link to whoever you’d like to share it with!

The club is expected to close free memberships after the first 2,000 people join, so make sure you grab yours here: http://www.readersandwritersbookclub.com/join-the-club

I hope to interact with my readers in several ways. I would love to read and discuss wilderness mystery novels, and perhaps we can choose a different novel every month. I encourage readers of my true crime newsletters to stop by the Facebook group and discuss the latest crime I’ve profiled. The Facebook groupwould also be a great place to talk about wildlife and Alaska, so please signup, and enjoy the fun. We have authors in our group who write in a wide variety of genres, so we have something for everyone!

Send the club link to anybody else you’d like to gift a gift to this season.

Thank you once again for your support!

I look forward to meeting you at the club.

Robin