2025 was another year of growth for Alaska’s mariculture industry, with more oysters and kelp harvested around the state. Those are some of the takeaways from a recent McKinley Research Group report.

The fishing industry group Alaska Groundfish Data Bank closed its office doors on Dec. 31, after nearly 40 years of representing trawl catcher vessels and processors in the Gulf of Alaska. The Kodiak-based organization has mainly revolved around one person for most of its lifespan.

The Kodiak Island Borough School District’s board of education has narrowed its search for its next superintendent to three finalists. Here's more on who’s on the short list to lead the school district later this year:

More than three-quarters of the Kodiak Island Borough School District’s costs are related to personnel, which makes it a huge focus when it comes to balancing the budget for next school year. The KIBSD board of education is looking to reduce its overall spending by more than $4 million without closing a school.

According to Rick Thoman, a climatologist with the Alaska Center for Climate Assessment and Preparedness, 30 inches of snow was recorded at the Kodiak Wastewater Treatment Plant in December of 2025.

This week is the last week Kodiak Island will see a state ferry for the next few months. The M/V Tustumena is scheduled to stop in Kodiak, Ouzinkie and Port Lions on Friday and Saturday before returning to Homer for the final time this season.

Last month the department announced a harvest level of 5.3 million pounds of fish for the Kodiak area. But the Alaska Department of Fish and Game says that quota is not based on the latest stock assessment data, which indicates the number of Pacific cod in the Gulf of Alaska is increasing.

Various species of birds rarely seen in Kodiak were observed during the 2025 Christmas bird count on Dec. 14. According to Bill Pyle, the coordinator for the local Audubon Society count, those species included snow goose and trumpeter swans.

The Shelikof Lodge which featured the Island Room, was established less than two years after the devastating 1964 earthquake and tsunami. When the Kodiak hotel first opened its doors, Ardingers was a House of Music, Sid and Martin Urie had just opened a new bar called Solly’s, and it was the heyday of the King Crab fishery in Kodiak.

Earlier this summer more than a dozen Kodiak brown bears were causing problems at the Kodiak Island Borough’s landfill. Most of those bears have now been cleared out of the landfill as winter has set in and many are starting to hibernate.