The Kasitsna Bay Laboratory is located on the south side of Kachemak Bay from Homer near the community of Seldovia. According to the facility website, the laboratory is owned by NOAA’s National Centers for Coastal Ocean Science and operated in partnership by NCCOS and the College of Fisheries and Ocean Sciences at the University of Alaska Fairbanks.
While 2023 saw the closest thing to a “return to normalcy” since the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, actual COVID numbers and hospitalizations were reported to be rising for the first few months of the year before dropping to unprecedented lows. With a drastic decrease in demand for on-site tests and vaccines, the South Peninsula COVID-19 testing and vaccine site closed its doors, giving way to at-home testing and treatment at the regular hospital facilities.
The University of Alaska Fairbanks Girls on Water (GOW) program concluded on Monday, July 10 with a series of science presentations from participants at the Kachemak Bay Campus.