The Cook Inlet commercial fishery is coming off an above-average year for harvest of sockeye salmon, but commercial fishermen are not the only ones who benefitted from the big run.

“In Upper Cook Inlet, the approximate exvessel value of the commercial fishery in 2011 is somewhere between $50 to $55 million,” Alaska Department of Fish and Game biologist Pat Shields said, “which is still one of the better years in Cook Inlet history, I think it’s one of the top five for exvessel value.”

Kenai Peninsula residents traveling over the holidays will note an aggressive increase in the traffic enforcement efforts of local law agencies. 

The Alaska State Troopers and other agencies statewide are conducting extra traffic enforcement efforts and targeting those driving under the influence through Nov. 27.

“Officers realize the holidays can be tough for a lot of folks, so there’s more DUI enforcement for public safety reasons,” Soldotna Police Department Sgt. Stace Escott said.

JUNEAU — A joint mining venture recently announced it has found promising quantities of gold at Herbert Glacier.

In late October, Quaterra Resources Inc. and Grande Portage Resources Ltd. formed a 35 percent/65 percent joint venture to further explore and develop the Herbert Glacier Project. The project is expected to produce gold, silver, copper, zinc, lead and tungsten.

Climate change is taking place on the Kenai Peninsula, slowly but surely.

Over the last 100 years, climate change has been affecting the Peninsula, according to a presentation Thursday night from Dr. John Morton, supervisory biologist at the Kenai National Wildlife Refuge.

Morton said climate change has its own impacts, and can’t be looked at in a vacuum.

“It’s the addition of climate change on top of all the other stressors that we have on the system,” Morton said. “Urbanization, pollution and land use changes — all those things.”