* Biologists are puzzling over an apparent decline in Alaska's harbor seal population. From the Bering Sea to Prince William Sound, seal numbers have decreased markedly over the past several years, and observers have been unable to agree on the cause.
* A man who fatally stabbed a friend to death near Nikolaevsk says he did so in self-defense and that violent Ninja movies they were watching had nothing to do with it, despite reports to the contrary.
* An advisory group of hunters, bear-watchers, conservationists and miners cannot agree whether brown-bear hunting should be allowed in a wildlife refuge alongside the McNeil River State Game Sanctuary.
--from the issue of Dec. 24, 1992