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July 13, 1923 – Two boats were added to the local fleet recently when the Dorn and Urania were launched and commissioned from Skog Shipyard opposite Scow Bay. The Dorn was built for Larsen and Peterson, owners of the Dorn Island fox ranch. She is 32 feet in length with a 9 ½ feet beam and powered with a 30 horsepower engine and is said to be one of the speediest boats of her class in this section. The Urania is a 60 foot boat built for Enge, Dehrdahl and Dan Molver and is powered with a 60 horsepower Fairbanks Morse semi-diesel engine. Both bo...
The Department of Fish and Game has announced that 74,800 "treaty" king salmon (non-hatchery fish) will be available for taking in the summer commercial troll season's first opening, which started Saturday. The department released summer king salmon harvest numbers on June 22. In total, 106,800 kings remain on the table following the spring fishery harvest, the agency said, and the troll fleet will be able to target 70% of those in the summer's first opener. The fleet hooked 24,700 fish in the...
The Alaska Department of Fish and Game announced last week that the length of the 2023-24 commercial Dungeness crab fishery in Southeast would not be reduced, following its calculation of the full season harvest estimate. Based on landing and effort data from the first week of the summer fishery, which opened on June 15, the department is projecting a preliminary full season harvest estimate of 3.39 million pounds of crab. That estimate exceeds the 2.25 million-pound threshold required to have a complete season. “I'm not hearing a lot from fish...
Alaska State Rep. Rebecca Himschoot visited Petersburg last week to meet with constituents as part of a tour around the Southeast communities she represents in the Alaska House of Representatives. Himschoot, a career educator and former member of the Sitka Assembly, finished her first legislative session in May after being elected to the House last year. She represents House District 2, which spans from Prince of Wales Island to Yakutat and includes Petersburg, Sitka, Kake, and Craig. "It was...
A federal appeals panel issued a last-second ruling Wednesday that will allow this summer’s Southeast Alaska troll Chinook salmon fishery to open as scheduled July 1 — reversing a lower court ruling that would have kept the $85 million industry off the water. “It’s a major victory,” Alaska Fish and Game Commissioner Doug Vincent-Lang said in a brief phone interview. “We can go fishing.” The Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals panel, in a five-page ruling, said that the entities defending the fishery — the Alaska Trollers Association, th...
Which came first, the magister squid fishery or the magister squid market? A Juneau charter fishing operator was just awarded a $230,000 grant from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration to find out, and area fishermen might soon have a chance to diversify in the face of declining stocks and high barriers to entry in other markets. “It’s the chicken and the egg. Do you start researching on how to catch them or if there’s a market?” said Richard Yamada, who’s dedicated the last several years to learning more about magister...
A Washington state-based conservation group whose actions have already caused the closure of the Southeast Alaska king salmon commercial troll fishery is now planning to ask the federal government to list several Alaska king salmon stocks under the Endangered Species Act. Last month, the Wild Fish Conservancy formally notified the state of Alaska of its plans to file the ESA petition for multiple populations of king salmon — also known as chinook — in Southeast, Southwest and Cook Inlet, just outside Anchorage. If successful, experts said the...
June 15, 1923 – The Commercial Club party, which visited Juneau to attend the Congressional banquet and to work for the dredging of the Wrangell Narrows, returned on Friday morning and those who went report a successful trip. Mayor Elsemore is reported to have made an excellent impression with his ten minute talk and the others in the party report that the Congressmen present gave him their undivided attention and were seemingly much impressed. It is felt by those who made the trip that excellent results have been accomplished by calling the ma...
Between 2019 and 2021, state and federal law enforcement conducted a lengthy investigation into Petersburg area sport fishing charter lodge Rocky Point Resort, according to charging documents filed with Alaska Trial Courts last month. The investigation has resulted in four sport fishing guides being charged with over 50 counts related to halibut sport fishing violations. Current halibut charter bag limits for Southeast Alaska allow guided charter vessel anglers to catch and retain one halibut...
More than 100 salmon trollers packed a Sitka meeting on June 7 with sharp questions about the future of their fishery, facing what could be an unprecedented full shutdown of this year’s chinook trolling season. “I’m optimistic, but I’m also scared as heck,” said Eric Jordan, a lifelong fisherman and Sitka resident at the standing room-only meeting with federal National Marine Fisheries Service officials. The closure of the king salmon fishery in Southeast would be economically devastating, according to many in the region who rely on the valua...
Up until last year, Southeast Alaska’s Mitkof Island was home to a creek with some unique salmon: They only turned left. Officially, anyway. There is a fork in Ohmer Creek, on Mitkof Island. On the west side, the state’s Anadromous Waters Catalog, or AWC, reported the presence of all five species of wild Alaska salmon, as well as Dolly Varden and cutthroat trout. On the east side of the fork, according to the AWC, there were only steelhead. One afternoon last summer, U.S. Forest Service fish biologist Eric Castro, of the Petersburg Ranger Dis...
In the Bristol Bay region, sockeye salmon runs have been booming while Chinook runs have dwindled. Now scientists are seeking to enlist fishing crews in the effort to find out why, as well as what can be done about the Chinook troubles. A community-focused program called Skipper Science is asking for Bristol Bay fishermen working on the salmon-rich Nushagak River to record the prevalence, locations and conditions of Chinook salmon they encounter – and the places where they are not found. The Nushagak project is a partnership between Skipper S... Full story
The summer commercial troll season for coho and chum salmon will open by regulation on July 1, but no Chinook retention will be allowed, the Department of Fish and Game announced Tuesday. The decision to prohibit retention of troll-caught king salmon is related to an ongoing lawsuit by the nonprofit Wild Fish Conservancy against the National Marine Fisheries Service. But Alaska trollers are holding out hope that the king salmon troll season will open as usual if a stay of a U.S. District Court order is granted by the Ninth Circuit Court of...
The 21 members of the Petersburg High School Class of 2023 are gearing up for graduation and spending their final week as students reflecting on what has been a memorable four years. From persevering through the COVID-19 pandemic, to digging themselves through record winter storms, to changes in administration with the departure of former longtime principal Rick Dormer and arrival of Ambler Moss, these students have seen it all. Through their academic work, the Class of 2023 has earned over...
Over 50 people and 25 more over the phone attended a hearing last week in Petersburg hosted by the National Marine Fisheries Service on a proposal to list the sunflower sea star as threatened under the Endangered Species Act (ESA). The hearing allowed NMFS to share details on the proposed ruling as well as gather input from the public ahead of their final determination. Over 20 public comments were heard at the meeting, with much of the community's concern resting on how listing the species as...
Dear Friends and Neighbors: Happy Teacher Appreciation Week! Thriving public schools are the foundation of our economy and the heart of our communities. The statute establishing Alaska's schools reads "All students will succeed in their education and work, shape worthwhile and satisfying lives for themselves, exemplify the best values of society, and be effective in improving the character and quality of the world about them." Please take a moment to thank the educators you know, and the...
Tom Fisher, a commercial troll fisherman and the president of the board of the Southern Southeast Regional Aquaculture Association, has been catching salmon out of Ketchikan and surrounding communities since 1973. When he heard that a federal judge in Washington made a ruling last Tuesday that could shut down the small boat troll fishery in Southeast Alaska, Fisher was "flat dumbfounded." "Currently I'm at my boat in Wrangell," Fisher told the Daily News during a phone interview last Thursday. "I was slated to get hauled out of the water...
Metlakatla Indian Community Mayor Albert Smith wants everyone to spread the word-the invasive European green crab has arrived on the shores of Annette Island and their arrival spells trouble. Southeast Alaska's abundant estuaries and tidal salt marshes are ideal for the predatory and destructive little crabs to become established, as they have along much of the Pacific Northwest's coast. According to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, the number of green crabs caught in the Pug...
This year's sac roe herring fishery in Sitka Sound held unusual challenges for the fishing fleet, with vast schools of fish on their annual run settling in places tough for purse seiners to operate in during that critical period just before spawning, longtime seine skipper Jamie Ross told the Sentinel. Ross, whose home port is Homer, has fished for more than three decades in Sitka's seasonal herring fishery. This year's fishery was possibly his last. "This was a very complex year; the fish were...
April 27, 1923 – That a large party of capitalists and others interested in the development of the water power at Thomas Bay and the erection of the ten million dollar paper mill there will visit the power site this summer is indicated by the following article printed in the Seattle Times of recent date. “Indicative of the spreading fame of vacation attractions offered by Alaska, is a letter received by the Chamber of Commerce from F.C. Dougherty, a San Francisco business man asking the chamber’s assistance in finding a sumptuously appointed st...
Early Monday morning, passengers in Seattle sat awaiting their flight to Ketchikan where their plane, a Boeing 737 with an enormous salmon painted on the side, would make its final run as Alaska's most well-known flight. The iconic Salmon Thirty Salmon was ready to board passengers for the final flight of its 18-year tenure serving as Alaska's famous flying fish. Kaitlyn Lynch, a software engineer for Alaska Airlines showed up at the gate wearing a sweatshirt featuring a large salmon on it. The... Full story
WRANGELL SENTINEL —For the seventh year in a row, federal managers have closed the Stikine River chinook subsistence fishery to help preserve weak runs of the returning salmon. The U.S. Forest Service, under authority delegated by the Federal Subsistence Board, last week announced the closure to run May 15 through June 20. “The preseason forecast for the Stikine River is 11,700 large chinook salmon (greater than 28 inches in length), which is below the escapement goal range of 14,000 to 28,000 large chinook,” the Forest Service statement said....
Bans on commercial fishing in U.S. and international Arctic waters have been lauded as admirable preemptive actions that protect vulnerable resources before they are damaged by exploitation. But now the Alaska Department of Fish and Game is preparing for a time when the 14-year-old moratorium on commercial fishing in federal Arctic waters is lifted. The department is seeking $1 million in state general funds and another $2 million in federal funds to work on research to better understand those Arctic waters in the event that commercial... Full story
˛ Alaska Department of Fish and Game has reduced this year’s non-hatchery Chinook catch limit for Southeast commercial trollers by 44,000 fish — about 23% lower than last year’s harvest quota. The catch limit for sportfishing, commercial seine and gillnet fleets also were set about 23% lower than last year. The largest salmon are the main moneymaker for many trollers. This year’s harvest limit, while down substantially from 2022, is about the same as was set for 2021 and 2020. It’s almost 50% higher than 2019, when several runs were not expect...
If one member of a family is ill, the family is ill The the Editor: I submit the following letter, meant to be a holiday letter to friends and family. The following is an offering meant to enlighten our community regarding the trainwreck that is this dastardly disease of dementia that can hit an average family like ours. Her mind was clear and strong once, though some may have been uncertain when I was chosen, but she knew her way to love, and maybe I was in or maybe on her way. Sitting next to her in a 1962 college speech class was the...
