Sorted by date Results 26 - 50 of 931
Federal disaster aid is on the way for some commercial fishing permit-holders in Haines and throughout the state, though many may be too wrapped up in the current season to apply for it right away. Applications for crew and subsistence users are currently available online. Unique applications for permit-holders and processors from the Pacific States Marine Fisheries Commission were mailed out on June 26 and are due August 24. The commission says those who have not received a hardcopy...
July 11, 1924 – With perfect weather as though ordered for occasion and a list of interesting exercises and sports carried through without a hitch, and with many out-of-town visitors present, the 1924 Fourth in Petersburg proved an unqualified success. The Filipino team won from the whites in baseball by a score of 10 to 4. Bonapart Cambas and young Johnson boxed three lively rounds, the decision going to the former on a foul. Rayborn showed his skill on a surfboard by riding behind the fastest boat in Alaska, piloted by Earl Ohmer. No o...
Suspense can be felt on docks throughout Southeast Alaska as commercial troll fishermen gear up to chase Chinook salmon during the first general Chinook fishing opener of the summer season. Trollers beginning at 12:01 a.m. on Monday, July 1 can target a total of approximately 66,700 Chinook salmon in an opener that will be closed by emergency order when catch estimates approach that harvest target, the Alaska Department of Fish and Game announced last Thursday. Fish and Game estimates that trollers will catch 66,700 Chinook in six to seven...
Earlier this month the Alaska Department of Fish and Game notified the public of the verified expansion of invasive European green crab distribution in Alaska waters after finding 11 molted carapaces on the shore of Bostwick Inlet, Gravina Island on June 13. First found in Alaskan waters in July 2022, green crab are considered one of the top 100 worst invasive species globally by the International Union for Conservation and Nature due to their predatory tendencies and their rampant destruction...
In January, the Wild Fish Conservancy — the same Washington-based conservation group that unsuccessfully sued to shut down last year’s SE Alaska troll fishery for king salmon — filed a petition with the federal government to list Alaskan Chinook salmon as a threatened or endangered species and designate critical habitat under the Endangered Species Act. This action obligated the National Marine Fisheries Service to conduct a 90-day evaluation of the petition. And despite finding that the petition “contained numerous factual errors, omissio...
Mountain lions are not commonly spotted in Southeast Alaska, but earlier this month one was killed on the south end of Wrangell Island. Alaska Wildlife Troopers and the Alaska Department of Fish and Game were notified that a mountain lion had been shot and killed on June 3. They took possession of the carcass and are conducting an investigation. Troopers leading the investigation declined to comment. Riley Woodford, information officer with the Alaska Division of Wildlife Conservation in Juneau, said he knew of three other documented sightings...
Fish and Game issued an emergency order last week reducing the harvest opportunity for king salmon in the Wrangell Narrows terminal harvest area. Effective June 15, the possession limit has changed from four king salmon per day - two 28 inches or longer and two less than 28 inches in length - to one king salmon of any size per day. And nonresident annual limits will now apply in this area. Blind Slough freshwater king salmon fishing remains closed for the summer; as does commercial harvest of...
Commercial purse seine fishermen in Southeast Alaska this month are preparing for an interesting summer salmon season with no confidence that they will earn a good price for the pink and chum salmon that they catch, and with seafood processing companies Silver Bay Seafoods and E.C. Phillips and Son each starting out their first year of operations in the former Trident Seafoods plants in Ketchikan and Petersburg, respectively. Southeast seine fishery openings will kick off for the 2024 season...
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency is prodding the state of Alaska over its failure to update water pollution rules. Last Thursday, the EPA issued a formal determination that the state should update pollution limits that are based in part on the amount of fish consumed by state residents. Under federal law, those limits are supposed to be reviewed every three years, but Alaska hasn’t updated its limits since 2003. The Alaska Department of Environmental Conservation has been working since 2013 on an updated list of water quality s... Full story
May 30, 1924 – E.J. McKechnie, one of the U.S. Forest Service stationed at Petersburg, says that four miles will be added to the road at Farragut Bay this year. He hopes to have his equipment and men ready around June 5 so that work can then be started. The roadway now begins at the Wallace Homestead and runs toward the river. More settlers are moving into the Farragut Bay section. Mr. McGregor is prospecting along the river and there is a chance that paying mines may be added to the resources of the district. June 3, 1949 – At the May 26t...
The Biden administration says that listing numerous Alaska king salmon populations under the Endangered Species Act could be warranted, and it now plans to launch a broader scientific study to follow its preliminary review. Citing the species’ diminished size at adulthood and spawning numbers below sustainable targets set by state managers, the National Marine Fisheries Service announced its initial conclusion in a 14-page federal notice on May 23. It said a January 2024 listing request from a Washington state-based conservation group had m...
The success of the Ktunaxa Nation to finally convince the governments of Canada and the United States to convene the International Joint Commission (IJC) to address the long-standing coal mining pollution in the Elk Valley in southeast British Columbia (B.C.) and Montana is a very big deal. The IJC is provided for and guided by the Boundary Waters Treaty, signed by Canada and the United States in 1909. The IJC studies and recommends solutions to transboundary issues when asked to do so by the national governments. While this is great news, the...
Steelhead: The steelhead fishing season has now peaked and is beginning to wind down. Opportunity still exists and should continue through the next few weeks. The rain that began this week is exactly what the fish needed. Steelhead are now dispersed throughout the systems instead of being held up in only the deep holes. The month of May can on occasion offer that beautiful balance of finding the remaining steelhead while fishing in warmer weather than the colder month of April. Dolly Varden and Trout: Dolly Varden and trout are now abundant...
May 9, 1924 – When asked about the shortage of bait at Petersburg for halibut fishermen, Earl N. Ohmer said, “The shortage of bait is due to the fact that there is at present no plant here in which to freeze the bait, or to keep it frozen. What is needed is a cold storage plant.” Mr. Ohmer knows whereof he speaks. He is a member of the firm Alaska Glacier Seafood Company, which packs and ships shrimp meat. He is a buyer and shipper of salmon and halibut and other varieties of fish, a member of the City Council, Chamber of Commerce, and knows...
May 2 – An officer provided transport to the Petersburg Medical Center (PMC). Haftor Gjerde was cited for driving without a valid driver’s license. A driver issued a warning for failure to stop at a stop sign. An officer conducted a welfare check. Officers responding to a report of suspicious activity determined it was non-criminal. Officers responded to suspicious activity and there is an on-going investigation. An officer secured the open door to a business. Officers conducted extra patrols. An officer assisted a citizen. An officer fou...
The Alaska Department of Fish and Game reported last week that commercial fishermen caught a total of 66.6 million salmon in Southeast Alaska during 2023, including both naturally returning and hatchery-produced salmon of all five species. Last April, Fish and Game estimated that Southeast Alaska commercial fishermen would take just about 31.6 million fish in 2023. The actual commercial harvest more than doubled that projection; fishermen's 2023 catch topped the department's estimate by 35 million fish. The high 2023 catch beat out 2021, the...
Days are long and arduous in January and February for trollers fishing Chinook salmon in rough weather conditions. But the "amazing catch rates at good prices" encountered during those months benefitted not only the resident fishermen "out there, grinding away"- but also the overall troll fishery, which harvested over the entire winter allocation of 45,000 king salmon. Grant Hagerman, Alaska Department of Fish and Game (ADFG) Region I Commercial Troll Management Biologist, told the Pilot that...
Dear Friends and Neighbors: After roughly 24 hours of debate and consideration of 137 amendments, the House passed the operating and mental budgets last week. Leading up to passing the budget on the House Floor there were weeks of subcommittee hearings, where each agency’s budget was scrutinized, amended, and then passed to the Finance Committee for consideration. As a reminder, my subcommittees were the Departments of Public Safety, Corrections, Education and Early Development, and Fish and Game. In the Finance Committee each agency’s budg...
The Petersburg Fish and Game Advisory Committee(AC) met on April 8 to generate proposals to the state Board of Fish to change the Blind Slough King Salmon management plan. The need for proposals was driven by public outcry following the announced closure of sport fishing this summer in the freshwater of Blind Slough. The AC agreed on and submitted a proposal that attempts to balance the need to protect the return of broodstock king salmon for the Crystal Lake Hatchery, while also providing...
The 2024 golden king crab fishery for the East Central management area -which includes the waters around Petersburg- closed after only four days when area fishermen caught more crab than the season's total guideline harvest level set for all of Southeast. Last year, fishermen reportedly observed a golden king crab population boom in parts of Southeast, but the ability to harvest crab was constrained by harvest levels based on earlier years when the population was very low. Meetings in 2023...
The Alaska Department of Fish and Game (ADFG) preseason forecast estimates 1,400 adult Chinook returning to the terminal harvest area this summer. The low abundance triggered the department to close the freshwaters of Blind Slough for fishing king salmon this season. The last time freshwater was fully closed for a season was in 2013. ADFG ordered the closure according to the management plan for the sport fishery. It is a conservation effort to protect the broodstock for the Crystal Lake...
March 28, 1924 – The Glacier Sea Food Company bought from the Olympic Fisheries a floating cannery on March 15. A scow which is at present located near Johnny Sales’ chicken ranch. The scow is now being painted and repaired. Earl Ohmer says they expect to float it on next month’s high tides. The scow will be used as a floating cannery to pack shrimp. The location for the packing of shrimp is yet undecided. Next door to Glacier Seafood Company Paul Owens of Scow Bay is building a plant for making poultry feed out of shrimp shells. Mr Owens...
Emergency federal government assessments are being sought for a spill of more than 105,000 gallons of tailings slurry at the Kensington Mine that occurred Jan. 31, although officials with mine owner Coeur Alaska say no damage to nearby salmon habitats occurred and there are “no long-term effects from this spill.” The spill occurred at a welded joint in a pipeline that likely started as a “pinhole” and increased in size due to pressure from the slurry flow, resulting in a leak that lasted 23 hours, according to a report of the incident published...
Herring roe ripens as the fish get ready to spawn; their small, white, hard eggs become golden, larger and more desirable. The herring sac roe fishery is a careful waiting game in order to harvest maximum quality mature roe, before the herring spawn. Prior to and during fishing periods, herring distribution, abundance, and quality of roe are monitored by the Alaska Department of Fish and Game (ADFG) via aerial survey, test fishing and vessel sonar surveys to check on the herring biomass. "We've...
March 14, 1924 – The people of Petersburg got up a last minute dance Saturday evening for the townspeople and the passengers on the Admiral Evans. They were ably assisted by Miss Mary Allen, who played the piano and Dick Hanson, who played the drums. The dance was attended by a good crowd, better than was expected on so short a notice. It was not known until rather late whether the Evans would be in port very long, but owing to the large amount of freight the Evans was in longer than expected. The passengers on the Evans that went up to the d...
