Sorted by date Results 301 - 325 of 923
Construction on the Kake Access Road project was expected to start in early to mid-July, but Joseph Kemp, Alaska Department of Transportation engineering manager for the project, said one last permit is needed before stretches of new road can be built. Permits from the Alaska Department of Fish and Game, United States Forest Service and the United States Army Corps of Engineers are needed in order to undergo the project. Kemp said he is waiting for a permit from the USACE to be authorized,...
The Petersburg Police Department received over 30 calls in the past week from residents reporting bears in garbage cans or on their property. Petersburg Area Biologist Frank Robbins, with the Alaska Department of Fish and Games, said the bears could be venturing into town in search of food due to a scarcity of salmon and a poor berry crop. "In the absence of natural foods, the bears are foraging in the neighborhoods on garbage, chickens and other human sources of food," Robbins said. Every...
Unless you fished for salmon this summer at Bristol Bay, it’s been slim pickings for fishermen in other Alaska regions. Salmon returns have been so poor that communities already are claiming fishery disasters. Cordova’s City Council last week unanimously passed a resolution asking the state to declare disasters for both the 2018 Copper River sockeye and Chinook salmon runs and the 2020 sockeye, chum and Chinook runs at the Copper River and Prince William Sound. The resolution also urges the state and federal governments to declare a “condition...
Alaska’s seafood industry stakeholders have a four bagger chance to provide input on policy decisions that directly affect their livelihoods: trade, relief payouts for cod and salmon, Board of Fisheries meeting plans and appointees. For several, the window of opportunity is tight. Here is the line-up according to the deadline dates for comments: 1. Trade input - By August 1 suggestions are invited for a newly-established seafood trade task force to be chaired by the U.S. Trade Representative and the Dept. of Commerce. The chance to provide i...
JUNEAU, Alaska (AP) — A conservation group has filed a petition seeking endangered species status for a subspecies of Alaska wolves. The Center for Biological Diversity petitioned the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service on July 15 for the protections for Alexander Archipelago wolves, which live in southeast Alaska, CoastAlaska reported. “These wolves are being devastated by trapping and by clear cut logging of their forest home,’’ said Shaye Wolf, a scientist at the Center for Biological Diversity, in a statement. “And they need some stronger...
Most Alaskans are surprised to learn that seafood is by far Alaska’s top export, the source of the state’s largest manufacturing base and its #1 private employer. More surprising is that those simple to find facts are not included in the official trade sheet for Alaska provided by the office of the U.S. Trade Representative (USTR). The information on the USTR website, for example, incorrectly claims that petroleum and coal were Alaska’s top exports in 2018. But seafood has been state’s top export by far for decades. “Seafood comprises...
July 23, 1920 The Petersburg City Council has decided to increase the present capacity of the light plant before the coming winter, the details to be decided at a later meeting when figures have been received from machinery houses. It was brought to the attention of the council that the present light plant is much too small to supply the present demand and that the engines are carrying a 25% overload at the present time, which will be greatly increased with the coming of winter. The finance committee reported that after going over the finances...
The global seafood industry will experience lasting impacts from the COVID-19 pandemic, including reduced demand and pricing. That is the conclusion of the State of World Fisheries and Aquaculture report produced every two years by the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) of the United Nations, the only report that tracks global fisheries and food trends. This year it included a special focus on the pandemic which has toppled seafood markets and supply chains around the world. The report forecasts that global seafood production will be down...
Unexpected upheavals stemming from the coronavirus have slowed the process of getting relief payments into the hands of fishermen and communities hurt by the 2018 Gulf of Alaska cod crash. In late February, the Secretary of Commerce cut loose $24,416,440 for affected stakeholders. Then in late March, Alaska Dept. of Fish and Game Commissioner Doug Vincent-Lang proposed a written timeline for developing a distribution plan and also called for input from communities and fishing groups. A draft of the initial plan was intended to compile...
All systems are go for keeping close tabs on fish and crab stocks in waters managed by the state, meaning out to three miles. While constraints from the coronavirus resulted in nearly all annual stock surveys being cut in deeper waters overseen by the federal government, it’s “closer to normal” closer to shore. “While it’s not business as usual, we are conducting business in as close to normal fashion as we can,” said Forrest Bowers, deputy director of the commercial fisheries division of the Alaska Dept. of Fish and Game. “We have kept all...
June 11, 1920 The Petersburg Hospital Association has secured the services of two trained nurses and they are both now on duty at the local institution. Miss Nellie Thomas of Ketchikan and Mrs. Flower of Wrangell are the two who are on duty. Miss Thomas has spent several years in Ketchikan and has recently completed her course of training in the Swedish Hospital training school at Seattle. She comes highly recommended by all of the doctors in Ketchikan. Mrs. Flower is well known here having been in charge of the hospital during the time Dr....
Surveys of Alaska's fish, crab and halibut stocks in the Bering Sea have been called off or reduced due to constraints and dangers posed by the coronavirus. In what they called an "unprecedented" move, NOAA Fisheries announced in late May that five Alaska surveys will be cancelled this summer "due to the uncertainties created by the COVID-19 pandemic, and the unique challenges those are creating for the agency." NOAA said in a statement that they found "no way to move forward with a survey plan...
Since the mid-80s, Pacific Wings has been offering air taxi service for tourists and locals alike throughout Southeast Alaska, but economic hardships that the company has been facing as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic has caused the business to shut its doors. "This COVID thing hit us pretty hard," said owner Tyler Robinson. "Between the COVID thing and all the travel mandates, we pretty much lost all our springtime visits." Pacific Wings had been anticipating a busy spring and summer this yea...
We are not done To the Editor: Until there is a vaccine or solid proof of acquired immunity we are not done. Being open requires participation in community safety. One cannot happen without the other. Social distancing, hand hygiene and those crazy ingenuous masks are a part of community safety. So is staying home when sick. And employers should do the right thing for the survival of their business to not make their employees choose between a day or a week without pay versus going to work sick....
A rapid response by nearly 800 Alaska fishermen will provide a guideline for giving them a hand up as the coronavirus swamps their operations. An online survey from April 14-May 3 by Juneau-based nonprofit SalmonState asked fishermen about their primary concerns both before the Covid outbreak and in the midst of the pandemic in April. It also asked what elected officials at local, state and federal levels can do to help them directly. Over half of the 817 responses came in over four days, said Tyson Fick, Salmon State communications ad...
Giving COVID relief funds to the seafood industry and stepping on the gas for offshore fish farming are two big takeaways from the executive orders and congressional packages coming out of the nation’s capital. Recent news that Alaska would receive $50 million from the $300 million fisheries relief funds in the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security (CARES) Act was well received by industry stakeholders and it’s likely to be followed by more. A May 15 hearing called “COVID 19 impacts to American Fisheries and the Seafood Supply Chain...
Sales of Alaska’s most popular seafoods are being hit hard by markets upended by the coronavirus, but perhaps none is getting battered worse than halibut. Along with the big losses in the lucrative restaurant trade, Pacific halibut also is facing headwinds from increasing foreign imports. Starting three years ago, sales of fresh Pacific halibut to established markets on the east coast were toppled by a flood of less expensive fish flowing in primarily from eastern Canada. Trade data show that for 2019 through February 2020, total Canadian h...
Strict new rules are now in place for Alaska fishermen and their vessels to protect against and prevent the spread of COVID-19 during the 2020 salmon season. Effective April 24, Governor Dunleavy provided 11 pages of mandates that specifically apply to those who have not “agreed to operate under a fleet-wide plan submitted by a company, association or entity” representing them. Among other things, each independent skipper must sign a “Health Mandate Acknowledgement Form” prior to going fishing. They are required to maintain a written or time...
Alaska’s total salmon catch for 2020 is projected to be down 36 percent from last year’s haul of 207 million fish, the eighth largest on record that was valued at nearly $658 million at the docks. In the Run Forecasts and Harvest Projections and Review of the 2019 Season just released by the Alaska Dept. of Fish and Game, managers are calling for a harvest of just under 133 million salmon across Alaska. The decline is driven by a much lower forecast for those hard to predict pink salmon of just over 60 million fish, down nearly 53 percent. Her...
The State of Alaska wants input on plans to distribute nearly $24.5 million in federal disaster relief funds for stakeholders and communities hurt by the 2018 Gulf of Alaska cod crash. Better make it quick – the deadline to comment is April 10. Cod is Alaska’s second largest groundfish harvest (after pollock), but the Gulf stock dropped by 80% in 2018 following a three year heatwave that disrupted food webs, fish metabolism and egg survival on the ocean floor. It combined to push down cod catches to just 28.8 million pounds, compared to nea...
The Alaska Department of Fish and Game, Division of Sport Fish announced today that opportunity for slope rockfish species will be open April 3, 2020 through January 31, 2021. Resident and nonresident anglers: • The daily bag limit, and possession limit, is one slope rockfish. No annual limit. • When releasing any rockfish anglers must use a deepwater release mechanism to return the fish to the depth it was hooked or to a depth of at least 100 feet. • All vessels must have at least one functional deepwater release mechanism on board and readi...
The U.S. seafood industry received a $300 million assist from the $2 trillion COVID-19 relief package passed by Congress on March 27, and a wide coalition of industry stakeholders is hoping for more. Fishery recipients in the relief bill include tribes, persons, communities, processors, aquaculture and other related businesses. SeafoodNews.com reports that those eligible for relief must have “revenue losses greater than 35 percent as compared to the prior 5-year average revenue, or any negative impacts to subsistence, cultural, or ceremonial f...
The Alaska Department of Fish and Game (ADF&G) announced the winners of the 2020 annual tag recovery incentive drawing for sablefish tag returns. The winners are: 1. Dale Bosworth, Petersburg, $1,000 2. Paul Sorenson, Kenai, $500 3. Bruce Bauer, Juneau, $500 4. Glenda Huff, Gig Harbor, WA, $250 5. James Phillips, Pelican, $250 6. Jim Hubbard, Seward, $250 7. William Hammer Jr., Port Townsend, WA, $250 All persons who return an ADF&G sablefish tag receive a tag reward (e.g., hat or t-shirt). Tag returns with valid recovery information...
The Pacific halibut fishery opened on March 14 amid little fanfare and flattened markets. The first fish of the eight month season typically attracts the highest prices and is rushed fresh to high-end buyers, especially during the Lenten season. But that’s not the case in this time of coronavirus chaos, when air traffic is stalled and seafood of all kinds is getting backlogged in global freezers. Alaska’s share of the 2020 halibut catch is about 17 million pounds for nearly 2,000 fishermen who own shares of the popular flatfish. A week int...
The borough's sales tax has brought in $2,362,621 for the 2020 fiscal year so far, which is about $90,000 higher than what was brought in this time last year, according to Finance Director Jody Tow. Some businesses in town have been seeing the increase in spending, showing that the borough is in for a prosperous calendar year. The Petersburg Borough has seen a slight upward trend in the amount of money it has been collecting through sales tax since the 2016 fiscal year; however, the sales tax...
