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After deliberation on Saturday the Alaska Board of Fisheries rejected a proposal to scrap the Southeast Alaska management plan for Dungeness crab fisheries. The BoF is currently convened in Sitka for its meeting on the region’s shellfish and finfish regulation change proposals. It meets every three years, the last one being held in Wrangell in January 2015. Starting its shellfish meeting on January 11, members took testimony for 155 different proposals related to crab, shrimp and other miscellaneous shellfish. A late comer to this year’s sla...
DOUGLAS, Alaska (AP) – An Alaska man says his dog came nose-to-nose with a wolf while they were walking at a Douglas park. The incident happened last Saturday while Peter Fellman and his wife, Jane Pierson, were walking their two dogs in Savikko Park, also referred to as Sandy Beach. Neither Fellman, his wife nor their dogs were harmed in the encounter, the Juneau Empire reported . Fellman said his dog Bingo’s benign nature allowed the group to remain unharmed. The couple was on their way to a dinner at a friend’s house when they decided to st...
January The Borough assembly started approval of a program called Local Improvement Districts, which asks Petersburg residents whether they would pay for road work in their neighborhoods. The Petersburg School Board discussed the possible loss of federal funding through a program called Secure Rural Schools. The school district reported a case of a Pertussis, or whooping cough, confirmed in Petersburg. Superintendent Erica Kludt-Painter said it was not a public health emergency. An engineer led...
A Petersburg man pleaded guilty last Tuesday of interfering with crab pots belonging to four other fishermen in town, coming after a hearing with testimony from a remorseful defendant and community members questioning whether the punishment was harsh enough. In a change of plea hearing on December 19, James Andrew Knight, 54 of Petersburg, told Judge William B Carey he was guilty of three misdemeanors, including interfering with commercial fishing gear, unlawful use of pot tags and operating more than 300 Dungeness crab pots. Knight was fined...
Action plans for the emergency management of Chinook salmon in Southeast Alaskan rivers have been drafted ahead of next month's Board of Fisheries meeting in Sitka. The board, which reviews regulatory oversight of fisheries across the state, planned to meet on January 11 to discuss shellfish and finfish proposals for the coming year. But added to its plate will be a trio of action plans drawn up by the Department of Fish and Game designating king salmon populations in several rivers as stocks...
A town hall on opioids was held in Petersburg last week, and state representatives continued a tour through Alaska communities in search of ideas and questions on the recently-declared drug disaster. "We're not here with an action plan. So often we do this, at the government level," started Andy Jones, director of the Office of Misuse and Addiction Prevention in Alaska, addressing about 50 people at the Sons of Norway Hall. "We create something and we come to you guys and say, 'here ya go, what...
WRANGELL - A preseason forecast for next year's king salmon return to the Stikine River has come up worryingly short, boding ill for local fisheries. Released last week by Alaska Department of Fish and Game, the preseason terminal run size forecast for the Stikine River was at only 6,900 fish, less than half the lower threshold of the stock's escapement goal range. The Stikine EGR is between 14,000 and 28,000 Chinook salmon, and such a low forecast does not allow for an allowable catch under tre...
The furbearer trapping season is open in Petersburg and the Alaska Department Fish and Game is asking pet owners to control their animals to avoid legally set traps. “Leash laws, where applicable, should be followed,” said Richard Lowell, an area management biologist with the department, who issued a press release on Wednesday. “A person may not obstruct, hinder, or disturb a lawful trapping effort.” The department is asking hunters to use discretion when setting traps near trails, recreational or residential areas where there are people...
JUNEAU, Alaska (AP) — The Alaska Department of Fish and Game advised caution for hikers and for dog walkers in Juneau as wolf sightings have increased. Anecdotal reports of wolf sightings in Juneau have increased this year, but assistant area management biologist Carl Koch cannot be sure whether that’s due to an increase in wolf awareness from encounters posted to social media or a reflection of a population increase in Juneau, the Juneau Empire reported . “I’d say the anecdotal reports are higher (this year) than they have been,” Koch said...
It’s going to be a tough year for many Alaska fishermen. Following on the heels of announcements of a massive drop in cod stocks, the industry learned last week that Pacific halibut catches are likely to drop by 20 percent next year, and the declines could continue for several years. That could bring the coast wide catch for 2018, meaning from Oregon to British Columbia to the Bering Sea, to about 31 million pounds. Scientists at the International Pacific Halibut Commission (IPHC) interim meeting in Seattle revealed that survey results s...
KODIAK, Alaska (AP) _ Several Kodiak residents have reported seeing bears in town throughout the past few weeks, and at least one area expert believes that’s because of a lackluster berry crop this year. Although the state Department of Fish and Game hasn’t received a higher-than-normal number of reported bear sightings, area wildlife biologist Nathan Svoboda believes a berry crop failure might have something to do with the encounters, the Kodiak Daily Mirror reported Wednesday. In years when the berry crop fails, bears become nut...
The biggest year classes of Alaska fishermen are phasing out of the business and fewer young cohorts are recruiting in. The Alaska Young Fishermen’s Summit has convened over a decade to help stanch that outward flow, and facilitate a future for fishing leaders. The average age of a commercial fisherman in Alaska was 50 in 2014 compared to 40 in 1980. At the same time, the number of Alaskans under 40 holding fishing permits fell to just 17 percent, down from nearly 40 percent of total permits across the state. The Summit coming up this year A...
Fewer men and women went out fishing in Alaska last year, in a familiar cycle that reflects the vagaries of Mother Nature. A focus on commercial fishing in the November Alaska Economic Trends by the State Department of Labor shows that the number of boots on deck fell by five percent in 2016 to about 7,860 harvesters, driven by the huge shortfall in pink salmon returns and big declines in crab quotas. Fishing for salmon, which accounts for the majority of Alaska’s fishing jobs, fell by 6.4 percent statewide in 2016, a loss of 323 workers. T...
Fish and Game board process is a public process To the Editor: Dear Alaskans, As your chairs to the Alaska Boards of Fisheries and Game we want to take this time to update you on our upcoming meeting season for 2017-2018. For those new to Alaska or our state’s fish and game regulatory process, the Boards of Fisheries and Game are composed of seven individuals from around Alaska who meet each year to enact changes to your fish and game management system. For example, by passing a regulation the Board of Game might open a new moose hunt in wester...
WRANGELL – Wrangell delegates returned from last month's annual conference for the Alaska Federation of Natives at Anchorage's Dena'ina Center. AFN is the largest statewide Native organization in Alaska, representing 151 federally recognized tribes, 150 village corporations, 12 regional corporations, and various nonprofit and tribal consortiums. Its annual October conference, this year held between the 19th and 21st, provides AFN membership the opportunity to put forward resolutions as well a...
It’s steady as she goes for the values of Alaska salmon fishing permits, with upticks in the wind at several fishing regions. “There’s a lot of cautious optimism,” said Jeff Osborn of Dock Street Brokers in Seattle. As well there should be after a salmon fishery that produced 225 million fish valued at nearly $680 million, a 67 percent increase over 2016. Bristol Bay drift salmon permits trade more than any other due to the sheer volume (1,800) and it’s no surprise the value is increasing after one of the best fishing seasons ever. But they are...
Preliminary harvest and value figures for the 2017 commercial salmon fishery indicate the season was a step up above the previous year's disastrous harvest. The Alaska Department of Fish and Game reported a 66.7-percent increase in exvessel value between the two years, with 224.6 million wild salmon worth around $678.8 million brought in by the state's fishing fleet. Chum salmon saw the biggest boon of the year, breaking records with 25.2 million fish, worth about $128.3 million. The haul...
It's not easy to create a five-star dish using beets, anchovies, chili powder, Cheetos and gummy bears. But that's just what the 16 chefs in this year's Chilkat Chef Competition in Haines had to accomplish recently. More than 140 people attended a cooking competition in Harriet Hall where six teams had 50 minutes to incorporate those five mystery ingredients, revealed after the timer started, with a Chilkat coho salmon. The chefs had to prepare four plates for each judge and a fifth plate to...
Anglers who purchased an Alaska sport fishing license in 2017 may soon receive a copy of the 2017 Alaska Sport Fishing Survey—an annual mail survey conducted by the Alaska Department of Fish and Game (ADF&G) to assess where sport fishing occurs and how many fish are caught and kept by anglers in Alaska. This week, ADF&G Division of Sport Fish will begin mailing the first wave of 2017 Alaska Sport Fishing Surveys. The survey is sent to approximately 47,000 randomly selected Alaska resident and nonresident households having a person who purchased...
Hunters still have until tomorrow to get their harvest reports in, but the 2017 moose hunt has already broken the RM038 district record. As of Tuesday afternoon some 117 animals had been logged by hunters in the Wrangell and Petersburg area. It surpasses the 111 taken last year, and marks the fourth year in a row where the harvest has exceeded 100 moose. The month-long season started September 15 and wrapped up Sunday. The majority of moose were taken on surrounding islands, with 48 taken on...
Kodiak is at the center of a national push to produce biofuels from seaweeds. Agents from the U.S. Department of Energy’s Advanced Research Projects Agency-Energy (ARPA-E) recently traveled to the island to meet with a team of academics, scientists, businesses and local growers to plan the first steps of a bi-coastal pilot project to modernize methods to grow sugar kelp as a fuel source. The project is bankrolled by a $500,000 grant to the University of Alaska/Fairbanks through a new DOE program called Macroalgae Research Inspiring Novel E...
With one weekend to go in the 2017 moose hunting season, numbers were approaching 100 as of Tuesday. Ninety-five bull moose had been reported by hunters in the Petersburg-Wrangell management area, only seven of which have been confiscated due to noncompliance with local antler restrictions. “It seems like a nice, lower number of illegals,” Department of Fish and Game wildlife biologist Rich Lowell said of the year. Typically about 10 percent of the total harvest is deemed illegal by management officials, making this year’s slightly bette...
First the bad news. Stakeholders were stunned to learn that surveys yielded the lowest numbers ever for Pacific cod in the federally managed waters of the Gulf of Alaska, meaning from three to 200 miles offshore. Seafood.com was the first to report the bad news as the North Pacific Fishery Management Council meeting got underway last week in Anchorage. Fisheries biologist Steve Barbeaux of the Alaska Fisheries Science Center in Seattle said the summer survey, done every other year, revealed that the cod year classes for 2012 and 2013 appeared...
The Petersburg-Wrangell area moose harvest seems set to break 100 again this year, according to the Alaska Department of Fish and Game. So far 67 moose have been checked in during the first 18 days of the monthlong hunt. Petersburg ADFG wildlife biologist Rich Lowell explained that generally the larger share of bulls are killed during the first half of the season. Over the past eight years the final two-week average has seen around 45 moose harvested, ranging from a low of 36 to a high of 57. The number of moose taken illegally in the district...
Undaunted by pouring rain, hunters in the Wrangell and Petersburg areas have been bringing in their fill of moose for the 2017 season. As of Tuesday afternoon, Alaska Department of Fish and Game reported a total of 47 bulls have so far been shot since the season’s opener on September 15. Of these, only three have so far been confirmed as noncompliant specimens. “We’ve got a couple that we’re looking at,” ADFG wildlife biologist Rich Lowell added. The department investigates the carcass in conjunction with the State Troopers, and the two agenc...
