Sorted by date Results 701 - 725 of 931
Deer hunting season began for Alaska residents and nonresidents in much of the Unit 3 management area last Saturday, lasting through Nov. 30. Bow hunting on Mitkof Island and the Petersburg Management Area, hunting on the remainder of the Mitkof, Woewodski and Butterworth islands, and residential hunting on the Lindenberg Peninsula portion of Kupreanof Island all begin on Oct. 15, and are subject to other limitations. Outlooks for this year’s season for Sitka black-tailed deer are much the same as last year, with smaller harvests expected t...
July 24, 1915 – The Glacier Fish Company, which was organized by a number of substantial Tacoma business men about six months ago, has engaged Nels Nelson as buyer for this vicinity. Joseph Maddock, manager for the company, was a passenger for the north on the Admiral Watson last Monday evening. He was en route to Icy Straits, where the company has “The Glory of the Seas” stationed and fitted up as a cold storage plant. Mr. Maddock plans to stop over in Petersburg on his return south. The Tacoma company expects to do a considerable busin...
ANCHORAGE (AP) — Experts say this year’s Bristol Bay sockeye harvest will be less than half the record-breaking boom recorded last year. Commercial harvest forecasts had put the catch this year at 37.6 million fish. As the season’s halfway point passed, that number fell by over 17 million sockeye, the Alaska Journal of Commerce reported. Experts are saying a late run is unlikely. “My perspective is that the run is below forecast,’’ said Travis Elison, the management biologist for the Alaska Department of Fish and Game’s Dillingham office. “That...
June 10, 1915 – At an adjourned meeting of the council Thursday evening it was decided to send a delegate to Juneau to take up the matter of the building of the Petersburg – Scow Bay board walk with J.C. Hayes, superintendent of construction of the road commission of Alaska. A delegation from Scow Bay was present and acted with the council in the matter. S. L. Hogue was selected as the delegate. Resolutions on the subject passed by the Scow Bay school board will also be presented to Mr. Hayes. June 12, 1940 – Three salmon canneries are runni...
Preliminary prices for Dungeness crab are in and a bit higher than last year’s. The average price for the first week was “a solid” $3 per pound throughout Southeast Alaska, according to Alaska Department of Fish and Game Petersburg Assistant Shellfish Biologist Kellii Wood. Last year’s average price was $2.99, according to Petersburg Shellfish Biologist Joe Stratman. Wood noted that 838,156 pounds were caught in the first seven days of the fishery by 169 permit holders. “That is the fourth highest amount the fleet has caught in the first sev...
Lower prices in the market are souring what’s predicted to be another large salmon run. “In general, a lot of prices for species are down,” said Andy Wink, Senior Seafood Analyst with the Juneau-based McDowell Group, “especially sockeye and chum.” Prices have dropped $0.05, $0.10 and more than $0.50 in some cases. Wink and local processors pointed to two big factors: currency and supply. The pink salmon market, for example, is “gearing up for a huge harvest,” Wink noted, and the wholesale will be dictated by how big the run is. There’s still...
The Alaska Department of Fish and Game announced late last week its revised 2015 sport fishing regulations for king salmon in Southeast and Yakutat. Starting yesterday and in effect through May 2, 2016, Alaskan resident permit-holders’ bag and possession limit is two king salmon 28 inches or greater in length. From October 1 through March 31, resident sport anglers may use two rods while fishing for king salmon. Nonresidential permit holders’ bag and possession limit is still one king salmon 28 inches or greater in length, with an annual limit...
Dungeness crab season is now open, and fishermen are flocking to the sea earlier. This time last year, there were 151 permits registered, Alaska Department of Fish and Game Petersburg Shellfish Biologist Joe Stratman said. The 2014-15 season ended with 192 permit holders. This year, there are already 193 permits registered, he added. "We have an increase in effort this year," Stratman said. And the results of last year's season may be a contributor, he added. The 2014-15 season was a good one... Full story
A one handed clap best describes the reaction to the 43,000 signature drop off by anti-salmon setnet advocates at the Division of Elections last week. It means enough signatures were gathered to include the question on the 2016 primary election ballot, and let Alaska voters decide whether to ban setnets at Cook Inlet, Mat-Su, Anchorage, Juneau, Valdez, Ketchikan, and any communities designated as “urban” and “non-subsistence” in the future. The ban is being pushed one-handed by the Alaska Fisheries Conservation Alliance (AFCA), whose board o...
Salmon fisheries are opening up this month from one end of Alaska to the other. Total catches so far of mostly sockeye, were under one million fish, but will add up fast from here on. A total haul for all Alaska salmon this season is pegged at 221 million fish. A highlight so far is a 40 percent increase in troll action at Southeast regions, where nearly 300 fishermen are targeting king salmon. That’s likely due to a boosted price averaging $7.54 a pound, up $1.88 from last year. Speaking of high prices – Alaska halibut fishermen are fet...
As of Tuesday, the Alaska Legislature meeting in a special session in Anchorage had still not passed a budget for the new fiscal year, which begins July 1. On Sunday, the Senate Finance Committee rejected a compromise budget passed by the House the previous day, which included some small concessions to the minority such as reversing cuts to the ferry system and per-student funding. A conference committee between the two chambers was being organized to negotiate an amended budget. However, any deal that would tap into Congressional Budget... Full story
Alaska’s salmon industry is ready to get corked by the inability of state lawmakers to pass a budget. More than 20,000 state workers are bracing for 30 day layoff notices, meaning they’ll be off the job when the new fiscal year starts on July 1. The timing couldn’t be worse for Alaska’s salmon managers who are nearing the peak of a season that could set new records. “There is some budget, about 27 percent of our normal amount for us to work in the field, and do our management responsibilities. But how we proceed from July 1 is what we’re wor...
Alaskans will have to wait until fall to learn if salmon habitat prevails over a coal mine proposed at Upper Cook Inlet. A decision due earlier this month by the state Department of Natural Resources has been delayed until after a public hearing later this summer, said Ed Fogels, DNR Deputy Commissioner. At issue is competing water rights claims filed in 2009 by the Chuitna Citizens Coalition and PacRim Coal of Delaware and Texas. The Coalition wants to protect spawning tributaries of the salmon-rich Chuitna River, dubbed the Kenai of the West...
The 34rd Annual Petersburg Chamber of Commerce King Salmon Derby gets underway this Friday at 7 a.m. The derby continues through the Memorial Day Weekend and ends Monday at 5 p.m. Two tagged fish have been released at Frederick Point. The $10,000 fish is about a 15 lb. King, while the $5,000 King is a 28-30 lb. fish, according to Derby committee member Doug Welde who trolled for the Kings for two mornings this week. The $10,000 tagged fish prize is sponsored by Alaska Marine Lines and the Petersburg Chamber of Commerce and the $5,000 tagged... Full story
Nowhere in the world do people have as much opportunity to speak their minds to fish policy makers as they do in Alaska. As decision day approaches, a groundswell of Alaska voices is demanding that fishery overseers say bye-bye to halibut bycatch in the Bering Sea. They are speaking out against the more than six million pounds of halibut that are dumped overboard each year as bycatch in trawl fisheries that target flounders, rockfish, perch, mackerel and other groundfish (not pollock). The bycatch levels, which are set by the North Pacific...
Maximilian Worhatch III was born to Mary Josephine Gola and Maximilian Worhatch II on September 2nd, 1933 in Callery, Butler County, Pennsylvania. He was born at the height of the depression in an old farmhouse on the property where his father managed a fireworks company. In 1933 jobs were scarce and living conditions so dire that when the doctor was paid in dollars for his maternity services he broke down and cried, for it had been nearly a year since he had received actual money for his... Full story
The Alaska Department of Fish and Game recently announced the lingcod sport fishing seasons, bag and possession limits, annual limits, and size limits have been established for the Southern Southeast Area: Southern SEAK Area: Season: May 16 – November 30. Limits: Residents – 1 daily, 2 in possession, no size limit. Nonresidents – 1 daily, 1 in possession, size limit: 30 inches or greater in length and less than 45 inches in length, or 55 inches or greater in length. Annual limit of 2 fish, one of which is 30 to 45 inches in length, one of wh...
If you spend lots of time out on the water, you may, sooner than later, be seeing dolphins and porpoises you wouldn’t normally see this far north. Marine Mammal Specialist Kate Wynne, with the Alaska Sea Grant Marine Advisory Program, went over common and upcoming cetacean species in Southeast Alaskan waters during the Petersburg Science Series Tuesday evening at the Public Library, speaking to a crowd of about 15. “Things are changing so much out in the ocean that I want to get you alerted to the fact that there are these other species tha...
After a nine month process, the Tongass Advisory Committee (TAC) has approved its recommendations for a transition to young-growth timber in the Tongass National Forest. “It’s a pretty complex set of recommendations, but there were two important pieces, I think,” TAC Co-Chair Lynn Jungwirth said: agreement on the timberland base and what to do with it. She added that TAC agreed to a no-net-loss of the existing young-growth land base last week, and to “a different kind of forestry” in which timber comes out as habitat, recreational and touri...
Taking more than a million steps in six weeks' time, Mary Meucci topped this year's pedometer challenge, earning herself a $350 gift certificate and iPad mini. Meucci logged 1,090,486 steps and got first pick during an awards ceremony Tuesday evening at the Petersburg Public Library. Following her was Gail Herlick-Aho with 1,058,481 steps and Mark Tuccillo with 870,958. Sponsored by the Petersburg Volunteer Fire Department, Petersburg Mental Health Services and the Petersburg School District, Pe...
The City of Kupreanof has asked the state to reconsider its proposed Southeast State Forest Management Plan. City Councilor David Beebe wrote a letter on the city’s behalf and submitted it during a public comment period that ended April 30. Representatives from the Division of Forestry traveled across Southeast Alaska to collect feedback and provide information on the plan during public meetings last month. It would affect over 3,800 acres on Mitkof Island. Beebe wrote that the plan “relegates the Southern Southeast State Forest to that of an i...
The Alaska Department of Fish and Game announces the 2015 sport fishing regulations for king salmon in SE Alaska and Yakutat effective 12:01 a.m. Friday, May 1, 2015 – 11:59 p.m. Sunday, May 1, 2016: Alaska Resident: the resident bag and possession limit is three king salmon, 28 inches or greater in length. Nonresident: The nonresident bag and possession limit is one king salmon, 28 inches or greater in length, except during May and June, during which the bag and possession limit is two king salmon, 28 inches or greater in length; the nonreside...
Sport fishing regulations for king salmon will be liberalized in marine waters of District 8 near Petersburg and Wrangell according to the Alaska Department of Fish and Game. The following sport fishing regulations for the marine waters of District 8 will be in effect as of 12:01 A.M. Friday, May 1, 2015 - 11:59 P.M. Wednesday, July 15, 2015: Sport fishing for king salmon may be conducted with the use of 2 rods per angler with no more than six lines fished from a vessel. Resident anglers will have a bag limit of three king salmon 28 inches or...
Each year more than one third of all the salmon caught in Alaska begin their lives in a hatchery. There are 31 hatchery facilities in Alaska: 15 privately owned, 11 state owned, two federal research facilities, one tribal hatchery at Metlakatla, and 2 state owned sport fish hatcheries. Alaska’s hatchery program is very different from fish farming, where salmon are crammed tightly into net pens until they’re ready for market. All salmon born in Alaska’s hatcheries come from wild brood stock, and are released as fingerlings to the sea. When...
The Alaska Department of Fish and Game (ADF&G) has announced further openings for the spring troll fishery. The following Terminal Harvest Areas (THA) will again open at 12:01 a.m. Friday and remain so until further notice: Neets Bay, Anita Bay, Port Armstrong and Hidden Falls. Frederick Sound, which initially opened April 16 and closed today, Thursday, will reopen on Friday and remain so until May 7, along with all of the Ketchikan area, the Icy Strait/North Chatham areas, Ernest Sound in the Wrangell/Prince of Wales area and Stag Bay in the...
