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Hunters harvested a total of 141 moose in the 2023 RM038 moose hunt, according to the Alaska Department of Fish and Game. This overall number is much higher than the 118 total in 2022 and exceeds the high 2021 harvest, as well. "This was a high for the RM038, 141 is a high. The previous high was 132 and it was in 2021," said ADF&G Wildlife Biologist Frank Robbins. The RM038 moose hunt began mid-September and ended October 15. Twelve of those 141 total moose were harvested illegally. Kupreanof...
An unusual white raven has been seen repeatedly around Anchorage in recent days, captivating birders, photographers and amateur wildlife enthusiasts. "It looks like a leucistic bird, so a bird that's lacking melanin in its feathers," said Lisa Pajot, a volunteer with a local avian rehabilitation organization, Bird TLC, who spent 20 years working as a bird biologist. The condition is slightly different from albinism, marked by full white cover and red eyes. The raven spotted in Midtown Anchorage...
Bystanders in downtown Petersburg watched through the windows of Petersburg IGA as wildlife troopers and police captured a young bear inside the grocery store on Tuesday afternoon. Alaska State Wildlife Trooper Sgt. Cody Litster told the Pilot that he received an urgent call from staff at the downtown grocery store and left promptly, notifying the Alaska Department of Fish and Game along the way, with the Petersburg Police Department following close behind. Trooper Josh Spann and Sgt. Litster...
October 11 – Petersburg Police Department (PPD) received a report of a bear trying to access a chicken enclosure on North 4th Street. The complainant ran the bear off the property. PPD received a report of an injured deer, believed to have been hit by a vehicle at Mitkof Highway and Hungerford Hill Road, leaving the area. It was not located. An officer assisted a citizen on South 2nd Street. PPD received a report of a runaway dog on Mitkof Highway. An officer conducted additional patrols on Lumber Street in response to reported bear s...
ANCHORAGE, Alaska (AP) — Alaska fishermen will be able to harvest red king crab for the first time in two years, offering a slight reprieve to the beleaguered fishery beset by low numbers likely exacerbated by climate change. There was no such rebound for snow crab, however, and that fishery will remain closed for a second straight year, the Alaska Department of Fish and Game announced earlier this month. “The Bristol Bay red king crab fishery for the prior two seasons were closed based on low abundance and particularly low abundance of mat...
October 12, 1923 – Work has been started on the erection of a Catholic Church on the recently purchased property on Third Street, opposite the little school house. The new structure will cost between three and four thousand dollars when completed, according to a statement made by Father Gallant, of Skagway, who is here overseeing the work of the erection. Arrangements for the erection of the building were completed some time ago and the lumber arrived last week from Wrangell. Father Gallant stated that, for the time being at least, the work o...
Commercial salmon fishing in Southeast is mostly finished for the year and the volume of salmon caught far exceeded expectations, but due to low prices, the value of the harvest fell short of recent years. Troy Thynes, Alaska Department of Fish and Game’s (ADF&G) regional management coordinator for commercial fisheries, told the Pilot that this season was “actually a pretty good year” in terms of total number of fish. The preliminary total estimated number of fish currently stands at 65,737,799 salmon for the region, most of that being 47,64...
Local fishing industry representatives met with the Alaska Department of Fish and Game (ADF&G) in Petersburg last week looking for a Golden King Crab compromise. The department acknowledged frustrations voiced by the fishermen this year regarding management hindering the golden king harvest. King and Tanner Task Force (KTTF) meetings were organized to brainstorm and come to a common understanding. In the latest KTTF meeting held at the Petersburg Public Library on Sept. 28, the industry and the...
WRANGELL — The Stikine Sportsmen Association is offering a $2,500 reward for information leading to the conviction of whoever illegally killed a cow moose and left the carcass to rot in the woods south of Wrangell. A hiker discovered the kill and reported it Sept. 24, said Chadd Yoder, the state wildlife trooper in Wrangell. After inspecting the carcass, he estimated it had been dead five to 10 days. The moose was “human killed,” and all of the meat left at the site, Yoder said Friday, Sept. 29, declining to share too many details about the o...
As of Oct. 3, hunters have harvested a total of 70 moose in the 2023 RM038 moose hunt, according to the Alaska Department of Fish and Game. Six of the 70 harvested were illegal, with the remaining 64 considered legal game. The total number of moose harvested at this point falls slightly short of the 77 moose harvested last year by Oct. 5 2022. Hunters have harvested 29 legal moose —and two illegal moose— on Kupreanof Island, more than any other area Fish and Game tracks. The Stikine River has seen 14 legal moose harvested so far. The hig...
The numbers are in from the summer season of the Southeast Alaska commercial Dungeness crab fishery which closed in mid-August. Over the two months that the season was open, 2.58 million pounds of Dungeness crab was harvested in Registration Area A, with 148 permit holders reporting landings. Joseph Stratman of the Department of Fish and Game says the department estimates another 1.3 million pounds will be harvested once the fall season opens Oct. 1. The Department of Fish and Game does not conduct surveys for Dungeness crab stock, instead the...
Golden king crabs appear to have returned to Frederick Sound en masse after years of low commercial harvests, but it remains to be seen how much crab will be up for grabs for fishermen next season. The commercial golden king crab fishery in Southeast, which typically opens in mid-February, is regulated by an annual recommended harvest strategy developed by the Alaska Department of Fish and Game (ADF&G). Under the harvest strategy, the department establishes a guideline harvest level (GHL) and a...
Moose hunting aims to begin on September 15. For this hunt, Alaska Wildlife Troopers Sgt. Cody Litster says hunters should acquire a RM038 permit, verse themselves thoroughly on what distinguishes legal game, submit their hunting reports and report their mistakes without hesitation. As far as antler configuration goes, Sgt. Litster says "it's the same as it has been." According to the Alaska Department of Fish and Game (ADF&G), antler restrictions protect a portion of the bull population by...
Anyone interested in the sudden surge of mushrooms or the bellowing cry of the Sand Hill Cranes passing over town can stoke their curiosity at the Petersburg Rainforest Festival events during the days to come. The official goal of the rainforest festival is, "connecting people to the natural world through education, exploration, and the arts." Since 2008, this festival has typically taken place after Labor Day weekend. However, that changed a few years ago. "For the last couple of years, we've...
The Southeast king salmon troll fishery opened Friday, Sept. 1, for the third time this summer, though relatively few fish remain in this year’s allocation, the Department of Fish and Game announced. With only about 3,200 kings remaining in the season quota, Fish and Game said the 10-day opening will be a rare “limited harvest fishery,” with each permit holder allowed to take only nine chinook. As a limited fishery, it comes with a few additional rules as well. Fish kept for personal use will count toward the commercial harvest limit, and k...
The Alaska Department of Fish and Game has closed the commercial red and blue king crab fishery for the 2023-2024 season, the sixth year in a row, citing stock survey numbers that remain well below the regulatory threshold. The survey estimated 119,000 pounds of legal male red king crab are available for harvest, significantly below the 200,000 pounds required to open the commercial fishery, said Adam Messmer, lead king/tanner crab biologist for ADFG. While that’s an improvement from last year, where the survey estimated 95,000 pounds, i...
August 31, 1923 – The cannery of the Petersburg Packing Company, this year will set a new high mark for number of cases of salmon packed, having already exceeded their previous high mark set in 1918 and with still a week to run. This concern also has the honor of having the largest pack put up by any single cannery in Alaska this year. Although the salmon run is properly over there are still enough fish being caught to keep the plant going for another week on part time, which will add several thousand cases to their season total. At the c...
The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service has again rejected a request to list Southeast Alaska's Alexander Archipelago wolves as endangered or threatened. The wolves, found in Southeast Alaska and British Columbia, range among the region's large, old trees and are a subspecies of gray wolves. Putting the wolves on the Endangered Species List, either as endangered or threatened, likely would have resulted in new restrictions on development, logging and construction in the region, and the state of... Full story
Most people in Petersburg can say that much of their lives are spent on the water, whether that be fishing for a living or for food and fun, transiting to cabins, or taking the ferry to a basketball game or on a Costco run. To many, the waters of the Inside Passage are almost a second home. But only a few can say their homes rise and fall with the tides, that from the moment they wake up in the morning to when they go to bed the tides are a constant force in their lives. The live-aboards of Sout...
Oversupply from bumper harvests last year and inflationary pressures squeezing household food budgets have made it a terrible year for Alaska salmon prices. A near-record pink salmon harvest in Russia isn’t helping by adding more fish to the market. “It’s a challenging year for all Alaska seafood,” said Jeremy Woodrow, executive director of the Alaska Seafood Marketing Institute. Pollock prices are down, “we’re seeing impacts on crab too, and other whitefish species,” he said Aug. 10. And now, “salmon is getting the microscope.” Th...
The town's most notorious seasonal visitors are back, and effort is needed to prevent their behavior from getting dangerously trashy. Petersburg Area Biologist Frank Robbins says bears coming to town is "always going to be an issue. We live in the middle of bear habitat ... It's very easy for a bear to follow a shrub area or a muskeg and waltz right into town, and they're more apt to do that if there's readily available food." The annual return of bears to Petersburg can be credited to their...
Early in the season, one of my deckhands started the joke, “Pay to Bay,” dreaming of people paying money to fish on a drift boat in Bristol Bay, like people pay to climb Mt. Everest. That joke came around to bite us. We had a breakdown during the peak of the run, then the day we got fishing again Trident posted the 50-cents/lb base price (before quality incentives amounting to another 30 cents or more). The processor we sell to, Silver Bay, seemed sure to follow Trident’s lead. I sent my deckhands home with checks for $5,000 each—not much fo... Full story
August 2 – An officer conducted extra foot patrols downtown. Petersburg Police Department (PPD) received a report of an interaction with an aggressive dog on the Hungry Point Trail. PPD received a report of vehicles impeding traffic at a construction site on Mitkof Highway at King’s Row. An officer responded, spoke with the drivers and provided traffic control to remedy the issue. PPD received a report of a bear wandering the Dolphin Street area. The Alaska Wildlife Trooper (AWT) and the Alaska Department of Fish and Game (ADF&G) were not...
Salmon: Coho salmon are now dominating the harvest in saltwater. Trolling for them in Frederick Sound around Beacon Point or Frederick Point might offer a good opportunity to both catch a coho and spot a whale. Sumner Strait has seen increasing catches with Baht Harbor, Vank Island, or the Elephant’s Nose all being good options. Coho marine catch rates will continue to improve over the next few weeks as the coho increase in weight and prepare to enter the streams to spawn. Coho are also being seen in the freshwater systems and it appears t...
Volunteers needed for a worthy cause To the Editor: I’d like to share a little about our new bike park and its progress. As you may know the City has granted use of borough land for a new bike park. This bike park is the property of the city and will be managed by Petersburg Parks and Recreation. The construction and maintenance of the park will be all volunteer. No city resources (other than the land) will be required. The park will consist of a series of jumps, bumps, turns, and berms built so that they are linked together into a fun trail l...
