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WRANGELL – Wrangell Cooperative Association added its voice to the chorus of people concerned about Canadian mining concerns developing upstream of shared rivers. The forum was a hearing held by the Alaska House Fisheries Special Committee in Juneau on October 12. Testimony was collected from around the state, with speakers calling in even from as far away as Arizona. The issue at hand is a collection of large scale mines either operating or in development, located in the watersheds of the Stikine, Unuk and Taku rivers. For Wrangell, the Red C...
Repairs to the Alaska Marine Highway System’s M/V Columbia are going to take longer than anticipated and it won’t return to service this year, according to Jeremy Woodrow, Alaska Department of Transportation spokesman. The ferry headed for dry dock in Oregon at the end of September to be looked over after divers in Wrangell reported a bent starboard propeller. After arriving in Oregon, the damage turned into much more, and the vessel will take around six weeks to repair, Woodrow says. “Up...
Alaskan Cod Crunchies begin a national roll out this week with a debut at Costco's two stores in Anchorage. The dog treats are one of the newest products stemming from Alaskan Leader Seafood's commitment to complete "head to tail" usage of their catches. "It's pure, 100 percent human grade trimmings coming right off the cod fillets," said Keith Singleton, president of the company's value added division. Alaskan Leader's four freezer/longline vessels are owned in partnership with the Bristol Bay...
The Alaska Marine Highway System’s M/V Columbia is scheduled for a trip to Oregon for repairs after divers noticed a bent starboard propeller late last week, according to Jeremy Woodrow, Alaska Department of Transportation spokesman. “Not a huge bend, but there was a noticeable bend,” he said. “That was the only visible damage the divers noticed.” Earlier in the week, the vessel was traveling Lynn Canal to Haines or Skagway when those onboard noticed a vibration. Soon after, it was discovered the vibration happened when the vessel exceeded...
Alaska’s 2016 pink salmon fishery is set to rank as the worst in 20 years by a long shot, and the outlook is bleak for all other salmon catches except sockeyes. “Boy, sockeye is really going to have to carry the load in terms of the fishery’s value because there’s a lot of misses elsewhere,” said Andy Wink, a fisheries economist with the Juneau-based McDowell Group. The historical peaks of the various salmon runs have already passed and the pink salmon catch so far has yet to break 35 million on a forecast of 90 million. That compares...
Alaska is one of a handful of U.S. states to launch a go-to website aimed at keeping ocean acidification in the public eye. The Alaska Ocean Acidification Network, a collaboration of state and federal scientists, agencies, tribes, conservation, fishing and aquaculture groups, went live last month. Its goal is to provide a forum for researchers to share their findings, and to connect with coastal residents concerned about future impacts on their communities. Ocean acidification (OA) is caused by the ocean absorbing excess carbon dioxide (CO2)...
Jamie Bryson, 81, died surrounded by his children and his wife Marjorie on August 8, 2016 at his home in Paonia, Colorado, after a long struggle with Parkinson's disease. Jamie was born to Stuart James and Stella Elizabeth Bryson in San Francisco in 1935. He grew up in southern California, but Jamie traveled extensively and ultimately called Alaska home. Shortly after graduating from La Jolla High School, Jamie married Linda Griffin. The young couple spent their early years together in southern... Full story
JUNEAU, Alaska (AP) – Below the gangway leading down to Harris Harbor, 25-year-old medical student Austin Jones split open his foldable kayak, revealing among water bottles, camping and survival gear two canisters: one of Nutella and one of peanut butter. “Peanut butter and Nutella are pretty much the best foods you can pack in terms of caloric intake,’’ he said, standing above what looked like the plastic innards of a kayak-shaped beast. “Plus, they taste good.’’ Jones should know something about caloric intake: He just spent 59 days paddling...
The Alaska Marine Highway System ferry MV Columbia will remain docked in Petersburg due to a mechanical issue with the vessel’s starboard engine, according to a news release. The vessel is currently docked at the Petersburg Ferry Terminal, and the delay will take a minimum of approximately 36 hours. A technician for the engine manufacturer is being flown in from Houston, Texas to diagnose the problem and assist with repairs. The technician should be in Petersburg tomorrow afternoon (Thursday), according to Jeremy Woodrow, Alaska Department o...
Wrangell's tribal government is continuing to cooperate with Central Council Tlingit Haida Indian Tribes of Alaska on its baseline water testing of the Stikine River. Initiated in November by Central Council's Native Lands and Resources Department (NLRD), each month two technicians have headed upriver to collect water samples, testing them for their chemical and physical properties in order to establish average conditions. This information eventually may be used in the management of these...
WRANGELL - Four dozen elementary school students from the Wrangell and Petersburg areas partook in a field day, heading upriver for the 19th annual Stikine River field trip on May 3. Encompassing almost 700 square miles, since 1980 the Stikine-LeConte Wilderness Area has been managed by the United States Forest Service. Originating 335 miles away in Canada's British Columbia province, the winding river is a major contributor of wild salmon and home to many migratory bird species. For many in...
July 1, 1944 – March 31, 2016 It is with deep sorrow that we report the recent passing of Warren W. "Butch" Bailey, MD, a former resident of Petersburg and recent resident of Qualicum Beach, B.C. Warren was born in Ketchikan and raised in Petersburg as a member of the "Hill Gang". Upon graduation from PHS in 1962, Warren went on to attend Montana State University and Tufts University School of Medicine. After completing a cardiac surgery residency at the University of Alabama, Birmingham, Warren... Full story
Fish stomachs could help solve the mystery of why Alaska halibut are so small for their age. Halibut weights are about one-third of what they were 30 years ago, meaning a halibut weighing 120 pounds in the late 1980s is closer to 40 pounds nowadays. One culprit could be arrowtooth flounders, whose numbers have increased 500 percent over the same time to outnumber the most abundant species in the Gulf: pollock. Fishermen for decades have claimed the toothy flounders, which grow to about three feet in length, are blanketing the bottom of the...
Alaska’s halibut stocks are showing signs of an uptick and fishermen’s catches will not be slashed for the first time in 15 years. Fishery managers on Friday set the coast wide Pacific halibut harvest for 2016 at 29.89 million pounds, a 2.3 percent increase from last year. “This was probably the most positive, upbeat meeting in the past decade,” said Doug Bowen of Alaska Boats and Permits in Homer. “The feeling is the stocks are up and the resource is stabilizing and recovering, and it’s the first meeting in a long time that there weren’t any...
ANCHORAGE (AP) — A federal agency has concluded that a southeast Alaska wolf affected by logging and hunting does not merit placement on the endangered species list. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service announced Tuesday that Alexander Archipelago wolves on Prince of Wales Island and neighboring islands do not warrant additional protections. “Although the Alexander Archipelago wolf faces several stressors throughout its range related to wolf harvest, timber harvest, road development, and climate-related events in Southeast Alaska and coastal Brit...
JUNEAU, Alaska (AP) — Data released by the U.S. Department of Education shows Alaska has one of the lowest graduation rates in the country. Only the District of Columbia, New Mexico and Nevada had lower graduation rates during the 2013-14 school year than Alaska, whose graduation rate was 71.1 percent. Federal data shows Alaska's rate has hovered around 70 percent since at least 2010-2011. Nationally, the graduation rate was 82.3 percent. Brian Laurent with Alaska's education department says the state's preliminary graduation rate for 2...
Alaska crab shells are fueling an eco-revolution that will drive new income streams for fabrics to pharmaceuticals to water filters. And for the first time, it is happening in the USA and not overseas. The entrepreneurs at Tidal Vision in October made the leap from their labs in Juneau to a pilot plant outside of Seattle to test an earth-friendly method that extracts chitin, the structural element in the exoskeletons of shellfish and insects. Their first big run a few weeks ago was tested on a 60,000 pound batch of crab shells delivered by...
Despite some encouraging signs that Pacific halibut stocks are stabilizing after being on a downward spiral for nearly two decades, catches could decrease slightly in most regions again next year. That’s IF fishery managers accept the catch recommendations by halibut scientists, which they don’t always do. At the International Pacific Halibut Commission meeting last week in Seattle, the total 2016 catch, meaning for the West Coast, British Columbia and Alaska, was recommended at 26.56 million pounds, down from 29.22 million pounds this year. Fo...
Alaskans are being asked to weigh in on two tough issues: budgets and halibut bycatch. First off, the state Boards of Fish and Game are asking for ideas on cutting costs within their annual meeting cycles, as well as for the state agencies involved with providing all of the backup information to the boards. Both boards include seven members which are appointed by the governor and approved by the Alaska legislature for three year terms. The Fish Board’s role is to conserve and develop the fishery resources for the state’s subsistence, com...
WRANGELL — The Alaska Marine Highway System has been taking public comment for its ferry schedule for the coming summer. From Bellingham, Wash., to Skagway, concerned user groups of the regional transportation network participated in a teleconference, hosted in Ketchikan Nov. 4. A draft schedule has been available for review, and patterns in the draft have been based on an assumed funding level for the 2017 fiscal year, which begins July 1, 2016. Reductions in service to some communities over the previous year’s schedule reflect $25 mil...
The Petersburg Borough Assembly sent a letter to Lt. Governor Byron Mallott requesting state support in asking the International Joint Commission (ICJ) to get involved in mining activity in the Alaska-British Columbia Transboundary Region. The Borough Assembly passed a resolution last October supporting the same thing along with municipalities in Wrangell, Sitka and Juneau. “The transboundary rivers that empty into our region provide the life-blood to our economies and quality of life,” the letter states. “The extensive and somewhat risky... Full story
If you have traveled past Farragut Bay during the past couple of years, you have probably noticed the white, almost ghostly looking trees heavily peppered among what was once healthy forest. Those are dead yellow cedar, and the remarkable thing about the dead trees-also known as snags-is they can remain standing for up to 100 years. The decline in yellow cedar came on the radar of the US Forest Service (USFS) in the 1980's, but USFS research plant pathologist Paul Hennon says the problem was...
KETCHIKAN (AP) — A tour boat company based in Prince Rupert, British Columbia, is considering running a weekly ferry service to Ketchikan next summer. Owners of West Coast Launch and its subsidiary, Prince Rupert Adventure Tours, Debbie and Doug Davis said they are interested in making trips to Alaska next year, especially as the Alaska Marine Highway Service reduces service, The Ketchikan Daily News reports. Debbie Davis said at the Southeast Conference on Wednesday that as the Alaska Ferry system drops from twice-a-week service in the s...
