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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...
Sorry, there is no resemblance To the Editor: Can Alaskans trust the government of British Columbia to act honestly, responsibly and openly as B.C. authorizes and proposes to manage a series of mines (up to six of them) in the watersheds of some of the greatest, wildest and most productive watersheds in North America? Is BC “basically the same” as Alaska, as Mines Minister Bennett claims, when it comes to process and regulation of industrial activity? There is no question B.C. has a “mine approval” process, but make no mistake, it is vastly...
Why? To the Editor: Over the last several weeks I have contacted the local head representative of the highway department, public works, borough manager, flaggers on the Nordic construction site and no will take responsibility for the extremely dangerous blocked sidewalks that force us into the traffic and construction. Trees, rhodies, berry bushes and general overgrowth have blocked sidewalks from use, forcing children on bikes, moms with strollers and old people like myself into the Nordic roads. We are forced to face cars, trucks, trailers an...
While the pink salmon harvest is coming in below expectations for price and quantity, the commercial halibut fishery is going strong for Area 2C, which includes Petersburg and other Southeast communities. A quota share update from the International Pacific Halibut Commission (IPHC) released Aug. 19 showed that almost 2.8 million pounds of halibut have been landed in the district. That’s three-quarters of the quota for the district— just under 3.7 million pounds—and almost the equivalent of the total 2013 catch limit. Local longliners have...
Alaska Marine Highway Systems (AMHS) announced on Wednesday that repairs to the Columbia will take longer than expected. The vessel was delayed in Ketchikan earlier in the week due to mechanical issues with its exhaust system and propellers. Further inspection of the vessel revealed damage to the starboard propeller caused by striking a log. The Columbia is scheduled to return to passenger service August 31, according to the AMHS official notice. The Malaspina has been rerouted to replace the vessel until necessary repairs have been completed....
An ordinance to allow voters to determine whether or not local public officials should be exempt from state financial disclosure requirements was passed on second reading by the Assembly at Monday’s regular meeting. By Alaska State law, certain public officials are required to report their income sources and other assets in an effort to ensure private interests do not conflict with their public service. Municipalities reserve the right to exempt their local public officials from the requirement, and locally there has been concern that not d... Full story
WRANGELL — On Sunday Alaska Native and Canadian First Nations groups will mark the first anniversary of the Mount Polley tailings dam collapse in a ceremony on the Stikine River. On Aug. 4, 2014, a rupture in the tailings dam servicing the British Columbia mine released billions of gallons of metals-tainted effluent into waters that fed into the salmon-rich Fraser River system. Earlier this month the mine’s owner, Imperial Metals, received a restricted permit from the provincial government allowing it to reopen Mt. Polley, using an alt...
JUNEAU (AP) — Those who had hoped to catch a ride on the Alaska ferry Columbia Tuesday should be able to depart sometime Friday. The ferry was supposed to make stops in Sitka, Wrangell, Petersburg, Ketchikan and eventually Bellingham, Washington, but it never left port Tuesday. Alaska Department of Transportation and Public Facilities spokesman Jeremy Woodrow called the three-day delay “unusual,” reported The Juneau Empire. “Usually it's just a few hours,” he said. “We're a little more confident with (today's departure).” Woodrow said a techni...
Kodiak volunteers were scrambling with front end loaders and dump trucks to ready 200,000 pounds of super sacks for the first pick up of a massive marine debris removal project that begins in Alaska this week. The month long cleanup, which is backed by a who’s who of state and federal agencies, non-profits and private businesses, will deploy a 300 foot barge and helicopters to remove thousands of tons of marine debris from some of the world’s harshest and most remote coastlines. “This is a really big deal for Alaska. We have one of the world...
JUNEAU (AP) — While environmentalists are quick to complain about cruise ships dumping waste in the ocean, officials say Alaska ferries have even more lenient rules for treating wastewater. State ferries use water treatment systems that were standard in the 1970s, state Department of Environmental Conservation cruise ship program specialist Ed White said. Eight of the 11 state-owned ferries use chlorine to kill bacteria and then grind waste before discharging that slurry with used water from sinks, toilets and showers, White told the Juneau E...
An investigation conducted by a British Columbia commission found that the provincial government had not violated public disclosure laws by withholding information on Mount Polley mine prior to its tailings impoundment dam breach last summer. The report was put together by Information and Privacy Commissioner Elizabeth Denham and addresses complaints that the province had violated Canada’s Freedom of Information and Protection of Privacy Act. On Aug. 4, 2014, the mine’s tailings pond wall ruptured and released 13.8 million cubic yards of met...
