Sorted by date Results 301 - 325 of 353
September 26, 1914 – The boys are home: Paul Lund, Jack Hanseth, Jack Wanberg, Tony Michaelburst, Chris Lange and the cook—Paul doesn’t know his name— all jolly and popular bachelors, who have spent the summer at their logging camp, returned this week after a very successful season. The boys promise to take time easy this coming winter. Their only diversion will be to look for lasting partners. Both Lund and Hanseth are reported to be tired of this temporary partnership affair. Their many friends suspect as much. October 6, 1939 – The Chamb...
Alaska’s conservative management combined with the grace of Mother Nature are swelling the abundance of two of the state’s largest and most important fisheries. Bering Sea crab scientists and stakeholder met last week to discuss the outlook for Alaska’s biggest crab fisheries that open October 15th. The take away was that the stocks of red king crab, bairdi Tanners and snow crab all showed big increases in mature size classes, based on data from the annual summer surveys. (Only mature male crabs cans be retained in Alaska’s crab fisheries.) Tha...
By the time the fog finally dissipated Tuesday afternoon, the 56th annual Southeast Conference (SEC) was already underway at Wrangell's Nolan Center. Poor visibility prevented the appearance of the conference's opening speaker, Alaska Governor Sean Parnell, but a number of other interesting presenters took up the slack. This year's speakers included industry figures, tribal leaders, government officials, resident experts, salespeople and civic organizers. Issue for issue they addressed shared regional concerns and possible solutions. At that...
Representatives of Southeast Alaskan tribal groups will be meeting in Juneau next week to discuss regional concerns at the annual Southeast Environmental Conference in the city’s Vocational Training and Resource Center. Beginning Monday, the five-day event is being hosted by the Central Council of the Tlingit and Haida Indian Tribes of Alaska, in partnership with the Chilkat Indian Village, Craig Tribal Association, Douglas Indian Association, Organized Village of Kasaan, Petersburg Indian Association and Sitka Tribe of Alaska. The purpose o...
More than 100 researchers and three dozen projects are underway to find clues as to why Alaska’s Chinook salmon production has declined since 2007. The ambitious effort marks the start of a state-backed five year, $30 million Chinook Salmon Research Initiative that includes 12 major river systems from Southeast Alaska to the Yukon. And while it will be years before the project yields definitive data, the scientists have pinned down some early findings. “It’s not the fresh water production of the juvenile Chinook that is the reason this decli...
Efforts by the Canadian agency Fisheries and Oceans Canada (DFO) to relocate salmon across a barrier created by a landslide in late May are helping sockeye salmon reach escapement goals. DFO began relocating sockeye and Chinook salmon via helicopter across the barrier in early July. As of July 20, nearly 4,000 sockeye and over 1,000 large Chinook salmon were successfully transported over the slide area and released into the upper Tahltan River. Water levels in the Tahtan River had receded by the end of July making it possible for “a s...
Seafood is by far Alaska’s top export and as it heads overseas, global politics play a big role in making sales sink or swim. That dynamic took center stage last week when Russia banned imports of foods for one year from the US, Canada, Europe, Norway and Australia in retaliation for sanctions imposed due to its aggressive actions in Ukraine. It is a direct hit to Alaska, which last year exported nearly 20 million pounds of seafood to Russia, valued at more than $60 million. The primary product it hurts is pink and chum salmon roe; Russia is a...
Breached mine tailings dams be damned! As millions of Fraser River sockeye salmon head for spawning beds polluted by a brew of metal toxins oozing from the Mount Polley gold/copper mine disaster in British Columbia, Republican candidates vying for US Senate want environmental regulators to butt out of Alaska’s mining development decisions. The three men hoping to unseat Mark Begich faced off last week for a Rural Alaska Republican Candidates forum hosted by KYUK/Bethel. To questions posed by moderator Ben Matheson, candidates Joe Miller, M...
The Kerr-Sulphurets-Mitchell (KSM) Mine being proposed in Canada's British Columbia province is nearing its final stages, with the fourth and final comment period on the project's environmental assessment coming to a close Aug. 20. The first of five major mining sites planned for development along transboundary waters, the sheer scale of the KSM and the rapidity of development in the region have been causing consternation among Alaska's Native communities, fishing and travel industry associations, and environmental groups. The British Columbia... Full story
It came as no surprise when the first price postings last week tanked for Bristol Bay sockeye salmon to $1.20 a pound, with an extra 15 cents for chilled fish. That compares to a base price of $1.50 a pound last year. The Bristol Bay catch topped 28 million reds by Friday, 11 million more than projected, and the fish were still coming. (Alaska’s total sockeye salmon catch as of July 18 was over 37 million and counting.) Demand for the fish is strong by both foreign and U.S. buyers, but the downward press on prices stems from lots of c...
Canadian officials are airlifting Chinook and sockeye salmon over a landslide that caused a barrier to salmon passage in the Tahltan River, a tributary of the Stikine. Steve Gotch, Fisheries and Oceans Canada (DFO) director for the Yukon and Northwestern British Columbia, said the landslide occurred about a half mile up the Tahltan on May 20. The river is roughly 120 miles upstream of the Stikine, but the salmon that swim up it provide harvests for Southeast Alaskan and Canadian commercial and...
July 11, 1914 – Henry Morgan, a rose grower, formerly located at 4263 Morgan street, has just returned from a four weeks tour of investigation to several Alaska cities and he expects to return to settle in Haines, Alaska as soon as he can get together a satisfactory supply of live stock. Mr. Morgan visited Sitka, Ketchikan, Petersburg, Juneau and Haines looking for attractive farm sites. July 12, 1974 Celebrating Pilot's 40th Year – Beautiful clear skies, calm water and dozens of Petersburg spectators paid tribute to the sleek and spacious new...
Uncertainty best sums up the mood as fishermen and processors await the world’s biggest sockeye salmon run at Bristol Bay. In fact, it’s being called the riskiest season in recent memory in the 2014 Sockeye Market Analysis, a biannual report done by the McDowell Group for the fishermen-run Bristol Bay Regional Seafood Development Association. As presaged by buyer pushback at seafood trade shows earlier this year at Boston and Brussels, for the first time since 2010 the starting price for the first sockeyes from Copper River took a $0.50/lb dip...
A hook setter was killed last Thursday at the South Mitkof timber sale site near Banana Point. Mark Debates, 51, had just finished hooking cables onto logs near the camp at 28 mile when a tree fell onto him after the helicopter transferring the logs to a barge flew away. “He was there with a partner who witnessed it,” said Beth Ipsen, Alaska State Trooper spokesperson. “The helicopter was flying off when the top of a tree broke off and fell on him. His partner said he heard a crack and saw the treetop fall.” Ipsen said there’s no indicatio...
Ferry schedules are continuing to be revised after the M/V Columbia experienced mechanical issues on its way from Portland to Bellingham. According to an Alaska Department of Transportation (ADOT) press release, “The MV Columbia experienced an unexpected mechanical issue with its port engine prior to returning to service. Technicians are onboard assessing the situation and developing a repair plan. The MV Columbia has been rescheduled to return to service Wednesday, June 18, departing Ketchikan en route to Bellingham, Wash.” ADOT spokesperson J... Full story
Salmon prices at wholesale show marked seasonal variations for both wild and farmed fish. It’s a pattern that has been tracked for decades by Urner Barry, the nation’s oldest commodity market watcher in business since 1895. The prices tend to decline through June, July, August and September and they begin rising again from November through the following April or May. Two things drive the well-established pattern, said market expert John Sackton who publishes Seafood.com, an Urner-Barry partner. “There’s a growth cycle for farmed salmon when th...
Look at the facts To the Editor: Papac Alaska Logging, Inc. (PAL) worked on Kupreanof Island, Lindenberg Peninsula, from April through November last year, on the U.S. Forest Service Tonka Timber Sale and is currently working this site. It has been brought to our attention that there is a misconception that we are not supporting local business or contributing positively to the Petersburg community. Our company, as well as the timber fallers of Timberwolf Cutting, is based out of Craig, on Prince of Wales Island, only a short distance south of...
Monique Vanessa Williams, affectionately known as "Mo", was taken from this earth far too soon on May 17, 2014. She was born on August 1, 1984 at Eastmoreland General Hospital in Portland, Ore. to Victoria and Mack Williams. Upon high school graduation in Petersburg, Alaska in 2002, Monique went on to become a registered nurse. She studied at Oregon Health & Science University in La Grande, Ore. where she obtained her bachelors of science in nursing. In 2007, she began her career as a...
Petersburg resident Brian Lynch, along with other Alaskans representing commercial fishing, tourism and tribal organizations, traveled to Washington D.C. to urge Alaska’s congressional delegation to become more involved in mining development in British Columbia. “Our request was to have the delegation draft a letter to Secretary of State John Kerry to get the ball rolling and make inquiries into Canada,” Lynch said. Lynch and four other Alaska representatives brought to the delegates a letter signed by the Petersburg Borough Assembly and 39 ot...
March 21, 1914 – It will be of interest to packers to know that the custom authorities in France have issued a regulation which may be well to heed. The regulation, which goes into effect the last of June this year, is in substance as follows: "Canned salmon and other canned fish may not be imported into France unless the name of the country of origin is stamped in raised or sunken Roman characters, at least four millimeters in height on the lid or bottom of each receptacle and on a portion not marked with any printing. The same indications m...
March 14, 1914 – Dr. Maud L. Dunn, a noted American lecturer now in London, in one of her lectures said that some women are always complaining, always frowning, and always telling their neighbors that they are full of aches. You may take it that their troubles are due to corsets. They are the kind of women whose husbands seek the aid of the divorce tribunals. Corsets, she says, should be put on when lying down, as then the organs are in their natural position. Corsets should be three inches less than the waist measurement. March 13, 1974 C...
Just as Nero fiddled while Rome burned, US policy makers are quibbling over climate issues as bivalves dissolve in an increasingly corrosive Pacific Ocean. Any kid’s chemistry set will show that big changes are occurring in seawater throughout the world. As the oceans absorb more carbon dioxide from fossil-fuel burning outputs (primarily coal), it increases acidity to a point where shellfish can’t survive. It is referred to as ocean acidification (OA) and results in sea creatures’ inability to grow skeletons and protective shells. The proce...
Bait is always a big expenditure for many fishing businesses and pollock could help cut costs for Alaska halibut longliners who fish in the Gulf. Researchers have tested pollock in two projects to see if it might replace pricier chum salmon as halibut bait. Fish biologists use over 300,000 pounds of chums in their stock surveys each year, costing nearly half a million dollars. The baits are used at more than 1,200 testing stations from Oregon to the Bering Sea. A pilot study three years ago in the central Gulf and off of British Columbia...
It comes as no surprise that the recommendations for next year’s halibut catches are down again for all regions except Southeast Alaska. Fishery scientists with the International Pacific Halibut Commission have recommended a 2014 coast wide commercial catch total of 24.45 million pounds, a 21% decrease from the 31 million pounds allowed for this year. That includes catches in Alaska, British Columbia and the Pacific Coast states. In a summation at a meeting in Seattle last week, the IPHC said: “The results of the 2013 stock assessment ind...
