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PETERSBURG – Marine mammal expert Kate Wynne presented at Rainforest Festival in Petersburg Sept. 6 on a topic that affects all coastal Alaskan communities: sea lions and harbor seals. Wynne works with the Alaska Sea Grant Marine Advisory Program and studies pinnipeds, the classification for seals and sea lions, as well as other marine mammals like whales. Most of the Steller sea lions in Alaska, those found north of Cape Suckling, are part of what is called the Western stock, Wynne said. T...
PETERSBURG – Fishermen are ending this summer’s pink salmon season 10 million over the projected harvest. The Alaska Department of Fish and Game’s (ADFG) harvest forecast was 22 million pinks and fishermen hauled in 32 million. Sitka-based ADFG biologist Dan Gray said, “Just in terms of straight numbers, we had a pretty good year.” This year’s harvest pales in comparison to last year’s record-breaking pink harvest where fishermen brought in some 85.5 million pinks. But a more apt comparison would be to past even-year harvests, since harvest...
Wrangell’s members of the Thomas Bay Power Commission (TBPC) gathered around a telephone Tuesday morning at City Hall to discuss the body’s future with their Petersburg counterparts. The TPBC is the acting body for the Thomas Bay Power Authority (TBPA) that was responsible for the operations and maintenance (O&M) of the Tyee Hydroelectric Plant, providing power to Wrangell and Petersburg. Last May the Petersburg Assembly voted not to fund its share of a portion of the TBPA’s budget, called the non-net billable, after discussions about wheth...
At their regular board meeting last week in Ketchikan, Southeast Alaska Power Agency (SEAPA) approved rebates to member utilities, discussed the progress of the Swan Lake expansion project and approved the Whitman Lake True Up Agreement. Though rebates to member utilities were approves, the amount Wrangell will receive is still being worked out. “We don’t really know at this point,” said Sharon Thompson, executive assistant at SEAPA. Typically, the amount is equivalent to a half cent per kilowatt hour and is based on each community’s consump...
PETERSBURG – Mark Weaver, 59, was indicted by a Grand Jury in U.S. District Court on two counts of Possession of Unregistered Destructive Devices in conjunction with an explosion at the Petersburg rock quarry July 13. He was arrested Aug. 27 in Tacoma, Wash. According to court documents, “Weaver did knowingly possess a destructive device which was not registered to him.” The document also states that Weaver possessed seven hand grenades, which were also unregistered. The prosecutor Assistant U.S. Attorney Joseph Bottini said, “The first d...
PETERSBURG – 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 f...
PETERSBURG – There has been an ebb and flow of boats in the harbor as the summer salmon season presses on. The Southeast drift gillnet fishery opened on July 6 with the challenge of overcoming a landslide on the Tahltan River in late May that caused a barrier to salmon passage. The Tahltan is a tributary of the Stikine and a major contributor to the Southeast gillnet fishery for sockeye, and the landslide there was thought to have caused a complete blockage to salmon passage, said Troy Thynes, Alaska Department of Fish and Game (ADFG) b...
PETERSBURG – Even to those well adjusted to Petersburg weather, the downpour of rain in the past weeks hasn't gone without notice. So far two days this month have set new precipitation records. National Weather Service data showed some 1.97 inches of rain fell on Petersburg last Saturday and 3.25 inches fell on Sunday, breaking previous precipitation records for those respective days in August. The normal average rainfall for each day is 0.20 inches, according to the National Weather Service. Th...
PETERSBURG – Representatives from the Alaska Department of Transportation (ADOT&PF) gave a public presentation on their long-range transportation plan for Southeast Alaska last Wednesday. The presentation was followed by a public comment period, which centered largely on ferry service and the Kake Access project. ADOT&PF’s draft Southeast Alaska Transportation Plan (SATP) is a 20-year plan for the region which recommends projects for roadways, airports and ferry service. Regional trends, current priorities and projects, as well as mai...