Sorted by date Results 126 - 150 of 599
While thousands danced and dined at the Southeast Alaska State Fair in Haines last weekend, Drew Robertson of Sedalia, Colorado, was rescuing a half dozen puppies that might be part wolf. The state suspects at least 10 dogs born at 35 Mile Haines Highway in February could be wolf hybrids, which are illegal to breed or possess in Alaska. The owner of the litter - "Seandog" Brownell - said he suspects the mother, Inja, a lab, could have mated with a wild wolf last December on or near his...
It's safe to assume that people can avoid bear encounters if they stay out of a bear's natural habitat. Since that's likely not to happen in Southeast, a BearFest safety course offered advice on staying as safe as possible when enjoying the outdoors. Last Wednesday at the gun range, Robert Johnson used his 32 years of experience at the Alaska Department of Fish and Game to instruct six people on how to negotiate their way out of a face-to-face occurrence with a bear, and when pepper (bear) spray...
After the longest summer king salmon troll opening in nearly 20 years, the Southeast Alaska commercial troll fishery closed to the taking of all salmon for three days as a coho conservation measure, the Department of Fish and Game announced July 25. The closure went into effect at 11:59 p.m. July 28 and ended at 12:01 a.m. on Monday, Aug. 1. Despite the lengthy four-week king opening, the fleet hooked less than three-quarters of its anticipated July catch. All told, trollers were expected to have taken about 87,000 king salmon by the time of...
The summer Dungeness crab commercial season ended Saturday, with reports of low catch rates. “On a regionwide level, there are no bright spots, and generally regionwide catch rates have been down,” said Joseph Stratman, the lead Southeast crab biologist for the Alaska Department of Fish and Game. It was a shorter-than-typical summer Dungeness season for the 201 permitted crabbers in Southeast. The department trimmed about two weeks from the season after data collected from the first week of the season, which started June 15, pointed to an estim...
Shellfish hatcheries could be in Alaska’s future, under legislation recently signed into law. The measure allows the Department of Fish and Game to manage shellfish enhancement and restoration projects. Restoration projects are designed to bring a struggling stock back to a self-sustaining level, while enhancement projects would boost the stock to allow for commercial harvest. The new laws give the department another tool to address declining shellfish stock, such as red and blue king crab, sea cucumber, abalone and razor clams, said K...
Three Haines commercial fishermen caught a 425-pound halibut measuring 91 inches in length. “It was just an epic fish,” said fisherman Cole Thomas, who hooked the fish with his father and captain Bill Thomas and friend Jeff Wackerman. “This one is a lot more special than most.” The three caught the halibut earlier this month in Icy Strait, near Point Adolphus, with a commercial longline using cod and humpy salmon heads as bait. “I could see the line was going straight down. That means something big’s coming. I was telling my friend (Jeff): It...
For Alaska salmon fishing, the summer of 2022 is the best of times and the worst of times. In the Bristol Bay region, the sockeye salmon run and harvest amounts set new records, as was predicted in the preseason forecast. As of July 18, the run had totaled over 73.7 million salmon, with a harvest of over 56.3 million. The previous record was set just last year, with a 67.7 million run of sockeyes and a third-biggest-ever harvest of nearly 42 million of the fish. But along the Yukon River, a prized salmon run is heading toward a worst-ever seaso...
A science and policy review concludes that mining risks to salmon habitat have been underestimated across the Pacific Northwest, including Alaska and British Columbia. The report discusses the limitations on governance of mining operations and calls for greater transparency to prevent future damages. The study was written by 23 scientists and policy analysts and published July 1 in the peer-reviewed journal “Science Advances.” “Despite impact assessments that are intended to evaluate risk and inform mitigation, mines continue to harm salmo...
July 9, 1922 The Fourth of July has come and gone and one of the most successful Independence Day celebrations that Wrangell has ever known has passed into history. Much of the success of a celebration of this kind depends on the weather, and this year the weather was ideal. The street sports in the afternoon were very much the same as in former years. There were, however, two new sport attractions that aroused the most intense interest. The Tlingit war canoe race was a big drawing card, and it is doubtful if the McCormack dock ever had more pe...
Alaska was the only U.S. coastal region to have an increase in the confirmed cases of large whales entangled in fishing gear in 2020, a contrast to a national trend of declining cases over the past six to eight years, according to a report issued June 28 by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. Of the 53 cases of large whales entangled in fishing gear nationally in 2020, 11 occurred in Alaska, according to the report, from NOAA’s National Marine Fisheries Service. The previous year, there were 75 confirmed cases of whale e...
Western Alaska villagers have endured the worst chum salmon runs on record, several years of anemic Chinook salmon runs in the Yukon and Kuskokwim rivers, harvest closures from the Bering Sea coast to Canada’s Yukon Territory and such dire conditions that they relied on emergency shipments of salmon from elsewhere in Alaska just to have food to eat. Many of those suffering see one way to provide some quick relief: Large vessels trawling for pollock and other groundfish in the industrial-scale fisheries of the Bering Sea, they say, must stop i...
June 8, 1922 The town council held its regular monthly meeting last Thursday evening. The matter of water rates was discussed and on motion it was ordered that beginning with June 1 an extra charge of 25 cents per month be made to all families having water-power washing machines. The rate of water rent for the Wilson & Sylvester sawmill was fixed at $10 a month while the mill is in operation, and $2.50 a month when shut down. The Alaska Sanitary Packing Co. was granted a water rate of $75 for the year. At the previous meeting, Dr. S. C....
Don’t let this be the one that got away. The Wrangell King Salmon Derby gets underway on June 15 and runs through July 3. At stake is $7,900 in cash prizes. The heaviest king salmon will get the biggest prize, as first place in the derby wins $3,000; second place wins $2,000; and third place wins $1,000. If two people land fish that weigh the same, the person who gets it weighed first will win. There will also be a $500 prize for the biggest fish caught on opening day, a $500 prize for the biggest caught on Father’s Day, two $250 random wei...
Hunters no longer need to hunt the web or search for printed copies and anglers no longer need to fish for necessary information, especially when they're in the field. The Alaska Department of Fish and Game recently launched an app for mobile phones running on Apple or Android operating systems. It gives users instant access to their licenses, permits, tags and information like regulations and boundaries. Since launching the app in late May, there have been 14,000 downloads of the app on the...
May 25, 1922 Dr. Edward T. Mathes, mayor of Bellingham, Washington, who has been in Wrangell this week, is of the opinion that the biggest thing that Alaska has to sell is her scenery, and that by capitalizing on her scenery the same as done in Europe, Alaska could easily develop a tourist business that would run into millions annually. Since his arrival here, Dr. Mathes has met several old acquaintances. Yesterday he was a dinner guest at the home of his friends, Mr. and Mrs. H.D. Kyle at the Standard Oil Station. May 23, 1947 Al Ritchie,...
Seattle-based Trident Seafoods will not open its Wrangell processing plant this summer, the third year in a row the operation has been closed. As in the past two years, the company cited weak chum salmon returns for its decision not to run the plant. Company officials did not return calls to the Sentinel last Friday or Monday. News of the plant closure was presented in Borough Manager Jeff Good’s report for Tuesday’s assembly meeting: “They have notified us that they do not intend on running this year but are hoping for next year.” “We wou...
A black bear cub seen wandering Shoemaker Loop off Zimovia Highway at 5.5 Mile last week was euthanized in Petersburg on April 24, a day after a state wildlife trooper and U.S. Forest Service officer captured it following several sightings by residents who live along the roadway. Trooper Chadd Yoder with Alaska Wildlife Troopers got a call from Wrangell police about people seeing a bear cub for days without its mother. “It was apparent the bear was separated,” he said April 25. “What happened to mom, we don’t know.” Jimmy Nelson, a Forest Se...
Legislation to restore and increase the state licensing fee on sportfishing guides and operators ran into problems in the Senate Finance Committee last week, as lawmakers questioned why out-of-state boat owners who bring up guests are not required to get a license and pay the fee. “My district has got to be one of the top guided areas in the state,” said Committee Co-Chair Sen. Bert Stedman, whose district stretches from Sitka to Prince of Wales Island, including Wrangell. And while that means a lot of non-residents pay local operators for fis...
After a strong return of pink salmon to Southeast last year, state fisheries managers are forecasting a commercial harvest of just over 16 million fish this summer, one-third the level of last year’s catch of 48.5 million pinks. “During recent decades, Alaska-wide pink salmon returns have tended to be larger” during odd-numbered years than even-numbered years, the Department of Fish and Game noted in its annual forecast released April 19. Last summer’s pink harvest was on track with the 10-year average for odd-numbered years (2010-2...
The Alaska Board of Fisheries has adopted a revised king salmon Southeast management plan in a compromise that will see sport fishery limits set before the start of the season based on a tiered system of abundance instead of changing during the season. The revised plan is expected to be in place by the 2023 season. The hope is that the 80/20 split between the commercial troll and sport fisheries will be maintained, while allowing non-residents who travel to Alaska to catch king salmon the opportunity to do so, rather than being shut down at a...
For the sixth year in a row, federal managers have closed the Stikine River chinook subsistence fishery to help preserve weak runs of the returning salmon. Clint Kolarich, Wrangell District Ranger with the U.S. Forest Service, announced the decision last week, under authority delegated by the Federal Subsistence Board. The closure will run from May 15 through June 20. “The preseason forecast for the Stikine River is 7,400 large chinook salmon (greater than 28 inches in total length), which is below the escapement goal range of 14,000 to 2...
The Sitka Sound sac roe herring fishery closed April 10 with a final tally of approximately 26,350 tons harvested, according to the Alaska Department of Fish and Game. It was just over half of the 45,164-ton guideline harvest level, but over 10,000 tons more than last year’s catch. In the final five days of openings, approximately 6,990 tons were harvested in the waters off of Baranof Island to the south of Sitka. OBI Fleet Manager Don Spigelmyre wrote that this year was “our best season ever,” and that the company purchased just over 3,500...
The state Board of Fisheries’ decision last month to move the Southeast commercial shrimp pot fishery from a fall start to spring means there will be no harvest this year. The Department of Fish and Game told the board that a spring harvest could help build up the region’s shrimp stocks, which are in decline, by taking fewer egg-laden shrimp than in the fall. Wrangell shrimpers, however, are questioning the wisdom of the switch, which they said could hurt marketing efforts and reduce the value of the catch — with no clear benefit to the resourc...
The winter troll king salmon fishery reopened in outside waters around Southeast Alaska last Sunday. Trollers will be able to target up to 28,000 Chinook salmon remaining in the fleet’s original winter guideline harvest level of 45,000 fish. The opening will last through the end of April, or until the remaining fish of the guideline harvest are caught. The state’s March 30 emergency order opened much of Southeast Alaska’s Outer Coast — from Craig to Yakutat — to the troll fleet. The Department of Fish and Game decided the opening would not...
The hooligan are back. When the eagles disappear from town and the sea lions start hauling out on the beach at Lesnoi Island, it's a pretty sure bet hooligan season is upon the Stikine, said David Rak, forester at the U.S. Forest Service in Wrangell. If you go to the north side of Wrangell Island, Rak said, you can hear the sea lions barking from a spot where hundreds haul out on the beach at Lesnoi Island. "When the eagles all disappear from town, they're over there," Rak said last Wednesday....