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Offshore fish farms could soon dot the sea scape along with those oil and gas platforms being proposed for U.S. waters by the Trump Administration. The fish farms, which would be installed from three to 200 miles out, are being touted as a way to boost seafood production, provide jobs and reduce the nation’s $16 billion trade deficit due to America’s importing nearly 90 percent of its seafood favorites. The U.S. Commerce Department is holding meetings around the country through November to talk about its strategic plan for getting aqu...
September 19, 1918 Ensign W. Kerr, financial representative for the Salvation Army for Alaska arrived in Wrangell yesterday. He has been on a trip as far northward as Atlin and Carcross collecting for local and war work. The Ensign stated that instead of having a harvest Thanksgiving effort and a war work drive at different times the two are being combined into one effort. The drive in Wrangell will take place Friday, Saturday and Sunday. “We have 50 ambulance cars on the war front,” said Mr. Kerr. “Three hundred ‘huts’ where refreshments and o...
ANCHORAGE, Alaska (AP) – State and federal wildlife officials have apologized to Alaska Natives for the enforcement of migratory bird regulations that failed to consider the effects on subsistence practices. The Alaska Department of Fish and Game and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service issued the apology Thursday for the consequences of the Migratory Bird Treaty Act, which prohibited the spring and summer harvests of migratory birds and their eggs during its implementation in the 1960s and 1970s, KTVA-TV reported . The prohibition caused A...
More seafood tariffs in Trump’s trade war with China are hitting Alaska coming and going. On July 6 the first 25 percent tax went into effect on more than 170 U.S. seafood products going to China. On August 23, more items were added to the list, including fish meal from Alaska. “As of right now, nearly every species and product from Alaska is on that list of tariffs,” said Garrett Evridge, a fisheries economist with the McDowell Group. Alaska produces more than 70,000 metric tons of fish meal per year (about 155 million pounds), mostly made fro...
The coho salmon derby kicks off this weekend, and runs every weekend until September . Anyone with a fishing rod is welcome to take part in the coho derby. According to Alicia Holder, with the Wrangell Chamber of Commerce, the city has done coho salmon fishing derbies in the past, but this is the first one in a long time. They were common in the 1970s, she said, but the last derby dedicated to coho salmon was sometime in the '80s. The common salmon to fish for in Wrangell in recent years, she sa...
ANCHORAGE, Alaska (AP) – The Alaska ballot initiative that aims to strengthen state law protecting salmon habitat could be costly and delay infrastructure projects, state officials said. The officials noted the possible negative effects during the Senate State Affairs Committee meeting last week in Anchorage. The initiative would increase the number of streams that officials must assume have salmon, likely resulting in more state checks on the streams, said Ben White, the environmental program manager for the state Department of T...
events next week, the ninth Wrangell has hosted. The five-day series of events has been organized each year by Sylvia Ettefagh, an outfitter with Alaska Vistas whose work frequently conveys visitors southward to the Anan Wildlife Observatory, a mainland enclosure overlooking the Anan Creek lower falls and its robust bear population. As Alaskan a sight as the salmon they come to feed upon, the festival highlights these black and brown bears inhabiting the area surrounding Wrangell. Chock full of...
FAIRBANKS, Alaska (AP) – This year’s king salmon run on the Yukon River is on track to be the second- or third-worst ever recorded. Just over 90,000 kings were counted as they swam past the Pilot Station sonar site near the mouth of the Yukon River this summer, the Fairbanks Daily News-Miner reported . The run has thus far been similar to 2015, the second-worst year for king salmon ever recorded, after 2013. The migration from the Bering Sea to the mouth of the river is usually more than halfway over by this point in the summer. Fishery man...
Kids and their folks are encouraged to gear up this weekend for the seventh annual "Family Fishing Day" at Pats Lake midday Saturday. Put on cooperatively by the Forest Service, Alaska Department of Fish and Game and the Stikine Sportsmen Association, the annual gathering takes advantage of special regulations geared toward young anglers. During the third and fourth weekends of June each year, children aged 15 and under are allowed to use bait while trout fishing in Pats Lake. The usual size...
JUNEAU, Alaska (AP) – A Juneau man could face criminal charges after one of his wolf traps mortally wounded a black bear cub, Alaska State Troopers said. A group of hikers found the cub severely injured near the Ready Bouillon Creek in late May after it stepped into the trap which was illegally left out on Douglas Island, the Juneau Empire reported . The snare caught the cub around both hind legs and cut the bear almost all the way to the bone, said Troopers spokeswoman Megan Peters. The Alaska Department of Fish and Game determined that the c...
Legislative session has ended, and now that I’m back in the district, I’d like to give you a brief overview of this year’s legislative actions that will impact Wrangell. As your state representative, I sponsored and passed three bills – “Commercial Fishing Loans,” “Mari-culture Revolving Loan Fund,” and “Dive Fishery Assessments” – that will support and enhance our fishing and mari-culture industries. HB 128, “Shellfish Enhancement Projects” was a fourth mari-culture industry related bill. It passed the House 37-2 and made it through Senate Fi...
Districts 5, 6, 10 and most of 7 will soon reopen to sport fishermen for king salmon, according to emergency regulations put in place earlier this spring. Chinook harvest opportunity has already opened in hatchery areas at Anita Bay, Blind Slough and Petersburg's City Creek, opening up last Friday. On June 15 the next wave of openings will take effect, following a wide scale closure to the fishery at the start of April. Most of the marine waters in the Petersburg-Wrangell area will reopen later...
Forces are aligned for a nice pay day for Alaska’s salmon fishermen. There is no backlog from last season in cold storages, a lower harvest forecast is boosting demand, prices for competing farmed salmon have remained high all year, and a devalued U.S. dollar makes Alaska salmon more appealing to foreign customers. “Over the past year the dollar has weakened 11 percent against the euro, 9 percent against the British pound, 5 percent against the Japanese yen, and 7 percent against the Chinese yuan. That makes Alaska salmon and other seafood mor...
The Alaska Department of Fish and Game announced on Friday it would begin to allow subsistence and personal use salmon permit participants to access their permits online. Online availability was established as a result of user feedback, with the intention of streamlining and simplifying the permitting process. A single, regionwide permit has been created that will allow bearers the opportunity to harvest salmon through the waters of Southeast Alaska and Yakutat. Permits are still free, available online at www.adfg.alaska.gov/store/. Permit...
The Alaska Department of Fish and Game announced Tuesday some sport fishing opportunity for hatchery-produced king salmon will soon start in areas near Petersburg and Wrangell. From June 1 - July 31 several terminal harvest areas will be open to sport fishermen. In the Wrangell Narrows and Blind Slough THA, bag and possession limits for residents and nonresidents alike will be limited to two kings at least 28 inches or greater in length, and two kings less than 28 inches long. The area is that...
Alaska’s 2018 salmon season officially gets underway this week with the first 12-hour opener on May 17 for sockeyes and kings returning to the Copper River. The catch there this year calls for 19,000 kings and 942,000 sockeye salmon targeted by a fleet of more than 500 drift gillnetters. Here’s a primer of how fishery managers project the rest of Alaska’s salmon season may play out: Statewide, the 2018 salmon harvest is projected at 149 million fish, down 34 percent from the 2017 take of 226 million salmon. The shortfall this season stems...
May 2, 1918 Hon. P.C. McCormack is today circulating a petition to the Postmaster General that the Humboldt Steamship Company be awarded a mail contract. Considering that the present mail service is so very irregular it is earnestly hoped that the steamer Humboldt will be added to the small list of vessels carrying mail between Seattle and Alaska. The large number of cablegrams sent from Wrangell each week at a heavy expense would be reduced more than half if Wrangell had a regular mail service. April 30, 1943 Edmonton Brig. Gen. O’Conner, h...
A shuffle in some funding leaves Alaska’s commercial fisheries division in good shape to manage the resources and target important projects across the state. At first glance, the $69 million operating budget for FY19 appears to be down slightly from last year’s $72.3 million but that’s not the case. “Most of that difference is a sort of ‘cleanup’ in authority we no longer had funding for, such as the Alaska Sustainable Salmon Fund, test fishing and some interagency items. The rest is due to $1.1 million shortfall in Commercial Fisheries E...
The Alaska Dept. of Fish and Game has mapped 32 nautical miles of herring spawn through April 27, including 1.0 nmi of active spawn in Salisbury Sound. Spawn deposition surveys were conducted on April 7-11 and on April 24-25. Final results from this year’s stock assessment will not be available until November 2018, however, some general information can be derived from the data collected to date. Nearly all spawning this year occurred along shorelines of Kruzof Island, Hayward Strait, and the Siginaka Islands. Very little spawning was observed i...
The Federal Subsistence Board announced on Monday it will be closing its Chinook salmon subsistence fishery in the Stikine River this year due to low expected returns. Under the authority delegated him by the board, Ranger Bob Dalrymple of Wrangell's Forest Service district made the decision to close down the fishery. Preseason forecasts made by the Alaska Department of Fish and Game informed the decision, with 6,900 king salmon greater than 28 inches in length expected to return. Management...
April 18, 1918: There was a special meeting of the town council Tuesday night. All business for the past year as nearly as possible was cleared up. The newly elected councilmen who qualified for office and were seated were F. E. Gingrass, E. A. Lindman, Elmer F. Carlstrom. Before naming the committees Mayor Matheson made a neat little speech, which received hearty applause. April 16, 1943: Show prices in Wrangell have not advanced Fred G. Cunningham, Coliseum theatre manager would like it made known. In an advertisement last week advanced price...
The state Department of Fish and Game has announced its 2018 preseason estimates for Chinook salmon, and its all-gear harvest limit for Southeast Alaska under provisions of the Pacific Salmon Treaty. In its release last week, the department set the year’s limit at 130,000 “treaty fish,” nearly 80,000 fish lower than the preseason limit available in 2017. This also includes a 10-percent reduction in response to conservation needs for the king salmon stocks in Southeast, northern British Columbia, and their transboundary rivers. The annual all-g...
The Wrangell Chamber of Commerce announced last Friday it had finalized details for a coho salmon derby for the late summer, taking the place of its annual king salmon tournament it recently canceled. Set to be the 66th annual derby this year, due to emergency measures taken by the Alaska Department of Fish and Game closing king salmon to sport fishing in virtually all Southeast waters, the Chamber's derby committee thought it appropriate to cancel the event. In its stead, members resurrected a...
The Alaska Department of Fish and Game announced late last week the extent of its expected king salmon sport fishing restrictions for this season. The region wide closure to retention of Chinook began on Sunday, April 1, to last through the first half of the summer for some waters. Citing a poor preseason forecast, ADFG has decided to close the majority of marine waters within the Petersburg-Wrangell area, not only in District 8 but also in 6, 7 and 10. (see map) The lengthiest closure will focu...
The Chamber of Commerce’s annual king salmon derby has been cancelled, it announced last week, following emergency management orders issued by the Department of Fish and Game (see king salmon story). A tradition for over 60 years, initially the month-long fishing derby was to be pared down to weekends this year, given restrictions ADFG had at first countenanced that would have centered around the Stikine River’s mouth in District 8. The eventual orders released last Thursday were far more expansive, encompassing nearly all inner waters in South...