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On its regional meeting's concluding day last week the Board of Fisheries agreed to draft a letter to federal authorities, encouraging them to support efforts to curb seafood predation by marine mammals. During its 13-day meeting in Sitka, the board reviewed regulatory proposals for both finfish and shellfish for Southeast Alaska and Yakutat. Starting with shellfish on January 11, 155 different items relating to the region's crab, shrimp and dive fisheries saw comment from both Department of...
As expected, catches of Pacific halibut will decrease for this year, and likely into the foreseeable future. Following an increase in catches last year for the first time in several decades, the International Pacific Halibut Commission (IPHC) on Friday set a “suggested” coastwide catch for 2018 at 28.03 million pounds, a 10.7 percent reduction. Alaska’s share could be 20.52 million pounds, a drop of 2.1 million pounds from 2017. The numbers could decline further, as for the first time in memory since the IPHC began its oversight of the stocks i...
Sea otters and their devastating impacts on Southeast Alaska shellfish were among the many emotionally-charged topics at the state Board of Fisheries marathon meeting running from January 11-23 in Sitka. The Board was set to address 153 proposals for state subsistence, commercial, sport, guided sport, and personal use fisheries for the Southeast and Yakutat regions. Crabbers and fishermen who dive for lucrative sea cucumbers, geoduck clams and urchins again pleaded for changes to regulations to help protect their livelihoods from the voracious...
After deliberation on Saturday the Alaska Board of Fisheries rejected a proposal to scrap the Southeast Alaska management plan for Dungeness crab fisheries. The BoF is currently convened in Sitka for its meeting on the region’s shellfish and finfish regulation change proposals. It meets every three years, the last one being held in Wrangell in January 2015. Starting its shellfish meeting on January 11, members took testimony for 155 different proposals related to crab, shrimp and other miscellaneous shellfish. A late comer to this year’s sla...
Action plans for the emergency management of Chinook salmon in Southeast Alaskan rivers have been drafted ahead of next month's Board of Fisheries meeting in Sitka. The board, which reviews regulatory oversight of fisheries across the state, planned to meet on January 11 to discuss shellfish and finfish proposals for the coming year. But added to its plate will be a trio of action plans drawn up by the Department of Fish and Game designating king salmon populations in several rivers as stocks...
In an announcement last week, the public is reminded a comment deadline for proposed changes to fisheries management is quickly coming up. The Board of Fisheries, the regulatory body charged with oversight over the state’s fisheries management will gather in Sitka on January 11 for a 13-day meeting, during which it will consider 153 proposals specific to finfish and shellfish issues in Southeast Alaska and Yakutat. Proposals come from the board itself, the Department of Fish and Game, fishing organizations and the general public, and comments a...
A preseason forecast for next year's king salmon return to the Stikine River has come up worryingly short, boding ill for local fisheries. Released last week by Alaska Department of Fish and Game, the preseason terminal run size forecast for the Stikine River was at only 6,900 fish, less than half the lower threshold of the stock's escapement goal range. The Stikine EGR is between 14,000 and 28,000 Chinook salmon, and such a low forecast does not allow for an allowable catch under treaty...
KODIAK, Alaska (AP) – Several Kodiak residents have reported seeing bears in town throughout the past few weeks, and at least one area expert believes that’s because of a lackluster berry crop this year. Although the state Department of Fish and Game hasn’t received a higher-than-normal number of reported bear sightings, area wildlife biologist Nathan Svoboda believes a berry crop failure might have something to do with the encounters, the Kodiak Daily Mirror reported Wednesday. In years when the berry crop fails, bears become nutri...
Fewer men and women went out fishing in Alaska last year, in a familiar cycle that reflects the vagaries of Mother Nature. A focus on commercial fishing in the November Alaska Economic Trends by the State Department of Labor shows that the number of boots on deck fell by five percent in 2016 to about 7,860 harvesters, driven by the huge shortfall in pink salmon returns and big declines in crab quotas. Fishing for salmon, which accounts for the majority of Alaska’s fishing jobs, fell by 6.4 percent statewide in 2016, a loss of 323 workers. T...
Alaska Wildlife Troopers were called out to the 10-mile point of Nemo Loop Road late last week, after a slain buck was reportedly unsalvaged. Trooper David Bozman drove out to the scene on November 3, where a spike buck lay at the roadside. It was likely the deer was killed on or around the day. “This is the second wasted deer this year that I know of,” he commented. Another deer, this time a doe, had reportedly been shot and abandoned at a gravel pit near 3-Mile Zimovia Highway on or around September 23. Under Alaska Department of Fish and...
Wrangell delegates returned from last month's annual conference for the Alaska Federation of Natives at Anchorage's Dena'ina Center. AFN is the largest statewide Native organization in Alaska, representing 151 federally recognized tribes, 150 village corporations, 12 regional corporations, and various nonprofit and tribal consortiums. Its annual October conference, this year held between the 19th and 21st, provides AFN membership the opportunity to put forward resolutions as well as to discuss...
Just under a dozen students at the local middle and high schools took part in a two-week hunter education course, earning their certifications in the process. The course was led by Winston Davies, who teaches the district's Alaska skills course. "It's the first time to my knowledge that hunter safety has been taught here in years," he explained. The state-approved curriculum provides a well-rounded course, covering firearms safety training, wildlife conservation, and respect for natural resource...
Preliminary harvest and value figures for the 2017 commercial salmon fishery indicate the season was a step up above the previous year's disastrous harvest. The Alaska Department of Fish and Game reported a 66.7-percent increase in exvessel value between the two years, with 224.6 million wild salmon worth around $678.8 million brought in by the state's fishing fleet. Chum salmon saw the biggest boon of the year, breaking records with 25.2 million fish, worth about $128.3 million. The haul...
Hunters still have until tomorrow to get their harvest reports in, but the 2017 moose hunt has already broken the RM038 district record. As of Tuesday afternoon some 117 animals had been logged by hunters in the Wrangell and Petersburg area. It surpasses the 111 taken last year, and marks the fourth year in a row where the harvest has exceeded 100 moose. The month-long season started September 15 and wrapped up Sunday. The majority of moose were taken on surrounding islands, with 48 taken on...
Kodiak is at the center of a national push to produce biofuels from seaweeds. Agents from the U.S. Department of Energy’s Advanced Research Projects Agency-Energy (ARPA-E) recently traveled to the island to meet with a team of academics, scientists, businesses and local growers to plan the first steps of a bi-coastal pilot project to modernize methods to grow sugar kelp as a fuel source. The project is bankrolled by a $500,000 grant to the University of Alaska/Fairbanks through a new DOE program called Macroalgae Research Inspiring Novel E...
October 18, 1917: Dr. W. J. Pigg returned Saturday from Ft. Seward at Haines where he took a physical examination and passed. He expects to receive notice any day to report somewhere for medical examination. Dr. Pigg hopes soon to get a commission in the regular Army. He thinks it probable that he will leave Wrangell within the next three months. October 23, 1942: Merlin Elmer Palmer Post, American Legion, last night gave a farewell dinner for Wrangell’s latest group of men who expect to leave soon for the Army. The dinner was given at the L...
With one weekend to go in the 2017 moose hunting season, numbers were approaching 100 as of Tuesday. Ninety-five bull moose had been reported by hunters in the Petersburg-Wrangell management area, only seven of which have been confiscated due to noncompliance with local antler restrictions. “It seems like a nice, lower number of illegals,” Department of Fish and Game wildlife biologist Rich Lowell said of the year. Typically about 10 percent of the total harvest is deemed illegal by management officials, making this year’s slightly bette...
KENAI, Alaska (AP) – The Upper Cook Inlet had a scarce sockeye salmon harvest this year, but commercial fishers caught more coho, chum and pink salmon than expected, the Peninsula Clarion reported. The sockeye harvest was the smallest in 10 years, leading to this year's overall salmon harvest being lower than average, according to a season summary released on Tuesday by the Alaska Department of Fish and Game. Fishers brought in about 1.8 million sockeye, according to the summary. Altogether, about 3 million salmon of all species were h...
Night owls may have noticed their power go out late Sunday evening after a bird strike took down service for an hour. A problem was reported to Wrangell Municipal Light and Power by police dispatch at around 11:20 p.m. Checking the substation behind the Public Works Department yard, electrical superintendent Clay Hammer explained one of the feeder relays was down. Feeder 4 provides power to utility users from one end of Peninsula Street down to the end of service along Zimovia Highway. A potentially blown generator had been reported by a Penins...
The Petersburg-Wrangell area moose harvest seems set to break 100 again this year, according to the Alaska Department of Fish and Game. So far 67 moose have been checked in during the first 18 days of the monthlong hunt. Petersburg ADFG wildlife biologist Rich Lowell explained that generally the larger share of bulls are killed during the first half of the season. Over the past eight years the final two-week average has seen around 45 moose harvested, ranging from a low of 36 to a high of 57. The number of moose taken illegally in the district...
Around 40 residents came together last week for dinner, drinks and a presentation about mining issues at the Stikine Inn. Campaigners with advocacy group Salmon Beyond Borders hosted the event, one of a series being held last month around Southeast communities. Meeting in Wrangell on September 27, one of its purposes was to bring residents up to speed with recent developments in the mining industry in neighboring British Columbia. There are three rivers of primary interest, being the Stikine,...
October 4, 1917: War was declared on Wrangell Saturday night by Oscar Weston, who, after mixing drinks too freely, became enraged over imaginary offenses. Weston went aboard a gas boat tied to the slip of the Columbia and Northern dock and opened fire on the town with a 280 Ross high power rifle. Fortunately he aimed a little too high to do any harm, but the whistling of bullets overhead was not very welcome music. The officers, knowing that Weston was insane for the time being, and wishing to take him alive, permitted Charlie Olesen, who knew...
JUNEAU, AK- The Alaska Department of Fish and Game is announcing the reopening of the Southeast Alaska and Yakutat sport fishery for king salmon. The following regulations will be effective 12:01 a.m. Sunday, October 1, 2017 through 11:59 p.m.Saturday, March 31, 2018. The regulations are: Alaskan Resident The resident bag and possession limit is two king salmon, 28 inches or greater in length. Nonresident The nonresident bag and possession limit is one king salmon, 28 inches or greater in length; The nonresident annual limit is three ki...
Undaunted by pouring rain, hunters in the Wrangell and Petersburg areas have been bringing in their fill of moose for the 2017 season. As of Tuesday afternoon, Alaska Department of Fish and Game reported a total of 47 bulls have so far been shot since the season's opener on September 15. Of these, only three have so far been confirmed as noncompliant specimens. "We've got a couple that we're looking at," ADFG wildlife biologist Rich Lowell added. The department investigates the carcass in...
October is National Seafood Month, a distinction bestowed by Congress 30 years ago to recognize one of America’s oldest industries. Alaska merits special recognition because its fishing fleets provide 65 percent of the nation’s wild caught seafood, more than all of the other states combined. Ironically, there is little to no fanfare in Alaska during seafood month. My hometown of Kodiak, for example, (the #2 U.S. fishing port) never gives a shout out to our fishermen and processors, nor do local restaurants celebrate seafood on their Oct...
