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Senior students at Wrangell High School presented their end-of-year projects for parents, faculty and other passersby last week at the school gym. Twenty-four members of this year's graduating class worked on a variety of assignments to meet their core requirements. School activities director Bill Bradley explained the projects are self-driven, and encourage students to give back to the community as best they can. Projects are at least 25 hours each, which can be difficult to arrange when...
The month-long King Salmon Derby will get to a start on Saturday, the 65th in Wrangell's long-running competition. Wrangell's annual derby is organized by the Chamber of Commerce, and during its month long run draws close to 1,000 participants. Last year's grand prize winner was Malia McIntyre, who brought in a 46.7 pound king salmon toward the end of the derby. As with last year, first prize for 2017 will yield a $6,000 jackpot. Additional prizes for second through fourth place are $4,000,...
The Alaska Department of Fish and Game released its forecast for commercial salmon harvests this year, projecting a strong run of pinks for Southeast in 2017. If panning out as projected, the news should come as a relief to the region's fishermen after a disappointing 2016 harvest. The report details last year's commercial salmon season, which had come in about 30 percent lower than forecast. Alaska fishermen caught 112,500,000 salmon in 2016, of which 52.9 million had been sockeye and 39...
SITKA - The Alaska Department of Fish and Game announced April 10 that under Chinook salmon management provisions of the Pacific Salmon Treaty the 2017 abundance index for Southeast Alaska has been calculated to be 1.27, which results in an all-gear harvest limit of 209,700 treaty Chinook (non-Alaska hatchery-produced Chinook). The preseason troll treaty harvest allocation for 2017 is 154,880 Chinook or 108,320 fish lower than the preseason limit available in 2016. While there is no ceiling on the number of Chinook salmon harvested in the...
PETERSBURG, Alaska (AP) – A group of volunteers from five southeast Alaska communities is working to document bats as part of a program aimed at combating a deadly virus caused by the animals. Volunteers from Petersburg, Juneau, Haines, Sitka and Wrangell are participating in this year’s program, which is coordinated through the Alaska Department of Fish and Game. Over the last three years, the program has helped gather data to prevent White Noise Syndrome. The fungal disease has killed off more than 7 million bats in the Lower 48 since it was...
Seafood sales at American retail stores are on an upswing and should remain that way for the foreseeable future. Better yet - demand for fish captured wild in the USA showed the biggest gains of all. That’s good news for Alaska, which provides nearly 65 percent of wild-caught seafood to our nation’s supermarkets (95 percent for salmon!). A new survey by trade magazine Progressive Grocer showed that retail seafood sales rose nearly 40 percent over the past year, and 56 percent predicted an upturn in seafood sales this year. U.S. wild caught sea...
The Department of Fish and Game announced late last week its opening for the directed lingcod fishery will be starting next month. For the outside waters of Southeast District, east of 144° W., the fishery opens May 16 just after midnight. Lingcod management areas will remain open to directed lingcod fishing until November 30 or when harvest allocations are taken, whichever occurs first. In round pounds, the largest allocation will be for the East Yakutat section between 137° and 140° W., at 11...
ANCHORAGE, Alaska (AP) – The state of Alaska’s toolkit for increasing moose and caribou numbers includes killing wolf pups in dens, shooting wolf packs from helicopters, and adopting liberal hunting regulations that allow sportsmen to shoot grizzlies over bait. But when state officials wanted to extend “predator control’’ to federal wildlife refuges, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service said no. And after years of saying no, the agency late last year adopted a rule to make the denial permanent. Alaska’s elected officials called that an outrage...
April 5, 1917: Wellcome, head of one of the largest wholesale drug concerns in England and the United Kingdom, accompanied by his valet, was in Wrangell from Monday morning till Wednesday afternoon, when he sailed for Seattle on the Spokane. He stopped off in Wrangell for the purpose of adding to his collection of photographic views of the Northland. Mr. Wellcome is one of the men who originally backed Father Duncan in his effort to civilize the natives of Old Metlakahtla when the tribe moved to the American side and settled at their present...
In the last few weeks, folks have called and emailed to ask about our budget and what’s happening in the Capitol. There’s a lot of misinformation out there, and in this climate, where every Alaskan is worried about the future, it’s important to keep things in focus. With budget numbers flying and hundreds of amendments under consideration, I’m going to pick out the most significant changes – those that will affect you and your family – to highlight. Keep in mind that this is the budget as of March 16th, 2018, 3:30 PM. With hours of debate and...
Wrangell’s district representative for the State Legislature teleconferenced in late last week to update constituents on what’s going on in Juneau. Rep. Dan Ortiz (I-District 36) called in to Legislative Information Office locations in Ketchikan and Wrangell to explain ongoing bills and field questions on March 23. Likely the biggest issue on Alaska’s collective mind is its budget deficit, which by various measures is set to drain billions from the state’s savings this year. With spending left as is, the Legislative Finance Division project...
Biologists with the state’s Department of Fish and Game will be making their way to Wrangell this weekend to explain how the ongoing survey of Southeast Alaska’s bat population is going. Staff wildlife biologists Tory Rhoads and Steve Lewis will be visiting local schools through Friday, teaching about the different species prevalent to the area and explaining how monitoring actually works. A presentation open to the public that evening at 6:30 p.m. has also been scheduled, to be held inside the Forest Service Ranger’s office. Of parti...
The required permits are not yet in hand, but the U.S. Navy is moving full steam ahead on its plans to conduct war training exercises in the Gulf of Alaska for two weeks in early May. Meanwhile, nine coastal communities have so far signed resolutions asking the Navy to instead conduct its training between September and mid-March, times that are less sensitive to migrating salmon, birds and marine mammals. Several more communities have indicated they will do the same by month's end. "It's not tha...
The Alaska Department of Fish and Game announced Tuesday its schedule of public meetings for the commercial troll fishery around Southeast Alaska and Yakutat. Wrangell’s will be held on Wednesday, April 12, inside the Nolan Center classroom at 6 p.m. Other town dates and times will be: Sitka – Monday, April 10, NSRAA conference room at 2:00 p.m. Ketchikan – Tuesday, April 11, Fish and Game conference room at 5:30 p.m. Petersburg – Wednesday, April 12, Assembly chambers at 12:30 p.m. Juneau – Thursday, April 13, ADFG Headquarters Caribou C...
Alaska salmon fishermen could haul in a harvest that nearly doubles last year’s catch, due to a projected uptick in the number of pinks. An Alaska Department of Fish and Game report on 2017 salmon run forecasts and harvest projections pegs the total catch at 204 million fish. That compares to just over 112 million salmon taken by fishermen in 2016. The catch last season included 53 million sockeye salmon—the fifth largest harvest since 1970—but only 39 million pink salmon, the smallest harvest since 1977. For this year, the forecast calls for a...
The Alaska Department of Fish and Game announced on Monday the bag, possession and retention regulations for this year's nonpelagic rockfish sport season. For all Southeast waters, Alaska residents have no size limit, with a bag and possession limit of one nonpelagic rockfish. Nonresidents enjoy the same, with the additional limitation of one yelloweye rockfish per year. This must be recorded in ink on the back of an angler's sport fishing license or harvest record card at the time of harvest. A...
March 5, 1917: Andrew Stevenson and W.R. Hillery, president and vice president, respectively, of the Bank of Alaska, arrived Tuesday morning on the Princess Sophia. Mr. Stevenson is returning to Alaska from a business trip to New York, while Mr. Hillery is returning from a business trip to cities on the Pacific coast. Messrs. Stevenson and Hillery will spend several days here getting better acquainted with the Wrangell people and local business conditions. From here they will go to Skagway where Mr. Stevenson makes his headquarters, and will be...
Hunters, anglers and others predisposed toward outdoor activities will soon be getting to know a new face around Wrangell. Trooper David Bozman with the Alaska Wildlife Troopers was assigned to the A Detachment post earlier last month. Originally hailing from Illinois, he had previously been assigned to the post in Soldotna. Coming up on his third year with AWT, Bozman explained an interest in law enforcement and a love of the outdoors are what drew him to the state service. "I wanted a...
Alaska's Department of Fish and Game (ADFG) announced regulations for the king salmon sport fishing season this summer would be on the conservative side. Issued Monday, the order applies to marine waters adjacent to the Stikine River in District 8, near Petersburg and Wrangell. Beginning May 1 and lasting until July 15, the king salmon bag and possession limit for all anglers will be set at one fish, 28 inches or greater in length. Anglers will also have to abide by rod restrictions in place...
Shellfish, sea cucumbers, geoduck clams, seaweeds and biofuels are crops envisioned by a group of Alaskans who are crafting a framework for a statewide mariculture industry expansion. An 11-member task force created last February by Governor Walker has wasted no time advancing its mission to put a comprehensive report on Walker’s desk by next March. The group, which has been meeting regularly, also has attracted wide interest from Alaskans who want to serve on advisory committees as the plan takes shape. The advisory committees include r...
Alaska’s 30th Legislature convened for its new session on Tuesday, with the state’s finances presenting a daunting challenge for the next 90 days. The spending deficit is projected at around $3.1 billion this year if the budget is left as-is. Agency spending has come to just over 13-percent since FY15, and the budget as a whole has taken a 29-percent cut when capital projects and other funding is considered. Revenue has failed to cover operating expenses since FY13, but has covered an ever-dwindling proportion since. This year the $1.2 bil...
PETERSBURG – An application for an Alaska Department of Fish and Game (ADF&G) permit alteration to release 40 million chum salmon in Thomas Bay brought forth by the Northern Southeast Regional Aquaculture Association (NSRAA) has been approved. The application process has taken just over a year to secure the location, north of Petersburg, for the release but the change is something NSRAA general manager Steve Reifenstuhl has been thinking about for a while now. “I looked at Thomas Bay approximately 20 years,” he says. “Had temperature probes o...
For Wrangell, the past year was one mixed with successes and setbacks, shared tragedies and uplifting moments. Sales taxes collected over the spring and summer tour seasons neared all-time highs, with the visitor industry experiencing a good season overall. On the other end, fishermen experienced one of their worst harvests of the summer, which after a disappointing 2015 season has put the fiscal pinch on a number of local families, boat builders, and associated sectors. As 2017 dawns, concerns...
The governments of Alaska and neighboring province British Columbia initiated their first bilateral working group on transboundary mining and water quality concerns earlier this month. In a statement from his office released last week, Lieutenant Governor Byron Mallott expressed his appreciation for the meeting, which was one of the measures outlined in a statement of cooperation the two governments signed in October. The agreement was a next step in the process of addressing concerns among Southeast Alaskan communities about the ecological...
ANCHORAGE, Alaska (AP) – The state Department of Fish and Game has announced that fees will increase for sport fishing, hunting and trapping licenses starting next year. The agency’s announcement Thursday comes as the result of a bill approved by lawmakers earlier this year. The law, which takes effect Jan. 1, was supported by conservation groups, sportsmen’s organizations and the guiding industry, the department said. Officials said it’s the first time in 24 years that fees for Alaska hunting licenses will increase. Fees for fishing licenses h...