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The governor’s office last week announced the inclusion of Southeast Alaska in the state’s request for a disaster declaration for the 2016 pink salmon fishery. Made October 26, the announcement was in response to a letter jointly issued by Reps. Dan Ortiz (I-District 36) and Jonathan Kreiss-Tomkins (D-District 35) the previous week making the request. It follows a request in August made by Rep. Louise Stutes (R-District 32) for the state’s fishery due to the season’s poor returns. Statewide the harvest was considered the worst in nearly...
Area hunters brought in a bumper harvest this fall, with 113 moose reported for the 2016 season by its end on Saturday. The total ended up being the largest on record, besting the 109 harvested in 2009. That year, antler restrictions were loosened to allow the harvest of bulls with two brow tines on both antlers, allowing for better yields. Alaska Department of Fish and Game biologist Rich Lowell noted returns on the Stikine River were well below the long-term yearly average of 26 moose, with...
It was a rough salmon season at most Alaska regions this summer, with Bristol Bay being the big exception. While sockeye catches exceeded expectations, all other species came up short. But salmon stakeholders can take heart that the fish is moving swimmingly to market. “The demand is there. The world still recognizes that this is the best place to go for the highest quality salmon, including pinks,” said Tyson Fick, Communications Director for the Alaska Seafood Marketing Institute. “Sales have been brisk this fall,” added Tom Sunderl...
Fish on! The lure of reaching a statewide radio audience has once again attracted a full slate of political hopefuls to Kodiak for its popular fisheries debate. On Wednesday, October 12, five candidates for U.S. Senate will travel to the nation’s #2 fishing port to share their knowledge and ideas on a single topic: Alaska’s seafood industry. “It’s a great service to Kodiak, to our fishing communities and to Alaska in general,” said Trevor Brown, director of the Kodiak Chamber of Commerce, host of the event. “Fishing is the state’s lar...
The end of the RM038 moose season is in sight, and as of noon Tuesday the total stood at 97 moose taken, including 11 illegal kills. The season total is on track to exceed 100 moose for the third year in a row, according to Rich Lowell, area wildlife biologist for Alaska Department of Fish and Game (ADF&G). The number of moose illegal kills was low during the first half of the season, but they recently increased and now represent 11 percent of the total harvest. Nine of the 97 moose harvested to date failed to comply with the local antler...
The moose season is past the halfway point, with harvest totals appearing nearly on par with last year's. The Alaska Department of Fish and Game reported 50 moose had been harvested by Sept. 30. The season began Sept. 15, and is set to wrap up next weekend on Oct. 15. At the halfway point last year hunters in the Wrangell, Petersburg and Kake areas had put away 54 moose, which at the time led ADFG to anticipate an average season. An unexpectedly solid last couple of weeks ended up bringing the...
Opening up on September 15, the local moose season is off to a positive start. As of last Friday, hunters in the Wrangell, Petersburg and Kake area had so far logged in 32 legal moose, 31 of which were taken within the first week, ending September 21. At first looking a little slim, the total had bumped up in the succeeding days as hunters continued to log moose they had harvested over the period. Under regulations, they have five days after the kill to check in a harvested moose. "Actually, it...
Governor Bill Walker has officially requested that the federal government declare a disaster for four Alaska regions hurt by one of the poorest pink salmon returns in decades. In a September 19 letter to U.S. Department of Commerce Secretary Penny Pritzker, Walker said fishery failures that occurred this summer at the Kodiak, Prince William Sound, Lower Cook Inlet and Chignik management areas are having a “significant impact on those who depend on the fishery for their livelihood” and asks for the “soonest possible review” due to the economi...
Cordovans are hoping to revive a long lost Tanner crab fishery in Prince William Sound as a step towards keeping the town’s waterfront working year round. The crab fishery produced up to 14 million pounds in the early 1970s and had declined to about half a million pounds by the time it was closed after the 1989 Exxon Valdez oil spill. State managers believe the Tanner stock remains depleted and cannot provide for a commercial fishery, but locals believe it’s time to take a closer look. “It’s largely the opinion of the people around here th...
The month long moose hunting season is ready to begin next week, opening on September 15 and lasting until October 15. For the Wrangell, Petersburg and Kake game unit, last year’s moose season turned out being the third best on record according to Alaska Department of Fish and Game harvest data. Area hunters had a 13-percent success rate, with 103 males harvested by 772 participating hunters. A total of 1,061 permits had been issued. After a reasonably mild winter, the moose population appears to be doing well. An aerial survey of the S...
Bering Sea crabbers were stunned last week when the outlooks for the upcoming fall and winter fisheries were revealed. Results of the annual summer surveys by state and federal scientists showed that numbers of mature male and females dropped sharply across the board for the big three: opilio (snow crab), their larger cousins, bairdi Tanners, and red king crab. “I don’t think anybody was expecting the numbers to be as low as they ended up. That was a shock,” said Ruth Christiansen, science adviser and policy analyst for the trade group, Alask...
With the seasonal peak behind it, Alaska’s commercial fishing industry is expecting one of the worst shortfalls for salmon in recent memory. As of Tuesday, Alaska Department of Fish and Game’s in-season blue sheet summary estimated just over 102,245,000 salmon had been caught statewide, with less than a quarter of that caught in Southeast. Despite a fair showing for sockeye, the state’s fishermen would be fortunate enough to harvest half the 263,463,000 salmon estimated caught last year. The news has not been good for the local comme...
Two big fish stories have been spawned so far by the 2016 Alaska salmon season: 1) sockeyes save the day; and 2) colossal pinks. A larger than expected sockeye salmon catch that has topped 50 million will salvage a summer that has seen lackluster catches of other salmon species, notably, those hard to predict pinks. “I think if you’re a Bristol Bay fisherman, you’re probably pretty happy, and if you fished anywhere else in the state, it probably hasn’t been a great season for you,” said Forrest Bowers, deputy director of commercial fisheries...
JUNEAU, Alaska (AP) – An Alaska whale-watching cruise turned into a rescue mission for an unusual aquatic species a distressed, swimming deer. The 18-passenger tour vessel from Gastineau Guiding Co. lassoed the struggling deer on Wednesday, pulled it on board and gave it a ride to an island, Juneau radio station KTOO reported. Naturalist Audrey Benson said visitors and crew were watching whales when the boat received a radio transmission that deer were swimming in the saltwater on the west side of Shelter Island. “We heard that there were two...
July 15, 1916: The Princess Charlotte, the floating palace of the Canadian Pacific Railway Steamship line, arrived in Wrangell on her first trip to Alaska early last Tuesday morning and went south again last night. The Princess Charlotte is, without a doubt, the finest vessel that has sailed the Southeastern Alaska route and will make a regular trip every other week all the rest of the season. The Princess Charlotte is under the command of Captain John MacLeod, one of the best known and best liked skippers on the Alaska run. A.G. Baker is purse...
Fisherman Gig Decker holds up a sockeye pulled from his nets aboard the F/V McCrea on July 6, near 14-Mile Zimovia. The drift gillnet fishery for the Stikine River and Prince of Wales Island areas opened on July 3, with an additional 60-hour opening beginning July 7. Alaska Department of Fish and Game reports the effort has been near average, with a better than usual sockeye harvest so far. The districts opened again for another four days beginning Sunday. As of July 8, the inseason summary for...
Wrangell's 64th Annual King Salmon Derby wound to a close on Sunday, with the winning fish snagged only two days before. Fishing with her family near Found Island on Friday, Malia McIntyre reeled in a 46.7 pound Chinook. Her catch not only wins her the $6,000 grand prize, but also the $500 weekly prize and $350 silver bracelet, awarded to the woman with the largest entered fish. She will join other prize winners tonight at the Nolan Center to collect their awards. The Wrangell Chamber of...
June 6, 1941: Samuel R. Privett, a resident of Wrangell since 1927, has taken over the Union Oil dealership here. He succeeds Edward J. Bradley, who has been the dealer here for seven years, said he would be selling heating oil as an independent dealer. Privett, who has been associated with the logging industry during his fourteen years in Alaska, took over the dealership last Friday. He is being assisted in the operation by Jimmy Early. June 6, 1966: Wrangell will have its first backout next Wednesday night. Following a conference with...
The budget impasse with Alaska legislators is wreaking havoc on salmon fisheries across the state, and the industry is bracing for the possibility of a complete shutdown in some regions. If lawmakers can’t agree on a budget by June 1, all state workers will be on notice for layoffs starting July 1. That includes 750 full-time and seasonal workers in the commercial fisheries division, many of whom are the boots on the ground for salmon management. “The word that comes to my mind is catastrophic,” said Scott Kelley, director of the state comme...
The Alaska Department of Fish and Game announced on Tuesday that modified king salmon sport fishing regulations that have been in effect for Wrangell and Petersburg’s District 8 are rescinded. As of this morning, the increased sport fishing opportunity for the district has come to an end, bringing regulations back in line with those of the wider Southeast region. Under the regulations, an Alaska resident permit-holder can bag and possess a limit of three king salmon, of 28 inches or greater in length. Nonresidents are limited to one king s...
ANCHORAGE, Alaska (AP) – A veterinary pathologist worked Monday to determine what killed a juvenile fin whale discovered on the bow of a cruise ship entering an Alaska port. The cause of death was not immediately apparent for the endangered whale spotted just after 5 a.m. Sunday on the bulbous bow of the Zaandam, a Holland America Line cruise ship, as it prepared to dock in Seward. The carcass was towed to a beach near Seward, a spokeswoman for the fisheries section of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, Julie Speegle, said M...
The Alaska Department of Fish and Game announced last week limits for the year’s lingcod sport fishing season, which for Southeast Alaska began on Monday. Running through to Nov. 30, licensed residents will be limited to bagging one lingcod a day, with two in possession, and no size limitation. During the season nonresident anglers will likewise have a bag limit of one per day, though with only one in possession. In addition, nonresidents may only keep lingcod which are between 30 and 45 inches or else are 55 inches or greater in length. N...
Anglers are fueling up their boats and assembling their gear in preparation for the 64th Annual King Salmon Derby, which starts on Saturday. There are only a few changes to this year’s derby from past contests, among which will be three weigh-in stations around town. During weekdays from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. stations will be located at the Wrangell Chamber of Commerce office by the city dock and at Petro Marine at Inner Harbor. An additional station will be set up at the Harbormaster’s office for weekday nights from 5 to 9 p.m. and on weekends, fro...
In the face of Alaska’s multi-billion dollar budget shortfalls, state policy makers are putting the onus on fishermen to cover the costs of going fishing. “One of the sources we have to offset general fund decreases is increased test fishing. We don’t like to catch fish or crab or anything just to raise money, but in this climate we’re having to look at that long and hard,” said Scott Kelley, director of the Commercial Fisheries for the Alaska Dept. of Fish and Game. Test fishing is typically done by department chartered vessels to assess st...