Sorted by date Results 126 - 150 of 162
A collection drive begun last August by Wrangell's Indian Environmental General Assistance Program (IGAP) has brought in quite a haul: about 3,300 pounds of discarded gill netting, brought in by area fishermen for recycling. A survey conducted last year by Wrangell Cooperative Association (WCA) found that illegal dumping was a top environmental issue among residents. Among the items being abandoned around the island's lots and roadsides, old gill nets were a particularly knotty issue. City...
The high school is getting ready to sponsor a bit of culture, as it comes Wrangell's turn to host this year's Southeast Alaska Regional Artfest next week. Sixty students and 15 teachers from schools around the region will be represented, coming from Klawock, Skagway, Petersburg, Craig, Sitka, Mount Edgecumbe and Juneau. "We're honored to host the continuation of the Southeast Alaska Artfest," said Wrangell High School's art teacher, Anne Luetkemeyer. Fifteen different classes will be offered to...
PETERSBURG – Those looking to work at Petersburg’s fish processors will have a good chance to jump onboard with this summer’s pink salmon season predicted to be a big one. “The 2015 harvest forecast of 58 million pink salmon is well above the recent 10-year average harvest of 41 million pink salmon, and a harvest of that magnitude would be in the top ten harvests since 1960,” according to a guide put out by the Alaska Department of Fish and Game’s Andy Piston, pink and chum salmon project leader in Ketchikan, and Steve Heinl, Ketchikan r...
PETERSBURG – Tonka Seafoods, Inc., announced last year that it was working to bring shrimp fisheries and processing back to Petersburg after a nearly decade-long absence. Well, it’s delivered. The fishery is closed for March and April, but Chief Financial Officer Seth Scrimsher said they purchased 250,000 pounds of pink shrimp from fisherman at a price of 40 cents per pound over the winter. A customer contacted Tonka and requested the shrimp after spotting the seafood company as one of 12 finalists for the Path to Prosperity (P2P) contest. “We...
Wrangell’s waterfront is continuing to take shape, as the City and Borough Assembly approved a pair of project contracts and gave plat approval to Sea Level and Trident Seafoods for continued development and those companies’ lots. This follows on the heels of a set of waterfront planning sessions held last month, which will eventually develop the fill area along Campbell Drive into a mixed-use property for businesses, locals and visitors to enjoy. A team of architects and civic planners were brought on board to begin drafting a master plan for...
Tomorrow the local Indian Environmental General Assistance Program (IGAP) office will conclude its elder property cleanup program, which was first started in October. The need had been one of those identified through listening sessions hosted last year by IGAP and the Wrangell Cooperative Association. Operating through an Environmental Protection Agency grant, the program first sought out elderly residents within Wrangell's Native community who needed help collecting and disposing of various...
Freezer displays at Walmart superstores in Alaska and Washington now include a new lineup of 14 Alaska seafood items. The world's largest grocer announced the expanded commitment to Alaska seafood last week. "We are so proud to bring these to our customers, and we also know how important it is to local fishermen and folks across the state," said John Forrest Ales, Director of Corporate Communications for Walmart. Company stores already carry Alaska halibut and sockeye salmon. Added to the mix...
The need for a clear “fish first” policy in Alaska tops the list of priorities compiled by the Fisheries Transition Team for Governor Walker. The group also stated that “fish and fishermen in Alaska are viewed as barriers to development,” and that there is “irreplaceable optimism” that fish can coexist with development at any scale. Fisheries was just one of the topics that 250 Alaskans brainstormed about in 17 teams that newly elected Walker convened in late November. Their task was to identify the top five priorities in diverse categories,...
Alaska seafood marketers are ramping up promotions and bankrolling a $1 global million media blitz to counteract a tough sockeye salmon market. Sockeyes are by far the most valuable salmon catch, often worth two-thirds of the value of Alaska’s entire salmon fishery, but last summer’s unexpected surge of reds left lots of inventory in freezers, and record US imports of competing farmed salmon from Chile and Norway combined with the prospect of another big run at Bristol Bay make for a sockeye sales squeeze. Alaska’s approach will be patte...
Kicking things off with a new borough manager in Jeff Jabusch, 2014 for Wrangell was not only a period of changes, but also one of building and continued development. Pavement was poured at the Marine Service Center, a number of roads were resurfaced or due to eventually see improvement, and the city was able to showcase itself to other regional communities by hosting several prolific functions. January Wrangell Cooperative Association collected 210 registrations for Tlingit-Haida members at...
Wrangell's Planning and Zoning Commission finally had a quorum when it met for its Dec. 11 session. Commissioners were last able to meet on Sept. 11, with a number of items pending for their review. Still under discussion are requests by Bay Company manager David Powell to vacate the remainder of the alleyway adjacent to lots A and C, Bay Company Replat; vacate and purchase a portion of Silvernail Work Road adjacent to Lot C; and purchase portion of lots 1 and 2, Block B, Sortyard Subdivision. The road largely exists conceptually, cutting...
It went down to the wire, but fishermen were relieved to learn they can continue to hose down their decks without fear of violating the Clean Water Act. Congress voted unanimously this week to extend a moratorium for three years that exempts commercial fishing vessels 79 feet and under from needing incidental discharge permits from the Environmental Protection Agency for deck wash. The current moratorium, which affects 8,500 Alaska vessels, was set to expire on Dec.18. The regulation is aimed at preventing fuels, toxins or hazardous wastes...
Wrangell High School's wrestling team not only hosted, but also won last weekend's 2A Region V tournament, with all 10 of its wrestlers headed to State in Anchorage this weekend. "We're very happy," said the team's coach, Jeffery Rooney. "It's the first team title in over 20 years." Alisa Heller and Jeffrey Rooney Jr. each took first place titles for Region V 2A. "High speed, high action, it was very impressive to watch," the coach said of his son's final round. Competing separately among the...
Many residents in Wrangell woke up Thursday to discover a power outage, following damage caused by a storm to Ketchikan’s Bailey Substation the previous evening. Power across the entire transmission system was down, affecting Ketchikan and Petersburg for most of the morning as well. A storm the previous evening featured winds between 43 and 61 miles per hour by 7 p.m. Gusts topping 90 mph were also reported at Ketchikan International Airport. “We started getting calls in,” recounted Andy Donato, electric division director of Ketchikan Publi...
Despite the at times uncooperative weather, the Borough of Wrangell successfully hosted this year's annual Southeast Conference at its Nolan Center, from Sept. 16 to 18. About 180 visitors arrived for the three-day conference, fully booking every inn, hotel and lodge in town. Volunteers opened their houses to some attendees as well, but to accommodate the remaining attendees Trident Seafoods allowed the conference use of its bunkhouses. Volunteers were essential to the event's success, fixing...
By the time the fog finally dissipated Tuesday afternoon, the 56th annual Southeast Conference (SEC) was already underway at Wrangell's Nolan Center. Poor visibility prevented the appearance of the conference's opening speaker, Alaska Governor Sean Parnell, but there were a number of interesting presenters on hand to cover a wide array of topics near and dear to the region. “It's just a great opportunity to learn about all of Southeast,” commented Chere Klein, the Republican candidate for House District 36 in November's upcoming election. “It...
More than 100 researchers and three dozen projects are underway to find clues as to why Alaska’s Chinook salmon production has declined since 2007. The ambitious effort marks the start of a state-backed five year, $30 million Chinook Salmon Research Initiative that includes 12 major river systems from Southeast Alaska to the Yukon. And while it will be years before the project yields definitive data, the scientists have pinned down some early findings. “It’s not the fresh water production of the juvenile Chinook that is the reason this decli...
There's finally a place to put discardable gill nets in Wrangell, perhaps at last solving a problem that has been hassling the island. In a recent survey, Wrangell Cooperative Association's Indian General Assistance Program (WCA-IGAP) found that illegal dumping was residents' number-one environmental concern. Among the items being abandoned, old gill nets were a particularly troublesome issue. "It has been a problem in the past," said Ruby McMurren, project supervisor at Wrangell Public Works....
Hotel reservations and empty tables at local eateries may be a little hard to come by this fall. About 250 officials and leaders from all over Southeast will descend on Wrangell Sept. 16 to 18 as the annual membership meeting of the Southeast Conference comes to town. The Conference’s mid-session meeting was held March 12, 13, and 14 in Juneau. Wrangell’s role as host borough comes after a report issued by the 2013 session, which highlighted Wrangell’s success with the so-called blue economy, a combination of fisheries and marine servi...
Alaska’s salmon catch of 273 million salmon set a record last year– and so did the number of salmon returning home to state hatcheries. The 2013 Fisheries Enhancement Report by the AK Dept. of Fish and Game shows that a return of 112 million hatchery reared salmon contributed 36 percent to the state’s total salmon harvest. The breakdown by species was 63% for chum salmon, 38% for pinks, 23% for Chinook salmon, 22% for cohos and 5% of Alaska’s sockeye salmon catch can be credited to hatchery returns. Unlike farmed fish, which are crammed into ne...
Just as Nero fiddled while Rome burned, US policy makers are quibbling over climate issues as bivalves dissolve in an increasingly corrosive Pacific Ocean. Any kid’s chemistry set will show that big changes are occurring in seawater throughout the world. As the oceans absorb more carbon dioxide from fossil-fuel burning outputs (primarily coal), it increases acidity to a point where shellfish can’t survive. It is referred to as ocean acidification (OA) and results in sea creatures’ inability to grow skeletons and protective shells. The proce...
Officials from Trident Seafoods have received a conditional use permit request for the construction of a new bunkhouse. The company received the permit by a 5-0 vote of the borough planning and zoning commission Jan. 9. They also received a 5-0 vote on a variance permit for off-street parking at the same location, near the intersection of Case and Front streets. The facility will house between 40 and 80 people at a time. Trident officials hope to conclude construction on the new bunkhouse June 1, in time for the majority of summer salmon season...
Alaska’s seafood industry worked hard again in 2013 to ramp up its message to policy makers, most of whom still tend to overlook the industry’s economic significance to the state and beyond. What is that message? That “the industry” is made up of thousands of small businesses – the fishing boats that each supports one or several families. That the seafood companies in coastal towns provide one of the state’s biggest tax bases. And together, fishing and processing provide more jobs in Alaska than oil/gas, mining, tourism and timber combined. S...
Want to know the average fish prices at the docks over a decade … or where most Alaska fishermen and fishing fleets call home? Or how Alaska’s seafood industry stacks up against other state industries? What is likely the most comprehensive, user friendly report ever done on Alaska’s seafood industry by region was just released by the Alaska Seafood Marketing Institute. Titled “Economic Value of the Alaska Seafood Industry,” the report was compiled by the Juneau-based McDowell Group, and it includes all of the direct and indirect economic...
