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Push that pasta aside. Noodles made from Alaska pollock are poised to become a center of the plate favorite. Alaska Pollock Protein Noodles from Trident Seafoods swept the awards at the 26th annual Alaska Symphony of Seafood new products competition in Juneau. The low carb, "flavor neutral" noodles contain 1O grams of protein per serving and can be swapped with any pasta favorites. The ready to eat item drew raves from judges and samplers from Seattle to Southeast who gave the noodles quadruple...
Students from Stikine Middle School returned from their trip to Anchorage on Jan. 24. The trip, hosted by the Alaska Native Science and Engineering Program, let the students get a taste of college life by staying on the University of Alaska Anchorage campus and participating in numerous STEM projects. Winston Davies, teacher and chaperone for the trip, said it was a terrific experience for the kids. "It went really well. The kids, all 13 of them, had a blast," he said. "It was a neat experience....
Eating seafood can save lives. Premature birth is the leading cause of death for children under 5 years old worldwide, accounting for nearly one million deaths annually. Now there is proof that eating seafood or marine oils can significantly reduce that number. The lifesaving ingredient? Omega 3 fatty acids. The conclusion of a new Cochrane Review of 70 studies worldwide on nearly 20,000 pregnant women stated that omega’s from marine sources reduces early premature birth by a whopping 42 percent. “The effect really has to be strong to see it...
Kids from Stikine Middle School left for Anchorage on Jan. 11, to attend an ANSEP STEM camp. They're being chaperoned by teachers Winston Davies (top right) and Brian Ashton, and are scheduled to return on Jan. 24. ANSEP, the Alaska Native Science and Engineering Program seeks to improve academic outcomes and promote a strong background in STEM for Alaskan students. The students attending the camp will get to live on the University of Alaska Anchorage campus and get a small taste of college...
At a Nov. 3 dinner at the Hilton in Anchorage, Letitia "Tisha" Benson was named 2018's March of Dimes Nurse of the Year. She received the award of excellence for public health and ambulatory care. Benson said that the nurse of the year award is given to nurses in all 50 states by March of Dimes, a nonprofit that works to improve health for mothers and babies. According to her, there were 109 nominations for the award in Alaska, and the top 65 were invited to the Hilton dinner. Simply being nomin...
An Alaskan sisterhood of sorts is advancing a line of tundra botanicals mixed with the sea to create potent anti-aging skin care products bearing the best of both. A wild salmon Skin Serum is the first wellness product the Salmon Sisters have added to their popular line that features original designs on clothing and other ocean-themed goods. "We love how smooth and light it feels. There are beautiful notes of crowberries, which we picked throughout our childhood on the tundra behind our...
More shipping containers filled with plastic fishing nets, crab lines and other gear left Dutch Harbor last week for recycling plants in Europe, and two more will soon follow from that port and Kodiak. “We’re accepting trawl and crab line and halibut gear and all of it is going to Bulgaria to be sorted,” said Nicole Baker, founder of Net Your Problem and the force behind the recycling effort that began loading and shipping gear last year. “I expect that three more containers from Dutch will be going to Europe in the next few weeks, so we shou...
Richard Robert McCormick, "Dick", slipped peacefully from this life on November 6, 2018 at age 89. At the time of his death, he was residing in the Anchorage Pioneers Home and was surrounded by family. He was born January 06, 1929 in Juneau, Alaska, the son of Richard McCormick II and Kathleen Pellascio. He was raised in Douglas, Alaska with his 3 brothers, Jim, Bob and Tony. He was one of the last graduates from the old Douglas High School. He stayed in contact with childhood chums and...
Catches for next year’s groundfish fisheries reflect ups and downs for Alaska’s key species - pollock and cod – and the stocks appear to be heading north to colder waters. The bulk of Alaska’s fish catches come from waters from three to 200 miles offshore with oversight by federal fishery managers. Their advisory arm, the North Pacific Fishery Management Council, reviews stock assessments for groundfish each October and sets preliminary catches for the Gulf of Alaska and Bering Sea and updates them as new data become available. If the propose...
As Alaska’s salmon season draws to a close, lots of fall fisheries are just getting underway from Ketchikan to the Bering Sea. Southeast is one of Alaska’s busiest regions for fall fishing, especially for various kinds of shellfish. Nearly 400,000 pounds of sidestripe and pink shrimp are being hauled in by a few beam trawlers, and the season for spot shrimp opens October 1. Usually about half a million pounds of the popular big spots are hauled up in local pots over several months. Dungeness crab fishing also will reopen in Southeast in Oct...
Tiny cod fish are reappearing around Kodiak. Researchers aim to find out if it is a blip, or a sign that the stock is recovering after warming waters caused the stocks to crash. Alaska’s seafood industry was shocked last fall when the annual surveys showed cod stocks in the Gulf of Alaska had plummeted by 80 percent to the lowest levels ever seen. Prior surveys indicated large year classes of cod starting in 2012 were expected to produce good fishing for six or more years. But a so called “warm blob” of water depleted food supplies and wiped...
Plastics in recycled fishing nets are being used to make an amazing array of products around the globe and Alaska plans to get in on the action. An Alaska Net Hack Challenge is being planned for September 8 and 9 that aims to identify potential opportunities for using the tons of old nets piled up in landfills and storage lots across the state and develop new items from the materials. Fishing nets can weigh from 5,000 to 20,000 pounds each. “The purpose of the program is to change how people look at fishing nets and ropes. Instead of looking a...
Wrangell Public School District has narrowed the field in its search for a new school superintendent. Current superintendent Patrick Mayer informed the WPSD Board in February his intention to move on after finishing out the current academic year. Since then the district has been working with the Association of Alaska School Boards to find a replacement. AASB had been the organization which had referred Mayer when he was hired in 2014. After working out a fee with the Wrangell district, the association put forward eight interested candidates...
Gary Allen Lewis, 75, passed away in Salem, Oregon on March 9, 2018. He was born on Sept. 29, 1942 in Roseburg, Oregon to Floyd and Eleanor Lewis of McMinnville, Oregon. He graduated from McMinnville High School in 1961 and went to the University of Alaska Fairbanks, where he met his wife, Alison "SonE" Laurie. He graduated from Linfield College in 1965 with a B.S. in Business Administration. Gary and SonE were married for 49 years and raised two daughters in Palmer, Alaska. Gary lived mostly...
ANCHORAGE, Alaska (AP) _ A study of bears and berries has determined that the big animals are the main dispersers of fruit seeds in southeast Alaska. The study by Oregon State University researchers says it’s the first instance of a temperate plant being primarily dispersed by mammals through their excrement rather than by birds. Researcher Taal Levi says seed dispersal is a key component in the understanding of any ecosystem. He says brown and black bears thrive on Alaska’s Panhandle because of abundant salmon but both feed on berries whi...
The girls and boys basketball teams brought back no awards but learned some lessons in a preseason tournament in Ketchikan last week. The Clarke Cochrane Christmas Classic is a longstanding Ketchikan tournament, typically held between the holidays. As with previous years, Alaska teams paired off with schools from as far afield as New Mexico ahead of their regular season openers. The Wrangell High School boys opened the tournament on December 28, matched up with Washington’s Anacortes High School. A well-regarded team in its own division at h...
For 27 years this weekly column has featured news for and about Alaska’s commercial fishing industry. It began in 1991 in the Anchorage Daily News and now appears in more than 20 news outlets across Alaska, nationally and in the UK. Today, Alaska fishermen and processors provide 65 percent of our nation’s wild-caught seafood, and 95 percent of the wild salmon. The industry puts more people to work than oil/gas, mining, timber and tourism combined. Alaska’s diverse fishing fleet of nearly 10,000 vessels is made up mostly of boats under 50 feet....
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...
A group of residents last weekend took part in a march meant to remind the community that slavery is still a problem in the world today. The United Nations' International Labour Organization estimates that over 40,000,000 people around the world are involved in modern slavery, which involves work or situations performed involuntarily and under threat of violence or penalty. That averages out to 5.4 people for every 1,000, with a quarter of those being children. Just under 25 million enslaved...
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...
ANCHORAGE, Alaska (AP) – An environmental activist is calling on the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to reconsider placing anchored rafts in the ocean as resting platforms for walruses after stampedes killed 64 animals on Alaska's northwest coast. Rick Steiner, an environmental consultant and former University of Alaska marine conservation professor, pitched the idea two years ago. The Fish and Wildlife Service concluded it didn't have the money or manpower to provide artificial resting platforms that might give a few walruses relief but not b...
Alaska sea cucumber divers could be helping to cure cancer! Sea cucumber meat and skins have long been considered a delicacy in Asian cuisines; they also are hailed for having healing properties that soothe sore joints and arthritis. Most recently the soft, tubular bottom dwellers are being added to the list of foods acclaimed to kill cancer cells. Dried sea cucumber or extract is anti-viral; anti-bacterial, and an anti-inflammatory, said Ty Bollinger, a leading cancer expert and author of Cancer: Step Outside the Box. “Sea cucumbers are v...
Wrangell’s new city manager sat in on her first meeting of the City and Borough Assembly Tuesday evening. Starting work last week, Lisa Von Bargen gave her first report to council members on the state of city departments. Offered the job back in April, the former Valdez economic director reported she has been getting to know the departments under her since her arrival. She has been getting together with staff at City Hall, the Harbor Department and Public Works this past week to visit sites. She further plans to meet with Parks and R...
A Wrangell student is currently in Anchorage getting a full month’s worth of science, math and engineering lessons. On July 8 future sophomore Tasha Massin left for Alaska Native Science & Engineering Program’s (ANSEP) five-week acceleration academy, one of two such sessions it holds each summer. She joins 138 students from 30 different communities around the state, to be immersed in a university setting while exploring opportunities in scientific, technological, engineering and mathematical (STEM) fields. “The goal of Acceleration Acade...
A new borough manager for Wrangell will be arriving in the middle of July. Lisa Von Bargen was selected from a pool of candidates by the City and Borough Assembly earlier in April, finally hired following several weeks of negotiations over terms. She has been the director for community and economic development in Valdez since 2001, and has worked for the city’s Chamber of Commerce and its Convention and Visitors Bureau prior to that. “I was born in Anchorage. My father was transferred to Valdez when I was eight,” Von Bargen explained. Graduatin...