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PETERSBURG – United Fisherman of Alaska members gathered in Petersburg last week when it conducted its 2015 Fall Board Meeting. Board members representing 35 Alaska commercial fishing organizations began their meeting Tuesday Oct. 27 where representatives of Governor Mallott, Alaska Department of Fish and Game, University of Alaska Anchorage and other independent commercial fishing agencies gave presentations to the board. Much of the time was devoted to internal discussion regarding seafood industry taxes and fees and was not open to the p...
Wrangell High School's annual study of the Chief Shakes Glacier is wrapping up its study measuring the mass of ice's steady retreat into the mountains. "We're in our fifth year right now," explained teacher Jenn Miller, who has coordinated the study each year since its start in 2011. With the cooperation of the United States Forest Service, the group lands close to the glacier's face and takes measurements, which are then compared to the previous year's. Miller explained R&M Engineering...
ANCHORAGE, Alaska (AP) – Researchers have uncovered a new species of plant-eating dinosaur in Alaska, according to a report published Tuesday. The animal was a variety of hadrosaur, a duck-billed dinosaur that roamed in herds, said Pat Druckenmiller, earth sciences curator at the University of Alaska Museum in Fairbanks. Northern Alaska likely was once covered by forest in a warmer climate. The dinosaur lived in darkness for months and probably experienced snow, researchers said. The fossils were found in rock deposited 69 million years ago. F...
Wrangell Medical Center's Board of Directors announced Robert Rang will take over as the hospital CEO once Marla Sanger steps down Oct. 30. Rang is currently the long-term care administrator for the Providence Kodiak Island Medical Center. He will relocate to Wrangell the first week of October and begin working on Oct. 12, allowing him three weeks to work alongside Sanger as he transitions into the position. When Sanger announced her intention to step down in June, her employer PeaceHealth confi...
JUNEAU, Alaska (AP) – The University of Alaska plans to eliminate or suspend a number of majors this year to deal with an ongoing budgetary squeeze on the state’s public universities. The university system has slated 31 academic programs for removal, including 21 at the University of Alaska Anchorage, the Juneau Empire reported. “Sometimes having three of something isn’t as good as having one strong something,’’ UA president candidate Jim Johnsen told the Juneau Empire. The university system has $15 million less to work with this fiscal year...
ANCHORAGE, Alaska (AP) – More dead whales have been found in the Gulf of Alaska following the sightings of nine fin whale carcasses in late May and early June. Fishermen, pilots and survey crews have reported five additional dead whales over the past several weeks, including four humpbacks and one fin whale, the Alaska Dispatch News reported. One theory is that the whales died from a toxin related to warmth-induced algae blooms in the Gulf of Alaska waters, according to University of Alaska Fairbanks marine mammal specialist Kate Wynne. But s...
ANCHORAGE, Alaska (AP) – The increase in the number of women prisoners in Alaska more than tripled that of male inmate growth between 2004 and 2013, according to a study by University of Alaska Anchorage researchers. The statistics released Monday show that the female inmate population grew by about 87 percent over the 10-year period, while the number of male inmates grew by about 24 percent. The study also found that close to a quarter of all admissions to Alaska Department of Corrections facilities were women, reported The Alaska Dispatch N...
Former resident, Katie Marley (Miller), of Anchorage recently graduated from the University of Alaska. She earned a Bachelor of Business Administration in Accounting. She is employed with Alyeska Service Pipeline Company in Anchorage and is also expecting her first child with husband Casey....
ANCHORAGE (AP) – After months of negotiations, the Alaska Legislature on June 11 approved a $5 billion budget that reduces spending while tapping the state’s reserves to help with multibillion-dollar deficits brought on by low oil prices. The plan now goes to Gov. Bill Walker, whose administration had been preparing for a partial government shutdown next month in case a fully funded budget isn’t reached. During a news conference that afternoon, Walker said state workers who had been notified they could be laid off will get better letters “advis...
Twenty-two seniors graduated from Wrangell High School last Friday. This year's graduating class donned their gowns and mortarboards and walked the aisle in front of friends and loved ones in a confetti-strewn ceremony at the school gym that afternoon. "All of our seniors are headed out in different directions, but all of them have worked very hard to get to this point," said Lisa Nikodym who helped the students prepare for post-graduation. "Wrangell High School staff and myself are very proud...
How much are fishermen affected by long term health problems like hearing loss, lack of sleep and high blood pressure? A pilot study aims to find out and researchers are using the 500-plus members of the Copper River salmon driftnet fleet as test subjects. “The Copper River fishing season lasts five months and most of the fleet is very digitally connected so it seemed a great fit,” said Torie Baker, a Sea Grant Marine Advisory Agent in Cordova. Baker is the point person for the project being done by the School of Public Health at the Uni...
At last weekend's Stikine River Birding Festival, residents and visitors flocked to the Nolan Center to learn more about their feathery, flighty neighbors. While there were birding tips, arts shows and craft displays to enjoy, the festival also took on a more serious note regarding threats to the future of species' populations. Of particular concern for marine species are the short term and cumulative effects of discarded plastics. On Friday evening, University of Alaska Anchorage (UAA)...
Lovers choose lobster as the top Valentine’s Day dish to share with that special someone. Crab legs and shrimp also get the nod as ‘romantic meals’ on Feb. 14 - one of the busiest dining out days for U.S. restaurants. In a national survey by Harris Interactive, chefs called lobster an “exotic delicacy that results in an intimate moment because it is hand-held and shareable.” In fact, respondents called all shellfish ‘a catalyst for connection like no other food.’ The links between seafood and love have a long history, including the belief th...
JUNEAU, Alaska (AP) – State education commissioner Mike Hanley said the department, schools and districts will have to work to find efficiencies in light of the state’s budget deficit. But he said education will have to be protected at some level and expects there to be a conversation as to what that level should be. Alaska faces a projected multibillion-dollar budget deficit amid a crash in oil prices. Gov. Bill Walker has said he wants to insulate education to the greatest extent possible, but he also has said nothing is off the table as the...
7 Fish Picks and Pans Biggest fish wait and see: Senator-elect Dan Sullivan. Trickiest fishing conundrum: Sea otters vs. fisheries in Southeast Alaska. Best fishing career builder: University of Alaska/Southeast for its hydraulics and vessel electronics courses, fish tech training – all available on-line. Best Fish Givers: SeaShare, which has provided close to 200 million fish meals to food bank networks since 1994. Biggest fishing industry critic using questionable “facts:” Craig Medred, Alaska Dispatch News. Best fish reality show: Kodia...
Alaska seafood innovators are getting serious about ‘head to tail/inside and out’ usages of fish parts, and they see gold in all that gurry that ends up on cutting line floors. Fish oils, pet treats, animal feeds, gelatins, fish scales that put the shimmer in nail polish – “almost anything that can be made out of seafood byproducts has increased in value tremendously in the last few years,” said Peter Bechtel, a US Dept. of Agriculture researcher formerly at the University of Alaska. In today’s climate of planet consciousness “co-product...
KETCHIKAN, Alaska (AP) – John Radzilowski stood in front of a group of some 50 people Wednesday at the University of Alaska Southeast library in Ketchikan and asked for the survivors of the Aleut internment camps and their descendants to stand and be recognized. More than a dozen people, ranging in age from late 80s to teens, stood and were met with a round of applause. UAS showed “The Aleut Story” as part of the Ask UAS program this week. Radzilowski, UAS associate professor of history, introduced the film and led a discussion after the scree...
Alaska is poised for some big fish stories next year based on predictions trickling in from state and federal managers. For the state’s (and nation’s) largest fishery - Alaska pollock - the Eastern Bering Sea stock has more than doubled its ten year average to top nine million tons, or 20 billion pounds. And the stock is healthy and growing, according to annual surveys. “It is one of the most stunning fisheries management successes on the planet,” exclaimed global market expert John Sackton when the pollock numbers were released by the (Seattl...
JUNEAU, Alaska (AP) – The Juneau Police Department has unveiled a new substation at the University of Alaska Southeast. JPD debuted the new space a converted storage room near the Egan Library to the public Thursday afternoon during “Coffee with a Cop.“ The room may be a little spartan (there's only one computer and desk, and the walls are mostly bare), but UAS officials expressed excitement at having a visible police presence on campus. Officers won't be staffing the substation, but they can go there instead of doing work at JPD headq...
Wrangell's unusual end of October avian visitors may have hopped a few islands to the north as winter creeps in, as a pair of Cattle Egrets caused a fair stir in Petersburg last week, enticing several out of town birders to witness the sightings themselves. The birds, regularly spotted along lawns in town for more than a week, are not a native resident to Alaska, or to the American continents, hailing originally from Africa. They arrived in Florida around 1953, hopping across the continent to...
September 10, 1914: The fire department was called out last Sunday to extinguish a fire in the house occupied by J.R. Bender, back of the St. Michaels Trading Company store. The fire started from distillate being spilled on a hot stove which flamed up and set fire to a tank used to supply an oil burner stove, which in turn flamed up and set fire to the house. The house is owned by P.C. McCormack. The fire came very close to being a disastrous one, but for the ready response of the fire boys, who extinguished it in fine shape, but only after...
Trollers in Southeast Alaska provide fresh king salmon nearly year round, but the runs of reds and kings to the Copper River mark the “official start” of Alaska’s salmon season. On May 15 the fleet of more than 570 fishermen set out their nets on a beautiful day for the first 12 hour opener amidst the usual hype for the first fish. “We’ve got a lot of people riding around in the sky checking out the conditions, and a lot of people are getting ready to move the fish to other places for First Fish celebrations,” said Kim Ryals, executive d...
Humble and competitive. That alone should be enough to justify a selection into any hall of fame. Mt. Edgecumbe High School basketball coach and teacher Archie Young carries those traits and passes them on to his students, players, coaches and opponents. He was acknowledged for these integrities by the Alaska School Activities Association recently and announced as one of the 11 members of the Class of 2014 to be inducted into the Alaska High School Hall of Fame. "When I first heard about my...
JUNEAU, Alaska (AP) _ Homer nurse Colleen James had been working in her field for about five years when she was confronted with something she’d never dealt with before _ a child patient who was sexually assaulted. “No one knew how to take care of that child and it ended up being a pretty hideous experience for everyone involved, especially the child,’’ said James, who was working in Homer at the time. When she encountered another case only a week later, James knew there had to be a better way. She went on to start Alaska’s first, and longest r...
The school board voted 4-0 Wednesday night to offer the top administrative position to Patrick Mayer. Mayer was one of two finalists who interviewed for the position and participated in a public meet-and-greet March 21. The board initially signed a contract with the other finalist, Jay Thomas, but Thomas withdrew last week citing personal reasons. Since 2010, Mayer has been principal of Delta High School in the Delta-Greely School District headquartered in Delta Junction, near Fairbanks. "I'm...
