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May 30, 1924 – E.J. McKechnie, one of the U.S. Forest Service stationed at Petersburg, says that four miles will be added to the road at Farragut Bay this year. He hopes to have his equipment and men ready around June 5 so that work can then be started. The roadway now begins at the Wallace Homestead and runs toward the river. More settlers are moving into the Farragut Bay section. Mr. McGregor is prospecting along the river and there is a chance that paying mines may be added to the resources of the district. June 3, 1949 – At the May 26t...
The Biden administration says that listing numerous Alaska king salmon populations under the Endangered Species Act could be warranted, and it now plans to launch a broader scientific study to follow its preliminary review. Citing the species’ diminished size at adulthood and spawning numbers below sustainable targets set by state managers, the National Marine Fisheries Service announced its initial conclusion in a 14-page federal notice on May 23. It said a January 2024 listing request from a Washington state-based conservation group had m...
The success of the Ktunaxa Nation to finally convince the governments of Canada and the United States to convene the International Joint Commission (IJC) to address the long-standing coal mining pollution in the Elk Valley in southeast British Columbia (B.C.) and Montana is a very big deal. The IJC is provided for and guided by the Boundary Waters Treaty, signed by Canada and the United States in 1909. The IJC studies and recommends solutions to transboundary issues when asked to do so by the national governments. While this is great news, the...
Steelhead: The steelhead fishing season has now peaked and is beginning to wind down. Opportunity still exists and should continue through the next few weeks. The rain that began this week is exactly what the fish needed. Steelhead are now dispersed throughout the systems instead of being held up in only the deep holes. The month of May can on occasion offer that beautiful balance of finding the remaining steelhead while fishing in warmer weather than the colder month of April. Dolly Varden and Trout: Dolly Varden and trout are now abundant...
May 9, 1924 – When asked about the shortage of bait at Petersburg for halibut fishermen, Earl N. Ohmer said, “The shortage of bait is due to the fact that there is at present no plant here in which to freeze the bait, or to keep it frozen. What is needed is a cold storage plant.” Mr. Ohmer knows whereof he speaks. He is a member of the firm Alaska Glacier Seafood Company, which packs and ships shrimp meat. He is a buyer and shipper of salmon and halibut and other varieties of fish, a member of the City Council, Chamber of Commerce, and knows...
May 2 – An officer provided transport to the Petersburg Medical Center (PMC). Haftor Gjerde was cited for driving without a valid driver’s license. A driver issued a warning for failure to stop at a stop sign. An officer conducted a welfare check. Officers responding to a report of suspicious activity determined it was non-criminal. Officers responded to suspicious activity and there is an on-going investigation. An officer secured the open door to a business. Officers conducted extra patrols. An officer assisted a citizen. An officer fou...
The Alaska Department of Fish and Game reported last week that commercial fishermen caught a total of 66.6 million salmon in Southeast Alaska during 2023, including both naturally returning and hatchery-produced salmon of all five species. Last April, Fish and Game estimated that Southeast Alaska commercial fishermen would take just about 31.6 million fish in 2023. The actual commercial harvest more than doubled that projection; fishermen's 2023 catch topped the department's estimate by 35 million fish. The high 2023 catch beat out 2021, the...
Days are long and arduous in January and February for trollers fishing Chinook salmon in rough weather conditions. But the "amazing catch rates at good prices" encountered during those months benefitted not only the resident fishermen "out there, grinding away"- but also the overall troll fishery, which harvested over the entire winter allocation of 45,000 king salmon. Grant Hagerman, Alaska Department of Fish and Game (ADFG) Region I Commercial Troll Management Biologist, told the Pilot that...
Dear Friends and Neighbors: After roughly 24 hours of debate and consideration of 137 amendments, the House passed the operating and mental budgets last week. Leading up to passing the budget on the House Floor there were weeks of subcommittee hearings, where each agency’s budget was scrutinized, amended, and then passed to the Finance Committee for consideration. As a reminder, my subcommittees were the Departments of Public Safety, Corrections, Education and Early Development, and Fish and Game. In the Finance Committee each agency’s budg...
The Petersburg Fish and Game Advisory Committee(AC) met on April 8 to generate proposals to the state Board of Fish to change the Blind Slough King Salmon management plan. The need for proposals was driven by public outcry following the announced closure of sport fishing this summer in the freshwater of Blind Slough. The AC agreed on and submitted a proposal that attempts to balance the need to protect the return of broodstock king salmon for the Crystal Lake Hatchery, while also providing...
The 2024 golden king crab fishery for the East Central management area -which includes the waters around Petersburg- closed after only four days when area fishermen caught more crab than the season's total guideline harvest level set for all of Southeast. Last year, fishermen reportedly observed a golden king crab population boom in parts of Southeast, but the ability to harvest crab was constrained by harvest levels based on earlier years when the population was very low. Meetings in 2023...
The Alaska Department of Fish and Game (ADFG) preseason forecast estimates 1,400 adult Chinook returning to the terminal harvest area this summer. The low abundance triggered the department to close the freshwaters of Blind Slough for fishing king salmon this season. The last time freshwater was fully closed for a season was in 2013. ADFG ordered the closure according to the management plan for the sport fishery. It is a conservation effort to protect the broodstock for the Crystal Lake...
March 28, 1924 – The Glacier Sea Food Company bought from the Olympic Fisheries a floating cannery on March 15. A scow which is at present located near Johnny Sales’ chicken ranch. The scow is now being painted and repaired. Earl Ohmer says they expect to float it on next month’s high tides. The scow will be used as a floating cannery to pack shrimp. The location for the packing of shrimp is yet undecided. Next door to Glacier Seafood Company Paul Owens of Scow Bay is building a plant for making poultry feed out of shrimp shells. Mr Owens...
Emergency federal government assessments are being sought for a spill of more than 105,000 gallons of tailings slurry at the Kensington Mine that occurred Jan. 31, although officials with mine owner Coeur Alaska say no damage to nearby salmon habitats occurred and there are “no long-term effects from this spill.” The spill occurred at a welded joint in a pipeline that likely started as a “pinhole” and increased in size due to pressure from the slurry flow, resulting in a leak that lasted 23 hours, according to a report of the incident published...
Herring roe ripens as the fish get ready to spawn; their small, white, hard eggs become golden, larger and more desirable. The herring sac roe fishery is a careful waiting game in order to harvest maximum quality mature roe, before the herring spawn. Prior to and during fishing periods, herring distribution, abundance, and quality of roe are monitored by the Alaska Department of Fish and Game (ADFG) via aerial survey, test fishing and vessel sonar surveys to check on the herring biomass. "We've...
March 14, 1924 – The people of Petersburg got up a last minute dance Saturday evening for the townspeople and the passengers on the Admiral Evans. They were ably assisted by Miss Mary Allen, who played the piano and Dick Hanson, who played the drums. The dance was attended by a good crowd, better than was expected on so short a notice. It was not known until rather late whether the Evans would be in port very long, but owing to the large amount of freight the Evans was in longer than expected. The passengers on the Evans that went up to the d...
March 7, 1924 – Of the many neglected products of our salt waters, none compare with the sea mussel in abundance, nutritiousness and palatability, according to “Fish Cookery,” by expert Dean John N. Cobb of the University of Washington college of cookery, published by Little Brown & Company. This book states that the mussel has a wide distribution, the Atlantic species extending down the eastern coast while a closely related species extends down the west coast to San Francisco on the Pacific coast, and is extremely abundant everywhere withi...
Pharmacy Corner To the Editor: We would like to thank the community of Petersburg, and especially our patrons over the past two weeks, for your patience in the backlog of prescriptions services. As some of you may know, pharmacies across the country were basically shutdown in billing third parties due to a cyber attack that affected Change Health. Change Health is the billing transmission platform we use to relay what we bill to the insurance to receive the copays or coinsurance you pay at the counter. Our ability to communicate that...
The Associated Teachers of Petersburg (ATP) and Petersburg School District are negotiating the next labor agreement that will take effect in the fall of 2024 and span three school years through spring 2027. Past negotiations between the teachers union and the district, which occur every three years, have largely focused on updating the contract language. This year, however, ATP and PSD are focusing more on when, where and how to allocate what limited money the district has to work with. ATP is...
The fresh waters of Blind Slough will be closed to sport fishing for king salmon this summer, from June 1 through July 31, according to the sport fishing regulations for the Wrangell Narrows and Blind Slough terminal harvest released this week by the Alaska Department of Fish and Game (ADFG). However, in the salt waters of the Wrangell Narrows, king salmon fishing will be open. Both residents and nonresidents will have a bag and possession limit of two king salmon greater than 28 inches long and two less than 28 inches from the salt waters of...
George Willard Curtiss was born March 28, 1935, in Dallas, Oregon to Burt and Beulah Curtiss. He was the oldest of five children. George grew up in Dallas and spent his early years there hunting and fishing with his dad. George was a standout basketball and football player during his high school years. After graduating he entered the Marines and served during the Korean War. Upon returning to the states he married Nancy Mishler in October of 1955 and they began their family in Corvallis, Oregon,...
“I’ve never seen market conditions as bad as they are now,” Doug Vincent-Lang, commissioner of the Alaska Department of Fish and Game, told a conference of Southeast business, community and municipal government leaders last week. “Last year we said we reached rock bottom,” Jeremy Woodrow, executive director of the Alaska Seafood Marketing Institute, said of low prices, weak markets and reluctant consumers. But then he added, “we’ve scraped off more levels,” reaching deeper to the bottom. All of the participants in the fisheries panel discussio...
February 7 – An officer conducted foot patrols downtown. An officer conducted a welfare check. An illegally parked vehicle was moved at the direction of an officer and a warning was issued. An officer responded to a reported disturbance on Kiseno Street and determined it was non-criminal. A post-incident report was filed concerning a disturbance on South 2nd Street. A trespass notice was served. February 8 – A driver on Dolphin Street was issued a warning for an inoperable headlight. Found property was brought to the Petersburg Police Dep...
February 8, 1924 – An interesting discussion took place before the meeting of the Petersburg Men’s Club last Saturday evening when Thos. Elsemore, at that time a candidate on the Republican ticket for the Senate, and C. Christensen, a candidate on the Democratic ticket for the House, appeared and answered questions. Both candidates frankly admitted that so far they had not worked out a platform in detail, but were prepared to act to the best of their abilities for the general good of the Territory. A feature of the meeting was a talk by Rev. Jo...
In an unusual use of executive powers, Gov. Mike Dunleavy this month issued 12 executive orders abolishing state boards and granting new powers to the heads of state departments. The orders, which account for almost 10% of all executive orders issued since statehood and are equal to the number of all executive orders issued in the previous 20 years, will automatically take effect in March unless the Alaska Legislature specifically disapproves of them in a joint vote of the House and Senate. “We have never, in my experience, had 12 executive o... Full story
