Sorted by date Results 751 - 775 of 948
Laura Nan Johnston, 82, died on January 19, 2015. Born to Wendell and June Abell on February 26, 1932, in Chama, N.M., Laura's mother taught for The Bureau of Indian Affairs moving them to Sitka, Alaska, where she lived through high school. She attended Oregon State University (OSU) as a Delta Zeta and with a major in science she became a medical technician. There she met Norman Dale Johnston whose major was fisheries biology, and they both graduated in 1955. They were married in 1956, and by... Full story
Seven times is the charm for building some momentum on a measure that aims to give personal use (PU) fisheries a priority over commercial and sport users. As it stands now, the three fisheries all are on equal footing in the eyes and actions of state managers. The priority shift has been introduced during each of the last seven legislative sessions by (now) Senator Bill Stoltze (R-Chugiak), but has never made it past a first hearing – until now. “It only took Sen. Stoltze, the bill sponsor, chairing the hearing committee himself,” quipp...
There are different management challenges with the Petersburg-Wrangell area having more freshwater opportunities, but new Area Manager for Sport Fish Patrick Fowler said the move has "been good." Fowler came to Petersburg in late September after serving as the assistant area biologist in Sitka for about five years. He had worked with his predecessor Doug Fleming before and "always liked Petersburg." "It was a job opportunity to advance," Fowler said. "I thought it would be a challenging career...
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 regional research...
This year’s Tanner crab season saw its largest harvest in 15 years while prices dropped. Preliminary estimates show the 2014-15 Tanner fishery in Registration Area A (Southeast Alaska) is 1.42 million pounds with 84 permit holders, according to Alaska Department of Fish and Game Lead Crab Biologist Joe Stratman. “This harvest exceeded last season’s harvest by 170,000 pounds, and is the largest Tanner harvest in 15 seasons,” he said. “You have to go back to the 1999-2000 season to find a larger harvest of Tanner crab in Southeast Alaska.... Full story
There's a wide variety of animals on Mitkof Island, so you may not think much about the "unsung hero" of the ecosystem, as middle school teacher Jo Ann Day put it. But if you are one of those interested in bats, you'll soon have a chance to become a citizen scientist and help out the Alaska Department of Fish and Game. With only two scientists in the wildlife diversity program monitoring the mammals, ADF&G wants to extend research in Southeast Alaska to Petersburg by having volunteers complete d...
Print your licenses at home and go fishing. The Alaska Dept. of Fish and Game’s revamped Online Store is the go to place for all fishing (and hunting) licenses and it now offers two new features. “Fishermen, both sport and commercial, can now print their licenses at home. They can purchase it online, immediately print it and go out fishing,” said Michelle Kaelke, Financing and Licensing Supervisor for the department. “They can buy it before they go out to the fishing grounds, or if they’re traveling from Seattle or wherever, they can have ever...
The Sitka Sound sac roe herring fishery opened at 3:30 p.m. Wednesday under a cooperative model. Dave Gordon, area management biologist at the Alaska Department of Fish and Game, said the decision was made by permit holders to eliminate competition and lower costs to “make it worthwhile to go after the product” as the market is poor. It wasn’t a popular decision among tenders, however. “There’s a lot less boats here,” said Tanner Mackiewicz, president of the Alaska Independent Tendermen’s Association. “A lot of people without jobs.” He said the...
A nearly $12 million cut in state funds is on tap for the Alaska Dept. of Fish and Game if state policy makers have their way. That was one early outcome of legislative House finance subcommittee meetings last week, as they wrapped up the first step in a budget process that will see cuts in agencies and programs almost across the board. According to Juneau Resources Weekly, the ADF&G budget reductions cut across all divisions with sport fishing facing the most personnel losses at 12 seasonal jobs. The Division of Habitat could lose $400,000;...
March 6, 1915 – The Alaska school-land bill was passed by congress, and has been signed by the president. The measure provides that moneys derived from the sale of lands in the grant, which is comprised of sections 16 and 33 in all of Alaska, shall be used toward the support of territorial schools. In the Tanana valley, section 16 is added to the grant. Four sections near Fairbanks are granted for college purposes. March 8, 1940 – At Monday's City Council meeting a letter from Superintendent George V. Beck wrote that the School Board had gon...
JUNEAU (AP) — A review of the commission that regulates commercial fisheries participation in Alaska details inefficiencies, a backlog of permit applications and options for restructuring. The report requested by former Gov. Sean Parnell reviewed operations of the three-member Commercial Fisheries Entry Commission. That board decides how many fishermen can participate in a limited fishery and who receives the permits. Parnell requested the review in August after the Legislature sought its own audit. It was written by Tom Lawson, former d...
Meeting in Wrangell last week, the Alaska Board of Fisheries elected to maintain the current Southeast Alaska Area Dungeness Crab Fisheries Management Plan. A trio of policy proposals would have repealed the plan and its early closure thresholds, returning management of the fishery to size, sex and season, as used elsewhere. “I understand the reason this proposal was put forward,” board member John Jensen said of Proposal 58. “Size, sex and season has been a very good way to manage fisheries for a long, long period of time in South...
Alaska seafood marketers are facing some strong headwinds heading into 2015, notably, for sockeye salmon and crab. Snow crab is Alaska’s largest crab fishery, underway now in the Bering Sea. The fleet has a slightly increased 61 million pound catch quota; boats also are tapping on a hefty bairdi Tanner crab catch, the larger cousin of snow crab. A 25% increase in snow crab, the unexpected 15 million pound Tanner fishery, a weak Japanese yen, plus several million pounds of Russian snow crab from a new fishery in the Barents Sea, (not to mention...
The Petersburg Advisory Committee met last week to discuss proposals and potential changes to fishing regulations that will eventually head to the Board of Fisheries for ultimate approval. “Every three years anybody and everybody can put in a proposal to the board of fisheries to change existing regulations, add new regulations or delete regulations,” Alaska Department of Fish and Game Petersburg Area Management Biologist Troy Thynes said. “They can’t deal with state statutes but these are just the codified regulations.” The committee...
This fall’s Dungeness crab fishery preliminary harvest estimate is totaled at 975,000 pounds with 137 recorded permit holders fishing. According to Alaska Department of Fish and Game data, as of November 30, 19 percent of this year’s total fall harvest was caught this fall. During the previous ten year average, 25 percent of the annual harvest is taken in the fall. This year’s total harvest so far is a heaping 5.04 million pounds, well above the 3.78 million pound ten-year average. “With some areas still open it remains to be seen whether...
On Dec. 18 Wrangell’s advisory committee to Alaska Department of Fish and Game held the last and lengthiest of its public meetings to discuss Board of Fisheries proposals for the 2014-15 meeting cycle. This 12-person committee let the public review and discuss new finfish management proposals, providing their recommendations to the state board of Fisheries. Consulting them on management policies were Troy Thynes and Patrick Fowler from Petersburg’s ADFG office. Among the policies the committee supported, it voted ten to two in favor of cre...
WRANGELL — Wrangell's advisory committee to Alaska Department of Fish and Game held the second of several public meetings at the Fire Hall Dec. 11, to discuss Board of Fisheries proposals for the 2014-15 meeting cycle. This committee provides a forum for fishing and game management issues, allowing the public to review and discuss new proposals and to provide recommendations to both state boards of Fisheries and Game. To consult with them on crab, shellfish and shrimp management policies were Joe Stratman and Troy Thynes from Petersburg's A...
Dear Santa, Would you like to look at my tree? I love you! Can I have a dark purple and pink dinosaur that is little? I am making you a toy to buy. Or do you want to go back home? Do you want to look at my brother? Isabelle Hammer, age 3 Dear Santa, I have been really good. I would like an electric scooter, video games, and pokemon cards. what is your favorite food? Logan Tow age 7 P.S. also a flexible flyer Dear Santa, Do your reindeer eat carrots? I like Santa because he is snuggly and...
The Pacific halibut stock appears to be rising from the ashes and that bodes well for catches in some fishing regions next year. It would turn the tide of a decades-long decline that has caused halibut catches to be slashed by more than 70% in Alaska, Washington, Oregon and British Columbia. Three Alaska areas showed improvement in the annual stock surveys that range from Oregon to the Bering Sea, and could have higher catch levels in 2015. That’s according to information revealed at the International Pacific Halibut Commission’s interim mee...
SITKA (AP) — The Alaska Department of Fish and Game announced the preliminary guideline harvest level for the 2015 Sitka Sound sac roe herring fishery is 8,712 tons. That’s just over half of last year’s quota of 16,333 and the lowest expected GHL in more than 10 years. The preliminary harvest level is based on a 19.7 percent harvest rate of a mature biomass forecast of 44,237 tons, said Dave Gordon, area management biologist. The preliminary GHL is quite a bit below the 10-year average of 13,500, and far below the 2014 catch of 16,957 tons....
The Alaska Department of Fish and Game announced the following information concerning the preseason forecast for king salmon returning to the Stikine and Taku Rivers in 2015. The 2015 preseason terminal run size forecast for large Stikine River king salmon is 30,200 fish. The resulting U.S. Allowable Catch (AC) is 210 large Stikine Kings. An AC of 210 fish is not large enough to allow for directed commercial fisheries. Inseason terminal run size estimates will be produced starting late May of 2015. Inseason estimates may result in a higher AC...
The Southeast Alaska Drift Gillnet and Purse Seine task forces met in Petersburg on Tuesday and Wednesday, respectively, to review the 2014 season and discuss the 2015 season. On Tuesday, Alaska Department of Fish and Game (ADFG) biologists from districts around Southeast presented a review of the 2014 season for various salmon species harvested by gillnetters. Justin Breese, ADFG biologist from Ketchikan, reported District 1, Tree Point, had an above average harvest for cohos and pink salmon and a below average harvest for sockeyes and chums.... Full story
The trapping season for marten, river otter, mink and weasel opened December 1 on Admiralty, Baranof, and Chichagof islands (Unit 4). Unit 4 beaver season opened November 10. The trapping season runs through February 15, 2015 for most species in Unit 4. Exceptions are the marten, mink, and weasel season closure on December 31, 2014 in the north Chichagof Island area and the beaver season which remains open until April 30, 2015. In addition to obtaining a trapping license, trappers must have marten, river otter, and beaver hides sealed within...
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...
