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April 26, 1918 Notice Is Hereby Given, That all owners of lots situated within the corporate limits of the Town of Petersburg must have all rubbish cleared from their property by Friday, May 10, 1918. Any rubbish remaining on lots after that date I will have removed and the expense of such work will be taxed to the property. It is further ordered that no tin cans or other rubbish shall be placed on the beach or tideflats, but must be dumped from the docks or floats below low tide. Hans Wick, Health Officer. April 23, 1943 In a previous Student...
The nation’s top fishing port welcomed seven European seafood buyers in late January – all women – and showed off its massive seafood industry during peak operations at Dutch Harbor. The women, whose companies import more than $60 million in U.S. seafood sales, hailed from France, Germany, Lithuania, Portugal, Spain, and the U.K., said Hannah Lindoff, international program coordinator for the Alaska Seafood Marketing Institute, which hosted the trip. “They are interested in Alaska pollock, cod, surimi, octopus, salmon, roe, black cod and kin...
Jan. 23 — Magistrate Judge Burrell conducted a felony first hearing in the matter of State of Alaska vs. Curtis Medina who is charged with Assault in the 2nd and Assault in the 3rd. Bail was set at $1,000 with 10% posting required. He was released with conditions. Verne Richard Craig appeared before Judge Magistrate Burrell in a change of plea/sentencing hearing. The defendant entered a no contest plea to failure to mark Dungeness crab pots, third offense. The defendant was sentenced to a $1,000 fine with $500 suspended and a $10 surcharge. T...
Millennials are now the nation’s “peak spenders” and they are gravitating towards healthier eating which favors more seafood. “We see year over year that there is this cohort aged 35 to 54 that is going to be spending far more across categories, including food expenditures, than any others,” said Will Notini, consumer insights manager at Chicago-based Technomic, a leading market tracker for over 50 years.” The company has contracted with the Alaska Seafood Marketing Institute to identify trends in seafood consumption and how best to position...
WRANGELL — On its regional meeting’s concluding day last week the Board of Fisheries agreed to draft a letter to federal authorities, encouraging them to support efforts to curb seafood predation by marine mammals. During its 13-day meeting in Sitka, the board reviewed regulatory proposals for both finfish and shellfish for Southeast Alaska and Yakutat. Starting with shellfish on January 11, 155 different items relating to the region’s crab, shrimp and dive fisheries saw comment from both Department of Fish and Game managers and user group...
Sea otters and their devastating impacts on Southeast Alaska shellfish were among the many emotionally-charged topics at the state Board of Fisheries marathon meeting running from January 11-23 in Sitka. The Board was set to address 153 proposals for state subsistence, commercial, sport, guided sport, and personal use fisheries for the Southeast and Yakutat regions. Crabbers and fishermen who dive for lucrative sea cucumbers, geoduck clams and urchins again pleaded for changes to regulations to help protect their livelihoods from the voracious...
After deliberation on Saturday the Alaska Board of Fisheries rejected a proposal to scrap the Southeast Alaska management plan for Dungeness crab fisheries. The BoF is currently convened in Sitka for its meeting on the region’s shellfish and finfish regulation change proposals. It meets every three years, the last one being held in Wrangell in January 2015. Starting its shellfish meeting on January 11, members took testimony for 155 different proposals related to crab, shrimp and other miscellaneous shellfish. A late comer to this year’s sla...
January The Borough assembly started approval of a program called Local Improvement Districts, which asks Petersburg residents whether they would pay for road work in their neighborhoods. The Petersburg School Board discussed the possible loss of federal funding through a program called Secure Rural Schools. The school district reported a case of a Pertussis, or whooping cough, confirmed in Petersburg. Superintendent Erica Kludt-Painter said it was not a public health emergency. An engineer led...
A Petersburg man pleaded guilty last Tuesday of interfering with crab pots belonging to four other fishermen in town, coming after a hearing with testimony from a remorseful defendant and community members questioning whether the punishment was harsh enough. In a change of plea hearing on December 19, James Andrew Knight, 54 of Petersburg, told Judge William B Carey he was guilty of three misdemeanors, including interfering with commercial fishing gear, unlawful use of pot tags and operating more than 300 Dungeness crab pots. Knight was fined...
Fish and Game board process is a public process To the Editor: Dear Alaskans, As your chairs to the Alaska Boards of Fisheries and Game we want to take this time to update you on our upcoming meeting season for 2017-2018. For those new to Alaska or our state’s fish and game regulatory process, the Boards of Fisheries and Game are composed of seven individuals from around Alaska who meet each year to enact changes to your fish and game management system. For example, by passing a regulation the Board of Game might open a new moose hunt in wester...
Preliminary harvest and value figures for the 2017 commercial salmon fishery indicate the season was a step up above the previous year's disastrous harvest. The Alaska Department of Fish and Game reported a 66.7-percent increase in exvessel value between the two years, with 224.6 million wild salmon worth around $678.8 million brought in by the state's fishing fleet. Chum salmon saw the biggest boon of the year, breaking records with 25.2 million fish, worth about $128.3 million. The haul...
Cases appearing before Judge Magistrate Burrell: Oct. 10 — James Donald Polwarth was charged with making false statement on license or application. The court found the defendant did not meet State residency requirements and sentenced him to a $300 fine with $200 suspended plus a $10 surcharge. Probation was imposed for six months. Donald Peeler appeared on a charge of over limit pots for Dungeness crab. After entering a no contest plea, the court sentenced Peeler to a fine of $1,500, $10 surcharge and ordered forfeiture of his fish ticket. The...
Sept. 18 — Thomas McKeowen III was arraigned on a charge of criminal trespass. The defendant entered a not guilty plea before Judge Magistrate Burrell and was released OR with conditions, including seeking counseling with PMHS. Sept. 20 — Sebastian Lima appeared before Judge Magistrate Burrell on a charge of assault in the 4th degree domestic violence. After entering a not guilty plea, the defendant was released OR with conditions. Sept. 25 — Jason Ratliff entered a not guilty plea before Judge Carey on a charge of criminal mischief in the 3...
Alaska’s salmon season is nearly a wrap but fall remains as one of the fishing industry’s busiest times of the year. For salmon, the catch of 213 million has surpassed the forecast by nine million fish. Highpoints for this season are a statewide sockeye catch topping 50 million for the tenth time in history (37 million from Bristol Bay), and one of the best chum harvests ever at more than 22 million fish. The total 2017 salmon catches and values by Alaska region will be released by state fishery managers in November. Hundreds of boats are now f...
Aug. 10 — Judge Magistrate Burrell granted an exparte protective order against Thomas McKeon. Darci Lin Cook was granted a stalking petition against Samuel Jackson. A long-term hearing date was set for Aug. 25. Aug. 11 — Superior Court Judge Carey granted third party custody of Kenneth L. Birch, 36, to James Birch, the defendant’s father, on a 24/7 basis. Birch is charged with two counts of sexual assault. Aug. 16 — Beth Moreland entered a not guilty plea to charges of assault in the 4th degree. Judge Magistrate Burrell released the defenda...
WRANGELL — One of Wrangell’s two seafood processors has drawn down production early for the season due to lower than expected returns this summer. Updated twice daily, on Tuesday the Alaska Department of Fish and Game’s Blue Sheet reported just over 143 million salmon have been harvested statewide, though numbers were not available for the Bristol Bay, Kuskokwim and Aleutian Islands districts. Seventy-four percent of these are pink salmon, with over 106 million already reported in. Coming off of last year’s season – declared a “disaster...
While that may sound like a bad thing, it’s great news for Alaska seafood and anyone doing business overseas. “It’s a good thing for Alaska seafood producers because roughly two-thirds of the value of our seafood comes from export markets. So when our currency is less valuable, the prices are not as high for foreign buyers,” said Andy Wink, senior fisheries economist with the McDowell Group. It’s a turn-around for a strong dollar that has for several years made Alaska seafood very pricey for prime customers of Japan, Europe and the UK. Now t...
PETERSBURG — The Alaska Department of Fish and Game announced August 15, that the 2017/2018 commercial Dungeness crab fall fishing season in Registration Area A (Southeastern Alaska) will be reduced in duration. All waters open to commercial Dungeness fishing in SE Alaska will open at 8:00 a.m. on Sun., October 1 and will close at 11:59 p.m. on Tues., October 31, 2017. In accordance with the Southeastern Alaska Dungeness Crab Management Plan [5 AAC 32.146(3)], the department has completed an analysis of the incidence of legal-size male s...
July 27 — Judge Magistrate Burrell recommended the Superior Court grant a default divorce for Thimothy A. and Tierra L. Nichols. Davis Dondi Estes entered a not guilty plea to charges of theft in the 4th degree. The defendant was released OR with conditions. Aug. 3 — Courtney Alexander Brown was arraigned before Judge Magistrate Burrell on a charge of Failure to Appear. $250 bail was imposed. Brown was originally charged with Disorderly Conduct. A summons was issued to Hassen Roodwan for Failure to Appear for an Aug. 1 court hearing. A $250 arr...
“It’s time for a checkup from the neck up” – meaning an industry time out to evaluate fishing operations and behaviors, advises Jerry Dzugan, director of the Sitka-based Alaska Marine Safety Education Association for over 30 years. Dzugan was speaking in response to the 11 fishing deaths that have occurred in Alaska so far this year. It’s the most in 13 years and follows a 76 percent decrease in commercial fishing fatalities since the 1980s. “The causes are still capsizing, sinkings, swampings and man overboards (MOBs). They haven’t cha...
It’s been a fairly good start to the summer for king salmon fishermen. The first opening of that troll season started on July 1, abruptly ending by emergency order just before midnight on July 4. The order was based on preliminary catch rate and effort data. “It looks like we did take the target harvest,” reported Grant Hagerman, ADFG’s region troll management biologist in Sitka. That target is 63,000 non-Alaska hatchery fish, as laid out by the Pacific Salmon Treaty signed with Canada. A total of approximately 26,000 Chinook and 550 landings h...
Robots are cutting up snow crabs in Canada, a sign of things to come in the seafood processing industry. Overall, seafood processing has a relatively small robotic involvement compared to other sectors. Robots have yet to make it into any of Alaska’s 176 fish processing shops, but the lure of reduced production costs, increased fish quality and crews of worker-bots is turning the tide. The CBC reports that the world’s first crab plant robot began work this spring in a plastic chamber about the size of a shipping container in remote Newfoundland...
The Alaska Department of Fish and Game announced June 29 that the 2017/2018 commercial Dungeness crab summer fishing season in Southeastern Alaska will be reduced in duration. In accordance with the Southeastern Alaska Dungeness Crab Management Plan, the department has projected total season harvest based on landings and effort data from the first full week of fishing. The projection indicates that total season harvest will not exceed 2.25 million pounds, but will fall near the lower end of the range. The commercial Dungeness crab summer...
A panel of marine mammal specialists fielded questions last week on how fishermen should interact and deter endangered species like whales and sea lions. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration in Juneau gave a presentation that included law review under the Marine Mammal Protection Act and different strategies to take when around humpback whales, sperm whales and steller sea lions. The underscored theme of the presentation was to stress that laws created under the MMPA are not to...
