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Southeast Alaska's commercial red king crab fishery will open Nov. 1 after stock assessments revealed the highest red crab populations in decades. Last week, the Alaska Department of Fish and Game announced a regionwide guideline harvest level of 211,573 pounds for the 2025/2026 season, exceeding the 200,000-pound threshold required for a traditional competitive commercial fishery. The biomass numbers and the available surplus for harvest, came as somewhat of a surprise to fishery managers fishermen who had been preparing for a different type o...
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The 2025 Southeast Alaska Purse Seine Fishery closed in early September with just under 20 million pink salmon landed - well below the forecast of 29 million and marking the lowest odd-year harvest since the 1980s. "Fair to say that the season was a disappointment as far as pink salmon harvest goes," said Troy Thynes, Alaska Department of Fish and Game Region I Management Coordinator. The disappointing harvest adds pressure to an industry already facing high fuel costs, inflation, and low...
Petersburg Medical Center is launching a new cohort of its on-the-job training Certified Nursing Assistant program next Monday, offering people in Petersburg a valuable opportunity to get paid while earning a professional healthcare certification in just five weeks. "We hire people who say they want to become a CNA, and then we pay them while they're taking the class," explained Chief Nursing Officer Jennifer Bryner. "At the end of the class, if it's a good match, then we would offer a...
On the Three Lakes trail system south of Petersburg, hikers can follow miles of mostly boardwalk pathways around lakes and trees that lead deep into the Tongass National Forest on Mitkof Island. Some sections of the trail system got upgraded this summer, with help from seasonal workers contracted by the U.S. Forest Service. Recreation Specialist Tyler Shaw said some of the wooden boards that make up the Three Lakes trail system were installed in the 90s. That style of trail is called...
On a cold, cloudy Friday at Petersburg's Sandy Beach Park, Vivian Yéilk' Mork poured locally picked red huckleberries and water into a blender. Mork wasn't making a smoothie, though, she was trying to do the opposite. "Now, you don't want to turn it full on when you do it," Mork explained, gently pulsing the blender as she inspected the pulp inside. "Because you're just wanting to separate the flesh from the seeds." Mork was teaching a class on berry propagation, a way of growing new plants...
Whether it's online strangers sending kids messages in Roblox, scammers phishing for passwords, or artificial intelligence platforms targeting young people with relationships that can distort how an entire generation views human connection - families with children and teens are facing new kinds of online safety challenges. New digital dangers exist as the results of tools and devices that "were released to the public without long-term studies or clear guidelines, leaving families and schools to...
Each Southeast troll fisherman can harvest another 15 Chinook salmon during a “limited harvest fishery” opening that’s set to begin Thursday, the Alaska Department of Fish and Game announced Monday. In the ten-day fishery, which is the third limited harvest opening of the summer season, trollers can take about 5,400 Chinook that remain in the allocation for all the commercial gear groups that harvest Chinook in Southeast. By state regulation, ADF&G at the end of the summer season may give trollers the opportunity to harvest any Chinook alloc...
New York's Manhattan Island is surrounded by the East River, the Harlem River, and the Hudson River - all three are tidal estuaries that create a natural 28.5-mile open water course around the island. In 1915, a lone swimmer first completed this circuit, now known as the 20 Bridges Swim, and since then only around 1,400 endurance athletes have successfully finished the marathon swim. On August 24, Abbey Jackson Ferree, of Petersburg, completed the 20 Bridges Swim in eight hours and 51 minutes -...
A regional tribe wants to buy around 10,000 square feet of Petersburg Borough-owned property near the town's Fire Hall. The Central Council of the Tlingit and Haida Indian Tribes of Alaska, a federally recognized tribe based in Juneau, has applied to the borough to purchase the plot off Haugen Drive. The tribe wants to build a wireless tower there next summer to provide internet service and expand cell coverage in Petersburg. The Petersburg Borough Assembly considered the tribe's application...
After 35 years working in local public radio - 27 years as general manager of KFSK in Petersburg - Tom Abbott has reached retirement. It'll just require a bit more crisis management before he can fully clock out. In an interview with the Pilot, Abbott said he provided KFSK's board of directors a resignation letter last year, with 18 months built in to pass the torch to the station's next manager. He hoped a successor could be hired and would arrive by this summer and the two could work together...
It’s back-to-school shopping season in Petersburg, and for many kids, that means it’s time to try on new shoes. But not every family can afford new shoes every year. That’s where Lee’s Clothing, a family-owned store on Petersburg’s main street, comes in. The business maintains a “shoe fund” for families in need, which helps pay for one new pair of shoes per child. The program started a decade ago, when a woman who wanted to be anonymous came into Lee’s Clothing and asked if any kids in town needed new shoes. Heidi Lee, who helps run the store,...
The window to file for candidacy in Petersburg's upcoming local election closed Tuesday afternoon. In total, 24 people filed for the various positions. There are 20 open seats among several boards slated for the October 7 ballot, including a mayoral race. That race is contested this year, as are the races for Petersburg Borough Assembly and the Public Safety Advisory Board. Current assembly members Bob Lynn and Scott Newman are both running for mayor. Mayor Mark Jensen is not running for...
Petersburg's school buildings and surrounding area were on lockdown for over an hour Tuesday afternoon, Aug. 26, after police received a report of a person with an AR-15 gun and multiple magazines in a school bathroom. The Petersburg Police Department, Alaska Wildlife Troopers and U.S. Forest Service Law Enforcement responded and secured the area. Officers found no real threat on the premises and determined it was a false report. "I'm sure people were alarmed, but rest assured it's safe and...
A late-night car crash south of Petersburg on Friday, Aug. 22, landed two people in the local hospital with moderate injuries. The crash happened about nine miles from town on Mitkof Highway near what's known as the "S-curve" in the road, just south of Twin Creek. A four-door truck traveling northbound did not clear the curve and went off the roadway, ending up in the forest brush downhill. Emergency dispatch got a text message around 9:30 p.m. that an accident had occurred within a few miles of...
After six years of collecting data using trail cameras, radio collars, and DNA analysis, a deer population research project on Mitkof Island, currently led by Ketchikan-based Alaska Department of Fish and Game Wildlife Biologist Tessa Hasbrouck, is entering its final phase. Historically, deer population monitoring in Southeast Alaska relied on relatively simple methods. Biologists would walk through the woods each spring counting deer pellets, or fly over alpine areas in summer tallying visible...
Alaska Marine Lines will stop carrying electric and plug-in hybrid vehicles aboard its freight barges to Southeast Alaska as of Sept. 1, due to safety concerns. The change doesn’t apply to hybrid vehicles that don’t plug in, according to an Aug. 12 announcement from the barge line. The decision is due to “the increased complexity and fire risk associated with shipping large lithium-ion batteries on vessels at sea.” “While issues with lithium-ion batteries are infrequent, the inability to extinguish or contain this type of fire, especially while...
The U.S. Department of Agriculture, parent agency of the U.S. Forest Service, announced Wednesday that it is moving ahead with plans to rescind a rule that has restricted logging and construction on millions of acres of federal lands in the American West for more than two decades. U.S. Secretary of Agriculture Brooke Rollins said in a written statement that the agency intends to open public comments Friday on its proposal to end the so-called “Roadless Rule,” an act that will affect as much as 45 million acres of federal land as well as mil... Full story
The Petersburg Borough Assembly unanimously approved moving forward with a $700,000 sewer line repair project at the Petersburg Aquatic Center during its Monday meeting. The vote authorizes the borough to seek bids for replacing approximately 150 feet of sewer lines beneath the slab concrete floors of the aquatic center's locker rooms, where drains have become disconnected from the main sewer system. "We have a few lines, especially in the family locker room, that are plugged completely with...
The new Wellness, Education, Research, and Communications (WERC) building opened its doors this month, marking the completion of the first major phase of Petersburg Medical Center's hospital replacement project. And according to PMC CEO Phil Hofstetter, the success of this facility has already changed how he's thinking about the rest of the project. "This is just step one," Hofstetter told the Pilot on a recent tour of the 15,000-square-foot building. He will be the first to say that the slow... Full story
At the Petersburg fire station, Heather Bauscher sat waiting for an ambulance. She had a fake tourniquet on her arm, representing a lost limb. "I've got a small amount of time before I go into shock," she said. "So as soon as we get there, I'll start a timer, and they'll have a little bit of time to figure out what's going on with me." Bauscher was one of about a dozen Petersburg community members acting as victims in a staged mass casualty drill on Aug. 16. The drill, which was organized by Petersburg Emergency Services Director Aaron Hankins... Full story
A deteriorating baseball dugout that had been gathering moss and rot at Petersburg's ball field has found new life as a much-needed weather shelter at the Banana Point boat launch. Back in March, Public Works employee Martin Odegaard was dropping his child off at Banana Point to catch the boat to Wrangell for a wrestling trip on a typically miserable late-winter day. "It was pissing rain, as it always is this time of year," Odegaard recalled. "And so all these kids are getting soaking wet. I'm...
Part of a wastewater line in Frederick Sound has broken, and the Petersburg Borough must repair it to comply with an upcoming Environmental Protection Agency permit. The pipe, known as the outfall line, discharges wastewater from Petersburg's treatment plant into Frederick Sound. Wastewater Operations Supervisor Justin Haley said that a part of the pipe called the diffuser has fallen off. The diffuser distributes the wastewater at different places in the water, where ocean currents dilute it further in a "mixing zone." Right now, wastewater is... Full story
Three candidates are now vying for two Petersburg Borough Assembly seats as the candidate filing deadline approaches, with incumbent Donna Marsh joined by challengers Raliegh Cook and Bob Martin. Assembly member Scott Newman, whose term is up this fall, remains the only candidate for mayor, seeking to replace Mark Jensen, who announced in June he would not seek reelection after 18 years in elected office. Fifteen candidates have submitted paperwork to Borough Clerk Rebecca Regula since the...
Wrangell Police Chief Gene Meek has started a public safety campaign to enforce new e-scooter regulations through education and enforcement. The police department posted a safety video Monday, Aug. 11, on YouTube and other social media platforms. The video demonstrates proper scooter operation, hand signals, safety lighting and traffic law compliance. “I think the immediate concern is getting the scooters off of public sidewalks,” Meek said. “With this being an older community, having someo...
