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Saturday
April 07, 2012
POW Whalefest and Beachcombers Fun Fair
Front Page Photo By BOB CLAUS
Southeast Alaska: POW Whalefest and Beachcombers Fun Fair - The Prince of Wales Whalefest and Beachcombers Fun Fair was held March 30-April 1 and was a great success with approximately 600 people participating. The annual event, a part of the Out in the Rain program of outdoors activities, offered a series of events on Prince of Wales Island.
Dr. Curtis Ebbesmeyer, an internationally known oceanographer, spoke at area schools and at a public presentation about marine debris and the Japanese tsunami. Howard Garrett, a whale researcher from Washington, spoke about Orca(killer whale) behavior and culture. They spoke to approximately 250 students at area schools over the course of the week, and about 225 people in the public presentations at the Craig High School Auditorium.
About 80 people went out on the water Saturday morning to watch whales from fishing vessels and kayaks near Klawock. The whales, sea lions, herring, eagles and other sea birds cooperated by putting on a great show for all who were able to come out.
Approximately 30 people participated in a beach cleanup on Sunday morning, with Dr. Ebbesmeyer present to interpret found objects. Debris was found with Japanese markings, but it could not be conclusively said it was a product of the tsunami. One lucky man from Craig found a glass fishing float as he cleaned the beach on St. Ignace Island. - More...
Saturday - April 07, 2012
Ketchikan: KVRS Reports Increased Avalanche Risk - Earlier this week local conditions experienced a high wind event at higher elevations accompanied with moderate snowfall above 2,200 feet on Deer Mountain.
Jerry Kiffer of the Ketchikan Volunteer Rescue Squad said the wind-transported snow has produced wind slabs on all West to Northeast facing slopes of Deer Mountain, and a significant weak layer in the snowpack now exists at 24-42 inches below the surface.
Kiffer said snow stability tests conducted Wednesday failed easily on all West to Northeast aspects. Furthermore, Kiffer said, cornices are large and will become more unstable with the solar warming forecast in the coming days.
Avalanche danger on West to Northeast slopes of Deer Mountain is considerable and likely increasing through the weekend said Kiffer. - More...
Saturday - April 07, 2012
Fish Factor: Salmon Season Trends By LAINE WELCH - A resurgence of farmed fish and shifting world currencies could shake up salmon markets this year.
“There are two trends going into the current salmon season that we haven’t seen for several years,” said Gunnar Knapp, a fisheries economist at the University of Alaska at Anchorage.
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“Exchange rates look to be weaker, not stronger, and perhaps more importantly, farmed salmon prices, rather than rising or holding steady, have fallen significantly. So we will be selling into a market where there is a lot more competing product available at a lot cheaper price.”
There has been a huge rebound in world farmed salmon production over the past year --- notably, by Chilean producers who have recovered from a killer salmon virus that devastated their industry four years ago. Chile pegs farmed salmon and trout production this year at 700,000 tons, or 1.5 billion pounds (round weight), just slightly below Alaska’s total salmon poundage last year.
“I absolutely think what is happening in farmed salmon production and markets is the critical thing for the Alaska salmon industry to be paying attention to going into this salmon season,” Knapp said.
Norway, the world’s other major farmed salmon producer, also is ramping up sales of whole salmon to the U.S., now that a 24% import tax imposed 20 years ago has expired, said Seafood Trend’s Ken Talley.
Talley pointed to total farmed Atlantic salmon imports (all products) for the first month of the year when volume hit 37.4 million pounds, an increase of 16.1% over January 2011. The strong increase in volume has had the expected result, he said. The value and average price of imported farmed salmon has taken a hefty tumble: the value is down 6.2% to $118.7 million; the average price of $3.17/lb. was a drop of 19.3% to from $3.93/lb. in January 2011.
Gunnar Knapp said over the past six months there have been significant declines in farmed salmon prices in the European, U.S., and Japanese markets. At the same time, the currency values of Alaska’s biggest salmon customers– Japan and Europe – have shifted.
“The two currencies that matter a lot to Alaskans are the Japanese yen and the Euro,” Knapp said.
For the past three years, the value of the yen has been significantly stronger compared to the dollar and that was one of the factors that helped boost salmon prices, he added. Over the winter that trend has reversed and the yen has weakened about 9 percent since January. Meanwhile, political and economic turmoil in Europe has pushed down the value of that currency by about 9 percent.
Of course, many other things affect varying cost structures for Alaska’s processors and fishermen – how the catches come in, fuel and labor costs, and this year, the question of visas for foreign processing workers. “Nothing is ever certain about fish prices” Knapp said, and that global financial and economic situations can change markets quickly for better or worse. - More...
Saturday - April 07, 2012
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Alaska: Polar Bears in Alaska Observed with Patchy Hair Loss and other Skin Lesions - In the past two weeks, 9 polar bears in the southern Beaufort Sea region near Barrow were observed with alopecia, or loss of fur, and other skin lesions. The animals were otherwise healthy in appearance and behavior. The cause and significance of the observed lesions are unknown. Alopecia has been reported in both wild and captive animals in the past. U.S. Geological Survey scientists have collected blood and tissues samples from afflicted polar bears to investigate the cause of the symptoms and determine whether there is any relationship between the symptoms observed in polar bears and those reported for arctic pinnipeds from the same geographical region earlier this year.
Evidence of alopecia and other skin lesions may be difficult to see unless the bear can be observed closely. In the polar bears that USGS has observed to date, the most common areas affected include the muzzle and face, eyes, ears and neck. The bear in the photo has hair loss and oozing sores on the left side of its neck. The bear was captured by USGS scientists using the immobilizing drug Telazol.
Photo courtesy USGS
Research scientists with the USGS made the observations at the start of their 2012 field-work season. USGS observes polar bears annually in the southern Beaufort Sea region as part of a long-term research program. This bear population ranges from Barrow in Alaska east to the Tuktoyuktuk region of Canada.
Observations last summer of unusual numbers of ringed seals hauled out on beaches along the Arctic coast of Alaska, and later on, of dead and dying seals with hair loss and skin sores, led to declaration of an Unusual Mortality Event by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration on December 20, 2011. Based on observations of Pacific walruses with similar skin lesions at a coastal haulout in the same region during fall, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service joined the UME investigation. Most walruses exhibiting skin lesions appeared to be otherwise healthy, and whether the symptoms observed in the seals and walruses are related is unknown. Since the initial reports from northern Alaska, ice seals with similar symptoms have also been reported in adjacent regions of Canada and Russia and from the Bering Strait region. Despite extensive testing for a wide variety of well known infectious agents, the cause(s) of the observed condition in walruses and ice seals remains unknown. Advanced testing techniques for unidentified infectious agents is continuing as well as further testing for potential causes including man-made and natural biotoxins, radiation, contaminants, auto-immune diseases, nutritional, hormonal and environmental factors. - More...
Saturday - April 07, 2012 |
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Letters will updated by Saturday Evening. Thank you for your patience.
 Bar Harbor Boat Launch and 3rd Avenue By
Shari Fisher -
Summer is just around the corner and we all know what that means, time to put the boat in the water and go have fun. I have lived on the last block of the 3rd Avenue (nearest Bar Harbor) for most of my life and one thing really drives me nuts: People who launch their boat and then drive up 3rd Avenue and leave their boat trailer parked on the side of the street and then drive off. - More...
Monday PM - April 02, 2012
USS Enterprise as a bridge By
Dee Armstrong -
My husband was a commissioning crew member of this legendary ship. I just wanted to set the record straight - IF the ship was to be used for anything (that’s a BIG “if”), it would have NO nuclear elements, no reactors. It would be a shell. It is scheduled to be “gutted” of its propulsion system BEFORE it’s even decommissioned. That’s straight from the ship’s commanding officer and the Navy. - More...
Monday PM - April 02, 2012
KETCHIKAN CHOOSES RESPECT By
Diane Gubatayao - Last Thursday, Ketchikan community members of all ages marched together to “choose respect”. We were one of over 122 communities throughout Alaska to stand up and demonstrate that we each have the power to end domestic violence and sexual assault. But it goes beyond these issues. Respect is the foundation of all healthy relationships. Whether it is a parent disciplining a child, or one adult resolving differences with another adult, or a teacher instructing students, or young people learning how to relate to one another, respect is at the center. - More...
Monday PM - April 02, 2012
Deployment By
Brian K. and Julie A. Schum -
Hello to our friends in Ketchikan, for those that remember us and may be interested I just wanted to pass along that our son, Seth K. Schum (K-Hi class of 2010) is being deployed with the 1st Marine division 1st combat engineering battalion to Afghanistan for 10 months next Thursday. His platoon will be quickly passing through Anchorage on the journey from Camp Pendleton CA. to begin combat patrols in Afghanistan. - More...
Monday PM - April 02, 2012
Carbon Neutrality of Biomass Energy By
Eric Muench -
This is a response to Paul Olson's criticism of the Southeast Integrated Resource Plan, in which he says that conversion to biomass energy would be harmful because, among other claims, it adds carbon dioxide to the atmosphere and is therefore not carbon-neutral . That is a misleading statement. - More...
Tuesday AM - March 27, 2012
Funding for a Unuk River study By
Victoria McDonald - Three years ago, in response to concerns about mine tailings damaging the Taku River, fishermen asked the Alaska legislature to fund a study documenting water quality on the river. The legislature appropriated $35,000.00 for a report on the Taku, with enough left over for a similar study on the Stikine. These reports have been extremely valuable when Alaska Dept of Fish & Game have worked with the Canadians on transboundary mining proposals. - More...
Tuesday AM - March 27, 2012
Fund water quality monitoring on Stikine, Unuk, Taku By
Tammi Meissner -
I was born and raised in Wrangell, and I live here with my husband and two daughters. I am Tlingit and I practice traditional food gathering. My family has a cabin at the mouth of the Stikine River, the fastest free flowing navigable river in North America, where we often live and where we fish. This river is the source of salmon that my family relies on to sustain us year round, and is the source of salmon that contributes to our community s fishing economy. The Stikine is also an important spiritual and cultural resource. - More...
Tuesday AM - March 27, 2012
BOYCOTT ETCH A SKETCH By
David G. Hanger - Pass this message forward via email, facebook, tweets & twitters, whatever. Don’t buy a single Etch A Sketch; trash any of recent vintage that you have. They are the product of slave labor. - More..
Tuesday AM - March 27, 2012
RE: USS Enterprise, Bridge By
Peter Jacob
- I'm writing this in response to James Dornblaser and Charlotte Tanner's proposal of using the USS Enterprise as a bridge to Gravina. - More...
Tuesday - March 27, 2012
USS Enterprise By Eric Riemer -
So I'm pretty sure nobody has pointed out the complete ridiculousness of the idea to use an old aircraft carrier as a bridge to Gravina because the flaws are quite obvious if one spends even a few moments thinking about it, but after reading someone's positive response to the idea I cannot hold my tongue, so I beg your indulgence.. - More...
Tuesday AM - March 27, 2012
Bridge By
Mike McColley -
I would like to see the bridge built. The job itself will help Ketchikan people benefit from carpenters laborers and all trades. - More...
Tuesday AM - March 27, 2012
Nicholas’ Law By Nyna Fleury, Bessie Singleterry, Tim Booth, Loni Iingley-Mills, Chief Ely -
We are looking for support in putting together a law that we can pass called Nicholas’ Law, where it would be against the law to be intoxicated while taking care of a underage child. Before we can take it to the legislators we need documentation from concerned parties. Police Officers, Social Services workers, Teachers, Daycare works, Parents (anyone) who can see a need in this law. - More...
Tuesday AM - March 27, 2012
Parking, Trash By
Lisa Krieger -
It seems to be the parking has been an isue for some time now. I notice a lot of people parking in Handicapped zones and they don't seem to be ticketed. In fact, in front of my own place, a peron was taking up two spots, which left the person behind them, take up another spot, which led us to park a ways from our own home. We called Law Enforcement.. they came in the area, had a Cruiser check it out... WE thought something would become of it and straighten it out.. nope... they just looked at the parking situation and drove off! - More...
Tuesday AM - March 27, 2012
RE: Parking By
David Wylie -
Ms. Elliot we are talking about 2 different parking areas. I am talking about the Lower Centennial Parking. The one under the library parking lot. Now I don't doubt that they are giving out parking tickets. I just don't understand why this lot has now slipped through the cracks. - More...
Tuesday AM - March 27, 2012
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