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Thursday
November 07, 2013
Shrimpers Rescue Young Killer Whale
Jason Vonick and Nick Segal splashing water on a young Killer Whale grounded on the rocks at Klakas Inlet Bay on Prince of Wales Island
Photograph courtesy Segal, Oakes, Vonick
(Please respect the rights of photographers, never republish or copy
without permission and/or payment of required fees.)
Ketchikan: Shrimpers Rescue Young Killer Whale By MARY KAUFFMAN - What started out as a normal work day for three shrimpers turned into a 'whale of a tale' adventure. It was September 30th, one day before the start of the shrimp fishery.
That day, aboard the Miss Mary, fellow shrimpers, Nick Segal, John Oakes (owner), and Jason Vonick, had been looking for different places to set the shrimp gear before the season started. They were just preparing to anchor in Klakas Inlet Bay on Prince of Wales Island for the day when, "Out of the corner of my eye," said Vonick, "I caught some splashing and thrashing about and when I looked over there were some Killer Whales chasing some seals."
Vonick said he grabbed his camera to film the whales and then realized that one smaller whale had gone up on the rocks while chasing a seal and "got herself stuck". Before they anchored Miss Mary, the fishermen went over to take a look and saw other members of the pod attempting to assist the younger whale. Among them was a large male.
Segal, Oakes and Vonick anchored Miss Mary and put the 15-foot skiff in the water and returned to the beached whale. Vonick told SitNews they initially thought they could push the killer whale off the rocks but quickly realized that wasn't going to happen. He said the tide was still going out and the whale was stuck there with the tide getting lower and lower and they realized she was going to be stuck there until the tide came in again.
Vonick said they stayed with the whale for about four hours splashing her with water to keep her cool. He said they worked to keep her calm and did whatever they could to keep her from getting panicky.
"In the meantime, the other whales that were with her were very concerned," said Vonick. He said the other orca whales stayed very close. Vonick said, "I don't think they saw us as a threat, but you never could tell." He said, "That was a little bit nerve-racking not knowing if they were going to try to protect her or not." He said that was the only scary part of the whole ordeal, just not knowing how the other whales were going to react. "After awhile, we realized they were just going to keep their distance and they didn't do anything threatening or harming."
After several hours the tide started to come back in, which was good, however, when it got to the point that the whale's blow-hole was going underwater and she could no longer hold her head up high, they knew they had to do something Vonick said. "She needed a lot more water to come in with the tide to float her off. We didn't know what was going to happen because she still needed another hour or two of water to come in."
Concerned because the whale couldn't hold her head up out of the water, Vonick said he and Segal put the oars from the skiff under whale's chin and held her head up for her. "We thought, we're not going to be able to do this for long," said Vonick. When the whale took a breath and started coughing up water, Vonick said they immediately decided to stick the oars up under her pectoral fins and see if they could just push her or move her. They realized they had to do something. "We realized when we tried, we moved her a little bit," he said. - More...
Thursday AM - October 07, 2013
Fish Factor: Dutch Harbor Again Nation's Top Fishing Port By LAINE WELCH - For the 16th year in a row, Dutch Harbor ranked as the nation’s top fishing port with 752 million pounds crossing those docks last year, valued at $214 million.
The number two port for landings again was Empire-Venice, Louisiana. The “Aleutian Islands” jumped to third place with 456 million pounds led by deliveries to Akutan, and bumped Kodiak to number four with 393 million pounds landed in 2012. In all, 13 Alaska ports made the Top 50 list for poundage, according to the annual Fisheries of the United States report by NOAA Fisheries.
For value of the catch, New Bedford, Mass. retained the lead for the 13th consecutive year at $411 million, thanks to pricey scallops; Dutch Harbor ranked second, followed by Kodiak at $170 million and the Aleutian Islands with a dockside value of $119 million.
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In all, U.S. seafood landings totaled 9.6 billion pounds last year valued at $5.1 billion, down 2.2 percent and 3.2 percent, respectively, from 2011.
Other highlights:
- Alaska topped all other states for total landings at 5.3 billion pounds and for overall value at $1.7 billion.
- Alaska provided 55.5 percent of all seafood landed in the U.S. last year.
- The top five fish species landed by volume were pollock, menhaden, cod, flatfish and salmon.
- For value, the “crabs” category ranked first followed by scallops, shrimp, salmon and lobster. Pollock and cod were 6th and 7th for value.
- Shellfish prices dropped by 3 percent while prices for industrial products, such as oils and feeds increased by 14 percent.
- Dockside prices increased for 18 out of 32 species groups being tracked and decreased for 14 species. The skipjack tuna price index had the largest gain, up 112 percent, while sockeye salmon showed the largest decrease at 17 percent.
- The average dock price paid to fishermen in 2012 was 53 cents per pound compared to 54 cents the previous year.
- US consumers spent about $82.6 billion for fishery products in 2012.
- The US fishing industry contributed $42 billion to the GNP.
- Americans ate less seafood last year at 14.4 pounds per person, compared to 15 pounds in 2011. The decrease resulted primarily from a drop in the domestic landings utilized for food, the report said.
Other Alaska ports on the Top 50 list include the Alaska Peninsula at #9, Naknek at #14, Cordova at #15, Ketchikan at #18, Sitka at #20, Bristol Bay at #22, Seward at #23, Petersburg at #24, Kenai at #31and Juneau at #42 for seafood landings in 2012. - More...
Thursday AM - November 07, 2013
Alaska:Parnell Urged to Expand Medicaid; Citizens deliver petition to Governor’s office - Wednesday, Alaska citizens delivered a petition supporting Medicaid expansion with 1,460 signatures to Governor Sean Parnell’s office. Twenty- eight signatures came from concerned citizens and former Alaska residents living in other states. Vicki Penwell, an Alaskan from Nabesna, started the petition less than a week ago.
“Thousands of Alaskans are urging Governor Parnell to expand Medicaid and ensure 41,500 more Alaskans have health coverage,” said Penwell.
According to the Alaska Native Tribal Health Consortium, Medicaid expansion with new federal funding would provide coverage for 41,500 Alaskans. Most of these Alaskans are low income workers and currently under or uninsured. Expansion would create some 4,000 new jobs, create an infusion of $1.2 billion in wages for Alaskans, and $2.49 billion in economic growth for Alaska.
Also on Wednesday, the Anchorage NAACP announced its support for Medicaid expansion in Alaska. The NAACP joined other prominent Alaska organizations endorsing Medicaid expansion, including the Chamber of Commerce, Alaska Federation of Natives, Anchorage Faith and Action - Congregations Together, and the Alaska Association of Hospitals and Nursing Homes. - More...
Thursday AM - October 07, 2013 |
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Ketchikan: Ask UAS: Where Ketchikan Finds Answers - Immigration - This fall, the University of Alaska Southeast (UAS) Ketchikan Campus Library is offering Ask UAS: Where Ketchikan Finds Answers – a series of informative discussions.
The next event in the series is “Immigration in Alaska and the Lower 48, 1800’s to Present”. Dr. John Radzilowski, UAS Ketchikan Assistant Professor of History, will lead a discussion of the impact of immigration and immigrant communities on Alaska and the nation and will address both historical and contemporary immigration. - More...
Thursday AM - November 07, 2013
Columns - Commentary
 TOM PURCELL: Letter from Washington - Dear American citizens:
Millions of you are asking why your health insurance policies are being canceled and the premiums and deductibles for your new policies are, for the majority of you, doubling, tripling or worse.
You are particularly upset because President Obama said over and over again that your premiums would go down and you could keep your existing policies and doctors — promises for which The Washington Post Fact Checker gave Obama a four-Pinocchio rating.
But don't fret, little people. Your government is hard at work making important decisions that you are simply too dumb to make for yourself.
Look, if you were not covered by your employer and purchased private insurance to provide protection and care for you and your family, you simply weren't smart enough to go about it right.
Sure, you had the ability to choose freely among a fairly wide range of policies, coverage, premiums and deductibles.
Some of you preferred high-deductible policies that protected against catastrophic events. You got lower premiums that way. And since you were healthy and hardly needed to visit doctors, you may have thought such a plan made sense for you.
But you were wrong — and also very selfish — to choose such substandard plans.
ObamaCare makes sure your new policy meets 10 new minimum standards that include coverage for such things as mental health, drug abuse and maternity — even if you are a 51-year-old man who cannot bear children, you must pay for maternity care.
The fact is, in order for ObamaCare to work, healthy young people and middle-class people must purchase health insurance at higher costs to cover those who are uninsured or who have pre-existing conditions. - More...
Thursday AM - November 07, 2013 |
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Questions, please contact
the editor at editor@sitnews.us or call 617-9696
Sitnews reserves the right to edit.
 Harley Riders 2013 Dinner By James Schenk -
On Saturday, November 9th, Ketchikan Harley Riders will be putting on our 2013 Spaghetti dinner with an auction to follow. - More...
Thursday AM - November 07, 2013
RE: Open Letter: Affordable Care Act By Marvin Seibert -
I'm appalled at a group of Doctors in Alaska supporting the destruction of our Health Care system by way of Obamacare. There is nothing affordable about this and it was passed with lies and deceit by our current President, Barack Hussein Obama! - More..
Thursday AM - November 07, 2013
Re: Affordable Care? By Alan R. McGillvray -
Affordable care, to whom is it affordable? Only to a Senior Citizen who is getting most if not all his medical expenses paid by some one else, even if his 'diabetic test strips' were costing him $75.00 to $100.00 a month. Which, because he is on Medicare, some one else is picking up the costs of his testing supplies. - Mor..
Thursday AM - November 07, 2013
Obamacare By Duane Hill -
I don't see how those praising Obamacare can say anything about it. Hardly anyone has been able to sign up for it and nobody has had time for their claims to be processed, and add to that time the 3 to 7 days it takes for a letter to be printed here. These letters to the editor are either speculation or lies. - More..
Thursday AM - November 07, 2013
Re: No More Traditional Paper Marine Charts By Donita O'Dell -
Paper copies of charts will still be available as POD (print on demand) and from NOAA-certified third parties (complete with updates!). NOAA is ending production of the traditional litho versions because they have declined in popularity as more convenient options (for hard-copy as well as digital) have emerged. - More...
Thursday AM - November 07, 2013
Gun Free zones and other things By A. M. Johnson -
Small snippet of data gathering. Could be interesting to your readers then again, depending on political leaning, maybe not. I found them informative and useful in future discussions on gun control. - More...
Thursday AM - November 07, 2013
Federal tax system "abominable" By Wiley Brooks -
The Tax Foundation has released a report providing an eye-opening look at many facets of the federal tax system - which the foundation calls "abominable."
The report is titled "Putting a Face on America's Tax Returns: A Chart Book."
The Foundation states: "The income tax system in the United States is a sprawling mass of provisions spread across dozens of volumes and has been called everything from a 'disaster' to an 'abomination.'
"It takes Americans as many as seven billion work hours every year just to complete the paperwork required. The IRS' own National Taxpayer Advocate estimates that it costs individual and corporate taxpayers more than $165 billion annually to comply with the income tax code.
"In order to figure out what we need to fix, we need to understand how the system works now. We've compiled this chart book to not only 'put a face on American taxpayers,' but to provide some must-know background information on the key issues of the tax reform debate." - More...
Thursday AM - November 07, 2013
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