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The year 2015 was largely a good one for Wrangell, with the appearance of several new businesses, large infrastructural developments undertaken by businesses, the formal opening of the Tribe's cultural center, and a balanced financial outlook for the city despite tumultuous budget negotiations in Juneau. The state deficit will remain the largest issue moving ahead into 2016, as will continued mining developments in Canada along shared waters. January On Jan. 12 and 14 the first of three sets of...
Alaska crab shells are fueling an eco-revolution that will drive new income streams for fabrics to pharmaceuticals to water filters. And for the first time, it is happening in the USA and not overseas. The entrepreneurs at Tidal Vision in October made the leap from their labs in Juneau to a pilot plant outside of Seattle to test an earth-friendly method that extracts chitin, the structural element in the exoskeletons of shellfish and insects. Their first big run a few weeks ago was tested on a 60,000 pound batch of crab shells delivered by...
The proposal book for next year’s Alaska Board of Game regulations is now available for review. One hundred and thirty-eight proposals have been included for consideration at the ABG annual meeting in Fairbanks from March 18 to 28. The proposals generally concern statewide changes to hunting and trapping regulations under 5 AAC Chapter 92. The board will also consider 29 statewide sheep hunting season items which were accepted under an expanded call for proposals this year. Other categories will include bear baiting, unlawful taking of game, o...
Alaskans are being asked to weigh in on two tough issues: budgets and halibut bycatch. First off, the state Boards of Fish and Game are asking for ideas on cutting costs within their annual meeting cycles, as well as for the state agencies involved with providing all of the backup information to the boards. Both boards include seven members which are appointed by the governor and approved by the Alaska legislature for three year terms. The Fish Board’s role is to conserve and develop the fishery resources for the state’s subsistence, com...
The upcoming pink salmon run is expected to be about the same size as that in 2015, according to this month's Alaska Department of Fish and Game forecast. ADF&G predicts the 2016 harvest will be strong, with a point estimate of 34 million pink salmon. The forecast was produced by projecting the trend in harvest averages for the period spanning between 1960 and 2010, adjusted using 2015 juvenile pink salmon abundance data. Adjustments were made using peak June-July juvenile pink salmon...
PETERSBURG – United Fisherman of Alaska members gathered in Petersburg last week when it conducted its 2015 Fall Board Meeting. Board members representing 35 Alaska commercial fishing organizations began their meeting Tuesday Oct. 27 where representatives of Governor Mallott, Alaska Department of Fish and Game, University of Alaska Anchorage and other independent commercial fishing agencies gave presentations to the board. Much of the time was devoted to internal discussion regarding seafood industry taxes and fees and was not open to the p...
Two Wrangell fishermen have pleaded guilty to charges related to falsified commercial catch reports. In documentation submitted to the U.S. District Court in Juneau on Oct. 19, federal prosecutors alleged Charles Petticrew Sr. and Charles Petticrew Jr. conspired together to submit falsified Individual Fishing Quota records over a three-year period. Petticrew Jr. was alleged to have knowingly submitted IFQ reports that falsely specified the Gulf of Alaska statistical areas where around 3,977 pounds of halibut were caught, valued in all at...
It will take a lot to bring the state budget out from the red, Wrangell residents learned at a special presentation on Oct. 21. Alaska expects to run a budget deficit of $2.9 billion this fiscal year, even after a round of significant cuts made to departments and capital project spending. When they meet for the next regular session in January, the state’s legislators will have to figure out how to curb spending in future budgets before the government empties its coffers. In an effort to prepare the public for the debates ahead, the Alaska D...
The 2015 moose season for the Petersburg, Wrangell and Kake hunting area ended up being the third-best on record, according to Alaska Department of Fish and Game. After a slow week, numbers jumped back up during the final nine days of the season. Area wildlife biologist Rich Lowell reported 103 bulls were logged in this year’s hunt, just behind the 106 harvested last year. The highest recorded tally was for 2009, with 109 moose. Forty of those taken this year were on Kupreanof Island, only four of which failed to comply with local antler r...
The Petersburg office of Alaska’s Department of Fish and Game reported an additional 25 moose were harvested during the third week of this year’s season for Petersburg, Wrangell and Kake, bringing the total to 81. ADFG wildlife biologist Rich Lowell noted the figure represented the highest third-week harvest total in the RM038-area moose hunt’s history. The ongoing tally included 91 moose harvested by Tuesday, and by the season’s end this evening the full figure could be in the mid- to upper-90s. That would put this season’s count just shy of t...
Alaska Department of Fish and Game reported the first half of the moose season has generally been going well for the Petersburg-Wrangell-Kake area. ADFG wildlife biologist Rich Lowell reported a total of 54 bull moose had been checked in by the end of week two, on Sept. 28. The hottest spots have been on Kupreanof Island, where 17 moose have been harvested. Eight of those were taken in the Kake area. Hunters in the Stikine River area had 15 confirmed harvested by the halfway point; Mitkof...
Local hunters have been hit harder than usual by antler restrictions so far this year. The season began on Sept. 15, and by the end of the first week seven of 35 moose reported harvested in the Wrangell, Petersburg and Kake areas were deemed noncompliant. In 2014, hunters harvested 28 moose over the same period. Only three of these were ruled illegal, about the norm. The full season went on to be one of the best on record, with 106 moose harvested. Alaska Department of Fish and Game wildlife biologist Rich Lowell reported the number of noncompl...
Wrangell will be getting a new Alaska Wildlife Trooper (AWT) shortly, the Department of Public Safety confirmed last week. Residents may recognize Trooper Scott Bjork, who was transferred to Juneau in January. AWT said Bjork will be posted here temporarily, both for the moose season and for transitioning in a new trooper. The office did not have details on who will be assigned to Wrangell but said the change could be expected within the next few weeks. During the Legislature’s budget battles in the spring, the Department of of Public Safety p...
The Alaska Department of Fish and Game has extended the Southeast-Yakutat commercial troll fishery through Sept. 30. The extension applies to the retention of all species except king salmon, with the following restrictions: Districts 1 and 2-waters south of the latitude of Foggy Point at 54°55.54′ N latitude will be closed; District 12, Section 12-B waters north of the latitude of Point Couverden will be closed; District 14, sections 14-B and 14-C will be closed; and District 15 will be closed. The areas of frequent high king salmon abundance w...
Alaska’s fishing industry was dismayed last week by the sudden news that Jeff Regnart, Director of the state’s Commercial Fisheries Division, will leave the job on October 2. “I’m resigning due to family reasons, aging parents…I just can’t be in the state full time like this job demands,” Regnart explained. Jeff Regnart started as an Alaska Dept. of Fish and Game field tech in high school, and over 30 years worked his way to management positions at Prince William Sound, Cook Inlet and Bristol Bay. He took over as director of the commercial fi...
The Alaska Department of Fish and Game announced it has adopted emergency regulations changing Title 5 of the Alaska Administrative Code, which deals with hunting season regulations for geese. Acting under a delegation of authority from the Board of Game issued under Alaska Statute 16.05.270, 5AAC 85.065(a)(4) is amended to include the following changes: 1. (C) Geese, Canada and cackling combined: Unit 6 (except Middleton Island), the possession limit is increased from two times the daily bag limit (8) to three times the daily bag limit (12)....
The Alaska Department of Fish and Game is seeking feedback from the public on a document that will guide the agency’s conservation work over the next 10 years. The draft 2015 revision of Alaska’s Wildlife Action Plan is available now for public and agency review. The plan’s purpose is to identify the state’s species of greatest conservation need, describe distribution and habitat use, and recognize key threats and conservation actions that might be used to ensure healthy populations into the future. The preliminary draft plan is availab...
In the Sentinel 100, 75, 50 and 25 years ago. August 12, 1915: According to advices given out, plans are being made for a new jail building for Wrangell. While only the estimate is yet made, it is believed that it will be carried through and the new jail building will be built on the site now occupied by the old courthouse. The facts of the affair have not yet been released but it is felt that the building will be two stories and will possibly contain a room for the commissioner's office. We have long felt the need of some new government...
Whatever one might say about the year’s fishing harvests, it wouldn’t be fair to say the Southeast purse seining fleet is in the pink. The state forecast for 2015 anticipated a 58 million pink salmon harvest for Southeast, but so far harvests have not been living up to the expectation. “We are not even coming close,” explained Dan Gray, Alaska Department of Fish and Game management coordinator for Southeast fisheries in Sitka. With the season already in its ninth week, only 22 million pink salmon have been reported harvested by seiners so far,...
ANCHORAGE, Alaska (AP) _ Two employees of an Alaska backcountry lodge startled an adult grizzly bear while running on a trail in Alaska's Kenai Peninsula. The bear stepped out of thick brush and mauled one woman while the other ran for help. Gabriele Markel, 20, was recovering Wednesday at an Anchorage hospital. Her wounds, which authorities described as bites and scratches on her head, back and arm, weren't considered life-threatening. She was upgraded to good condition from fair on Wednesday, authorities said. Markel and a co-worker, Kaitlyn...
Anan Wildlife Observatory is apparently the place to be in Wrangell, according to a recent survey. A study commissioned in June and released earlier this month by the Wrangell Convention and Visitors Bureau found Anan to be the city's most popular visitor destination. Travelers migrate to the area each year from early July to late August to view Anan's bears, which themselves have arrived to take advantage of what is Southeast Alaska's largest pink salmon spawning event. According to United...
Deer hunting season began for Alaska residents and nonresidents in much of the Unit 3 management area last Saturday, lasting through Nov. 30. Bow hunting on Mitkof Island and the Petersburg Management Area, hunting on the remainder of the Mitkof, Woewodski and Butterworth islands, and residential hunting on the Lindenberg Peninsula portion of Kupreanof Island all begin on Oct. 15, and are subject to other limitations. Outlooks for this year’s season for Sitka black-tailed deer are much the same as last year, with smaller harvests expected t...
The Alaska Board of Fisheries last week released its 2015-2016 Proposal Book for review. Some 215 proposals were accepted for review during the board’s regulatory meetings. Regulations potentially to be affected include Pacific cod and finfish in the Alaska Peninsula, Chignik and Bering Sea-Aleutian Island areas; Bristol Bay finfish; Arctic, Yukon and Kuskokwim finfish; and statewide finfish. Proposals may be downloaded off the board’s website in sections, as well as for full meetings, at www.adfg.alaska.gov/index.cfm?adfg=f...
ANCHORAGE, Alaska (AP) – Six conservation organizations want to stop hunting and trapping of a rare southeast Alaska wolf while the federal government decides whether the animals merit endangered species status. The groups asked Fish and Game Department Commissioner Sam Cotton on Thursday to preemptively close hunting and trapping seasons for Alexander Archipelago wolves, a southeast Alaska species that den in the root systems of large trees. They also asked the Federal Subsistence Board to close subsistence hunting and trapping, and the U...
KENAI, Alaska (AP) – Several hundred people made their way to Kenai for the opening weekend of the most widely used personal dipnetting beach in the state. More than 300 people gathered on the Kenai River Saturday to use their hand nets to search for salmon, the Peninsula Clarion reported. The Alaska Department of Fish and Game has predicted that 3.7 million sockeye will be harvested during the 2015 fishing season, but many people reported smaller-than-average catches and slow fishing this weekend. “Very few people (are catching),’’ said Ma...