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Print your licenses at home and go fishing. The Alaska Dept. of Fish and Game’s revamped Online Store is the go to place for all fishing (and hunting) licenses and it now offers two new features. “Fishermen, both sport and commercial, can now print their licenses at home. They can purchase it online, immediately print it and go out fishing,” said Michelle Kaelke, Financing and Licensing Supervisor for the department. “They can buy it before they go out to the fishing grounds, or if they’re traveling from Seattle or wherever, they can have ever...
The Sitka Sound sac roe herring fishery opened at 3:30 p.m. Wednesday under a cooperative model. Dave Gordon, area management biologist at the Alaska Department of Fish and Game, said the decision was made by permit holders to eliminate competition and lower costs to “make it worthwhile to go after the product” as the market is poor. It wasn’t a popular decision among tenders, however. “There’s a lot less boats here,” said Tanner Mackiewicz, president of the Alaska Independent Tendermen’s Association. “A lot of people without jobs.” He said the...
As legislators in Juneau prepare a budget for the state's next fiscal year, Alaska residents have been urged to contribute their say as cuts are considered. Since the Legislative session began on Jan. 20, lawmakers have been weighted with the task of finding ways to address a more than $3.6 billion deficit. To that end, the State House was looking at making a nearly 10 percent, or about $240 million, cut from state spending over the previous fiscal year. Among areas affected by the cuts would be capital improvements, education, transportation,...
Convening for its last regular meeting of the year, the dozen members of Wrangell’s Fish and Game Advisory Committee recapped recent regulatory changes and looked ahead to future challenges. Advisory committees are locally-organized groups of resource users and other stakeholders that meet to discuss fishing and wildlife issues, providing recommendations to the Alaska boards of Fish and Game. On Wrangell’s horizon: moose brow tines, Canadian mining and getting another Alaska Wildlife Trooper assigned to the area. Scott McAuliffe had represented...
JUNEAU, Alaska (AP) – Alaska lawmakers have moved a bill to extend the licensing program for sportfishing guides. The program, through which the Alaska Department of Fish and Game licenses and regulates sportfishing guides and operations, expired at the end of 2014. The House special committee on fisheries moved a bill Thursday that would re-establish the program beginning in 2016. That was introduced by Reps. Cathy Tilton and Cathy Munoz. This year, Fish and Game is issuing temporary licenses without a fee. Operators still must provide i...
A number of concerned residents appeared Tuesday night at the public hearing for an ordinance amending Title 10 of the Municipal Code, specifically dealing with concealed-carry and weapons misconduct in the City and Borough of Wrangell. The Assembly had the proposal before them on its second reading, and during oral presentations at the hearing and later in their regular meeting itself, half a dozen people expressed their dissatisfaction with some provisions of the ordinance. Local resident Charles Hazel felt the rules omitted allowing the...
Meeting in Wrangell last week, the Alaska Board of Fisheries elected to maintain the current Southeast Alaska Area Dungeness Crab Fisheries Management Plan. A trio of policy proposals would have repealed the plan and its early closure thresholds, returning management of the fishery to size, sex and season, as used elsewhere. “I understand the reason this proposal was put forward,” board member John Jensen said of Proposal 58. “Size, sex and season has been a very good way to manage fishe...
In the Sentinel 100, 75, 50 and 25 years ago. January 28, 1915: According to information given out by the local cable office, the Government has seen fit to place in service a new night letter rate, which will take effect February 1st. The new rating will help in several ways, by taking part of the load off the wires at the busy time and make the charges much cheaper, the new rate being 12 cents per word for a ten word message as to 16 cents by the present day rate. Messages can be filed at any time but will not be sent until the day work is...
The Alaska Board of Fisheries began its six-day review process for crab, shrimp and miscellaneous shellfish policies in Southeast and Yakutat yesterday at Wrangell’s Nolan Center. Public testimony on the policy changes being proposed began Wednesday morning and will continue today. Part of the regulatory arm of the Alaska Department of Fish and Game, the board’s main role is to conserve and develop the fishery resources of the state, by setting seasons, bag limits, methods, means and other regulations for Alaska’s subsistence, comme...
Alaska seafood marketers are facing some strong headwinds heading into 2015, notably, for sockeye salmon and crab. Snow crab is Alaska’s largest crab fishery, underway now in the Bering Sea. The fleet has a slightly increased 61 million pound catch quota; boats also are tapping on a hefty bairdi Tanner crab catch, the larger cousin of snow crab. A 25% increase in snow crab, the unexpected 15 million pound Tanner fishery, a weak Japanese yen, plus several million pounds of Russian snow crab from a new fishery in the Barents Sea, (not to mention...
The Alaska Board of Game will convene its Southeast Region meeting tomorrow at the Westmark Baranof Hotel in Juneau, wrapping up on Jan. 13. The board will examine 40 proposals regarding hunting and trapping regulations for the region. Members will today also be holding a one-day work session for the purpose of hearing various reports and to address board business. Proposals scheduled for the Southeast meeting have been submitted by the Department of Fish and Game, local fish and game advisory committees and the general public, seeking...
Kicking things off with a new borough manager in Jeff Jabusch, 2014 for Wrangell was not only a period of changes, but also one of building and continued development. Pavement was poured at the Marine Service Center, a number of roads were resurfaced or due to eventually see improvement, and the city was able to showcase itself to other regional communities by hosting several prolific functions. January Wrangell Cooperative Association collected 210 registrations for Tlingit-Haida members at...
On Dec. 18 Wrangell’s advisory committee to Alaska Department of Fish and Game held the last and lengthiest of its public meetings to discuss Board of Fisheries proposals for the 2014-15 meeting cycle. This 12-person committee let the public review and discuss new finfish management proposals, providing their recommendations to the state board of Fisheries. Consulting them on management policies were Troy Thynes and Patrick Fowler from Petersburg’s ADFG office. Among the policies the committee supported, it voted ten to two in favor of cre...
Wrangell's advisory committee to Alaska Department of Fish and Game held the second of several public meetings at the Fire Hall Dec. 11, to discuss Board of Fisheries proposals for the 2014-15 meeting cycle. This committee provides a forum for fishing and game management issues, allowing the public to review and discuss new proposals and to provide recommendations to both state boards of Fisheries and Game. To consult with them on crab, shellfish and shrimp management policies were Joe Stratman and Troy Thynes from Petersburg's ADFG office....
Local bird-watchers were pleased to see a specimen of White-winged Dove on the island this month, a species native to the Southwest United States, Central America and the Caribbean. Although it has been expanding into new habitat ranges, it is an unusual sight so far north. This is only the bird's third recorded appearance in Alaska; the first was in Skagway in 1981, and again in Wrangell in 2007. "It is rare," Bonnie Demerjian said. "Among birders, it's pretty exciting." Demerjian first spotted...
PETERSBURG – The Southeast Alaska Drift Gillnet and Purse Seine task forces met in Petersburg on Tuesday and Wednesday, respectively, to review the 2014 season and discuss the 2015 season. On Tuesday, Alaska Department of Fish and Game (ADFG) biologists from districts around Southeast presented a review of the 2014 season for various salmon species harvested by gillnetters. Justin Breese, ADFG biologist from Ketchikan, reported District 1, Tree Point, had an above average harvest for cohos and pink salmon and a below average harvest for sockey...
SITKA, Alaska (AP) _ The Alaska Department of Fish and Game announced the preliminary guideline harvest level for the 2015 Sitka Sound sac roe herring fishery is 8,712 tons. That’s just over half of last year’s quota of 16,333 and the lowest expected GHL in more than 10 years. The preliminary harvest level is based on a 19.7 percent harvest rate of a mature biomass forecast of 44,237 tons, said Dave Gordon, area management biologist. The preliminary GHL is quite a bit below the 10-year average of 13,500, and far below the 2014 catch of 16,...
Wrangell's advisory committee to Alaska Department of Fish and Game held the first of several public meetings at the Fire Hall Monday, to discuss Board of Game proposals for the 2014-15 meeting cycle. The committee provides a forum for fishing and wildlife issues, allowing the public to review and discuss new proposals and to provide recommendations to Alaska's boards of Fisheries and Game. A variety of local fishermen, hunters, trappers and subsistence users stopped in to review 38 new policies and changes to management practices being...
A news release from the Alaska Department of Fish and Game (ADFG) released Nov. 13 outlines an estimated 2015 pink salmon harvest of 58 million fish. “ An actual harvest of 58 million pink salmon would be well above the recent 10-year average of 41 million pink salmon and a harvest of that magnitude would be in the top ten harvests since 1960,” according to the release. The release states that the annual forecast was produce in two steps, “ 1) a forecast of the trend in the harvest, and 2) the forecast trend adjusted using 2014 juvenile pink...
In the Sentinel 100, 75, 50 and 25 years ago. November 5, 1914: The Wrangell Fire Department held their regular meeting at the City Hall last Monday evening. The feature of the evening was the thorough discussion of a baseball park for Wrangell. The idea is one that should be thoroughly worked out and it is certainly possible for Wrangell to have good ground and with the rest of Alaska enjoy the national game. Several persons have already come forward with the promise of financial assistance if the fire boys can get the ground. The fire boys...
PETERSBURG – With a crew working six days a week, construction at the Crystal Lake Hatchery facility is moving along on schedule. “We’re basically on schedule, which is a little bit surprising for a construction project,” Bill Gass said with a laugh. Gass is the production manager for Southern Southeast Regional Aquaculture Association (SSRAA), which is contracted to operate the Crystal Lake facility by the Alaska Department of Fish and Game’s Sport Fish Division. The incubation building and generator shed at the facility, along with some 1.2...
Some changes to the federally-administered subsistence fisheries were recommended by the Southeast Alaska Subsistence Regional Advisory Council (RAC) at its three day meeting at Wrangell's Nolan Center last week. Alaska Department of Fish and Game biologist Robert Larson explained the meeting's agenda featured an uncommon mix of proposals from the state boards of Game and Fisheries, since the regulatory cycles of both synchronized with each other this year. “It doesn't happen very often,” he noted. Of particular concern for Wrangell's sub...
The big, predominately green, bear-stymying garbage receptacles ubiquitous to the island may be soon partnered up with a blue variety as Wrangell weighs the benefits and costs of investing in a curbside recycling program. Members on the Borough's Economic Development Committee were abuzz with the idea at their Thursday night meeting following a public presentation for a solid waste recycling management plan submitted by consultants Richard Hertzberg and Chris Bell the previous evening. The bigge...
November 5, 1914: The Wrangell Fire Department held their regular meeting at the City Hall last Monday evening. The feature of the evening was the thorough discussion of a baseball park for Wrangell. The idea is one that should be thoroughly worked out and it is certainly possible for Wrangell to have good ground and with the rest of Alaska enjoy the national game. Several persons have already come forward with the promise of financial assistance if the fire boys can get the ground. The fire boys appointed a committee to look into this and...
Alaska Department of Fish and Game (ADFG) confirmed Tuesday that the 2014 moose harvest was the second-best on record for the Wrangell-Petersburg area. “The harvest of 104 moose this fall ranks as the second highest on record for the local RM038 moose hunt,” ADFG biologist Rich Lowell reported. Of this year's harvest, 36 were killed near the Stikine River, its highest harvest since 1990. Another 35 were taken on Kupreanof Island, which Lowell explained tends to see the largest numbers in the area. Thirteen were also harvested on Mitkof Isl...