Ketchikan's First Baby of 2012
Elizabeth Johnson gave birth to Kyle Izaak Jasinski, Ketchikan's first baby of the year on January 1 at 3:13 PM. He weighed 7 pounds, 3 ounces. Kyle has two brothers, a sister and a half sister. Also in the photo are Mary Ellen Purschwitz RN; Lois Rapisardi, Certified Nurse Midwife; and, Lauralynn Williams RN, manager of New Beginnings Birthing Center.
Front Page Photo Courtesy PeaceHealth Ketchikan Medical Center

Ketchikan: KIC Annual Tribal Election Today - Polls Close at 8:00 PM - Today may be a holiday for some but Ketchikan Indian Community staff and members will be occupied with their annual Tribal Council election.  Voting takes place from 9:00am until 8:00pm at the Plaza Mall.  There are eight candidates for Tribal Council and three nominees for the Advisory Health Board.  

Candidates running for re-election on the Tribal Council are incumbents Donna Frank, Rob Sanderson and Merle Hawkins.  Hawkins was appointed to a vacant seat mid-year 2011.  Other candidates for Tribal Council include Cheryl Haven, James Llanos, Sr., Delores Cook, Delores Churchill and Elroy C. Edenshaw.  Those elected will serve a two year term on the Tribal Council. 

KIC members requested the Advisory Health Board return to popular vote and those candidates running include Martha Johnson, Cecelia Johnson and Delma Inman.  Four seats will be filled including two for a two year term and two for a one year term.   - More...
Monday - January 16, 2012

Southeast Alaska: SCHOLAR DONATES ARCHIVES ON HYDABURG, HAIDA - An anthropologist who studied the City of Hydaburg and the Haida history and culture there has donated his field work and doctoral papers to Sealaska Heritage Institute (SHI).

Dan Vaughan, Ph.D., spent a decade working in Hydaburg on Prince of Wales Island as a cultural anthropologist for the University of Washington from 1974 to 1984. During that time, he also did work on his dissertation, which was a study of the Haida people in Hydaburg reaching back two-hundred years.

The collection has important research value because it documents decisions people in Hydaburg have made over the last century, said SHI’s Archivist and Collections Manager Zachary Jones.

“These are administrative, political, and even cultural decisions,” Jones said. “There’s a great deal of genealogical data as well, which may well serve people interested in learning more about their family history from Hydaburg or just the general history and culture of the people from Hydaburg.” - More...
Monday - January 16, 2012

Alaska: Alaskan youth outline priorities for state’s future; Social well-being, affordable energy among top concerns - A group of 55 motivated young people gathered last week in Juneau for the 2012 Conference of Young Alaskans and issued their highest priorities in five subject areas: Energy and power, natural resources and environment, Ilakuyulluta (living harmoniously with oneself and others) and economic resilience and fiscal policy.

Delegates examined issues and set priorities in working groups and then came together as a whole to deliberate and vote on their top 10 priorities in five categories.

"These are the most important issues to young Alaskans today," said Terin Porter, COYA 2012 steering committee co-chair. "If people hope to understand our youths' approach to dealing with issues facing our state, look no further. This is the freshest and boldest platform for hearing these voices." - More...
Monday - January 16, 2012

Fish Factor: 40 years ago Alaska pioneered the use of sonar to track salmon runs By LAINE WELCH - Most people don’t know that 40 years ago Alaska pioneered the use of sonar to track salmon runs, or that state fishery managers operate 15 sonar sites on 13 rivers from Southeast to the Yukon.

The goal of making Alaskans more aware of one of Alaska’s most important fish counting tools has been accomplished with the launch of new web based project that lets visitors see three types of sonar in action.  

The site explains that traditional tools such as weirs and counting towers can be used to count salmon in clear, narrow streams, but not in wide, turbid rivers.

“To gauge salmon runs we can’t see, we have taken a lesson from one of Mother Nature’s fish finding experts. In glacial silt laden bays and rivers, beluga whales find salmon by emitting high pitched calls and listening for returning echoes. Similarly, we have adopted sonar as a tool to detect salmon not by sight, but by sound,” it explains.

Sometimes conditions are so harsh, the equipment can’t operate properly, such as at the Pilot Station site on the Yukon River. 

“It is a mile wide and you almost have to imagine sand dunes changing in a wind storm on the bottom,” said Debby Burwen, a research biologist with Fish and Game’s sport fish division in Anchorage who helped spearhead the project.  “But that is where they need to count the salmon because they are trying to ensure that enough fish escape to Canada.  In order to do that, they have to know how many fish are coming into the river.”

Burwen said people also don’t realize that managers never depend solely on sonar information, especially on the more complicated rivers, like the Yukon and the Kenai.

 “But the public doesn’t know that. So when we do have a problem, say on the Yukon, they look askance at all sonar,” she said. “They think that once again the sonar is broken, and Fish and Game doesn’t know what it is doing.”

“We write these wonderful reports and we communicate with other scientists, but if your user groups don’t know what you’re doing, what good is it.” - More...
Monday - January 16, 2012

Viewpoints
Commentary
Opinions/Letters
Basic Rules &
Freedom of Speech