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Southeast Alaska: Two rescued from downed aircraft near Ketchikan - Friday morning at approximately 8:26 am, Ketchikan Flight Services of the Federal Aviation Administration, notified the Alaska State Troopers of an aircraft that was reported to be making an emergency landing and then lost radio contact.

Investigation by the Troopers revealed that the aircraft, a wheeled Beech G18S, twin engine, was traveling from Klawock to Ketchikan during a winter weather advisory. It was piloted by Steven Hewitt, age 68 of Seattle, Washington with passenger, Grant Hasting, age 23 of Auburn, Washington.

The aircraft missed the Ketchikan runaway due to weather and was circling back when it lost power to an engine. A short time later, Hewitt broadcast that he was going to attempt to make a beach landing at an unknown location and no further radio contact was made.

The Alaska Wildlife Troopers, United States Coast Guard, Ketchikan Volunteer Rescue Squad, Metlakatla Police Department, and Annette Island Search and Rescue were all notified and began searching. Tribal and local partners joined in the search.

Further investigation revealed that after they lost an engine, they lost altitude and the aircraft went into the water near Smugglers Cove, located south of Metlakatla just off Annette Island and sank. The Metlakatla Police and Fire Rescue boat crews were first to arrive on scene. At 9:45 am Friday, both Hewitt and Hasting swam approximately 200 yards to shore where they were found by Annette Island Search and Rescue and transported to the Metlakatla Clinic. and transported the two survivors to Metlakatla Clinic for medical care. - More...
Friday PM - March 03, 2017

Southeast Alaska: Coast Guard rescues 5 from tug aground near Sumner Strait, Alaska - The Ocean Eagle tug that ran aground in March 2016 off northeastern Vancouver Island, again ran aground Wednesday on the Mariposa Reef on the south side of Strait Island in Sumner Strait in Southeast Alaska.

According to a news release, Coast Guard Air Station Sitka MH-60T Jayhawk crew rescued and hoisted the tug's five people from the barge that was attached to the 102-foot tug Ocean Eagle and transported them to Sitka after the tug began taking on water Wednesday night.

"The aircrew faced harsh weather conditions early Thursday morning when they saved five crew members off the barge," said Cmdr. Gina Freeman, search and rescue mission coordinator for Sector Juneau. "Fortunately, there was no loss of life. [Thursday], Coast Guard Sector Juneau and Alaska Department of Environmental Conservation continued to work with the tug's owner to remove the tug and barge and minimize any pollution to the environment."

Watchstanders at Coast Guard Sector Juneau received a report at 7:15 p.m., Wednesday, from the crew of the Ocean Eagle that the tug and barge ran aground on Mariposa Reef and began taking on water in the engine room.

The crew of the Ocean Eagle reported the tug carrying a total of 58,000 gallons of diesel fuel divided among several tanks. The barge carried a mixed dry cargo and 52,000 gallons of diesel. Any discharge of product is unknown, and Sector Juneau is in consultation with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration for oil trajectory calculations.

The Ocean Eagle and barge refloated and drifted to Alvin Cove at approximately 3 a.m. Thursday. The crew of the Coast Guard Cutter Liberty arrived on scene to the Ocean Eagle at approximately 7:30 a.m. with pollution response equipment. The crew of the Coast Guard Cutter Maple arrived shortly thereafter. Both Coast Guard cutters remain on scene assessing the situation, looking for signs of pollution and verifying nearby aids to navigation. - More...
Friday PM - March 03, 2017

Ketchikan: Federal subsistence fishery for eulachon closed in Federal waters within District 1 - Ketchikan-Misty Fiords District Ranger Jeff DeFreest, under authority delegated by the Federal Subsistence Board, is closing the Federal public waters that flow into District 1 to the taking of eulachon from 12:01 a.m., Monday, March 6, 2017 until May 4, 2017, 11:59 p.m. due to anticipated low eulachon returns. Any eulachon caught in this area must be immediately returned into the water unharmed. The Alaska Department of Fish and Game (ADF&G) closed the State managed eulachon fisheries in District 1 on February 24.

Few eulachon have returned to the Burroughs Bay area since 2005. Similar closures have been issued by the USDA Forest Service for eulachon within the Burroughs Bay area from 2005 through 2016. - More...
Friday PM - March 03, 207

Fish Factor: Alaska red king crab, snow crab fetch record prices; Crab updates from Southeast AK to Bering Sea By LAINE WELCH - Alaska crabbers are hauling back pots from the Panhandle to the Bering Sea, and reduced catches are resulting in record prices for their efforts.

Golden King Crab; Lithodes aequispinus
Photo courtesy Alaska Fisheries Science Center www.afsc.noaa.gov

The year’s first red king crab fishery at Norton Sound has yielded 17,000 pounds so far of its nearly 40,000 pound winter quota for more than 50 local fishermen. The crab, which are taken through the ice near Nome, are paying out at a record $7.75 a pound. A summer opener will produce a combined catch of nearly half a million pounds for the region.

Red king crab from Bristol Bay also yielded the highest price ever for fishermen, averaging $10.89 per pound. That catch quota of eight million pounds was down 15 percent from the previous season.

The Bering Sea snow crab fleet has taken 80 percent of its 19 million pound quota, down by nearly half from last year. That’s pushed market prices through the roof, topping $8.30 a pound at wholesale in both the US and Japan, compared to over $5.50 per pound a year ago.

Alaska produces only about 10 percent of the world’s snow crab, with most of the pack by far coming from Eastern Canada, followed by Russia. On the snow crab menu front - McDonald's has begun testing a new snow crab sandwich in several San Francisco Bay locations. If it’s a hit, the sandwich could advance to nearly 250 outlets this year.

Since mid-February, about 100 small boat crabbers in Southeast Alaska have been hauling pots for 105,000 pounds of golden king crab, which can reach as high as $10 a pound at the docks. A local Tanner crab fishery just wrapped up, with a catch that will likely come in at around one million pounds. - More...
Friday PM - March 03, 2017

Alaska: Age Migration Data Show More Young Adults Moving In, More 35+ Leaving - The state’s first-ever release of migration data by age and sex shows that from 2010 to 2015, Alaska had a net gain of adults in their 20s each year and a net loss of teens and older adults.

People in their 20s, who made up about 15 percent of the state’s population over that period, represented 27 percent of those who came to Alaska and 24 percent of those who left. This age group is the most mobile, both in Alaska and nationwide.

Alaska consistently loses more 15-to-19-year-olds than it gains, usually through high school graduates leaving for college.

The state also lost more people 35 and older than it gained between 2010 and 2015. The difference between in-migration and out-migration was largest among people in their 60s, with an average of nearly twice the number leaving as arriving each year. - More...
Friday PM - March 03, 2017

Alaska Science: Far-north lake trout living in mystery By NED ROZELL - In early March up on the frozen Arctic Coastal Plain, as the wind sculpts snow into drifts, it’s hard to tell northern lakes from surrounding tundra. But lurking deep beneath that flat white world are toothy predators as long as your arm.

In pools 60 feet down, lake trout are somehow passing the long winter. A graduate student has sharpened the focus on a familiar species that lives as far south as Colorado but seems so mysterious at the top of its range.

Eric Torvinen spent an entire summer and part of another pursuing lake trout on Alaska’s treeless North Slope. The lack of trees, in fact, was part of the reason he wanted to study the fish for his master’s degree.

He gathered ear bones from lake trout that show growth rings. His goal was to see if he could use otoliths from the long-lived fish to show past climate trends. Thick yearly rings might indicate warmer summers with more food.

In an inflatable kayak, Torvinen floated in 2015 down Fish Creek, a Rhode Island-size watershed pocked with 4,000 lakes. He and his field partner would stop at water-filled depressions between ancient sand dunes. There, they fished for trout with a rod and reel, sometimes nets. After the float, to reach a few nearby lakes deep enough for lake trout, they contracted a helicopter pilot. - More...
Friday PM - March 03, 2017

COLUMNS - COMMENTARY

JEFF LUND: Tis the season to tie - I finally got the yarn out yesterday.

It felt good. Really good. I’ve needed to restock the fly-fishing box for months but just haven’t. I’ve had basketball practices and games and travel and work and everything else, but those are just excuses. My fly-tying vice is all set up and everything is on the fly-tying desk, but the problem is the fly-tying desk is in a different room. Out of sight, out of mind, right? It really can’t be for much longer because fishing season is almost here and when it starts it doesn’t stop until basketball starts again.

I have some left overs from last summer’s trips steelhead and salmon fishing, then some cool little bugs from the random August trip to California but my stocks are depleted.

I needed to get busy. My flies are never particularly pretty. My buddy Kurt is meticulous and makes beautiful flies. Super model flies. My flies are awkward and clumsy. They look like they’ve already been mouthed by a dozen or so trout. I usually stay within my boundaries and let Kurt tie the more complex nymphs and dries and have him tie a few extra for me. - More...
Friday PM - March 03, 2017

DAVE KIFFER: Well, well, well - It's that time of the year when no news is pretty much no news.

Especially up here in No Where, where we are all just sitting around and waiting for the weather to decide what it is gonna do. Is it going to snow? Is it going to freeze? Is the sun going to hang just over the horizon and blind us as we drive through town? Is it going to rain?

That last question was rhetorical.

Of course, it is going to rain. It is always going to rain.

It is going to rain in Our Fair Salmon City, even when it is simultaneously snowing, freezing and sun-blinding us. Guaranteed.

Fortunately, news does occasionally happen in these (sled)dog days of February.

For example, the annual Gallup-Healthways Well Being Index has been released and, guess what? We're pretty danged pleased with ourselves up here in Alaska. - More...
Friday PM - March 03, 2017