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Fish Factor: Outside & foreign resource giants spending big to topple Alaska salmon protections By LAINE WELCH -  Resource developers are pulling out all stops to block the push to strengthen Alaska’s salmon habitat protection law for the first time since statehood in 1959.

Since early January the group Stand for Alaska has raised over $2 million to stop a ballot initiative that could go to voters this fall. That is 10 times more than the grassroots group Yes for Salmon has raised in support of modernizing permitting and habitat protection measures.  

Filings with the Alaska Public Offices Commission show that financial backing for both groups comes primarily from outside the state.

Mining operations from Canada that put in $200,000 each include Kinross Fort Knox and the Pebble Mine. Japanese owned Pogo Mine, Illinois-based Coeur Alaska and Hecla Mining of Idaho also contributed $200,000 as well as Donlin Gold and Doyon, Limited.  

ConocoPhillips has donated $250,000 and BP has contributed $500,000 to Stand for Alaska. 

Those companies, along with Canada’s Teck Mining and Tower Hill Mines, the Resource Development Council, Alaska Miners Association and the Alaska Oil and Gas Association also have contributed in-kind donations to cover staff time, office expenses, travel, etc. 

To convince voters that the ballot measure is a bad idea, Stand for Alaska so far has paid $132,000 to Anchorage-based Bright Strategy and Communications; $36,000 to Public Opinion Strategies of Alexandria, Virginia; $20,000 to Blueprint Alaska and $10,000 to Dittman Research, both of Anchorage. 

Total expenditures by Stand for Alaska also include nearly $612,000, of which more than 40 percent has gone to DCI Group of Washington, DC as a subcontractor. 

DCI Group is widely cited as a “top Republican and lobbying group” that creates campaigns by masking corporate sponsors to make it appear that it is a grassroots effort, a practice known as ‘astro-turfing.” Most notably, the DCI Group has done campaigns for the tobacco industry and for Exxon’s climate change denial efforts.

The APOC filings show that most of the money donated to Yes for Salmon’s campaign also comes from outside Alaska. 

Through April 7, the group has collected about $205,000 in contributions. Of that, $100,000 comes from John Childs of Florida who also is a board member of the Wild Salmon Center based in Portland, Oregon.

The New Venture Fund Salmon State, backed by the Hewlett Foundation of Washington, DC, has contributed $37,246 of in-kind contributions. 

The Alaska Center has donated $14,000 for in-kind services, along with Trout Unlimited, the Sitka Conservation Society and Cook Inletkeeper. Other monetary contributions are in the $75 - $250 range by nine individual Alaskans.   

Total expenditures by Yes for Salmon totaled $124,388, none of which has been spent on media campaigns.

The salmon protection push must still prove it is constitutional before it goes to the voters. The Alaska Supreme Court will hear arguments on April 26.  - More...
Sunday PM - April 22, 2018

Ketchikan: Stellar Sea Lion shooting death under investigation in Ketchikan; Two Alaska Men Charged with Harassing, Killing 15 Steller Sea Lions - NOAA's Office of Law Enforcement is seeking information about a Steller sea lion that was shot near Ketchikan or Metlakatla, Alaska. The sea lion was found deceased on April 13, 2018. The initial findings reported by NOAA indicated that the Steller sea lion was shot a least last two weeks before it was discovered.

NOAA's Office of Law Enforcement is currently investigating whether this was an unlawful take. Call the Ketchikan-based NOAA Office of Law Enforcement at 907-247-5804 to report any information about the incident. If the animal was taken illegally, a reward may be issued for information leading to a conviction.

In the death of other sea lions in Alaska, U.S. Attorney Bryan Schroder announced last Thursday that two Alaska men have been charged in relation to 15 Steller sea lions found dead during the opening of the 2015 Copper River salmon season.  The two men have been charged with harassing and killing Steller sea lions with shotguns and then making false statements and obstructing the government’s investigation into their criminal activities.  The Steller sea lion is protected by the Marine Mammal Protection Act and is listed as an endangered species for the geographic area where the shooting occurred.

Jon Nichols, 31, of Cordova, who was captain of the Fishing Vessel (F/V) Iron Hide, and Theodore “Teddy” Turgeon, 21, of Wasilla, who was a deckhand on the F/V Iron Hide at the time of the offenses, were both named in the indictment.  The charges include conspiracy, violations of the Marine Mammal Protection Act and Endangered Species Act, obstruction of a Marine Mammal Protection Act investigation, false statements, and obstruction.

According to the indictment of NIchols and Turgeion, during the first few weeks of the salmon gillnet season that opened on May 14, 2015, fifteen Steller sea lions were discovered dead along the sand bars at the mouth of Copper River fishing district.  It is alleged that on various occasions between May and June 2015, Nichols, as the captain of the F/V Iron Hide, regularly directed his crew, which included Turgeon, to get a shotgun kept aboard the vessel, and shoot at Steller sea lions while fishing in the Copper River fishing district.  At times, Nichols would shoot the Steller sea lions himself.  Nichols would also sometimes drive the F/V Iron Hide in the direction of the Steller sea lions to allow Turgeon to get a better shot at the sea lions.  - More....
Sunday PM - April 22, 2018

Ketchikan: Ketchikan Artists Search Underway - Artists seeking to make a sustainable and livable income may wish to attend a 10 a.m. meeting Monday, the 23rd at The Point. Cheri and Terry Pyles are hosting the meeting for local artists to meet and hear about the 40 North Artists proposal to market select local artists throughout the United States. 

40 North Artists, a company owned by Patricia Burkman of Ketchikan, will launch January 2019. According to Burkman there is no costs associate with being included in the marketing campaign, but not everyone will be selected saying, “We are looking for only forty artists of diverse backgrounds, styles, and forms, those artists will be allowed between one and five pieces to be premiered in a print catalog and up to 20 pieces in an online catalog”.  - More...
Sunday PM - April 22, 2018

Alaska: Kelp mariculture in Alaska By SUE KELLER - Seaweeds and shellfish present a significant and sustainable economic opportunity for coastal Alaska communities, and now is the time for business leaders and policymakers to take the necessary steps for the industry to reach its full potential, according to researchers and industry backers.

That message was supported this month by presentations at Ocean Tuesday, a weekly forum for promoting Alaska’s maritime economy. Presenting were Alaska Sea Grant–funded graduate student Annie Thomson and Tamsen Peeples of Blue Evolution, a California-based company. They talked about their work on kelp mariculture in Alaska. Alaska Sea Grant and Blue Evolution are collaborating on a federal grant to address biological traits that limit seaweed farming development in Alaska.

Blue Evolution is the first company to culture and process kelp in Alaska, focused on ribbon kelp and sugar kelp. In 2017 Blue Evolution harvested 10,000 pounds of wet kelp grown by two independent farmers on Near Island and Larsen Bay.

Mike Stekoll, University of Alaska Southeast professor of chemistry and biochemistry, began studying seaweed cultivation with Peeples in 2015 with funding from Blue Evolution. In 2016 Peeples built a commercial kelp hatchery at UAS, placing Plexiglas tanks on shelves with string-wrapped PVC pipes inside the tanks. Growing on the string are young kelp plants called sporophytes.

In the fall season Peeples collects kelp with fertile fronds and brings them to the lab. In sterilized seawater the spores are released to the string-wrapped pipes, where the plants develop through the life cycle to the sporophyte stage. After incubation they are outplanted to the coastal farms in the fall, where they grow to a harvestable size of 9-12 feet by April or later.

Worldwide there is a big demand for seaweed for food, health and beauty products, animal feed and biofuels. Blue Evolution sells a line of pasta products with seaweed and provides seaweed to other companies.

“There are many great reasons for pursuing seaweed culture in Alaska,” said Peeples. “There is a huge space for it, Alaska has diverse species of seaweed and a fleet of vessels is available for harvest and transport.” - More...
Sunday PM - April 22, 2018

Alaska: Mexican National Sentenced to 11 Years in Federal Prison for Drug Trafficking Charges Including Southeast Alaska – U.S. Attorney Bryan Schroder announced Friday that Jorge Cardenas, a/k/a George Castineda, 42, a Mexican national residing in Girdwood, was sentenced Thursday by U.S. District Judge Sharon L. Gleason, to serve 11 years in prison, followed by a five-year term of supervised release.  Cardenas previously pleaded guilty on July 21, 2017, to conspiracy to possess and distribute methamphetamine.

According to the court documents, for at least five years prior to his arrest in March 2017, Cardenas trafficked large amounts of methamphetamine and other illegal controlled substances  throughout Southcentral Alaska, including Anchorage, and Southeast Alaska, including Juneau. 

A total of approximately 730 grams of methamphetamine was seized from his truck in Juneau and from his residence in Girdwood.  The investigation further revealed that Cardenas was making and planning to distribute “gunpowder heroin,” which is heroin laced with fentanyl, and spoke candidly about the likelihood of it causing overdose deaths.  In his residence, Cardenas had a shrine dedicated to worshipping Jesus Malverde – the “Patron Saint of Drug Dealers.” - More...
Sunday PM - April 22, 2018  

JOE GUZZARDI: On Earth Day, Congress Whistling Past the Graveyard - Last month, the United Nations hosted a Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) conference in Bonn, Germany. Despite hopes that limiting population growth would be the UN's centerpiece topic, concerned attendees came away disappointed, with the impression that political correctness ruled the day, and that feel-gooders rather than do-gooders dominated the agenda.

The conference offered not a single population or biodiversity session, even though non-human life plays a crucial role in maintaining planetary health. Instead, the conference focused on "leaving no one behind" despite ecological limits and realities. International migration, which is gripping Europe and the United States, was conveyed as a necessity and an unmitigated good. When a realist in the audience asked how it would be possible that some would not inevitably be left behind when the planet adds 80 million people annually to its existing 7.6 billion, the moderator dismissed his question as too negative.

One overall UN theme was contradictory: "think globally, but act locally." The U.S., while it may or may not be prepared to think globally, has an immigration policy that ruins any chance at positive local action toward sustainability.

The Census Bureau provides an instructive mathematical breakdown on population growth's components. The current U.S. population is 327 million; one birth occurs every eight seconds, and one net international migrant arrives every 28 seconds, but deaths offset the increases by only one every 11 seconds. The result is that each day the U.S population has a net gain of one person every 14 seconds.

The Pew Research Center projected that by mid-decade the population will increase to more than 441 million, driven by immigration. The same researchers concluded that if immigration were cut in half, population would grow by 70 million; if eliminated, 31 million.

U.S. growth is the direct consequence of Congress' unwillingness to consider immigration's long-term effects on the nation's population, a failure that's repeated itself for 53 years. Republicans and Democrats are equally culpable.

During the Senate hearing about the effect the 1965 Immigration Act might have on population, New York Sen. Robert Kennedy, responding to North Carolina Sen. Sam Ervin's questions, acknowledged that the legislation would eventually double U.S. population, and that mass immigration to America couldn't and wouldn't solve global overpopulation. Senators Ervin and Kennedy were right in their analysis, but wrong in their votes to pass the legislation. Both sides of the aisle overwhelmingly voted for the 1965 Immigration Act. - More...
Sunday PM - April 22, 2018