Ward Lake: Yellow Warbler
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Alaska: Alaska's High School Graduates ; An early look at where they go and what they do - What happens to the thousands of Alaska high school students after they leave school — whether as graduates or otherwise — is not just an educational question. It’s also an economic issue for the state, given that much of Alaska’s workforce will come from that pool of potential workers. - June's Alaska Economic Trends Magazine Ketchikan Ketchikan's 2012 Cruise Ship Calendar (pdf) Today's Forecast Weather Extremes Ketchikan Weather Data Search the News Ketchikan Alaska Sitnews

Fish Factor: Study tracks otter activity in Southeast By LAINE WELCH - Sea otters are expanding throughout Southeast Alaska and dining on crab, sea cucumbers, geoduck clams and more as they go.

An ongoing study aims to track the otters, what they’re eating and where they are going – and researchers hope to get ‘grounds truth’ from Southeast residents.

For the past two years, Sea Grant marine advisory agents have spearheaded a project to learn more about the region’s sea otter diets and behaviors.   The US Fish & Wildlife Service has provided aerial surveys and otter tagging to track their movements around Kupreonof Island, and ADF&G helps with logistics and data.    

 “This is just for Southern Southeast Alaska,” said Sea Grant’s Sunny Rice in Petersburg. “It includes Kupreanof Island, Prince of Wales Island, Kuiu Island and inside in the Ketchikan, Petersburg, Wrangell areas.  We’ve sort of drawn a line at Frederick Sound, although we will be interested in how they’ve moved up the north shore.”   

Aerial surveys have provided snapshots of otter activity but Rice wants to hear about otter sightings from longtime residents.  

“We want to learn when they first saw otters entering the areas they use on a regular basis, when they started seeing bigger groups if they did, and if they noticed what those otters were eating,” Rice explained, adding that it’s most important to hear from people with a long term perspective.

“People who frequent those areas continually year after year, so commercial fishermen will be great sources as well as recreational or subsistence users who to the same place time after time and have witnessed   an influx of sea otters,” she said.

The resident surveys will be combined with other research to make some otter predictions.    

“Hopefully, we can use that information and add it to what we know and come up with a good model on how the sea otter population has expanded, with the long term goal of being able to predict how it will continue to grow so people can make decisions based on more information,” Rice said.

Sea otters were reintroduced to the southern regions in the late 1960s.  Best estimates peg the population at about 19,000 animals in 2011.  The animals are able to reproduce at any time of the year, and have a population doubling time of about 5 years. The otters are predators of almost every species that fishermen target; they have completely wiped out  urchins and sea cucumbers in several areas, and are making inroads into some prime geoduck areas, according to Phil Doherty , director of the  Southeast Alaska Regional Dive Fishery Association. Out of 15 Dungeness crab districts, six have large otter populations and Dungie pots have lost nearly 3 million pounds to otters in a decade, based on ADF&G estimates. A report last year by the Juneau-based McDowell Group said otter predation has cost Southeast’s economy over $28 million since 1995. - More...
Friday - June 08, 2012

Ketchikan: "Ocean Zip" Offers New Zipline Adventure - A new Ketchikan zipline adventure stretching under the canopy of the rainforest and then soaring out over the ocean is thought to be one of a kind for Alaska.

The new "Ocean Zip' launched this season by Southeast Exposure's Rainforest Ropes and Zip Park, stretches over the rainforest forest 380 feet onto a platform supported 50 feet above Knudson Cove. Southeast Exposure believes that their new "Ocean Zip" is one of a kind for Alaska. - More...
Thursday - June 07, 2012

Ketchikan: KIC donates surplus computers to North Tongass Fire Department - Ketchikan Indian Community donated six surplus computers to the North Tongass Volunteer Fire Department.  Accepting the donation on behalf of the fire department was Fire Chief Dave Hull.  Rod Short, IT Director at KIC, said, “We are pleased to have these computers repurposed for use with the fire department training system.”

In a thank you letter to Ketchikan Indian Community, Hull stated these computers would also be used for a variety of training including Incident Command to subject in EMS.  An added benefit to the fire department is allowing volunteers to take online training in a manner that fits their schedule instead of the departments. - More....
Thursday - June 07, 2012

Alaska: Salmon Lake Land Exchange Legislation Headed to President’s Desk for Signing - U.S. Senator Lisa Murkowski, R-Alaska, and Rep. Don Young, R-Alaska, today praised the passage by the full Congress of the Salmon Lake Land Selection Resolution Act, finalizing a settlement between the state of Alaska, the federal Bureau of Land Management and the Bering Straits Native Corp., and fulfilling a promise made in the 1971 Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act (ANCSA).

“It took more than 40 years, but today I’m happy to see that the Bering Straits land conveyance is headed to the president’s desk for signing. The agreement passed by Congress resolves a long-standing conflict over land selections on the Seward Peninsula and finally gives the shareholders of the Bering Sea Native Corp. their full land endowment,” Murkowski said. - More ...
Thursday - June 07, 2012

Science: Unprecedented Blooms of Ocean Plant Life Discovered in Arctic Ocean - Scientists have made a biological discovery in Arctic Ocean waters as dramatic and unexpected as finding a rainforest in the middle of a desert. A NASA-sponsored expedition punched through three-foot thick sea ice to find waters richer in microscopic marine plants, essential to all sea life, than any other ocean region on Earth.

The finding reveals a new consequence of the Arctic's warming climate and provides an important clue to understanding the impacts of a changing climate and environment on the Arctic Ocean and its ecology. The discovery was made during a NASA oceanographic expedition in the summers of 2010 and 2011. - More...
Thursday - June 07, 2012

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