Ketchikan: Fisheries Economists Meet in Ketchikan - Members of the North American Association of Fisheries Economists recently gathered in record high numbers for the 8th biennial conference in Ketchikan. The main conference theme was "Economic Sustainability, Fishing Communities, and Working Waterfronts".

The 2015 North American Association of Fisheries Economists' 8th biennial conference was held at the Lumberjack Arena in Ketchikan.
Photo courtesy Alaska Sea Grant Program

Coordinators Quentin Fong (Alaska Sea Grant Marine Advisory seafood marketing specialist), Keith Criddle (UAF Ted Stevens Distinguished Professor of Marine Policy), and others welcomed 142 fisheries economists to Southeast Alaska for what was described as great weather and excellent talks.

The opening reception took place aboard an Allen Marine vessel that cruised between Ketchikan and Metlakatla. Attendees also had the opportunity to tour Trident Seafoods and the Southern Southeast Regional Aquaculture Association Whitman Lake Hatchery, the OceansAlaska Shellfish Hatchery, and a Walk-the-Dock look at Ketchikan-based fishing vessels.

Keynote speaker Lee Anderson helped streamline the last minute room switch from the University of Alaska Southeast to the Lumberjack Arena, where Anderson gave recommendations for operationalizing ecosystem-based management in U.S. fisheries.

“Many participants said the program was well balanced, and there was something for everybody,” said Fong. Alaska Sea Grant staff hosted the website for the NAAFE symposium, and Ketchikan Marine Advisory agent Gary Freitag and University of Alaska Southeast Ketchikan staff assisted with on-site logistics.

The “Best Student Paper” prize given in conjunction with the NAAFE Forum was presented to Yutaro Sakai. The purpose of this award is to recognize the most outstanding paper presented by a graduate student at the biennial Forum. Papers may be on any aspect of the economics of fisheries or aquaculture, fisheries resource management, seafood trade and markets, fisheries or aquaculture sector development, or related topics. The 2015 contest was sponsored by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA). - More...
Monday PM - June 22, 2015

Southeast Alaska: Kake Reopens its Public Library, Closed for 16 Years - In 1999 the town of Kake, with a population over 500, shut its public library’s doors. Though the space still served as the high school’s library, lack of a dedicated librarian to oversee the collection reduced the library to little more than a warehouse for books. Over the next sixteen years the library fell further and further into disarray.

Recently, community members partnered with the Alaska State Library’s VISTA project “Libraries Build Communities” . In February, VISTA Volunteer Lindsey Bennet arrived in Kake and began coordinating the renovation of the abandoned library. She assisted with recruiting volunteers and facilitating library board meetings. She worked with the library board to develop library policies and wrote a public library assistance grant. - More...
Monday PM - June 22, 2015

Northwest: Kennewick Man closely related to Native Americans, geneticists say - An 8,500-year-old male skeleton discovered in 1996 in Columbia River in Washington State has been the focus of a bitter dispute between Native Americans and American scientists, and even within the American scientific community. Craniometric analysis showed that Kennewick Man, as the skeleton was named, resembled populations in Japan, Polynesia or even Europe, suggesting he was not ancestral to Native Americans, a finding that helped block Native Americans' request for a repatriation of the skeleton.

The Burke Museum of Natural History and Culture in Seattle is the court-appointed neutral repository for the remains of Kennewick Man, also known as The Ancient One. The Burke Museum doesn't display the remains, but has been caring for Kennewick Man since 1998.
Courtesy of Richard Brown Photography

A new study based on his genome sequence shows that Kennewick Man is in fact more closely related to modern Native Americans, than to any other population worldwide and, further, that the earlier craniometrics analyses cannot be supported. The study was led by the Centre for GeoGenetics at the University of Copenhagen and is published in Nature.

When Kennewick Man was discovered in 1996 initial cranial analysis suggested that he was a historic-period Euro-American. Later radiocarbon dating of the bones revealed an age of ca. 8,000-9,000 years BP making him pre-Columbian in age. This sparked a legal battle over the disposition of the skeletal remains. Tribes inhabiting the region where Kennewick Man was found requested the remains to be turned over to them for reburial based on him being Native American and ancestor to them. The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, which managed the land where the skeleton was found, was prepared to do so. However, this was blocked by a lawsuit by eight scientists questioning his Native American origins and generated a scientific stir as to Kennewick Man's ancestry and affiliation. The lawsuit lacerated the anthropological community, badly damaged relations with Native American groups, and triggered a divisive, long-running and expensive legal tug of war that ended in 2004 with a ruling in favour of a more detailed study, a study that was published in 2014. - More...
Monday PM - June 22, 2015

Alaska: Fairbanks Priest Sentenced To 10 Years In Prison For Child Sex Crimes - Clint Michael Landry, 58, of Fairbanks, Alaska, was sentenced by Chief United States District Court Judge Ralph R. Beistline to 10 years in prison to be followed by a lifetime period of supervised release for Attempted Enticement of a Minor. At the time of the offense, the Landry was employed as a priest with the Catholic Diocese in Fairbanks, Alaska. He had been in that position since June 2011.

According to the filed plea agreement and sentencing memoranda in the case, in May 2014, the defendant was caught using a work computer to receive images of child pornography through his Yahoo email account. A search of the computer found multiple sexually-explicit Instant Messages (IM) between the defendant and others believed to be located in the Philippines. In many of these IMs, the defendant is negotiating with a Filipino coconspirator about viewing sexually explicit conduct involving minors through webcams and Skype communications.

Between June 2013, and May 2014, the defendant engaged in negotiations with individuals in the Philippines for the purpose of viewing online sex shows. The defendant communicated with at least eight different Yahoo accounts for the purpose of viewing live videos through Skype or other streaming services of minors engaged in sexually explicit conduct. In at least three of these communications, the defendant sought access to sex shows involving children younger than 11 years old. - More...
Monday PM - JUne 22, 2015