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Ketchikan: FISH TO BE ON THE NEW HORIZONS MENU - It’s an almost sure bet that if you live in Ketchikan, you love to eat fish. It’s a good healthy protein, it’s delicious, and it’s available locally. After all, in 2015 Ketchikan was ranked as the #15 fishing port in the U.S. by weight, landing over 84 million pounds of fish that year.

But, even with all those fish, seafood isn’t so easy to come by for the residents of New Horizon’s Long Term Care Unit.

Necessary health regulations prevent PeaceHealth Ketchikan Medical Center from directly accepting donated fish but Ketchikan Medical Center Dietitian, Ashley Hackert RD and community partners found a way.

According to information provided by Ketchikan Medial Center, the Cedars Lodge have happily agreed to be their partner to process local fish donations. Russell Cockrum, of the Viking Maid, is on our Community Health Board and he has also agreed to join this partnership to donate fish to New Horizons residents. - More...
Saturday AM - July 15, 2017

Fish Factor: Early salmon price indicators are good By LAINE WELCH - As predicted, Alaska fishermen are getting higher prices for their salmon this year. 

It’s good news following a 2016 season that saw lackluster catches in all regions but Bristol Bay, a failure of pink salmon runs, and paltry pay checks nearly across the board. 

Prices paid to Alaska salmon fishermen depend on the region, the species, the type of fishing gear and, most importantly, global market conditions. Salmon prices also reflect bonuses for iced fish, dock deliveries and other agreements between a buyer and seller.

As a fishing season unfolds, details can be sketchy as buyers watch the strength of the salmon runs. Until the fish are actually sold at the wholesale level, prices are in flux, and it’s tough to determine what a final outcome will be. 

It all adds up to a lot of uncertainty, making it tough for sellers and buyers to pencil in a bottom line.  That said, a canvassing of fishermen, processors and managers show that early indicators are good.  

Bristol Bay started the optimism when Copper River Seafoods in late June posted a price of $1.35 a pound for top quality sockeyes. Bay reds averaged $.93 last summer. No word yet from other buyers as the sockeye run blows past the 27 million forecast with no end in sight. 

At Kodiak, sockeye prices were posted at $1.40 for bled and chilled fish, compared to a 96 cents average last year.  

Chums, which are arriving in record numbers at parts of the island, were posted at $.40 cents a pound for bled and chilled fish, up from $.29 cents on average at Kodiak last year.

For early Kodiak pinks, a price of $.35 cents was on the board for bled/chilled fish, a $.20 cent increase from 2016.

 Icicle Seafoods at Kodiak’s Larsen Bay has chums posted at $.55 cents a pound for bled/chilled fish and $1.40 for sockeyes.  

Troll caught kings from Southeast’s four-day July fishery fetched nearly $7 a pound according to fish tickets, up $2 from last summer’s average. Trollers now have switched to coho salmon and are averaging $1.40 a pound.

Other Southeast fishermen also are seeing some record chum catches which are fetching $.80 cents a pound chums compared to just $.25 cents on average last year.  Gillnetters so far have caught nearly five times as many chum salmon this year compared to last year.

Similar chum prices were reported from Prince William Sound, up from $.32 cents. 

It’s the demand for roe that’s driving the interest in chums, most of which goes to Japan.  Steady declines of Japan’s local fishery over a decade, which normally accounts for 70 percent of total chum roe supply, have sent prices soaring 30 to 40 percent over the past year. 

The news site Seafood.com reports that salted chum roe is selling at Tokyo’s Tsukiji Market for $30 to $35 a pound, the highest prices in 30 years.  - More...
Saturday AM - July 15, 2017

Alaska: Slow earthquakes occur continuously in the Alaska-Aleutian subduction zone - Seismologists at the University of California, Riverside studying earthquakes in the seismically and volcanically active Alaska-Aleutian subduction zone have found that "slow earthquakes" are occurring continuously, and could encourage damaging earthquakes.

Slow earthquakes are quiet, can be as large as magnitude 7, and last days to years. Taking place mainly at the boundary between tectonic plates, they happen so slowly that people don't feel them. A large slow earthquake is typically associated with abundant seismic tremor -- a continuous weak seismic chatter -- and low frequency (small and repeating) earthquakes.

"In the Alaska-Aleutian subduction zone, we found seismic tremor, and visually identified three low frequency earthquakes," said Abhijit Ghosh, an assistant professor of Earth sciences, who led the research published recently in Geophysical Research Letters. "Using them as templates, we detected nearly 1,300 additional low frequency earthquakes. Slow earthquakes may play an important role in the earthquake cycles in this subduction zone."

The Alaska-Aleutian subduction zone, which stretches from the Gulf of Alaska to the Kamchatka Peninsula in the Russian Far East, is one of the most active plate boundaries in the world. It is 3800 km long and forms the plate boundary between the Pacific and North American plates. In the last 80 years, four massive earthquakes (greater than magnitude 8) have occurred here.

Ghosh explained that tectonic tremor -- which causes a weak vibration of the ground--and low frequency earthquakes are poorly studied in the Alaska-Aleutian subduction zone due to limited data availability, difficult logistics, and rugged terrain. - More....
Saturday AM - July 15, 2017

MICHAEL SHANNON: 'Gde myaso?' Russian for Where's the Beef? - Political campaigns are full of liars and fabulists. From the candidate who promises to repeal Obamacare root--and-branch, to the volunteer who lies about how many doors he knocked, campaigns attract people who are, as Mark Twain observed, "Economical with the truth."

I know because I spent almost 40 years working in elections all over the U.S. and in a handful of islands.

Think of all the disfunction and outrage you've ever endured in any organization where you've worked. Then condense the burned microwave popcorn in the break room, the idea-stealing colleague, the boss who doesn't give the promised raise, the boasting braggart and the job description that changes monthly into a timeframe of only a few months. 

That's a political campaign.

The people outside the campaign who want to "help" are often no better. The relative that meddles, the donor with advice on campaign commercials and the family friend who has negative information that's going to "blow the opponent out of the water." - More...
Saturday AM - July 15, 2017

JOHN L. MICEK: Things are Very, Very Bad for Donald Trump - President Donald Trump took to Twitter on Tuesday to call his son, Don Jr., now surely the Fredo Trumpleone of America's ruling clan, a "great person who loves his country."

That may well be true. I don't pretend to have any insight into what is in Trump the Younger's Heart. There should be a baseline assumption that all Americans are, to some extent or another, patriotic.

But it is also equally true that he is shockingly naive, at least, colossally stupid at worst, or merely disgustingly cynical, for actively seeking information in June 2016 from an apparent agent of hostile power intended undermine his father's political opponent.

In a Tweets that Kathleen Parker of The Washington Post accurately describes as "collusion-y," Trump Jr. confirmed that he, White House consigliere Jared Kushner and former Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort, sat down with Kremlin-connected lawyer Natalia Veselnitskaya. - More...
Saturday AM - July 15, 2017