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Southeast Alaska: Retention Of King Salmon Prohibited In All Southeast Alaska Salt Waters - Due to poor ocean survival conditions for Chinook (king) salmon, which are persisting in Southeast Alaska and British Columbia, extreme management measures are necessary to restrict harvests in coast wide fisheries that are directed at stocks originating in Southeast Alaska, Northern British Columbia, the Fraser River, and the Washington Coast.

Inseason information from Alaska Department of Fish & Game, the Canadian Department of Fisheries and Oceans, and NOAA surveys off the coast of Oregon, Washington, and the Gulf of Alaska all indicate that poor production conditions are currently occurring and will persist through at least 2018. In particular, Southeast Alaska and British Columbia stocks are experiencing historically low production; many of the affected stocks will not meet escapement goals or management objectives in 2017.

The inseason data and stock specific information cannot be ignored when conservation of wild stocks is the foundation of the Alaska Sustainable Salmon Fisheries Policy and the Pacific Salmon Treaty. Therefore, it is imperative that Alaska offer relief now for these stocks, with a focus on protecting future production.

Quoting a news release, "Although it is a very difficult decision to make, retention of Chinook salmon will cease at 12:01 AM, Thursday, August 10, 2017, in the Southeast Alaska recreational and commercial fisheries and non-retention will continue through September." - More...
Thursday PM - August 10, 2017

Southeast Alaska: Governor Walker Signs Bills on State Ferries and Alaska Mental Health Trust Land Exchange - Governor Bill Walker today signed a trio of bills in Southeast Alaska. Senate Bill 3 reestablishes “best management” standards for the handling of waste water discharged from small commercial passenger vessels – including state ferries – while Senate Bill 33 officially names the two new Alaska Class Ferries currently under construction M/V Tazlina and M/V Hubbard. Senate Bill 88 complements federal legislation to approve a land trade between the United States Forest Service and the Alaska Mental Health Trust. SB 3 was signed in Sitka; SB 33 and 88 were signed in Ketchikan.

“Our small commercial boats and state ferries provide vital transportation services to Alaskans, businesses, and visitors,” Governor Walker said. “These bills acknowledge the effort and hard work of our ferry operators, as well as the pride Alaskans have in our Marine Highway System. I’m honored to sign them both.”

Governor Walker introduced SB 33 after he and Lt. Governor Byron Mallott reviewed hundreds of essays submitted by Alaskan students in a ferry-naming contest. The winners were 7th-grader Malea Voran and 10th-grader Taylor Thompson. Voran chose the Tazlina Glacier, which is named for the Ahtna Athabascan word for “swift river”; Thompson chose Hubbard Glacier, which has been advancing for 100 years. All Alaska ferries are named for glaciers. 

SB 3 reestablishes effective standards the state has relied on for over a decade to make sure waste water discharged from small commercial passenger vessels is managed to avoid environmental harm to Alaska waters.  Those standards had “sun-sunsetted” under the prior statute.  No changes have been made to the standards applicable to large cruise ships, which can accommodate larger, more complicated treatment systems on board. - More...
Thursday PM - August 10, 2017   

Necropsy planned for humpback
Grand Princess Cruise Ship arrived in Ketchikan Wednesday morning with a juvenile humpback whale lodged on her bow. NOAA’s Office of Law Enforcement is investigating the death of this humpback whale that was brought into the port of Ketchikan, Alaska Wednesday morning.  NOAA Fisheries had the whale carcass towed to a nearby location suitable for a necropsy to determine the cause of death.  As this is an open and ongoing investigation, NOAA is not able to provide any additional information at this time.
Photo credit: Fred Burk, NOAA Office of Law Enforcement ©2017

Southeast Alaska: Final Phase of Wrangell Site Cleanup Underway - The Alaska Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC) has contracted with the Anchorage-based environmental cleanup company, NRC Alaska, to construct a monofill to permanently dispose of treated soil from the Wrangell Junkyard site, an action which will complete cleanup of the site.

Lead and other contaminants from the Wrangell Junkyard site posed an imminent and substantial exposure risk to human health from surface water contamination and runoff to the intertidal area of Zimovia Strait.

In 2016, DEC oversaw the first phase of the final cleanup, using more than $6 million from the Oil and Hazardous Substance Release Prevention and Response Fund for the cleanup. That effort resulted in the shipment of 22 drums and 57 containers full of contaminated debris to permitted facilities in the Lower 48. It also left 18,350 cubic yards of treated soil at the site. The soil had been stabilized with EcoBond, which made the lead non-leachable. Though the soil is treated and will not impact surface or ground water, there is threat of ingestion if it is not properly contained in an appropriate disposal site or facility.

“It was much more expensive to ship the treated soil to a landfill facility in the Lower 48 (estimated at $9 million) then to construct a monofill in the Wrangell area ($5.4 million),” said Sally Schlichting, DEC’s Contaminated Sites unit manager. “Over the past six months, we have worked collaboratively with the Alaska Department of Natural Resources (DNR), U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, City and Borough of Wrangell, and the DEC Solid Waste Program to find a suitable disposal site,” said Schlichting.

The site determined to be most suitable is an inactive DNR rock pit located on state land on Pat’s Creek Road. DEC has requested an additional $5.5 million from the Response Fund in order to properly prepare the site and access road, transport the material, contour the material, and construct a cap that will include a membrane liner, sand layer, rock layer, topsoil, and vegetation. DEC is estimating it will take approximately 2,000 truck trips to move the soil to the monofill site. - More...
Thursday PM - August 10, 2017

DANNY TYREE: The Total Solar Eclipse: One Curmudgeon's Opinion - Have you purchased your $500 bottle of Solar Red Wine?

It's one of countless products created to cash in on the total solar eclipse that will cut a swath 60 to 70 miles wide from Oregon to South Carolina on August 21.

Savvy shoppers can also obtain solar eclipse playing cards, solar eclipse neckties, solar eclipse dresses, glow-in-the-dark cakes and Darkest Hour black cherry soda. Festivals and tours? Oh, yeah! Discovery Channel may even throw together a last-minute "Things The Moon Blocks Your View Of Week," complete with Michael Phelps racing a simulated Buzz Aldrin.

My son Gideon's school is busing students to Nashville to get a better view of the eclipse. I hope the Music City crowd obeys safety warnings and does not generate new stereotypes of the city. ("I'm a-pickin'." "And I'm a-grinnin'." "And I'm a-gettin' my retinas burned beyond repair!")

Yes, NASA and a legion of optometrists are cautioning amateur astronomers not to view the eclipse without certified eye protection. Unfortunately, no one has run an algorithm to determine how many nitwits will flip a car while texting their destination, fall off a cliff while taking a selfie or receive ricochet wounds while shooting the roof out of a Porta Potty so as not to miss a second of the eclipse. - More...
Thursday PM - August 10, 2017

JOHN L. MICEK: Americans are Proud to be Getting Dumber - A North Carolina man walks into a popular Washington D.C. pizzeria and opens fire, telling police upon his inevitable arrest that he came to "self-investigate" a widely debunked conspiracy theory involving former Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton.

In Hollywood, actress and model Jenny McCarthy and others wage a campaign against mandatory vaccinations for children, despite mountains of evidence showing they're the key to preventing debilitating childhood diseases.

At the dinner table, your loudmouthed uncle holds forth on the events of the day, insisting he's right and refusing to accept counter-arguments, even as he mangles facts and disregards clear truths.

Separately, these are amusing - and maybe a little disturbing, anecdotes.

But taken together, they're part of "the death of expertise," a stubborn insistence by the ignoramuses in our midst that everyone is as smart as everyone else; that expert opinion is meaningless and that any attempt to dismiss such claims is just "elitism." - More...
Thursday PM - August 10, 2017