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Health care, addiction and budget cuts

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Photo illustration by 401kcalculator.org via Flickr.

The state health care system has been stretched thin by rising rates of addiction, a growing need for more mental health treatment beds and Medicaid expansion. These needs were
under the budget lens during the legislative session. How will health care providers meet the challenge of treating sick Alaskans during the funding crunch?

LISTEN HERE

HOST: Lori Townsend

GUESTS:

  • Valerie Davidson – Commissioner, Alaska Health and Social Services
  • Nancy Merriman – Executive Director, Alaska Primary Care Association
  • Call 550-8422 (Anchorage) or 1-800-478-8255 (statewide) during the live broadcast
  • Post your comment before, during or after the live broadcast (comments may be read on air).
  • Send email to talk@alaskapublic.org (comments may be read on air)

LIVE Broadcast: Tuesday, June 5, 2018 at 10:00 a.m. on APRN stations statewide.

SUBSCRIBE: Get Talk of Alaska updates automatically by emailRSS or podcast.


Some Y-K Delta residents are worried over the final Donlin EIS

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People started trickling into a meeting May 31, 2018 to voice concerns about the final Environmental Impact Statement from the Army Corps of Engineers for the proposed Donlin gold mine. (Photo by Krysti Shallenberger/Alaska’s Energy Desk)

About 25 residents from the Yukon-Kuskokwim Delta met on May 31 to air concerns about the final Environmental Impact Statement issued last month for the proposed Donlin gold mine.

Also attending the meeting were two representatives from the Stand For Salmon ballot initiative. David Cannon, a fish biologist who worked for the Kuskokwim River Watershed Council and lives in Aniak, spearheaded the gathering. He is trying to educate the Y-K Delta about what he sees as the dangers of the proposed mine.

“And I was involved early on in this process,” Cannon said. “A lot of people, at least early on and I think there are still some people today, that think if a project like this goes through this study, there’s going to be no impacts.”

Lindsey Bloom, a fishing advocate based in Juneau and one of the members of the Stand for Salmon initiative, urged the people in the room to protect the salmon in the Kuskokwim Delta. The final EIS isn’t the last decision in the lengthy permitting process.

“If you organized and vocal, I think that this administration, the Walker administration, will, you know, they are very receptive to hearing from Alaskans,” Bloom said. “And I think that It’s critical to reach out and voice your concerns.”

The meeting triggered emotions as one by one, people shared what the Kuskokwim River means to them. Bev Hoffman, a Bethel resident, says that the mine has divided close communities in the Y-K Delta.

“And it’s really, um, hard when you are fighting your own people about the health of this river and the health of the communities that live along it and we’re fighting money for a way of life,” Hoffman said.

The final EIS wrapped up its comment period for a section of the study at the end of May. The Army Corps of Engineers is scheduled to roll out its Record of Decision in August which will choose whether or not to issue a federal permit for the mine.

UA Regents defer consideration of Haines timber sale plan

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The 13,426 acres is scattered throughout the Haines Borough. (Map Courtesy of the University of Alaska)

The University of Alaska Board of Regents is delaying a decision on whether to approve the plan for a Chilkat Valley timber sale.

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The board was set to approve the development and disposal plan for a major Haines-area timber project at a meeting Thursday. Instead, regents voted to defer consideration until a special meeting later this month.

The decision comes amid concerns from regents and the public, and a desire for more time to work through those questions.

UA announced the negotiated sale in March. It’s aiming to harvest 150 million board feet from 13,000 acres, over a 10-year period. The area identified for potential harvest is scattered throughout the Haines Borough.

At a Facilities and Land Management Committee Meeting earlier this month, Regent Jo Heckman questioned the amount of information available for the board.

“When you say, the brevity of the document is because that is how it’s defined in our policy? Are we real proud of that policy?” Heckman asked. “I’m just trying to understand, I know you’re justifying it the best way that you have. That here is the information and here is how we’re providing the information. But flip it on the other side and put yourself in our shoes, when we’re not getting what we think we should be getting.”

The University has said more information won’t be available until further along in the negotiation process.

At the special meeting, regents will receive a presentation from the university, with a summary of public comments, more details about the plan, and a set of guiding principles for the project.

That meeting is scheduled for June 19.

‘Little slice of heaven’ Juneau subdivision threatened by river erosion

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Erosion along the Mendenhall River. (Photo courtesy of the City and Borough of Juneau)

In Western Alaska, the village of Newtok is in the process of leveraging federal funds to relocate. It has taken decades to find a solution. Meanwhile, in Juneau, a similar conversation is happening on a much smaller scale, where a couple of homes are at risk of crumbling into a glacial-fed river. The neighborhood can’t seem to agree: As the erosion gets worse, who should pay for it?

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At first glance, the neighborhood on Meander Way looks like any ordinary subdivision built in the 1980s. But there’s a unique feature snaking along some of the home’s backyards: the Mendenhall River.

Joyce and Curt Goehring wave at paddlers floating down the river. For the couple, having the river right outside their door was a huge attraction. On their deck, they can see things they couldn’t have imagined at their old home in Utah.

“We have beavers going up and down the river everyday … Sometimes we have harbor seals come up. I mean it’s just a wonderland,” Joyce Goehring said.

A wonderland that isn’t as idyllic as it seems. Besides paddlers and seals, there’s another sight visible from the Goehrings: down the river, you can see a couple of homes that look dangerously close to river’s edge.

The situation was alarming enough to catch the attention of a federal emergency watershed program. And for the past few years, the agency has been trying to develop a solution so the neighborhood could be placed on a priority funding list.

That plan was to essentially build a large retention wall — big enough to protect 28 homes, including the Goehring’s. It would cut off several feet of their beloved backyard.

“So we’d a walked out the door to a fence,” Joyce Goehring said.

Joyce and Curt Goehring in their backyard on Meander Way. (Photo by Elizabeth Jenkins/Alaska’s Energy Desk)

Each homeowner would be responsible for paying up to $80,000 to build the wall, but that’s not what the Goehrings say upset them most about the plans. The vast majority of the money was to be spent from federal funds.

“Just the absurdity of it all really fired us up,” Curt Goehring said.

“Especially when you have all those people from California from the fires and the flooding and stuff,” Joyce Goehring added. “That, in our opinion, is what government funds of that nature should go to.”

The Goehrings say they knew the risks when they bought this property.

River erosion isn’t anything new. In fact, some of the homeowners who live on Meander Way built their own retention walls back in the 1990s. But what they couldn’t have expected was a surprise climatic event that would speed it up.

Seven years ago, the couple saw the river rise in a matter of hours. Water started seeping into their grass.

“We were just standing there watching going, ‘Wow, is this normal?’ And our neighbor over here said, ‘No, this is not normal,’” Joyce Goehring said.

Eran Hood, a professor of environmental science at University of Alaska Southeast, says when the water started to rise back in 2011 it was a “huge mystery.”

“It was July, it was sunny and it was a beautiful day,” Hood said.

After receiving concerned calls from the city’s emergency response coordinator, he boarded a helicopter to try to figure out what was going on. He flew above the Mendenhall Glacier, which feeds the river.

“You don’t have to fly very far up before you see Suicide Basin, and as soon as we pulled the helicopter into the basin you could see all these icebergs stranded,” Hood said. “So, it was very clear that it had been full of water.”

That water used to be ice flowing down from the Suicide Basin Glacier. But as that glacier retreated, due to warming, it carved out a bowl.

“That’s why this area is flooding now is because this basin is essentially a bathtub that can be filled up with millions of gallons of water,” Hood said.

And that’s bad news for the Meander Way neighborhood. Because once that water spills over, it flows under the Mendenhall Glacier and eventually floods into the river. It’s happened every summer since 2011 — with some years being worse than others. Hood says this type of event could go on for decades, and it’s possible the flooding itself could become more severe.

U.S Geological Survey webcam picture of Suicide Basin taken June 29, 2016. (Photo courtesy of U.S.G.S.)

Back on Meander Way, Nico Bus describes some of the damage in one of the home’s backyards.

“All that is sloughing off, too. See where the rock is falling and the lawn starts sagging,” Bus said.

Bus has lived on Meander Way for about 30 years, almost as long as the neighborhood has been around.

Lately, Bus has been playing the role of community organizer, knocking on doors trying to get everyone to reach an agreement, so the neighborhood could get some kind of uniform fix for the river erosion. He says the federal plan to build a giant retention wall between the river and the homes wasn’t perfect, but it was better than the alternative.

“Without it, your backyard is going to be gone completely,” Bus said.

In the end, Bus wasn’t able to drum up enough support in all 28 houses along the river. And with the neighborhood divided, the Juneau Assembly decided in May it didn’t want to force the issue and facilitate the federal funds.

Bus says his backyard isn’t bad off. He’s done his own work to try to secure a barrier. But when he sees the river inching closer to his neighbor’s home — just a few doors down — he wonders if that’s his future.

Curt and Joyce Goehring, the couple from before, agree with Bus that something should be done about the neighborhood erosion, but not at the expense of millions of dollars of taxpayer money. They have considered contributing to some kind of community nonprofit, where the most vulnerable homes would pitch in more, so someday, they could all fix the erosion problem themselves — as neighbors.

But Joyce Goehring says right now she’s just ready to move on.

“I don’t care if their houses go down the river at this point. I am just done,” Joyce Goehring said. “We’re responsible for this little slice of heaven, and that’s what I’m concerned with right now.”

But the Goehrings are looking to share their “little slice of heaven” with someone else.

Their home will be up for sale this summer.

How hard is it to find an electrician in Bethel?

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Jeremy Osborne, a Bethel resident, has two repairs to make to his power equipment. They are easy for him to do, but some residents might find their repairs more difficult and must search for an elusive electrician. (Photo by Krysti Shallenberger, Alaska’s Energy Desk – Bethel)

A recent letter from the Alaska Village Electric Cooperative startled residents in the Yukon-Kuskokwim Delta. The letter told customers to repair their electric equipment by August or have their power cut off. While most of the repairs are minor, others require more professional handling from an electrician, which are scarce in the region.

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Jeremy Osborne is one such homeowner. Osborne works at Yuut Elitnaurviat, a workforce development organization in Bethel, and also works part-time as a copy editor at KYUK. He’s one of 450 customers in Bethel who got the letter from AVEC.

“I was a little alarmed at first because they say that your electrical service will be disconnected on or about August unless you make the repairs,” Osborne said.

AVEC took over control from the local utility, Bethel Utilities Corporation, in 2013 and residents have been receiving these letters since then, according to the cooperative. AVEC recommends that residents hire an electrician to do the work, but in Bethel, that’s not easy. Michael Langlie, who has co-owned The Lumber Yard for 20 years, says that it can take as much as a month to get an electrician to a house in Bethel.

The Lumber Yard stocks the electrical supplies people in Bethel may need for repairs and Langlie has seen an uptick in people coming into his store for these supplies over the past two years. Bethel has long nurtured a do-it-yourself culture because of its remote location and lack of services, which may have sparked some of the letters, but AVEC CEO Meera Kohler says that the repairs are not just confined to older homes or the result of do-it-yourself jobs. Homes and business can fail to meet code because of shifting permafrost, wind storms, or other natural causes.

Kohler says that most of the repairs are minor. She says that many just require replacing a ground rod or other repairs that people can do themselves. But what happens when they need an electrician? Kathy Hanson is another homeowner who received the AVEC letter. She says that the easy part is tracking them down.

“I think it’s not hard getting hold of one,” Hanson said. “ You see them in their trucks driving around. Now to get them to come out to your house and fix something, I think it might be rather difficult.”

KYUK tried to reach out to several electricians that were listed online or given through word-of-mouth. Out of the five that KYUK tried to call, only one, Sea Lion Electric Services, had a working phone number. And they never picked up.

KYUK also drove around Bethel for about an hour to look for one of the vans, but couldn’t find one. Osborne consulted with an electrician who’s also a friend, but is doing the work himself. He says that he’s lucky that he doesn’t have to do more to bring his house up to code. AVEC’s Kohler says that the utility doesn’t require the repairs to be made by an electrician, but she advises homeowners who might not feel up to task to hire a professional.

Interior sees first wildfire of note this season

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The smoke plume of the Livingston Fire approximately 15 miles southwest of Fairbanks in the Rosie Creek area as seen from Mile 339 of the Parks Highway early Sunday evening. (Don Anderson/Alaska Division of Forestry)

The Interior’s first substantial wildfire of the season was ignited by lightning last night outside Fairbanks. The Livingston Fire is estimated to have burned 167 acres, 15 miles southwest of town. Alaska Division of Forestry spokesman Tim Mowry says quick action was taken to protect private property.

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”The fire was moving towards the Tanana River. There were some cabins about a mile out in front of the fire,” Mowry said. “We did bring in a load of smokejumpers to do structure measures on those cabins, so we think they’re pretty safe.”

Mowry says a major aerial attack helped corral the fire last night.

”We had a retardant tanker here at Fairbanks, and it dropped several loads of retardant around, boxing the perimeter of the fire, so that crews could get in there on the ground and start constructing line around that fire,” Mowry said.

About 80 people are working the Livingston Fire.

A second lightning caused wildfire was also reported Sunday night in remote area farther to the south. The Fish Creek fire is located in a limited suppression zone.

Fairbanks airfields convert to alternative firefighting foam over contamination concerns

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Emergency-service officials at Fairbanks International Airport, Eielson Air Force Base no longer train with firefighting foam containing PFAS. Fort Wainwright also have all taken measures to respond to infiltrating and contaminating groundwater around Fairbanks. (KUAC file photo)

Fairbanks International Airport and Eielson Air Force Base no longer use a type of firefighting foam containing a chemical compound that’s contaminated groundwater around the city, and that poses a potential threat to human health.

When Fairbanks International emergency personnel conducted their annual firefighting training exercise last week, they did not use a type of fire-suppressing foam that contains PFAS. That’s the abbreviation for per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances, the chemical compounds that have contaminated groundwater in at least two areas around Fairbanks.

“Back in November, the airport procured the newest foam that’s out there, and basically, the difference is it doesn’t have PFAS and PFOA,” Airport spokeswoman Sammy Loud said.

Loud says instead of PFAS and its chemical cousin, PFOA, the airport now uses a type of fire-suppressing foam that’s known as Phos-Chek. That’s a variant of the fire-suppressing slurry that’s dropped from aircraft onto wildfires. Loud says the Phos-Chek is safer than PFAS because it’s formulated in a way that doesn’t allow it to be absorbed into the environment as easily as PFAS.

“It can’t break down into other compounds that can be harmful,” Loud said.

PFAS and related chemical compounds have been linked to cancer, autoimmune disorders and other threats to human health. Loud says that’s why Fairbanks International stopped using PFAS last fall, after testing showed it had infiltrated groundwater around the airport after years of use. Loud says the Phos-Chek does, however, contain chemical compounds related to PFAS.

“It doesn’t have PFOS and PFOA in it, but it does have other PFAS compounds that aren’t regulated. But it’s the safer of the options that we have at this time that’s we’re allowed to use,” Loud said.

Eielson Air Force Base, where PFAS was first discovered, also has discontinued use of foam containing PFAS. A base spokesperson says emergency personnel there have removed foam with PFOS and PFOA from all fire-response vehicles and replaced it with a high expansion foam that does not contain PFOS or PFOA. The spokesperson said in an e-mail that Eielson is in the process of renovating fire-suppression systems in all hangars at the base to use the new type of foam.

A Fort Wainwright spokesperson could not confirm Friday whether post officials have discontinued use of PFAS at Ladd Army Airfield. Samples of groundwater around Wainwright have shown the presence of PFAS, and more testing is scheduled. Post officials are working to acquire a type of system that will not allow fire-suppressing foam used during training to escape into the environment.

Loud says officials at Fairbanks International also are considering ways to contain fire-fighting foam used for training.

“We are researching different options for the future to have an even more secure containment system for when we foam-test each year,” Loud said.

Loud says foam with PFAS has been used in years past at the burn pit that airport emergency personnel used for the May 30th firefighting training exercise. She says airport officials hope to have a new system in place for next year’s exercise that will contain any type of foam used in training.

Remembering our friend, Native media pioneer John Active

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John Active of Bethel (Photo courtesy of KYUK – Bethel)

It’s a sad day at KYUK and public radio stations statewide. Our friend, Yup’ik storyteller, culture bearer, translator and longtime KYUK radio and TV host John “Aqumgaciq” Active died this Monday morning at age 69. John is irreplaceable. His broadcasting career at KYUK began in the early 1970s, and he is celebrated as a pioneer in Native media.

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Over the decades, John produced a range of programs to entertain the Yukon-Kuskokwim Delta and spread his deep knowledge and love of the Yup’ik language and culture.

John helped produce the television show “Waves of Wisdom,” where he traveled with the late Alexie Isaac around the Yukon-Kuskokwim Delta recording the oral histories of elders. John produced “Tales of the Tundra,” a TV show to stand your hair on end with Yup’ik ghost stories and tales of the paranormal. He also hosted a Thursday morning radio Yup’ik language talk show, Ketvarrlluku, where listeners across the Y-K Delta called in to discuss the topics of the day.

Teachers invited John into their classrooms to tell traditional stories. When John was telling a story, time slowed down and no one could look away. More invitations came from farther away. He traveled as far as Boston and Hawaii, sharing his knowledge and always telling his stories. But he loved being in the Y-K Delta the best. Hawaii, he would say, shaking his head, was “too hot,” and in Boston, he’d say making a face, “they ate bugs,” referring to lobsters.

John frequently appeared on PBS and NPR. Anthropologists Ann Fienup-Riordan and Marie Mead turned to him as they documented the Yup’ik culture in their long canon of books on the region. For decades, John’s unique gentle voice has guided visitors through the Anchorage museum.

John was a master of the Yup’ik language and its various dialects, a skill he attributes to his grandmother. He was one of the first people to translate the KYUK English language newscast into Yup’ik. Holding the English news copy in his hands, he’d read the words with his eyes in English while simultaneously translating aloud into Yup’ik. He would also live translate between Yup’ik and English and vice versa during events. It’s a skill shared by only about a dozen people in the region, and his quality was matched by far less.

John loved to cook and to share what he made. Multiple times a week he’d take over the KYUK kitchen and keep the staff and visitors well-fed with subsistence foods like beaver, goose, moose, and salmon. It was common to find fish in the sink, an entire beaver under the table or a whole goose in the station refrigerator. People shared these foods with John, and he shared them with everyone else. He loved sprinkling his dishes with dried, green parsley and leaving a note above the food, saying it was marijuana. John found humor in many things.

John was always joking, always making us laugh, and laughing at his own jokes with us. For staff hired from outside Alaska he served as our cultural guide, ready to explain Yup’ik concepts and patiently pronouncing the same Yup’ik words again and again to train our ears and throats before we went on air.

In late March, after experiencing a series of strokes, John announced his retirement. He’d made this announcement before and always returned, but we held a potluck anyway. Before we ate, John stood up to address the room, filled with friends and KYUK staff and board members.

“Everything that I do today, try to make people laugh, make them comfortable, is I’m trying to pass on what the elders taught to me by my actions, what I learned from them,” John said.

John did so much at KYUK, and we are still working to chronicle his decades of stories, shows, and contributions. You will still hear John’s voice on our airwaves daily, announcing the “Yup’ik Word of the Week.” He started the radio segment, just another contribution in a long legacy, and we will continue it.

John’s family issued a statement saying, “John Active left to be with our Lord at 12:55 a.m. Monday morning, June 4. Funeral arrangements are pending.”

Quyana, John.


Alaska News Nightly: Monday, June 4, 2018

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Stories are posted on the APRN news page. You can subscribe to APRN’s newsfeeds via email, podcast and RSS. Follow us on Facebook at alaskapublic.org and on Twitter @aprn

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Interior sees first wildfire of note this season

Dan Bross, KUAC – Fairbanks

The Interior’s first substantial wildfire of the season was ignited by lightning last night outside Fairbanks.

Seaton files to run as independent in Democratic primary

Aaron Bolton, KBBI – Homer

House Rep. Paul Seaton of Homer has represented House District 31 on the Kenai Peninsula as a Republican since 2002, but he filed Thursday to run as an independent in the Democratic primary.

‘Little slice of heaven’ Juneau subdivision threatened by river erosion

Elizabeth Jenkins, Alaska’s Energy Desk – Juneau

The neighborhood can’t seem to agree: As the erosion gets worse, who should pay for it?

UA Regents defer consideration of Haines timber sale plan

Abbey Collins, KHNS – Haines

The University of Alaska Board of Regents is delaying a decision on whether to approve the plan for a Chilkat Valley timber sale.

How hard is it to find an electrician in Bethel?

Krysti Shallenberger, Alaska’s Energy Desk – Anchorage

A recent letter from the Alaska Village Electric Cooperative startled residents in the Yukon-Kuskokwim Delta. The letter told customers to repair their electric equipment by August or have their power cut off.

Remembering our friend, Native media pioneer John Active

Anna Rose MacArthur, KYUK – Bethel

Our friend, Yup’ik storyteller, culture bearer, translator and longtime KYUK radio and TV host John “Aqumgaciq” Active died this Monday morning at age 69.

Turning a temporary stay into long-term stability, 30 days at a time

Anne Hillman, Alaska Public Media – Anchorage

Emergency shelters are supposed to be supportive safe havens. But in Fairbanks, it was a little too supportive. So staff developed a new plan for pushing people out the door by helping them stand on their own feet.

Larsen Bay struggles with the prospect of losing its school

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Larsen Bay School (Photo by Mitch Borden, KMXT – Kodiak)

The population of Larsen Bay has been decreasing for decades, and now it looks like the village could see its only school close for the first time in its history because of a lack of students. Many residents agree it has to do with the right to fish for salmon.

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Holding bright yellow bags, students from Larsen Bay School run down the village’s dirt roads looking for trash. It’s the last day of school before summer break, and they’re spending it doing a spring cleanup.

As the kids scramble around outside, it’s quiet back at the school. And there’s a good chance it’ll stay that way for the foreseeable future because, most likely, it won’t have enough students to open in the fall.

“I’m sad I’m the last one, but I’m happy I’m graduating. So, I can move on to a different chapter.” Gayle Aga said. Aga was the only person to graduate high school this year in Larsen Bay and could be the last, which made her graduation a big event.

“Everyone knew that I was going to be the last one till whenever, and a lot of people showed up and even people I didn’t even know,” Gayle said.

Alice Aga, on the right, stands with Nicholas Blanco, a teacher at Larsen Bay School, and the students. (Photo by Mitch Borden/KMXT)

“This is the gym. We just had graduation. It was awesome.” Alice Aga said as she walks through the building. She’s an aide at the school and is reflecting on how Larsen Bay used to be known for its sports teams, but now it’s ending the year with less than ten students. Alice points to past awards to show this.

“Here’s the trophy case,” Alice said. “Like the 80s was the highlight of Larsen Bay —school that is. They were like basketball, volleyball, wrestling, you know, everything.”

Until recently, Alice was the community’s mayor and sat on its tribal council. But now, she’s stepping down from those positions because she’s leaving.

“Well you know if there’s no school here, I can’t stay,” Alice said. “I can’t play the waiting game. You know, like, I can’t home-school my kids, that’s a whole full-time job and I just can’t do that. You know, I need to make a living.”

In Alaska, schools need at least ten students to receive around $300,000 in state funding, which Larsen Bay School needs to open. Right now, the school only has two kids officially enrolled for next year, which is why Alice is moving to Kodiak and enrolling her kids there, which makes her tear up.

“I think I’m still in denial about the whole thing right now. I’ll probably…probably break down, you know, once I get to Kodiak,” Alice said. “It’s tough. This is home, our whole life is changing.”

Even though Larsen Bay School isn’t officially closed yet, people around the community are doing the math and know it’s a long shot that they’ll have enough kids to open the school, which many see as another sign the community is shrinking.

“The young people move away and the old people are dying.” Jack Wick chuckled. Wick has lived in Larsen Bay for decades and remembers when there were plenty of people living there and the main profession was commercial fishing. But he says that began to change in the 1970s.

“Everybody fished. Even if you were a crewman you knew you could work your way up to be a skipper,” Wick said. “So, after limited entry, a lot of them realized they wouldn’t be able to get a boat”

Alaska introduced limited entry permits in 1975, which is a policy that restricts the number of people who can commercially fish for salmon, and other fish. At its peak, only around ten Larsen Bay residents had permits to run boats, but now it’s down to less than half that because people left the village, sold their permits or their permits were canceled.

In the Kodiak region, the price of a salmon permit has ranged anywhere between a few thousand to over a hundred thousand dollars. That price tag can make it hard for people to get into commercial fishing, which is why Wick and others in Larsen Bay believe this policy is partially to blame for Larsen Bay going from having around 200 people in the 80s, to about 60 full-time residents today.

“The people in, like, Larsen Bay and other villages didn’t have the money to compete and buy the equipment to get into those fisheries,” Wick said. “So they just started getting into other things, going to school becoming something else other than fishermen.”

The exodus of youth from Larsen Bay is causing some to worry the community’s becoming a “retirement village.” And that eventually, people will only come out in the summer for the fishing season or to vacation at local hunting lodges.

The walls of Larsen Bay School are lined with the names of past students. These names follow you around the building as a reminder of all the people who’ve also passed through its halls. That sense of history isn’t lost on Gayle Aga as she thinks about the school’s future.

“I just never thought it’d be closing because I didn’t think it’d be real,” Gayle said.

That prospect is real though, but Gayle may not be around to see how the school closure will affect Larsen Bay in the long run. Like so many before her, Gayle’s planning to leave the village and head to college in the coming year.

Controversial former Anchorage LIO building to become new APD headquarters

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The Legislative Information Office in downtown Anchorage.
The Legislative Information Office in downtown Anchorage. (Staff photo)

The controversial former Legislative Information Office at 716 West 4th Avenue in downtown Anchorage will have a new tenant: the Anchorage Police Department. The LIO moved out of the location after an expensive and opulent renovation was extensively criticized. The building has been vacant for two years. But now the Anchorage Community Development Authority is buying the building and will lease it to the police department.

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The Anchorage Community Development Authority announced its plans to buy the building last month, and they’ve announced their new building tenants will be the Anchorage Police Department.

Anchorage Police Chief Justin Doll says that the building will house APD’s headquarters, which is currently on Elmore Drive. That means most of the department will be downtown, including most detectives, some dispatch workers, the crime suppression unit and administration. He says the proximity to downtown allows for more efficiencies in the department.

“Think about detectives being right across the street from the courthouse instead of a half-hour drive away,” Doll said. “And so if you need to run to the courthouse to appear in court, or apply for a search warrant, you add an hour onto however long that’s going to take to drive there and back. And now it’s a 30-second walk across the street.”

Doll says since the mid-2000s, APD has been trying to find more areas to house evidence, seized property and various other items. Additionally, the police department has almost doubled in size since the 1980s — when the department moved from its original downtown Anchorage location.

“These are great problems to have. We have a whole lot of staff and we have them out collecting police reports and collecting evidence,” Doll said. “And so we need space to store that stuff. So, I mean, tat’s not a bad problem to have, any part of that. But it can be a difficult problem to solve and a very expensive problem to solve, when you start looking at building new facilities to house all that”

Doll says that rather than buy a storage facility, for an estimated 40 million dollars, leasing the former LIO building and using the old Elmore building for a bulk of the department’s storage was a more fiscally sound plan. He said the department will lease the new building for about $1.5 million a year.

Even though the LIO building was designed specifically with the idea of housing the legislature, Doll says moving in doesn’t require many changes.

“It’s actually surprisingly easy,” Doll said. “It’s a very unusual layout. I think it would be difficult for another entity to be in there, but for us, the first time I walked through it I realized it’s gonna require almost no modification. We’re basically going to be able to move right in”

Andrew Halcro is the director of the Anchorage Community Development Authority. He says that initially, the state was going to pay $32 million for the LIO building. The ACDA will pay $14 million. Halcro says that ACDA owning the property does more for the city than if the state did.

“If legislators were to buy that building, as they proposed two years ago, there would’ve been zero paid to the city,” Halcro said. “They would’ve just basically had a tax-free building, not contributed anything for services because state property taxes, With ACDA buying the building, you still have that property tax revenue churn, you still have fees on gross revenue”

As far as benefits to citizens, Anchorage Mayor Ethan Berkowitz says that the new location will help keep Anchorage safe and revitalize downtown Anchorage, making it more appealing for other businesses. He says it isn’t uncommon for major cities to have police headquarters downtown.

“There’s a reason why most police headquarters are in the downtowns of their cities,” Berkowitz said. “It’s close to where their partner agencies operate, it’s close to the courthouses and it is close to the center of activity in the community. And as we restore the police department to downtown Anchorage, we’re going to make sure those benefits also happen for Anchorage as well.”

Berkowitz also added that simply having an increased police presence in a major area of Anchorage will make the area safer.

Halcro says the purchase of the former LIO building should be finalized by early August, and Chief Doll wants to get the department moved in by late summer or early fall.

Alaska News Nightly: Tuesday, June 5, 2018

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Special audit finds Alaska Mental Health Trust Authority violated multiple state laws

Anne Hillman, Alaska Public Media – Anchorage

The Legislative Budget and Audit Committee released the findings of a special audit of the Alaska Mental Health Trust Authority this afternoon. The Trust manages money for programs that support people with mental illnesses, developmental disabilities, and other cognitive problems. The audit found that the board of trustees violated a number of state statutes.

Controversial former Anchorage LIO building to become new APD headquarters

Wesley Early, Alaska Public Media – Anchorage

The controversial former Legislative Information Office in downtown Anchorage will have a new tenant: the Anchorage Police Department.

Police question 2 in pedestrian death on Anchorage sidewalk

Associated Press

Anchorage police are questioning a suspect in the hit-and-run death of a man on a sidewalk.

State saw 19 wildfires yesterday

Dan Bross, KUAC – Fairbanks

There were 19 new wildfires detected across the state yesterday.

Gara latest Alaska lawmaker to announce retirement plans

Associated Press

Longtime Alaska state Rep. Les Gara says he won’t seek re-election this year, becoming the latest lawmaker to announce retirement plans.

Alaska agency to review discrimination lawsuit

Associated Press

A spokeswoman for the Alaska Department of Law says the department will review and respond accordingly to a discrimination complaint filed by a transgender state legislative librarian.

Prices are up, but commercial salmon harvests and forecasts are down

Aaron Bolton, KBBI – Homer

As a number of commercial salmon fisheries around the state kick off this week, the outlook for ex-vessel prices is looking good.

New UAF project to investigate North Slope heavy oil extraction

Dan Bross, KUAC – Fairbanks

The University of Alaska Fairbanks will lead an investigation of heavy oil extraction on the North Slope.

Sterling Highway renovations approved

Casey Grove, Alaska Public Media – Anchorage

A long-awaited project to revamp the Sterling Highway near Cooper Landing got its final stamp of approval last Thursday.

Larsen Bay struggles with the prospect of losing its school

Mitch Borden, KMXT – Kodiak

The population of Larsen Bay has been decreasing for decades, and now it looks like the village could see its only school close for the first time in its history because of a lack of students.

Canoes arriving is unofficial kick off for Celebration

Tripp Crouse, KTOO – Juneau

Canoes finished their week-long journey this afternoon to Juneau. The landing is the unofficial beginning of Celebration. The festival, held every two years, is a days-long honoring of Southeast Alaska Native culture.

Special audit finds Alaska Mental Health Trust Authority violated multiple state laws

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The Trust Authority Building in Anchorage houses the main offices of the Alaska Mental Health Trust Authority. (Hillman/Alaska Public Media)

The Alaska Mental Health Trust Authority violated state statutes by investing $44.4 million in commercial real estate. Those are the findings of a special audit of the Trust released Tuesday by the Alaska Division of Legislative Audit. The audit also says the Trust’s board violated the Opening Meetings Act and the Alaska Executive Branch Ethics Act by purposely trying to keep some board issues out of the public eye.

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The Mental Health Trust was established in 1956 to fund services for people with mental illnesses, developmental disabilities, traumatic brain injuries and memory loss. In 1982, Trust beneficiaries sued the State saying they had mismanaged the Trust’s land and resources. After a decade, a new settlement was reached and the Trust was reconstituted with $200 million and one million acres of land. Provisions were put in place to try to safeguard the Trust and prevent mismanagement in the future.

According to state statutes, the principal funds were to be managed by the Alaska Permanent Fund Corporation. Since November 2008, the board of trustees has not given the money to APFC and has instead held it in a separate account and invested in commercial real estate around the country. Legislative auditors found this to be in violation of five different state statutes, one of which reads, “The cash principal of the mental health trust fund shall be retained perpetually in the fund for investment by the Alaska Permanent Fund Corporation.”

The Trust Authority disagrees with this finding saying the law is more ambiguous.

“We believe that there are several other guiding authorities that the trustees were required to follow in making investment choices,” Trust Authority CEO Mike Abbott said. “The fact that the statute doesn’t clearly identify alternative investment opportunities, other guiding authorities do.”

Abbott said that state and federal statutes regarding trusts in general allow for the actions.

In a written response to a preliminary audit report, the Trust Authority wrote that “The Trust’s investment decisions were authorized by and consistent with applicable regulations and legal advice.” The Trust’s board cited attorney-client privilege and refused to give auditors access to those legal opinions.

Abbott said the board decided to invest in commercial real estate outside of the APFC, “specifically with the goal of increasing the amount of spendable income available for our beneficiaries.”

The Trust reports that the real estate investments earned about $3 million more for programs than would have been available through the traditional distribution from the APFC.

Though the audit acknowledges that the individual investments made by the Trust were sound, the outside contractors hired by auditors, RVK Inc., found that the Trust’s overall investment strategy aimed at aggressively increasing their income was not. The contractors concluded that the strategy would decrease diversification and increase risk in the long term.

A consultant hired by the Trust in 2016 also identified deficiencies with the investing strategy, but the audit report reads some board members chose to disregard the report and did not share it with the entire board nor release it to the public. Board member and staff names were not included in the report.

The auditors concluded, “Trust asset management policies do not fully comply with State investment laws and industry best practices.”

“The trust has sought advice from a variety of subjects on what the appropriate level of diversification of investment of trust assets is,” Abbott said in response to questions about this conclusion. “We’ve heard a variety of recommendations, including guidance that saying that relying solely on the Permanent Fund, which is managed for different purposes than is the Mental Health Trust Fund, is not necessarily the best option as a sole investment choice for Trust assets.”

The audit recommends that the Trust stop investing in commercial real estate, consult with the APFC to determine with to do with their current investments and restart transferring cash principal to the APFC. The Trust is following these recommendations while also pursuing legislative changes that would allow them more latitude in their investment strategies.

Another finding of the audit was that the board of trustees violated the Open Meetings Act on multiple occasions and purposely kept information from the public and from other board members.

“Evidence showed that multiple trustees were, at times, intentionally trying to avoid discussing board business in a public manner,” the audit reads.

The audit report cites emails where board members set up retreats and held meetings without properly noticing the public. The audit quoted one redacted email, “…it would be useful to have a meeting […] to discuss a couple of other options we have for taking action. It isn’t clear to me that we need to notice the meeting and it should be held privately…”

In other instances, some board members conducted business via email without noticing the entire board. Board members issued a $1.375 million Request for Proposal (RFP) for a multi-year project without consulting the entire board. In another instance, a small group of trustees communicated to arrange the demotion of long-time CEO Jeff Jessee and the hiring of interim CEO Greg Jones. The other trustees only learned of the action during a board meeting.

The board also considered 24 hours to be sufficient public notice for meetings, a conclusion that auditors disagreed with.

Trust CEO Abbott acknowledges that the board has had problems with openness and transparency.

“I think we agree that the trust has not met the community’s expectations regarding open meetings and public notifications in the past,” Abbott said. “I know the trustees are committed to earning back the trust. They can be counted on to behave in a manner that that’s consistent with Alaska values.”

Abbott said that over the past few months the board has re-written their bylaws, written guiding documents for the board’s officers and committees, and received more training on the Open Meetings Act, ethics and conflicts of interest.

Anchorage Assembly member Tim Steele announces resignation due to ‘serious health issue’

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Tim Steele.(Alaska Public Media file photo)

Early this morning, Anchorage Assembly member Tim Steele announced that he would be resigning from his position due to a “serious health issue.” Steele has been on the Assembly since 2013, representing West Anchorage. He served on the Anchorage School Board, where he served as president, prior to joining the Assembly.

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Steele declined to disclose the nature of his health issue, but he says he’s been aware of it for a few months. Steele says he would prefer to finish his full term, which ends in 2020, but that is “just not possible.”

“I think my constituents would be very understanding in that I’ve been in the community a long time, public service a lot of it,” Steele said.

Steele has lived in Anchorage for more than 30 years and has spent 14 years in public service between his time on the Anchorage School Board and the Assembly.

Anchorage Assembly Chair Forrest Dunbar says that there will be a process for filling Steele’s Assembly seat once his resignation is final.

“So the process is mandated by the Anchorage Municipal Charter, and it says that if it’s more than six months from a regular election, we are required to hold a special election,” Dunbar said.

Dunbar says that the Assembly will have a work session this Friday to discuss a date for the special election and a filing period for those wishing to run for the seat.

Dunbar says that the election must be held within 60 days of the vacancy. Steele’s planned resignation day is June 12.

Canoes arrive and unofficially kick off Celebration 2018

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Paddlers canoe in Douglas Harbor on Tuesday, June 5, 2018. (Photo by Tripp J Crouse/KTOO)

On Tuesday afternoon, a group of canoes finished their weeklong journey to Juneau. The landing is the unofficial beginning of Celebration. The days-long festival is held every two years to celebrate Southeast Alaska Native culture.

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The group of canoes have traveled from Ketchikan, Sitka, Kake, Angoon, Hoonah, Yakutat — even Canada.

Clan leaders at Douglas Harbor gave permission to One People Canoe Society and its canoes to land. And then they welcomed those arriving by water at the boat ramp.

Many of the canoes will travel to the former Thane Ore House across Gastineau Channel for a community gathering and potluck. The Central Council of the Tlingit and Haida Indian Tribes of Alaska is turning the site into a cultural immersion park.

Southeast Alaska’s largest Native cultural gathering officially begins Wednesday. Celebration has happened every other year since 1982. This year’s theme is “Respect: Weigh Your Words.”

About 5,000 participants and 2,000 dancers will take part in Celebration this year.

Celebration also includes a juried adult and youth art show, a regalia care workshop, a Native artists market and the ever-popular toddler regalia revue.


Prices are up, but commercial salmon harvests and forecasts are down

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Sockeye. (Alaska Department of Fish and Game)

As a number of commercial salmon fisheries around the state kick off this week, the outlook for ex-vessel prices is looking good. Fishing economists say between lower run forecasts and strong foreign and domestic demand, commercial fishermen will likely see higher prices this year. But that doesn’t necessarily mean commercial fishermen will earn more this season compared to last year.

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Andy Wink with Wink Research and Consulting said although prices vary by species and region, most fisheries should see stable or higher prices this year.

“For pinks going into an even year, we’re expecting a smaller harvest. Just by virtue of less supply, we should see pricing be pretty strong there,” Wink explained. “However, Russia is looking at probably having a very large pink harvest. So, that could offset our lower forecast a little bit.”

The Alaska Department of Fish and Game expects the commercial fleet statewide to harvest 72 million fewer pinks this year. Pink runs typically decline on even years. Returns across the state in 2016, this season’s parent year, were also declared a federal disaster.

Fish and Game is also forecasting smaller chum runs around the state. Wink said smaller chum harvests in the other parts of Pacific will also likely bode well for prices on the docs in Alaska.

“Japan is typically the world’s largest chum salmon producer, but they’ve been dealing with lower and lower harvest in recent years,” Wink said. “That’s really created a lot better market conditions for Alaska chum salmon.”

Wink said prices for secondary products such as chum roe or eggs are also benefiting from limited supply. He adds high prices for farmed salmon will help boost prices for Alaskan hatchery and wild fish as well, and Wink explains that a weaker U.S. dollar should increase exports into countries like China.

“Now whether that will actually add up to more total dollars at the end of the day, that’s harder to say,” Wink noted. “Like I say, we’re looking at a much lower pink harvest and last year was a record high chum harvest, so it’s going to be tough to do better than that this year.”

If early runs in Prince William Sound are any indicator, things may be off to a worse start than expected. The Alaska Department of Fish and Game shuttered three openings in the Copper River commercial gillnet fishery due to abysmal sockeye harvests.

Max Matveev is a commercial gillnetter in Prince William Sound. He said most of the fleet that participates in the Copper River fishery has shifted its attention to hatchery chum salmon.

“I’m sure more than 75 percent of the fleet, since the Copper is closed, started focusing here towards the sound and trying to get some chum, but that’s also a little late it seems like,” Matveev added.

Matveev said prices for sockeye and chum are higher than last year, but he said so far, it’s not enough to make up for lackluster runs.

“It’s just early in the season. You never know if our runs are lagging behind or not, but we’re definitely still optimistic about it,” Matveev said.

Fish and Game expects the Copper River to fall below the forecasted harvest of about 950,000 sockeye. So far, gillnetters have harvested only 28,000 sockeye in Prince William Sound.

Salmon forecasts statewide are down across the board from 2017. Chum harvests are expected to decline by about four million fish and sockeye forecasts are down along with pink salmon.

Wink said there’s no denying early harvest numbers are putting the industry behind last year’s harvest, but like Matveev, he said it’s still early.

“People are wringing their hands about the Copper River. Sometimes it takes a while for Fish and Game data to come in and populate. We might not be as far behind as it looks, but we’re definitely pretty far behind. There’s no question about that in terms of the pace,” Wink said. “Hopefully they’re just showing up late or maybe it’s just a regional issue. We’ll see over the next month.”

A number of commercial fisheries in Southcentral and Western Alaska kick off this week, and the bulk of the state’s salmon fisheries will be underway later this month.

US, Russia agree on shipping standards for Bering Strait

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The Bering Strait, separating Siberia from Alaska in the North Pacific. Public domain photo by NASA, via Wikimedia.

North and southbound lanes, speed limits, areas to be avoided — those are just some of the safety measures in place in the world’s busiest waterways. In the Bering Strait, though, there’s nothing regulating where ships can go and what they should avoid.

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But new standards were recently introduced to protect transiting vessels and the marine environment in the waters off Northwest Alaska.

Ask Sharm Setterquist what the Bering Strait is like to sail through when conditions are good, and he’ll smile.

“When you got a beautiful calm night and everything’s flat and you’re just out in the middle of nowhere driving it’s kind of fun,” Setterquist explained.

Setterquist is a captain for Cook Inlet Tug and Barge. He’s made between 60 to 80 trips through the Bering Strait.

Setterquist is a captain for Cook Inlet Tug and Barge. He’s made between 60 to 80 trips through the Bering Strait. (Emily Russell/Alaska Public Media)

“But when you’re in a storm and nothing is going right,” Setterquist said, “it’s not as much fun.”

Setterquist got his start fishing the Bering Sea, but now captains tugs that pull barges filled with things like freight or fuel.

Tugs plan their delivery schedule around the sea ice.

“At the start of the season you chase the ice north,” Setterquist explained. “You start working in Bristol Bay, then the Kuskokwim and then Norton Sound and then after Norton Sound you make your northern push up to Kotzebue, Wainwright, Kivalina, Point Lay, Point Hope.”

Finishing out in Utqiaġvik and Prudhoe Bay.

Most of the ships sailing through the Bering Strait are doing what Setterquist does —  delivering goods to ports along Alaska’s Northwest Coast.

Unlike other international waterways, though, the Bering Strait doesn’t have safety measures in place. There are no designated shipping lanes or shallow areas to be avoided. That’s in part because, on average, the strait sees the same amount of traffic in one season that the English Channel sees in a day.

Still, that hasn’t stopped environmental organizations from lobbying for regulations for years.

Elena Agarkova is an Arctic shipping adviser for the World Wildlife Fund.

“One accident in this region could lead to catastrophic results,” Agarkova said.

“The amount of wildlife, the diversity of wildlife,” Agarkova said of the Bering Strait. “The fact that there are local communities that subsist on the marine mammals, and the fact that some of them are starting to be oil and gas tankers that Russia is sending to Asian markets.”

All of those things, plus the lack of permanent emergency response infrastructure, make the region ripe for disaster.

The routing measures agreed upon by the U.S. and Russia and approved by the IMO. (Map by the IMO)

Agarkova said at first, Russia wouldn’t agree on regulations for the Bering Strait, claiming the U.S. was trying to control vessel traffic. But now Russia is trying to capitalize on the shorter route to Asia, so Agarkova said they saw the value in making the seaway safer.

“The fact that U.S. and Russia have managed to come to an agreement on these measures despite broader political discord is really heartening,” Agarkova said.

The agreement is detailed out on a map of the Bering Strait. The map shows the north and southbound lanes laid out on either side of the Diomede Islands. It also highlights St. Lawrence, Nunivak and King Island as areas to be avoided.

The International Maritime Organization regulates shipping worldwide and approved the standards. But like a lot of international law — they’re voluntary.

Tug captain Sharm Setterquist says that actually doesn’t matter that much.

“It’s like a car,” Setterquist explained. “If you have a bunch of DUIs, no one wants to insure you. If you’re a shipping company that has a bunch of problems, no one wants to insure you. That’s why they have these standards and that’s why people are held to those standards.”

Those standards go into effect in the Bering Strait on Dec. 1.

Newest megaship docks in Juneau for the first time

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The Norwegian Bliss prepares to disembark from Juneau on June 5, 2018. (Photo by Adelyn Baxter/KTOO)

The newest megaship to ply Alaska waters arrived in Juneau for the first time on Tuesday.

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The 4,000-passenger Norwegian Bliss was specially designed for sailing in Alaska and will be making weekly stops in Juneau through the season.

Complete with rooftop water slides, a go-kart track and up to 1,700 crew, the 1,000-foot vessel may be the largest cruise ship ever to call in Juneau.

This was the third Norwegian Cruise Line voyage for passengers Tonya and Anthony Biondo from Las Vegas.

They got going a bit late this morning. The ship was only scheduled to dock for a little over six hours.

“We shopped. If we had more time we would have gone and seen the glaciers,” Tonya Biondo said. “Not enough time.”

Brian Holst, executive director of the Juneau Economic Development Council,  said he’s heard concerns about the short port calls from some businesses.

“We encourage them to change the schedule for next year,” Holst said. “We have heard that concern and being the largest vessel here in Juneau visiting Alaska it would be better certainly for everyone involved if they could find a way to spend more time in our port.”

Holst said seeing ships like the Norwegian Bliss bode extremely well for the future of tourism in Alaska.

More than 1.1 million cruise ship passengers are projected to disembark in Juneau this year.

Social media post criticizes Trident Seafoods, Gulf of Alaska trawl fleet for halibut bycatch

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(Photo Courtesy of Erik Velsko)

A fisherman based out of Homer posted images on social media of halibut bycatch headed for the grinder at Kodiak’s Trident Seafoods processing plant.

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The post got a lot of attention online and sparked criticism of Trident, the Gulf of Alaska trawl fleet and a body that regulates the commercial fishing industry.

A conveyor belt whisks bright red fish with bulging, quarter-sized eyes and spiny fins past workers inside Kodiak’s Trident Seafoods processing plant.

“Today we’re processing rockfish caught in the waters around Kodiak, ” Paul Lumsden, plant manager for Trident Seafoods operations in Kodiak, said.

Trident is the largest primary processor of seafood in the United States and is heavily invested in Alaska.

“We’re a company built by fishermen for fishermen and we don’t just buy pollock or cod or crab or salmon or halibut, we buy everything that we can sustainably harvest and feed the world with. Halibut is a very important part of our business,” Lumsden said.

Longtime fisherman Erik Velsko says if Trident really cares about halibut and sustainability some things need to change.

Velsko recently called out Trident on Facebook posting photos and video of excessive halibut bycatch at the plant that appeared to be from the local trawl fishery and which was going to be turned into fishmeal.

An overview of rock fish being sorted by workers at the Trident Seafoods plant assembly line in Kodiak, Alaska on Saturday May 27, 2018. (Photo by Daysha Eaton / KMXT)

“Totes full of halibut and you know obviously they had some markings and looked a little damaged. They were not gutted or dressed, as we call ‘em, longline – so the only place they could have come off of was a trawl vessel,” Velsko said.

In all, Velsko alleges there were around 15 totes, each containing about one thousand pounds of fish. The images were taken in fall 2017, when a fellow fisherman captured them but wanted to remain anonymous, so Velsko posted the images to his Facebook page this May with a paragraph alleging wastefulness.

“I just threw it up there not really thinking anything of it and the next thing I knew it was all kinds of people commenting and re-sharing it,” Velsko said.

At last check, Velsko’s post had been shared more than 500 times.

The Trident plant in Kodiak processes many varieties of fish from all gear types. The majority of the fish processed at the plant is pollock. But they also process a significant amount of fish caught with bottom trawl gear such as pacific cod, flatfish (like rock sole, arrowtooth flounder, rex sole, and flathead sole) and rockfish. Bottom trawling involves pulling a net along the ocean floor. Sometimes they haul up halibut too.

“Every fishery has some element of bycatch and it is impossible to just catch exactly what you’re after,” Julie Bonney said. Bonney is the Executive Director of Alaska Groundfish Data Bank and a paid advocate for the trawl fishery.

Rock Fish on the Trident Seafoods plant assembly line in Kodiak, Alaska on Saturday May 27, 2018. (Photo by Daysha Eaton / KMXT)

Bonney says the trawl fishery operates under strict regulations. They’re not allowed to keep a single halibut. She says most are discarded at sea, but ones that aren’t sorted out end up at the processing plant.

“The plant is required to enumerate every one of those fish and it goes on a fish ticket. NOAA enforcement examines every fish ticket and if they feel that the vessel was egregious in terms of their sorting practices, then that vessel will get a monetary fine,” Bonney said.

Bonney said there is an overall bycatch cap of 1,705 tons for the Gulf trawl fishery. It is hard to tell, she added, whether the halibut that appears in Velsko’s Facebook post was collected into those blue totes over one delivery or many deliveries of hundreds of thousands of pounds of fish headed for market.

The Trident plant manager also saw Velsko’s post.

“I did see the photos, yes,” Lumsden said. “And that was alarming to me. It was disheartening to say the least.”

But Lumsden says the images were taken out of context.

“The frustrating thing is when you see a 30-second video like that and you don’t know the background,” Lumsden said. “When that video shows a full tote, a thousand pounds of fish being dumped into a truck [it] gives a false representation like there is just tote after tote after tote after tote and that is simply not the case.”

Velsko, the fisherman who posted the video, says he believes what is happening with halibut at the Trident plant in Kodiak is legal, but immoral and wasteful, and it was especially upsetting to him in light of recent restrictions on the halibut fishery due to conservation concerns.

And Velsko says there’s a reason that he waited six months to post the photos and video. He wanted the issue to be front and center at the upcoming meeting of the North Pacific Fishery Management Council which is scheduled to take place in Kodiak June 4 – 11. A report about observer coverage is on the agenda.

No bids on controversial old growth timber sale… again

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In 2014, the U.S. Forest Service repaired streams on Kuiu Island damaged by logging in the 1970s. (Photo by Elizabeth Jenkins/KTOO)

The U.S. Forest Service won’t be facilitating a controversial old growth timber sale in the Tongass National Forest. At least, not in the immediate future. The agency received zero bids on the Kuiu Island timber sale before its closing deadline on Tuesday.

The forest service tried to sell these trees in 2016, but did not receive any offers back then either — even after all of the wood was approved for export.

The agency made changes to this latest version of the sale, reducing it by half and removing some of the more sensitive watershed areas.

But the sale still faces a lawsuit filed by conservation groups and a tour company over its outdated environmental analysis.

One of the plaintiffs in the case says old growth logging in the Tongass is a practice that needs to end.

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