The International Maritime Organization’s Marine Safety Committee is in the middle of its 95^th session in London this week.  Included on the committee’s agenda is the adoption of five recommended “areas to be avoided” in the Aleutian Chain. The shipping buffer zones come in anticipation of increased mariner shipping traffic in the region.

The Unalaska City Council will consider an amendment during their regular meeting Tuesday that could increase funding for a new wastewater treatment plant by more than $3.4 million dollars. If there is a quorum, the city council will hold an executive session on the matter before they vote.

When the ordinance was introduced as new business two weeks ago, City Manager Don Moore reminded the council Unalaska’s wastewater treatment project has been fraught with problems since construction began in 2013.

A coast guard helicopter aboard the Cutter Sherman medevaced a crewmember from the DS Patriot to the Iliuliuk Family and Health Services Clinic in Unalaska Wednesday night. 

The 33-year old man was reportedly suffering from symptoms of pneumonia.

The container ship did not dock in Dutch Harbor, but according to Lieutenant Chris O’Connor, it sailed within 60 miles of the port so the man could be airlifted from the vessel.

The finalization of a deal to acquire Horizon Lines’ Alaska operations means the nation’s largest Jones Act shipping company no longer exists.  But the Matson Navigation Company isn’t planning any major changes to shipping service in the state.

For decades, Horizon Lines provided regular shipping service between Tacoma, Washington and Anchorage, Kodiak and Unalaska.

Andy Nguyen, a graduating high school senior from Unalaska Jr/Sr High School has been named a 2015 BP Principals Scholarship winner.

Nguyen will receive a $4,000 dollar scholarship. In an email, BP Spokeswoman Dawn Patience says Nguyen is among 25 winners of BP’s statewide Scholarship program this year.

Students are nominated by their local school principals.  Winners are selected by members of the Alaska Association of Secondary School Principals. 

A large earthquake shook the Alaska Peninsula Thursday night near Chignik Bay. 

Over the last week, a number of small earthquakes have taken place near the Fox Islands, Rat Islands and elsewhere along the Alaska Peninsula and throughout the Aleutian Chain.

“The Aleutian Arc is by far the most seismically active part of the entire state, said Natalia Rupert. She is a seismologist at the Alaska Earth Quake information Center.  She said the Aleutians arc marks an expansive boundary between two colliding tectonic plates.

Two 25-foot Coast Guard response boats arrived in Dutch Harbor this week. The boats will patrol waters off the coast of Dutch Harbor as oil giant Royal Dutch Shell moves forward with plans to explore for oil in the Arctic Ocean

 “This is very unusual, especially for Alaska,” said Lieutenant Aaron Renschler. He’s the Chief of Enforcement for the US Coast Guard in Anchorage.

Unalaska’s city operating budget for Fiscal Year 2016 is up for public hearing during a regular city council meeting Tuesday. 

The budget includes $32 million in expected revenue and $25 million in general fund spending. 

The surplus is only half as large as city administrators expected, In part because of shrinking state allocations.

Also up for public hearing is an ordinance that would including more than $294,000 in funding for the Museum of the Aleutians in the FY2016 city budget.

Alaska’s Orthodox Bishop, David Mahaffey was in Unalaska last week. He has held his post in Alaska for just over a year. He said in that time, he’s placed more focus on work with the Regional Alcohol and Drug Abuse Counselor Training Program, or RADACT, to address issues of substance and alcohol abuse and domestic violence.

“They’re doing more with our seminarians so that when they graduate," he said.  "When they go back to villages, they are better equipped to deal with people with these issues. I have petitioned the governor to have more VPSO’s in the villages.”