Operations at Unalaska’s local TWIC office went smoothly this week, despite the failure of several off-site TSA servers on Saturday.
An alert was sent Monday that the office’s services would be limited because of technical difficulties experienced by MorphoTrust, a contractor with the Transportation Security Administration. The server outage was expected to prevent the activation of transportation worker identification credential cards – or TWIC cards for short. The cards are often a requirement for employment at secure maritime facilities in Unalaska.
The Iliuliuk Family and Health Services clinic in Unalaska serves a diverse population. Now, it's trying to diversify the kind of care it provides, too.
The clinic is branching out into natural therapies and relaxation techniques, and it's training staff in those methods. This fall, IFHS nurse practitioner Laura Ballou is starting a two-year alternative medicine fellowship. And late last month, IFHS invited an Athabascan native healer to lead a guided imagery therapy class at Burma Road Chapel.
As the king crab fisheries open up, the Bering Sea pollock fishery is winding down.
According to the National Marine Fisheries Service, the factory trawlers and motherships that make up the offshore sector have taken all of their annual allocation. Meanwhile, the catcher vessels that comprise the inshore sector are at 96 percent of their yearly quota. Nearly 700,000 metric tons of pollock had been taken through October 6.
It will be at least another month before Akutan’s new airport gets scheduled service and probably longer. The latest round of bids on the federally-subsidized flight route turned up one proposal, but it’s unlikely that the government will accept it.
Grant Aviation is asking for an $800,000 annual subsidy to provide 12 round-trip flights per week from Unalaska to the new airport on Akun Island. That’s slightly more than what PenAir is being paid to fly its World War II-era Grumman Goose seaplane to the community and it doesn’t include transporting mail, freight or passengers from Akun to the village of Akutan.
The Bristol Bay red king crab season opened today, and the quota is 7.8 million pounds – a small increase from last year. As of Monday, no pricing information was available. Eighty-four vessels pre-registered, but just 42 have gone out so far, according to the Alaska Department of Fish and Game. About 60 vessels usually participate in the fishery.
Also opening today is the St. Matthew blue king crab fishery. The quota there is 1.6 million pounds. The Bering Sea snow crab fishery also technically opens today, but fishermen usually wait until January to begin harvesting that species.
Attu survivor and author Nick Golodoff signs copies of Attu Boy/Credit Stephanie Joyce
During World War II, the Japanese occupied the Aleutian island of Attu, and shipped its residents off to prisoner of war camps. The village was never resettled and for decades, it was all but forgotten. This week, the surviving Attuans and those descended from the village gathered in Anchorage. KUCB’s Stephanie Joyce has the story.
It’s that time of year again. Sun transits are interfering with Unalaska’s telecommunication services.
Both TelAlaska and GCI are experiencing disruptions this month because of solar interference. GCI spokesperson David Morris explains what’s going on.
"The sun is directly positioned behind the satellite, and the solar energy of that will overpower the signal between the satellite and the earth station located on earth," says Morris. "That will cause a temporary outage, and it could be a few second. It could be 15, 20 minutes. It just really depends on a number of things. The most important of which is how larger that dish is: the smaller they are, the more of an outage you will have."
For eight years, the Museum of the Aleutians has been planning an extensive redesign. But after winning more than half a million in outside grants, the museum is still short. Now, they're looking to the city to fill the gap.
On Tuesday, museum director and city councilor Zoya Johnson gave a presentation to her fellow councilors on the renovation project. She asked them to fill the museum’s $200,000 budget shortfall. Otherwise, the museum risks losing $370,000 in unspent grants.
"So we would have to return the money that we've already raised and as I've said, these grants are very competitive," said Johnson. "I will reiterate that again, I'm very proud to have been awarded those grants. And that would be sad – to return the money."
Akutan’s new, $77 million runway has been open for a month, but residents and their mail are still making the trip to town on PenAir’s World War II-era Grumman Goose seaplane. A dispute over transporting the mail is holding up the process of bringing scheduled service to the new airport.
Bids were due last Thursday from airlines wanting to take over the federally-subsidized flight route between Unalaska and Akutan. But when the deadline rolled around, instead of bids, the Department of Transportation posted a notice of extension. It said Grant Aviation had requested additional time to complete their proposal.
