For years, Bruce Wright and Ray RaLonde have been keeping a close eye on clams and mussels collected in the Aleutian region. They’ve collected samples from subsistence users and tested them for levels of paralytic shellfish poisoning toxins. Now the Alaska Forum on the Environment has honored the two scientists with a major achievement award for their project.
Wright is a senior scientist with the Aleutian Pribilof Islands Association, and RaLonde is an aquaculture specialist with the Alaska Sea Grant Marine Advisory Program. They teamed up about a decade ago, and during the course of their work in the Aleutians, they saw spikes in PSP levels in places like Unalaska, Akutan, and King Cove. By tracking toxin levels, the project aimed to reduce the fatal risk involved with subsistence shellfish harvesting. Alarm over PSP levels reached a peak in 2010, when multiple cases of suspected paralytic shellfish poisoning were reported in Southeast Alaska over the course of one summer.
The two men charged with the murder of seafood processor Jonathan Adams have both pleaded not guilty on all counts.
Leonardo Bongolto, Jr., 34, and Denison Soria, 40, stand accused of beating a co-worker at Bering Fisheries to death in February. The pair had initially been charged with murder in the first degree, but a grand jury brought that charge down. Now, Bongolto faces a charge of murder in the second degree and assault in the first degree. Soria also faces those charges, in addition to another felony charge for tampering with evidence.
Scientists at the Alaska Volcano Observatory have lowered Cleveland Volcano’s aviation alert level. The restless Aleutian volcano exploded three times in a week earlier this month. None of the eruptions produced detectable ash plumes and the Observatory says there’s been no eruptive activity since March 13.
Cleveland lies on a major international flight path and scientists raised the alert level in January after a lava dome started growing in the volcano’s crater. Gas build-up underneath lava domes can lead to explosive eruptions. Seismologist Steve McNutt told KUCB earlier this month that the recent explosions probably removed the forming dome.
An oil spill slowed traffic on Broadway Avenue yesterday afternoon. Windy weather blew a heating fuel tank off its pedestal and into the roadway. Homeowner Anavilla Alfonzo says she was enjoying a day off when she heard a loud crash.
“It just scared the hell out of me because I was thinking the roof fell or something because I’ve seen that on the news in Anchorage – there’s so much snow that the roof fell.”
The United States Supreme Court handed down a decision Tuesday in a workers' compensation case that started in Unalaska.
Longshoreman Dana Roberts slipped on the ice while working as a dispatcher for Sea-Land in 2002, injuring his back and shoulder. He received compensation from the company for several years before Sea-Land stopped paying. Roberts took them to court and a judge ruled that he was permanently disabled and consequently entitled to continue receiving benefits. Sea-Land resumed payments at the 2002 average wage rate. But Roberts argued he should be getting paid 2007 wages, the year the court declared him disabled.
A couple of local businesses are making moves to service bigger boats, a positive indicator for the city’s marine industries.
The Kloosterboer cold storage facility recently filed a permit request with the Army Corps of Engineers build a 350-foot dock that would provide additional berthing for large vessels. While there are no known historical or archeological sites near the worksite, Kloosterboer will still have to go through a consultation with a number of state bodies because it’s within the Fort Mears National Historic Landmark area and because the site is within range of sea otters, Steller’s eiders, and Steller sea lions.
Emotions ran high at Tuesday night’s City Council meeting during a discussion of utilities at the city’s new eight unit housing complex. Some tenants of the building are upset over a shared utility charge they say was not part of their lease agreement. Full disclosure: the reporter is a non-lease-holding tenant of the building.
The utility charge in dispute covers the cost of running the building’s boiler room, common area lighting, water and sewer. Heating is included in the rent. Tenant Roger Bacon said at the meeting that when he moved in, he understood the shared costs to be part of the rental rate.
The Alaska Department of Fish and Game lent a hand to the struggling snow crab fleet over the weekend, opening up 650 square miles of new fishing grounds. This year’s snow crab season has been repeatedly put on hold because of ice conditions in the Bering Sea and the limited crab grounds are getting pretty well picked over. Although fishermen brought in almost 5.5 million pounds of crab last week, the number of crab caught in each pot was only about half the average.
