Chagudax: A Small Window Into the Life of an Aleut Bentwood Hat Carver. That’s the name of a recently published book about Andrew Gronholdt, a renowned bentwood hat carver who passed away in 1998.
The book is a combination of Gronholdt’s diaries and illustrations of his artwork. Sharon Gronholdt-Dye, co-editor of the book and daughter of the author says it tells the story of his life, growing up in the Shumagin Islands and discovering his passion for bentwood hats.
The Army Corps of Engineers is seeking public comment on the proposed landfill expansion project. The project would move Summer Bay road to the coast and add two additional waste cells next to the baler facility.
The expansion was permitted back in the late 90s, but Corps Project Manager Jack Hewitt says the original construction date has passed and since it’s been a while since the permit was issued, they wanted to give the public an opportunity to comment again.
Fish leaving Alaska bound for foreign countries don’t carry a “Made in Alaska” label, but if they did, Chinese consumers might have noticed more of them showing up recently.
According to data released Tuesday by the Governor’s Office, China overtook Japan to become Alaska’s largest trading partner in 2011. The country imported nearly $1.4 billion in Alaskan products or about 28 percent of the state’s exports.
Scientists made progress last week on a model that will help estimate the population of Aleutian Islands golden king crab.
When it’s finished, the model will let fisheries managers decide each year how much crab can be harvested sustainably. That could translate into millions of dollars of additional revenue or cuts for the fishery, depending on what the model shows.
Right now, the State Board of Fisheries sets the golden king crab harvest in regulation, as opposed to annually. It's hovered around 6 million pounds for the last decade.
The Unalaska Raiders men’s varsity basketball team cleaned up over the weekend against the Cook Inlet Eagles.
The team won games on both Friday and Saturday evenings by 20-point margins. Both games started with slow first halves, but picked up in the third and fourth quarters. Friday’s game ended 54-34 and Saturday’s game wrapped up 52-33.
Senior Andrew Seman and sophomore JJ Fernadez were high scorers in both matches.
Unalaska's high school basketball season kicked off on Friday with a home game against Cook Inlet Academy.
Junior Varsity Coach Steve Flannery said before the game that the players were excited to get out on the court and show off their skills for a home crowd.
“The kids are excited to have a big crowd there and show what 27 practices worth of work has brought them to.”
Flannery says he expects their hard work to pay off.
Catching cod in a pot might seem a little tricky, but it’s a booming fishery in Unalaska.
The Pacific pot cod season opened on New Year’s Day and catcher vessels are moving quickly through the 9,950 metric ton quota.
As of Thursday, 27 boats had caught nearly 8 million pounds of cod or 36 percent of the quota. National Marine Fisheries Service biologist Krista Milani says she’s heard the fishing has been good, although NMFS doesn’t keep track of catch rates.
So far this year most parts of the Arctic have seen less sea ice than normal, but not in the Bering Sea. Persistent cold weather has brought the ice edge to within 40 miles of the Pribilof Islands. That’s a concern for fishermen heading north for the snow crab season.
Good weather on Wednesday helped clear up some of the passenger backlog in Anchorage’s L1 terminal, but Pen Air Vice President Missy Anderson says there are still several hundred people standing by for flights.
Anderson says eight planes landed in Unalaska today and she’s expecting ten flights tomorrow if the weather holds out. She added that two freighters brought in luggage earlier today and there will be two more tomorrow.
