Unalaska, AK – Next Tuesday, NASA will launch its first dedicated oceanographic mission from Dutch Harbor.

The purpose of the ICESCAPE research voyage is to study climate change in the Arctic, with special focus on how varying ice conditions affect the ecosystems in the Chukchi and Beaufort Seas.

Over 40 scientists will be brought aboard the Healy, a U.S. Coast Guard icebreaker that is capable of cutting through four and a half feet of ice continuously. The NASA mission will cost about $10 million, and it will last for five weeks.

Unalaska, AK – The Harbor Crown seafood facility is currently on the market. Bob Martin, of Ravenwood Real Estate in Eagle River, and Lee Henry of RE/Max in Anchorage are handling the foreclosure sale and will be accepting bids on the property until Tuesday, June 15.

Martin says that there is interest in the processing plant, and that a number of prospective buyers have come to look at it.

Unalaska, AK – The Marine Stewardship Council has certified Alaska's flatfish fisheries for complying with its environmental standard. Trawl-caught species like arrowtooth flounder, Alaska plaice, and sole will now be able to bear the council's blue eco-label. The label is meant to help consumers select sustainable products with low environmental impact.

Kerry Coughlin, the Marine Stewardship Council's Americas Regional Director, says that flatfish caught in the Bering Sea and Gulf of Alaska area now meet the council's requirements for sustainability.

Unalaska, AK – Thursday morning Governor Sean Parnell made true on his promise to veto state spending from the operating and capital budgets the legislature approved this year.
He found a total of $336-million in reductions to the two spending plans - most of it from the capital budget. Included in the project vetoes was $2.36 million dollars for the design of the City of Unalaska's new waste water and leachate treatment plant.

Unalaska, AK – The city is deciding the future of the trailer park. They recently won a grant to build a new eight-plex housing unit at the site of the current city trailers on Ptarmigan Road. Though city staff initially thought they could build the new complex and only have to remove six of the 12 trailers, additional site development suggests that it would be better to remove them all. During a presentation to the city council last week Public Works Director Nancy Peterson explained that removing all of the trailers would allow the contractors to change the placement of the building on the city's lot. That would make building parking spaces and future buildings much easier. It would also be safer for construction workers and residents to not have homes so close to the construction site and make the construction process more efficient and cost effective.

Unalaska, AK – The high school's fish hatchery class released 7,488 coho salmon fry into Iliuliuk Creek this week, the final step in their educational ocean ranching journey. Teacher Steven Gregory said the class started with very ripe females that had many eggs and the students did a good job of caring for the fish as they developed.

"This was a good year. We had a bumper crop this year. Probably our second highest total we've ever let go. We started with about 9,000 eggs, had a couple of water mishaps with our water system so we lost about 1,200 to 1,500 fish at various times, but we did pretty good." He said about 20 percent of the fish will survive to return to the creek, spawn, and die.

Unalaska, AK – Both of Unalaska's state legislators, District 37 Representative Bryce Edgmon and District S Senator Lyman Hoffman, are running for re-election completely unopposed. Hoffman, a Democrat, is a businessman and fisherman from Bethel. He started serving in the state government as a member of the House in 1986 and has held his current senate seat since 1995. Edgmon is a lifelong Dillingham resident who won his seat in the House after a tie-breaking coin toss in 2006 against Carl E. Moses. He is running as a Democrat but last year chose to caucus with the Republicans.

Unalaska, AK – For the past year, the city has been working to add a float at Illiuluk Creek, and now it's almost ready for use. The float should allow people to launch their boats directly instead of beaching them.

"It's not a permanent moorage spot by any means. It's just for assisting with loading and unloading," says City Engineer Tyler Zimmerman. "It's a place to dock your boat while you back your truck down the ramp and load and unload your boat."

Unalaska, AK – On Friday, the state of Alaska filed a lawsuit against the United States Fish and Wildlife Service over predator control. The state hopes to secure a court order that would allow the Department of Fish and Game to hunt wolves that have been preying on Unimak Island's dwindling caribou population.

Over the past 8 years, the number of caribou on the federal refuge has dropped from 1260 to 300. Corey Rossi, director of the Department of Fish and Game, says that there's good reason to believe that Unimak's wolves are putting the caribou population in jeopardy.