The new Dutch Harbor state-waters Pacific cod fishery will officially open next week. That’s as the federal Pacific cod season comes to a close Tuesday.
The Department of Fish and Game is closing the federal Pacific cod season in the Bering Sea-Aleutian Islands area for catcher vessels under 60 feet fishing with hook-and-line or pot gear. That means the parallel state-waters fishery for boats 58 feet and under fishing with pot gear is also closing. Both fisheries end at noon on Tuesday.
Seahawks fans celebrate their win over the Denver Broncos. / Credit: Lauren Rosenthal
Unalaska fills with Seattleites and other residents of the Pacific Northwest this time of year. On Super Bowl Sunday, the pollock and crab fleets cheered on their hometown Seahawks to a big win from afar.
KUCB’s Lauren Rosenthal has this postcard from the Harbor View sports bar.
The service was held on Coast Guard Island in Alameda. / Credit: Alex Emslie
On Thursday, the Coast Guard mourned the loss of a service member who was critically injured on duty in Alaska.
Petty Officer Travis Obendorf, of the cutter Waesche, was hurt while rescuing a fishing crew near Cold Bay. More than 700 of his shipmates, friends and family gathered to pay their respects at a service in Alameda, California.
An Unalaska teen has received his third congressional nomination to the U.S. Merchant Marine Academy.
High school senior Dylan Magnusen was at the PCR Thursday night for pick-up soccer. He remembers that’s also where he was when he heard from Alaska Sen. Mark Begich with the news he’d received his first nomination for the Merchant Marines.
"I was actually lifting here, and then [recreation assistant] James [Gregory] comes up running. He’s like, ‘The senator’s on the phone!’ It’s like, what?!" he says, laughing.
Shell Oil's chief executive announced that the company is giving up on plans to drill in the Arctic this summer during a press conference on Thursday morning.
But the news reached Unalaska several hours before that.
Pete Slaiby, a Shell Alaska executive, called Unalaska mayor Shirley Marquardt at home Wednesday night.
He told her that the company was canceling its Arctic plans.
Shishaldin Volcano with a typical steam plume, pictured on Sept. 14, 2013. /Credit: Joseph Korpiewski, U.S. Coast Guard
The Alaska Volcano Observatory upgraded the alert level at Shishaldin Volcano in the Aleutian Islands Thursday after seeing some unrest at the summit.
AVO scientist Kristi Wallace says the unusual activity at Shishaldin began Wednesday.
"AVO changed the color code at Shishaldin from green to yellow based on increased temperatures at the summit crater of Shishaldin Volcano as well as increased steaming yesterday," she says.
Wild cattle are roaming two islands in the Alaska Maritime Refuge. / Credit: Steve Ebbert, USWFW
On January 15, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service held an open house in Sand Point as part of a public process to address unauthorized wild cattle herds. The animals are on two islands owned by the Alaska Maritime National Wildlife Refuge.
Refuge manager Steve Delehanty said the biologists were visiting Sand Point "just to learn, really."
"To learn what the perspectives are of the people who live right here in Sand Point and are closer to the issue and know a lot about it," Delehanty said. "We haven't made any decision about what we're doing [with] these two islands. They're called Chirikof and Wosnesenski."
For more than 20 years, NIOSH has been working to prevent accidental deaths in the fishing industry. Now, these safety experts are tackling injuries -- the kind fishermen are used to getting every season.
As KUCB's Lauren Rosenthal reports, that might make this a tougher problem to solve.
