Although the federal government shutdown is threatening to delay the opening of the crab season next week, fishermen -- and state biologists -- are getting prepared anyways.
This week, the Alaska Department of Fish and Game finished writing up catch limits for all of the state’s crab fisheries. And on Friday morning, Fish and Game biologist Doug Pengilly spent a few hours explaining the science behind those limits to fishermen in Seattle, with crabbers joining in from Kodiak and Unalaska by phone.
The "Return Home From the Holidays" local access program is now offering extra seats on January 5 and January 6, timed to coincide with the end of winter vacation at Unalaska schools.
As it stands, the Bering Sea crab harvest is on hold until fishermen receive their permits from federal government. But three Pacific Northwest congressional leaders have an idea to get the season back on schedule.
Part of Unalaska went dark this morning when power crews accidentally tripped a breaker during a routine maintenance project.
Public utilities director Dan Winters says a crew was working on one of the diesel engines at the powerhouse, which caused the overall power load to fluctuate. The other engines failed to keep up and tripped a breaker, shutting down the town circuit -- which includes City Hall and the public library.
The thousands of cargo ships that sail through Unimak Pass will soon meet nasty fall storms. As a port of refuge, Unalaska is where they will go in emergencies -- and the city's new emergency mooring buoy is where they'll tie up.
But as KUCB’s BenMatheson reports, the buoy is going to need some support of its own.
Roger Rowland held onto city council seat C in a close race with write-in candidate Katherine Labert. Rowland received about 53 percent of the votes while write-in candidates -- including Labert -- received 47 percent of the vote. Two-hundred and ten ballots were cast for Rowland. There were 183 write-ins.
Unalaska sophomore Ross Enlow finished strong at the cross-country state championships this weekend. Enlow completed the 5K course in 18 minutes and 1 second, which put him in 29th place.
He was up against 118 other runners from 1A, 2A and 3A schools at Bartlett High in Anchorage.
Enlow was the Raiders’ sole representative at championships. To qualify, he finished in first place at the cross country regional meet earlier this month.
Fishermen are gearing up for the opening of the Bering Sea's lucrative crab season. But they may be off to a late start this year, because of the federal government shutdown.
State managers set catch limits. But the National Marine Fisheries Service is supposed to divide up the crab and assign individual fishing quotas, or IFQs, to boats.
"There's nobody on staff with National Marine Fisheries Service [who is] available to issue IFQs as they are furloughed," says Heather Fitch.
John Szubski (left) with Pen Air crew in Cold Bay / Credit: John Szubski
In 1973, John Szubski began a trip to visit all 3,142 counties in the United States. His final two spots are Alaska, where there are no counties. He instead counted boroughs and census areas as counties.
