Unalaska, AK – The City of Unalaska has released its annual report on water quality, and the conclusion is that the community's water remains clean and safe to drink.

Contaminants were only found in trace amounts. The city of Unalaska suffered on minor state violation for turning in a water sample late. However, Public Utilities Director Dan Winters says that water sample still was not found to contain any harmful contaminants.

Captains Bay, AK – For years, scientist have tried figuring out why the western stock of Steller sea lions have continued to decline. Now, a team of university researchers, commercial fishermen, and military contractors are testing a new way to monitor the endangered animals. KUCB's Alexandra Gutierrez has more.

Unalaska, AK – The Unalaska Public Safety Department is losing a 19-year veteran to its police force this month. Sgt. Matt Betzen has accepted the job as chief of police for the city of Vermillion in South Dakota and is relocating there next month. Vermillion is home to the University of South Dakota and has a population of about 10,000 people.

"Obviously South Dakota's totally different," Betzen says. "In a lot of ways it's very much the types of thing about what I like here. The people wave to each other when they drive down the road."

Unalaska, AK –
The sockeye salmon run into McLees Lake near Cape Wislow is off to a strong start according to preliminary escapement numbers release by Alaska Fish and Game.
As of Sunday, more than 8,100 fish were counted at the weir since biologists began monitoring Reese Bay a week ago.
U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service biologist Derek Hildreth who oversees the federal counting station says that's a good sign.
"This year the run seems to be coming in early," Hildreth said. "Usually it would be another week or so before we'd see something like this."
Minimum escapement is set by state Fish and Game is between 10,000 and 60,000 fish. There have been weak runs in the past in recent years that led to closures on the important subsistence fishery for the Unalaska community.
State Area Management Biologist Aaron Poetter in Sand Point says the system is open and now's a good opportunity for residents to fish.
"I would certainly encourage people to get out and get some subsistence fish," he said. "It always bodes well when you see a good front-end of the escapement."
The Wislow run can fluctuate. The recent record was set in 2003 with more than 100,000 fish though the next year saw less than half that. After 2005 the system hovered around 12,000 fish or less with 2008 and 2009 triggering closures due to weak runs. Then last year about 32,000 sockeye were recorded.
"Certainly it raises some eyebrows when you see some later on escapements that are pretty low," he said. "You got to figure there's probably some sort of damage been done. But it looks like they seem to be coming back from those big years."
Harvest information is collected by Fish and Game and won't be tabulated until the end of the season.

Unalaska, AK – An ambitious project would put greenhouses in nearly a dozen Aleutian communities and provide residents with fresh produce. But locally, a group of seniors is already getting a head start on that idea. KUCB's Alexandra Gutierrez has more.

Unalaska, AK – For nearly a year, the drill rig Kulluk has been moored in Captains Bay. But within the next few weeks, the Shell-owned rig is slated to be in Seattle.

According to Shell spokesperson Curtis Smith, the Kulluk will be heading down to Seattle for planned technical upgrades. The modifications are expected to cost tens of millions of dollars, and the goal is to reduce the rig's emissions by 90%.

Unalaska, AK – The 130-foot F/V Epic Explorer docked in Captains Bay has been testing a prototype system designed to warn against slack water in fish holds which can cause extreme instability. KUCB's Jacob Resneck takes a look to see what makes this 130-foot boat different.

False Pass, AK – There isn't a staff doctor on board the ferry Tustumena, but last week, eight medical professionals were at the ready with information about health, nutrition, and exercise. KUCB's Alexandra Gutierrez explains what they were doing.

Unalaska, AK – Pollock B season is currently underway, and as usual, fishermen are hoping that schools are big and close by.

The season opened on Friday, and the allocation has been set at 740,000 metric tons - a quarter million metric ton boost over last year.

Right now, the dockside price for pollock is expected to be around 12 cents a pound. Demand for the fish has declined in part because the Japanese market for surimi was negatively impacted by March's tsunami. Unalaska Fleet Co-op manager Sylvia Ettefagh says that vessels are particularly looking to harvested moderately sized fish that weigh just a bit under a kilogram.