Southwest Alaska’s unemployment rate declined sharply in January as the major fishing seasons kicked into gear.

In December, the Aleutians East Borough had the highest unemployment rate in the state at 26.5 percent.  In January, that rate was halved, down to 11.8 percent.  Other parts of the region had even lower unemployment rates in January, with the Aleutians West Census Area, including Unalaska, reaching 7.7 percent - lower than the statewide average.

The fight over redistricting is nearing an end.  The Alaska Supreme Court will hear oral arguments on the issue Tuesday and a ruling is expected to follow shortly. 

At the heart of the issue is whether the Redistricting Board’s newly drawn voting districts violate the State Constitution.  Earlier this year a lower court judge ruled that in the case of the Aleutians, they did.  Now it’s up to the Supreme Court to decide the merits of that ruling.

The crewmember who fell off the fishing vessel Glacier Spirit on Friday afternoon is 19-year-old Joe Haller of Greenville, Pennsylvania, according to Greenville television station WYTV.

WYTV says the 47-foot vessel was fishing crab when Haller went overboard.  The Coast Guard launched a Dolphin helicopter and a C-130 aircraft, but called off the search Friday evening after six hours with no sign of Haller.

The state House of Representatives has opened consideration of a bill to revive Alaska’s coastal management program. 

On Friday, Lt. Gov. Mead Treadwell certified a citizen’s initiative allowing local input on projects like offshore oil drilling. But sponsors of a bill with a similar objective are hoping to reinstate the program through the legislative process instead.

Rep. Bob Herron of Bethel is a supporter of the coastal management program, and believes that passage of the bill would prevent an expensive fight over the ballot measure. * He says the initiative may have popular support in coastal areas, but opponents of the program have more financial resources at their disposal.

The Coast Guard suspended its search on Friday for a crew member from the fishing vessel Glacier Spirit.  The as-yet unidentified man fell overboard on Friday morning.  The Alaska Department of Fish and Game notified the Coast Guard, who then launched a Dolphin helicopter and a C-130 aircraft to search for the crewmember.  

Petty Officer Jonathan Lally says the Coast Guard Command Center in Juneau made the decision to call off the search after six hours.  He says the search team covered an area of more than 40 square miles, taking into account tides and currents.  Lally could not say whether the man was wearing survival gear when he went overboard. 

There won’t be an Atka mackerel or Pacific cod fishery in the western Aleutians until at least 2015.  U.S. District Court Judge Timothy Burgess ruled Monday that the National Marine Fisheries Service would have 23 months to assess the impact of its Steller sea lion protection measures in the region.

The agency shut down the Atka mackerel and Pacific cod fisheries in 2011 after determining that they were adversely affecting the endangered western stock of Steller sea lions.  Fisheries groups and the State of Alaska sued NFMS over the closures. 

Last year, Alaska’s congressional delegation fought hard to keep the Essential Air Service program alive. They argued that without it, over 40 Alaskan communities could lose the planes that connect them to the rest of the state. Ultimately, the program was saved and its funding was even bumped up to $143 million.

But as KUCB’s Alexandra Gutierrez reports, the Department of Transportation is still trying to rein in program costs, and the City of Adak may see air travel to the community change as a result.

Three Seattle fishermen were rescued last night after their vessel went aground on Umnak Island.

The crew of the Neptune 1 called the Coast Guard at 11:21 pm, alerting them that their boat had lost propulsion and gone adrift in rough weather. Twenty-five minutes later, the Neptune 1 was on the rocks, and the crew had to swim to shore in their survival suits.

After receiving the mayday call, the Coast Guard launched a helicopter from St. Paul Island to rescue the fishermen. As the helicopter crew traveled down to Umnak, the F/V Alaskan Enterprise also responded to the incident. That vessel was 25 miles away at the time, and it diverted course to shine a light on the Neptune 1 and its crew until the Coast Guard arrived.

The U.S. Air Force is proposing a clean-up of a former military installation at Nikolski.

The Air Force has come up with recommendations for five sites at the radio relay station. The dam and water supply house contain no contaminants, so the Air Force is not proposing any action at those two sites. But at the landfill, the Air Force does want to put in place boundary markers to keep people from entering the area, since it does contain both petroleum and asbestos. The most serious work that the Air Force is recommending is the excavations of the petroleum, oil, and lubricants tank farm.