Kayla Desroches/KMXT A University of Alaska Fairbanks PhD candidate is studying how halibut fishermen feel about bycatch and data collection. Elizabeth Figus says in spring 2015, she went to four different halibut fishing communities in Southeast and interviewed 78 fishermen. She says one preliminary finding pointed to fishermen’s opinions about monitoring methods and the observer program. “I found that pretty …

Kayla Desroches/KMXT The Kodiak Island Borough Assembly passed a resolution last night at its regular meeting asking the Alaska Legislature and Governor Bill Walker not to make any more cuts to the fisheries budget. Assemblywoman Rebecca Skinner, who wrote the motion, said the resolution originated in the Kodiak Fisheries Work Group. She said this year budget cuts have already prevented …

Archer and Ember illustration. By Anjanette Larsen-Vainio Kayla Desroches/KMXT This month’s First Friday Art Walk brings with it a selection of exhibits across town, including one children’s book based on two Siberian huskies. They belong to Krystin Leghorn, who says the book “An Alaskan Adventure with Archer and Ember” follows her two dogs across Kodiak as they run into various …

Kayla Desroches/KMXT The Borough Marijuana Task Force met Tuesday night and decided to permit commercial marijuana growth in certain residential districts. The motion was to allow residential cultivation permits with a conditional use permit in RR, RR1 and RR2, which are rural areas, and prohibit it in R1, R2, and R3. Jonathan Strong, who sits on both the city’s marijuana …

Kayla Desroches/KMXT When he became borough mayor, Dan Rohrer left an open Kodiak Island Borough Assembly seat behind him, and the assembly has a number of applicants to choose from to fill that seat. Two of them ran for the positions that Scott Smiley and Matt Van Daele won at the recent election. They’re Ocean Beauty plant manager James Turner, …

Kayla Desroches/KMXT Local Kodiak government will put forth a resolution asking Governor Bill Walker and the Alaska Legislature not to cut the Alaska Department of Fish and Game Department or commercial fisheries budget any further. Kodiak Island Assembly members Kyle Crow and Rebecca Skinner are sponsoring the resolution and, at an assembly work session last week, Skinner explained why a …

Kayla Desroches/KMXT Nonprofits in Alaska benefit from Pick Click Give, a program that allows Alaskans to direct all or part of their Permanent Fund Dividend to their cause of choice, but this year there’s been a drop in their overall donations. Some local Kodiak nonprofits have also noticed a decrease, but they’re not sure Governor Walker’s decision to slash the …

Kayla Desroches/KMXT Members of Coast Guard Air Station Kodiak stationed in Kotzebue this summer are heading back to home base. On Monday the Coast Guard wrapped up Operation Arctic Shield 2016, a mission it undertakes during the summer months in order to speed up response time to locations across the state during the busy fishing season, specifically in the Alaskan …

Kayla Desroches/KMXT A five-day event will prepare local Kodiak students to enter the world after high school. Fifty-five rural students from communities around Kodiak will participate in the second year of the Positive Youth Pathways event through KANA’s Kodiak Transition Age Youth Coalition, or TAY. The coalition draws on the participation and partnership from many different agencies around the archipelago. …

Raven in flight. Joe Pell / Flickr Kayla Desroches/KMXT Today is Halloween, and many a middle-schooler will remember their teachers pulling out a classic holiday poem to read on this day: “The Raven” by Edgar Allen Poe. What is it about ravens that’s so fascinating or frightening? Quoth the Raven, “Nevermore.” That’s a well-known line from Edgar Allen Poe’s poem …