By ISABELLE ROSS • KDLG Dillingham Around 10 seiners, along with a few gillnetters, are expected to tap the 47,300-ton quota. That participation is a jump from last year, but it’s still much lower than normal. A Fish and Game survey photo of Togiak herring on Wednesday, April 28, 2021. (ADF&G) The Togiak purse seine herring fishery opened at 6 p.m. on …

May 3, 2021 by Sage Smiley, KSTK – Wrangell King crabs in a crap pot. (Photo by allyhook/Flickr) House lawmakers have passed a bill that, for the first time in Alaska, would allow shellfish like crab to be grown in hatcheries and released into the wild to bolster commercial fisheries. Rep. Dan Ortiz (I-Ketchikan) sponsored HB-41, which would put shellfish on the …

April 27, 2021 by Mayowa Aina, Alaska Public Media As the current school year comes to a close, Alaska health officials anticipate kids aged 12-15 will become eligible for the COVID-19 vaccine long before school starts again in the fall. “We fully expect kids [ages] 12 and up to get authorization any day,” said Coleman Cutchins, a pharmacist with Alaska Department of …

April 26, 2021 by Abbey Collins, Alaska Public Media As the summer approaches, Alaska’s travel industry is preparing for another uncertain pandemic season. Widespread vaccine availability has improved the travel landscape in Alaska, but Sarah Leonard, President and CEO of the Alaska Travel Industry Association, said it’s still hard to predict exactly what summer will look like. “We are shifting toward a …

April 22, 2021 by Angela Denning, KFSK – Petersburg Humpback whale entangled in commercial lobster gear, sighted off San Diego in 2015. The main threats identified for the whales were ship strikes and fishing gear entanglements. (Courtesy of NOAA, photographed under NOAA permit #: 18786) The National Marine Fisheries Service published a final rule on April 21 designating critical habitat for three …

April 22, 2021 by Sage Smiley, KSTK – Wrangell Alaska’s commercial fishermen have been speaking out against big trawlers for years, complaining that the large vessels in federal waters are scooping up mature and juvenile fish. The regional council that manages federal fisheries recently heard from hundreds concerned about the number of salmon and other species that end up as bycatch in trawl …

April 20, 2021 by Claire Stremple, KTOO Alaska will join Florida in a federal lawsuit challenging the current cruise ship regulations in the U.S. The lawsuit says the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is overstepping its authority with the Conditional Sailing Order, which imposes strict COVID-19 safety precautions on the cruise industry. Gov. Mike Dunleavy’s office released a statement and a video Tuesday afternoon, …

April 20, 2021 by Jacob Resneck, CoastAlaska State environmental regulators announced Monday they’re expanding radiation testing of commercially harvested Alaska seafood, including crab, using a gamma radiation detector at a state laboratory in Anchorage. That’s thanks to continued federal funding from the Food and Drug Administration. A devastating earthquake and tsunami off the coast of Japan in 2011 killed tens of thousands and …

By TYLER THOMPSON, KDLG • APR 16, 2021 A recent study by the McKinley Research Group estimates that Bristol Bay’s commercial salmon industry generated $2 billion in economic benefit and an average of 15,000 jobs in 2019. The 57-page study was published in February by “Bristol Bay Defense Fund,” a coalition of regional Tribes, businesses and conservation groups that support permanent federal protections at the …

April 19, 2021 by Liz Ruskin, Alaska Public Media The U.S. Supreme Court heard arguments this morning about whether Alaska Native corporations can receive a portion of the $8 billion earmarked in the CARES Act for tribal governments. The case turns on a problematic sentence that specifically includes Alaska Native corporations and then seems to exclude them with a clause at the …