Daily Sitka Sentinel Sports editor Garland Kennedy joins Robert Woolsey to wrap up the spring high school sports season, and discuss the state champion Sitka High Girls track team. Listen here:

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The annual meeting of the Sitka Maritime Heritage Society will be Wed Mar 21. Eric Jordan, Mike Litman and Denise Williamson joined us in the studio to discuss the upcoming event. Panelists as well as audience members will be encouraged to participate through storytelling.

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In preparation for the opening of the new Sitka History Museum in Harrigan Centennial Hall, The Sitka Historical Society and museum presents a speaker series. Jeff Budd, of the Sitka Historical Society, joined us in the studio with featured speaker Mark Sixbey.

Sixbey’s presentation, “Strung: Merging Traditional Art and Lutherie,” will be 7 p.m., March 14 at Sitka National Historical Park.

Every couple hundred hours a team of Air Station technicians conduct a complete maintenance check on the Jayhawk helicopters. (Emily Russell/KCAW)

It’s been forty years since the hangar doors opened at Air Station Sitka. Since 1977 Coast Guard helicopters have been flying all over Southeast Alaska for rescue missions and medevacs. 

Downloadable audio.

Air Station Sitka is just across the bridge from downtown. After you pass the airport on your left there’s a chain link gate and a little booth.

Lt. Ray Jamros checks my ID and opens the chain-link gate. He’s a helicopter pilot, who pulls double-duty as the Air Station’s communications and external affairs officer.

Jamros takes me inside and up a set of stairs. The walls are lined with 8 by 11 inch frames.

“The whole hallway out here has plaques from different cases and awards the Air Station has received,” Jamros explains.

Portraits of previous Air Station Sitka Commanding Officers line the hallway to the current CO– Chip Lewin’s office (Emily Russell/KCAW)

The original Air Station in Southeast was on Annette Island, 25 miles south of Ketchikan. But Sitka was more centrally located, so the Coast Guard decided to relocate the the base in 1977.

Walking up to the operations center, Jamros points out the gift shop.

“We sell sweatshirts, t-shirts, patches, hats– just some Air Station memorabilia,” says Jamros.

The Coast Guard crew at Air Station- they’re seen as heros in Sitka. But the operations center– it’s not what you’d expect. It looks like the inside of your average office building, but with a few more maps.

One of those maps shows just how much area Air Station Sitka covers.

“We cover all of Southeast Alaska,” Jamros explains. “That includes everything from the Canadian border down south of Ketchikan by Prince Rupert all the way up to Yakutat in the north.”

That’s 12,000 miles of coastline

“So it’s a huge area,” Jamros says.

But many of the rescues happen pretty close to base. A video from a rescue back in April shows one of the most recent rescues.

A 70 year old man slipped and fell while out walking around the old WWII base. It’s less than a mile from the Air Station.

The man is huddled on large, wet rocks. It’s pouring rain.

An Air Station crewmember in a bright orange dry suit helps the man into a wire basket and is then hoisted up safely into the helicopter.

That same day another Jayhawk was deployed on a rescue mission. This time it flew about 10 miles north of town, where a boat was taking on water.

Multiple missions are not unheard of here, which is why Air Station Sitka houses three Jayhawk helicopters.

Two of them are usually on standby, ready to fly at any moment, and one is here, in the hangar. Like your car, Lt. Ray Jamros says, the helicopters need regular tune ups.

“You can see right now that the tail is totally off the helicopter,” explains Jamros. “Sometimes all the blades are off– it’ll look like there’s nothing on it. They tear everything apart, inspect all the parts and pieces and then put it back together.”

And doing some of that meticulous work is Michael Van Berkom.

Michael Van Berkom is an avionics electrician. Every couple hundred hours he and a team of Air Station technicians strip the Jayhawks to the bone. (Emily Russell/KCAW)

Van Berkom is an avionics electrician. Every couple hundred hours he and a team of Air Station technicians strip the Jayhawks to the bone.

“Everything from the most advanced automatic flight control system… to simple things like light bulbs and switches– we test it all to make sure it’s good to go,” says Van Berkom.

The helicopters average 100 missions a year, and the pilots here are always prepared to go out.

“[The] Air Station’s basic mission is readiness for search and rescue,” says Chip Lewin, Air Station Sitka’s Commanding Officer.

“We will always be saving lives,” Lewin said. “We will always be defending our homeland. We will always be protecting the environment and protecting our maritime trade regardless of what’s going on in the rest of the world.”

Like a lot of the other officers here, Lewin joined the Coast Guard to save lives. And he’s come to the right place. In its 40 years of operating, Air Station Sitka has saved over 2,000 of them.

Recruits at the Trooper Academy practice maneuvers getting away from an attacker. The exercise is a lesson in determining what is a reasonable amount of force. (Emily Russell/KCAW)

Twice a year the Trooper Academy in Sitka gets a new class of recruits. Over a 15-week period they go through everything from spelling tests to target practice. They also get close combat training, with the focus on what is and what isn’t a reasonable amount of force.

Downloadable audio.

Inside a room with red padded floors and blue padded walls music blasts through the speakers.

A young guy in grey t-shirt, blue pants and sneakers enters the room. A black padded helmet covers most of his face.

“So he’s getting ready to start,” explains Lt. Chad Goeden. “They video tape the whole thing. He introduces himself to the camera.”

Goeden is the Commander here at the Department of Public Safety Training Academy, known as the Trooper Academy.

Lt. Chad Goeden is the Commander at the Department of Public Safety Training Academy. (Emily Russell/KCAW)

The guy in grey is one of the academy’s 35 recruits. And he’s here for a fight.

The recruit is wrestled to the ground by one of the instructors, who wraps his legs around him.

Finally, the recruit pulls himself away and gets up on his feet. Today’s fight is a test. Goeden and the other instructors are trying to see how recruits respond to a potential attacker.

“When he got away from the attacker, he pulled out his gun. That’s what you’re [supposed to do]?” I ask Goeden.

“Well, what we don’t know is what was the attacker saying to him?” Goeden answers.

From the sidelines, there’s no way to know what the attacker said or did right before the fight. That makes it hard to assess whether the reaction was warranted or not.

Goeden says the same is true with the police videos recorded by the public.

“The public only sees what is on the video, for example and the problem with that is something unique must have happened before that in order for the person to take out their camera and start videoing in the first place and we don’t ever see that. We only see what happens after record is pressed,” Goeden says.

To be clear, he says it’s the public’s right to press record. Goeden even says it’s the officer’s duty to protect that right.

What this training does do is it gives recruits options for how to respond.

Recruit Nikki Hines is from Fairbanks. After she graduates from the Academy in June, she’ll start work with the Fairbanks Police Department. (Emily Russell/KCAW)

Nikki Hines is a recruit from Fairbanks.

“My favorite maneuver that I’ve learned is shrimping, where you basically just inch your way out,” Hines explains. “Your hips are a great tool, just pop those hips and try to inch your way out.”

Hines says she was nervous before going into today’s fight.

“Especially being one of the smaller people, but it’s been really fun, so I’ve enjoyed it.” Hines is 5’2”.

She’s happy here, but Hines knows she’s getting into a dangerous line of work.

Back in October Sgt. Allen Brandt with the Fairbanks Police Department was shot on duty. He died a few days later due to complications.

“After I found out about Sgt. Brandt I thought to myself, ‘I’m going to continue to pursue this and I’m just going to believe in God’s will,'” says Hines.

Hines was hired by the Fairbanks Police Department. After she graduates in June she’ll move back there and start work.

Recruits watch UFC fights while waiting for their own turn at a fight. (Emily Russell/KCAW)

Others on that path to becoming officers and troopers are in one of the Academy’s common areas. They’re sitting around on couches watching UFC fighting. They’re getting pumped up for their own turn at a fight.

Timothy Howell is a recruit from Anchorage. He’s got bruises up his arm.

“Yes ma’am it is. It’s an excellent [exercise].”

He’s training to be a Court Service Officer.

“In my eyes, the court is the house of justice and that is extremely noble,” says Howell. “There’s something about the pursuit of justice and the application of the law that I like to see.”

When asked what it’s been like at the Trooper Academy, Howell smiles.

“It has been phenomenal,” Howell says. “It’s been absolutely excellent. I’m really glad you asked, actually.”

Recruit Timothy Howell is training to be a Court Service Officer in Anchorage, where he’s from. (Emily Russell/KCAW)

You hear this a lot at the Trooper Academy. The recruits– they want to be here. That’s despite how the public’s perception of the police has changed over the years with the rise in violent police videos.

Howell and the other recruits– they know there are risks involved, and those risks begin in Sitka, in a padded training room where officers learn the physical side of law enforcement.

Today’s exercise– it’s about judging what a reasonable amount of force is. That’s the lesson Lt. Chad Goeden wants the recruits to learn and the public to understand.

“There’s no such thing as the least amount of force,” Goeden says. “What is less– if I tase you, or I pepper spray you, or I hit you with a baton, or I punch you? Which one of those is least?” Goeden asks.

“But they’re all reasonable if circumstances make it so.”

And the recruits here– they’re trying to plan for any and all circumstances, for the real world. After all, that’s their duty.

Miss Alaska USA Alyssa London with Tlingit artist Preston Singletary, who designed killer whale formline art for her pageant evening gown. (Photo courtesy of Alyssa London.)

In less than two weeks, Miss USA will be crowned and one of the hopeful contestants is from Southeast Alaska. Twenty-seven year old Alyssa London touched down in Las Vegas earlier this week to prepare for the beauty pageant. She was crowned Miss Alaska USA earlier this year and is the first Tlingit woman to hold that title.

Downloadable audio.

Alyssa London has become somewhat of a spokesperson for her culture. London is the first Tlingit woman to be crowned Miss Alaska USA and on May 14, in front of a television audience of millions, London will showcase those roots.

Her evening gown for the Miss USA pageant is adorned with Tlingit designs.

“So when I walk on stage it will be a Tlingit robe with a killer whale, so Dakl’aweidí formline on the parts that tent out, as the Tlingit robe does,” London explained.

“So I’m really excited for that moment and there’s been a lot of work that’s gone into that.”

The gown’s designer is Joey Galon and the Tlingit artist Preston Singletary is responsible for the killer whale art that adorns it.

London hand selected those two and said she’s been working for months for that moment. That work– it’s not over quite yet.

“So over the next couple of days I’ll go through rehearsals and training practices in order to make sure that I can effectively perform the gown in 20 seconds,” London said.

Showing off months of work in just a few short seconds is stressful, though. London said time management has been the most difficult part of her preparations.

“I’ve been on a time crunch this whole time and it’s been hard to rush everything,” said London.

London was crowned Miss Alaska USA in February this year, and she’s been working and traveling ever since.

“The last few months have been a journey hosting the Reservation Economic Summit for the National Congress of American Indians Economic Development Council,” London said. ‘I’ve gotten to go and meet with kids at the Alaska Native Medical Center. I’ve gotten to meet with our state senators in [Washington] D.C.”

She’s been on the road a lot, but London has found a way to stay healthy. She’s proud of her body, posting photos and videos of herself on social media running on the treadmill or doing squats at the gym.

“I’m just trying to debunk the belief that beauty has to be this extreme fake quest,” London said.

“I’m not even going to have fake nails. It’s just going to be me up there. I hope that [the judges] like that.”

If she wins, London would make history. She’d be the first winner from Alaska and the first with Native American or Alaska Native heritage. At stake is more than a crown, though. She’s got a message, too.

“I’m focusing on empowering women to design the life of their dreams through entrepreneurship, through getting their education because when you pursue your education it opens doors for all of the goals you have for yourself,” London said.

Alyssa London will take that message to the national stage at the Miss USA pageant Sunday, May 14.

Frank Sharp, 85, is a poet from Angoon. His poetry will be published in, “Rhymes and Rhythms,” by the Island Institute. (Emily Russell/KCAW)

Rhymes and Rhythms– that’s the title of a new book of poems written by Angoon elder Frank Sharp. The book is scheduled for release this summer and will have an audio component to it, so readers can hear the poet his own work.

Downloadable audio.

The first time I meet Frank Sharp he’s shoveling gravel into a wheelbarrow.

Frank is 85 years old. He’s a small guy, but he’s not frail. Underneath his navy coveralls it looks like he could still run a five-minute mile.

“Believe it or not I could have been in the Olympics,” Frank says.

I’m here to get his life story, Olympic bid and all. But, when I ask him for his life story he recites one of his poems instead.

“I’ve been a soldier, sailor, killed my fellow man.
Sought peace or religion, drugs every way you can.
I’ve felt the eagerness of youth, frustration in the middle years.
I’ve laughed a million laughs, shed a million tears.”

Frank has written hundreds of poems like this one. He stores them in an old cigar box. They’re beautiful– even better when read by the poet himself. But Frank’s life– it was far from perfect.

Aerial view of Angoon. (Emily Russell/KCAW Photo)

We head inside to his kitchen, which overlooks the ocean.

“Do you want coffee or anything?” Frank offers. “We’ve got some banana bread.”

With hot coffee in our hands, Frank tells me about his childhood in Angoon and Tenakee Springs. He tells me about his father’s taste for whiskey and women.

“My dad was a womanizer. I probably have 12 or 13 brothers and sisters,” Frank says. “I know of several already.”

He tells me about his mother’s many marriages. He even tells me about how popular he was with German women when he was stationed there with the Air Force after World War II.

“So that’s part of the story. You said [to] tell my life. I’m telling you the truth.”

Somewhere in between all that, Frank lived in Kansas City, where he got wrapped up in the wrong crowd.

“I became a gangster there,” admits Frank. “My name was Val Udo.”

If that wasn’t enough risk for one lifetime, Frank has nearly died three times– the first when his boat sank in the Gulf of Alaska, the second when he had a massive heart attack, and the third just a couple of years ago when he was out hunting deer in the winter. At age 81.

On the third day, he followed the sound of an Alaska Airlines flight west out of the woods.

“It’s been quite a life,” Frank exclaims. “I could go on for hours, because I told you, I’ve had so many adventures it’s unbelievable.”

And a lot of those adventures are the subjects of the poems being bound into the book, “A Pioneer Alaskan’s Lifetime of Rhymes and Rhythms.” The book will be published by the Island Institute with links to audio, so you can actually hear Frank recite his own poetry.

“I’ve got a lot to do, yet, but I know my time is running out.
My frosting’s wearing thin, I’m fighting a war I’ll never win.”

There are miles of trails threaded through the forest on Frank Sharp’s property in Angoon. (Emily Russell/KCAW)

But he keeps fighting–  fixing up his home, maintaining the miles of walking trails on his property. I get the sense Frank Sharp has a hard time sitting still.

“I’m still pushing the wheelbarrows up from the beach, though it’s killing me to do it,” Frank says.

“Yeah, why do you do it?” I ask.

“Because it’s there,” he replies.

After a while, though, it’s clear there’s more to the story– like the part about his wife, Alice.

“Oh, now you’ll really get me,” Frank’s voice starts to waver. “I’m already watered up.”

Alice died in 2000 and the thought of her brings him to tears.

“Why didn’t I tell her then what I can’t tell her now?” Frank asks himself.

He’d tell her he loved her, that she was beautiful. That’s Frank’s biggest regret, so he tries to make up for that through his poetry and this property. He wants to be remembered for those things.

He even moved a boulder to make that happen.

“It weighs above 400 pounds and I brought it up and put it there because it was the only gold-looking rock on the beach.”

The gold plaque will be placed on a 400 lb rock Frank Sharp moved up outside of his home in Angoon. (Emily Russell/KCAW)

And on that gold-looking rock there will be a gold-colored plaque. It will be placed right in front of his house with a poem on it.

“The Lord gave this man vision, strength and time to work this land,” Frank reads off the plaque.

It says his legacy lives on in this land. It lives on in people’s hearts, too.

“Through his poems and stories, he led us on many a journey of laughter, fear, love and tears,” it says.

In Rhymes and Rhythms, Frank Sharp lived.

Aerial view of Angoon, located on the western side of Admiralty Island. (Emily Russell/KCAW Photo)

The City and Borough of Juneau is looking to expand its boundaries on Admiralty Island. That island is home to Angoon, a community of about 500 people, some of whom fear a nearby land annexation would threaten their subsistence lifestyle.

A meeting between Angoon and the City and Borough of Juneau was supposed to take place this week, but was canceled at the last minute.

Downloadable audio.

Albert Howard grew up in Angoon. He’s served two terms as mayor,  is now a member of the Regional School Board and serves as vice president of the local tribe.

“I pretty much lived here my whole life,”Howard said. “I know one end of the island to the other because I’ve hunted it with my dad and now I’m hunting it with my son.”

Sometimes they don’t see much on those hunting trips, so Howard talks to his son about the land and their rights to it.

In the late 1970s Admiralty Island became a National Monument, in part because of its cultural significance.  It’s been inhabited by Tlingit people for over 10,000 years.

“Anything that happens on Admiralty Island is for the protection of the indigenous people of the Island. It’s in [National] Monument language and it’s stated that way. You can find it online,” Howard explained.

“It doesn’t say anything about the City and Borough of Juneau,” Howard added. “That’s pretty clear in the language.”

Howard and others in Angoon are worried specifically about a place called Pack Creek. It’s on eastern Admiralty Island about halfway between Angoon and Juneau. Pack Creek is a popular bear-viewing place for tourists and hunting spot for locals.

The City and Borough of Juneau is looking to expand into the red areas (A, B, and D). Pack Creek is within area B. (Map from a memo to the Juneau Lands Committee)

Howard worries if that section of Admiralty Island is annexed, it’s resources could be auctioned off.

“This island belonged to the elders. The elders decided to keep it the way it is and Pack Creek wouldn’t be what is it if our elders decided to let everybody log it,” Howard said.

But Rorie Watt, Juneau’s city manager says that won’t happen. “If land was annexed into the Juneau borough, that does not change land ownership,” Watt explained.

 “So, with the example of Pack Creek, that would be in the Admiralty Island National Monument, managed by the Forest Service. So even if we annexed that, it would not become City of Juneau land. It would still be Forest Service [land] under that management style.”

And that Forest Service land in the Pack Creek area is protected from development since it’s inside a national monument.

So why would Juneau want to annex the land if it can’t be logged or mined or commercially developed?

“There’s a lot of reasons,” Watt explained. “If you look at the state and the constitution, the idea behind it is sooner or later the entire state ends up in a borough.”

So, basically incorporating it before anyone else does.

Alaska’s constitution says the state must be divided into boroughs, either organized or unorganized. A study completed in the 1990s laid out possible borough models.

Article X, Section 3 of Alaska’s constitution requires the entire state to be divided into boroughs, organized or unorganized. Most of Admiralty Island is in an unorganized borough. (Map from a memo to the Juneau Lands Committee)

Right now most of Admiralty Island is considered an unorganized borough and remote residents like it that way. Property owners in Funter Bay on the north end of the island wrote to the Juneau Assembly is February. They don’t want to pay additional taxes or adhere to zoning regulations.

Watt said there’s no way of knowing how much in property taxes this land annexation would bring Juneau, since those properties in the unorganized borough have never been assessed.

There are benefits to being part of the borough, Watt said, like zoning, which ensures the land is managed responsibly.

“What we would say to Angoon or anybody else who had property in the areas that we’re looking at is that we think there is an economic nexus or cultural nexus or recreation nexus between the areas we propose to annex.”

And Juneau representatives wanted to say that in person this week. Watt and other city officials had planned a trip to Angoon, but the mayor of Angoon, Harriet Silva who declined to comment for this story, cancelled the visit.

Watt said it’s still early on in the process. He hopes to reschedule a visit to Angoon and expects to host public meetings in Juneau in the coming months.

Downloadable audio.

Every morning at 9:05 students at Angoon Elementary School start their day reciting days of the week, months of the year and numbers. They do it in English and then in Tlingit.

For the most part, they’re focused, not fidgeting too much. They listen to their classmates and count in Tlingit by heart.

“The Elementary [school] is critical,” said Jim Parkin. He’s been the elementary school principal for three years and worked as Angoon’s high school science teacher for 23 years before that.

“If you want kids to do well in high school, you better build a foundation in elementary,” Parkin said.

Now, though, his job is up in the air.

“I was not recommended for the principal position for next year,” Parkin explained. “I am tenured in the district, so I am entitled to a position in the district, but I don’t know what that will be as of yet. I haven’t been told.”

Jim Parkin has been the elementary school principal for three years and worked as Angoon’s high school science teacher for 23 years before that. (Emily Russell/KCAW)

Anne Connelly teaches kindergarten and first grade at Angoon Elementary.

“My kids– every single day they go, ‘Can I show Parkin, can I show Parkin?’ Anytime they do a math problem that they haven’t done before. They always want to go see Mr. Parkin,” Connelly said at the recent regional school board

 Teachers and staff, parents and even past students all showed up to show their support.

“I know that he cares for the kids,” Connelly said. “I’ve had kids go to the office quite often for behavioral issues, but he works with them, he just doesn’t have them sit there. I mean, he cares for the kids and the progress they make.”

And that progress is clear. According to Parkin, 75 percent of students have improved on their test scores just in the last year.

That’s, in part, thanks to Tracey Thomas.

“I’ve been in the district for five years and I’ve worked side by side with [Parkin] and he is one of the most hardworking individuals I know.”

Thomas choked up at the meeting partly because her own job, as director of Special Education, which may be eliminated and outsourced to SERRC, the Southeast Regional Resource Center, though according to SERRC, there is not contract to do so for the upcoming school year.

“I can’t imagine what it’s going to be like next year going to SERRC,” said Marcie Kookesh. “That scares me and it makes me not want to be here.”

Kookesh is on the Angoon School board. She said she’s frustrated that she and the other local board members weren’t involved in the decision

Kookesh also spoke as a parent. Her daughter, who’s now in fourth grade needed special education services before Tracey Thomas started in Angoon, but she said, the benefit to her youngest son is clear.

“My youngest son is two years younger than my fourth grader he’s been receiving [Special education] services while Tracey [Thomas] has been here these last two years and the improvement is incredible,” Kookesh attested.

The Chatham District’s Regional School Board heard testimonies at it’s most recent meeting in support of Jim Parkin and Tracey Thomas. (Emily Russell/KCAW)

The decisions to not recommend Jim Parkin and Tracey Thomas’s job were made by superintendent Bernie Grieve.

Grieve declined to comment about that decision. After public testimonies, Grieve resigned from the school district, which he said over email was for personal reasons.

Bernie Grieve will start as superintendent for the Kuspuk School District on the upper Kuskokwim River in July. The future for Tracey Thomas and Jim Parkin is less clear, but Parkin says he’s hopeful for his students in Angoon.

“For students who graduate from Angoon school I guess my vision would be knowledge and understanding of the world and of their culture, that they would be fluent speakers of their own language,” Parkin choked up a bit, adding “that they would know their history, their art, and trade skills. That they would be a whole person.”

The final decision on these two positions is expected later this Spring.

Leonty Williams grew up harvesting herring eggs. He says subsistence is in his blood. (Emily Russell/KCAW)

Every spring millions of herring return to spawn in Sitka Sound. The small, silvery fish are prized by commercial fishermen. They sell them for  their eggs, known as herring roe. Those eggs are also coveted by the Tlingit people, who harvest them by anchoring hemlock branches in shallow waters where herring spawn.

But now many are saying the herring is being threatened, some say by environmental change and others by poor management. Other simply question the health of the stock, their branches this year coming up bare. 

Downloadable audio.

Hope– it’s a word Leonty Williams uses a lot, especially when it comes to herring eggs.

“We’re kind of still holding out hope here,” Williams says. “We’ve never had to pull our branches up this late or anything. It’s just never happened.”

I meet Williams next to his boat– a 24 ft fiberglass outboard he keeps docked in town. He’s headed out to Kasiana Island, a couple miles northwest of Sitka. Williams has been setting branches there all his life.

He turns the engine on and lets it warm up.

“It’s probably about ready. Do you want to ride in the front or come in the cabin?” Williams asks.

There’s one plastic white lawn chair in the front that looks like it would tip over with the tiniest of waves. I climb on board and into the cabin.

It’s springtime in Sitka and for once it’s not raining. It’s also pretty warm out, which Williams says is a good sign for the herring.

“The herring kind of wait until usually the water warms up a little bit– to about 42-44 degrees, [that’s when] they start doing their spawning,” explains Williams.

Gulls are often a sign of herring spawn, but Leonty Williams says there are even less gulls. (Emily Russell/KCAW)

Williams is young– just 26 years old, but he’s full of little facts like this. He grew up harvesting herring eggs and as we wind our way through the harbor, he tells me about his family, says subsistence is in his blood.

“Full blood Alaska Native– half Tlingit and my mom is from up above the Arctic Circle, a little village called Noorvik,” Williams says. “She’s full blood Inupiaq, so [I’m] half Tlingit, half Inupiaq.”

He spent the first nine years of his life with his family on an island about an hour from Sitka. It was there that he learned how to hunt and fish and forage.

“This boat actually gets used quite a bit for quite a few different things,” explains Williams. “Seaweed is starting to sprout on the rocks here, so we’ll be heading out to harvest seaweed soon, too.”

He also harvests sea otter, harbor seal, and sea lion from this boat. He’s got a business selling fur hats and slippers. But today, it’s all about herring eggs.

“We started getting a little hopeful once the herring did spawn over towards Middle Island,” William says. “Usually Middle Island hits then and maybe a week or a little sooner after they start moving towards Kasiana [Island], which is where we’re going to go check on them now.”

Once we’re beyond the breakwater, Williams speeds up and over the waves. It’s just a ten minute ride to where he’s set his branches. He swings the boat around into a little cove, where the water is calm.

“Yeah, you’ve got all these islands around this area to protect from the waters,” says Williams.

Buoys are attached to hemlock branches, which hang below the surface. (Emily Russell/KCAW)

The water is dark green, almost black. It’s speckled with your typical bright colored buoys, but others are makeshift, from clear plastic water bottles or old plastic oil jugs.

There are probably 25 to 30 sets of hemlock branches suspended below the surface from these buoys.

“We’ve got four branches set out here. I think we’re just going to try to cruise on up and check out this orange buoy.”

Williams slows the boat to a crawl. He slides open the cabin door and swings around to the front.

“This is a little bit more difficult today. I usually have one or two other people with me,” Williams explains.

He grabs onto the orange buoy and pulls it out of the water, peering down to just below the surface.

“About what I expected.”

The branches are bare. No signs of spawn. It’s what a lot of people have been expecting this year. Elders like Harvey Kitka say the water was so thick with herring it would sound like a hail storm.

Even Williams says he remembers waves full of herring washing up on shore. But now?

“There’s undoubtedly less herring now,” Williams says. “If you want to go back five years, fifty years, one hundred years– there’s undoubtedly less herring.”

The fear is that commercial fishermen are taking too many herring, sweeping up thousands of tons of the silver fish before they can lay their eggs.

Management biologist from the Alaska Department of Fish and Game are supposed to set sustainable limits, but Williams doesn’t think that’s happening.

He’s worried about not getting eggs for his family. He’s worried about hundreds of other who are finding their branches bare.

“I grew up doing this, but there are kids in our culture right now who are growing up and not learning how to do all that,” Williams explains. “It’s alarming.” 

Still, he says, maybe if the water was a little warmer, if the tide was a little lower, maybe we’d see some signs of spawn.

“We’ll see,” Williams says. “Hope is about all we can have right now.”

Williams says he’ll be back to check again in a few days.