Author: Ed Ronco, KCAW

The U.S. Coast Guard visited the cruise ship Westerdam during its stop in Sitka on Wednesday to investigate a reported collision between the 936-foot vessel and some ice on Tuesday evening near Hubbard Glacier.

Today's story on the Wood Frog may have left some listeners with the impression that this was the only amphibian in Alaska ("In Alaska, the Wood Frog is the only amphibian found throughout most of the state"). There are actually four kinds of amphibian in Alaska: Frogs, Newts, Salamanders and Toads. There are two kinds of frog; the aforementioned Wood Frog and the Columbia Spotted Frog. There are two types of salamander too; the Long Toed and the Northwestern salamander. The Roughskin Newt and the Western Toad round out the list. The Wood Frog, as the story accurately states, is the only amphibian north of the Arctic Circle.

The arrival of the Westerdam today (Wed 5-11-11) opened the large-ship cruise season in Sitka. The local chamber of commerce for the last few years has marked the occasion with a special “Welcome to Sitka Day,” with musical performances, cultural dance shows, and catered food – all happening right on the dock. But for those Sitkans who don’t sing and dance, it’s an opportunity to just go out on a spectacular spring day and visit with people who may be seeing Alaska for the first time.

A Sitka retailer has become the 250th book store in the nation to sell Google e-books, similar to the texts people can download on Kindles or other popular devices. That’s a milestone that might be more important to Google than to the general public, but it’s also a sign of a changing industry.

A fisheries trade association is spearheading research to determine if it’s practical to monitor bycatch electronically on some longliners, rather than using human observers. The Alaska Longline Fishermen’s Association has been awarded $220,000 from the National Fish & Wildlife Foundation to study whether cameras can do the job when new rules go into effect requiring observers on all groundfish vessels over 40 feet long. This is on top of research ALFA is involved in to find ways to keep sperm whales away from longline gear.

The electrical department believes part of the power crisis in Sitka may be rates that are too low. "Intelligent price signals" may help slow the rush to convert to electric heat. Discussion of the electric fund dominated Thursday’s special budget meeting (5-5-11). The electrical department is in more or less good shape financially as things stand now, but Sitka is at the very limit of its hydro generation capacity.