Author: Robert Woolsey

Pacific halibut stocks are low right now, the commercial quota and sport harvest guidelines have been cut, but the outlook for the species is promising. That’s according to Bruce Leaman, the director of the International Pacific Halibut Commission, the scientific and regulatory body which keeps watch over halibut numbers. Leaman was in Sitka this week (6-25-08) to work with his port sampler, and to meet with halibut fishermen as they landed their catch at local processors. He stopped by KCAW to talk with Robert Woolsey about the IPHC’s involvement in the charter bag-limit lawsuit, and other important halibut issuesh.

Silver Bay Seafoods is now a land owner in Sitka’s Sawmill Cove Industrial Park. On a split vote, the Sitka assembly last night (Tue 6-24-08) handed over five acres of industrial waterfront, a dock, warehouse, and bunkhouse to the two-year old start-up company.

Sitka’s own Russian folk music band, the SitNiks, performed a benefit concert under the Crescent Harbor Shelter during the lunch hour today/yesterday before a crowd of tourists and locals alike to raise money for the Alaska Day Exchange Concert. Raven Radio’s Ken Fate attended and produced this audio postcard. You can contact the Alaska Day Committee if you are interested in helping with the Alaska Day Exchange Concert.

Some of the best recipes in the world can’t be found in cookbooks. At Dog Point Fish Camp, traditional ways of gathering and preparing food are learned hands-on. Andi McDaniel spent the weekend there to investigate.

“Resource damage” isn’t a very pretty term, but that’s what the Forest Service says is happening to fish habitat in the Starrigavan Valley. Increased all-terrain vehicle traffic in the last couple of years has churned up new – and unauthorized – trails in the valley. And the tributaries and stream bed of Starrigavan creek itself are bearing the brunt of the impact. The watershed is home year round to juvenile coho salmon and dolly varden trout, and is an important spawing area for pink salmon and steelhead. KCAWs Robert Woolsey recently took a walk through the valley with Forest Service fisheries biologist Perry Edwards.

The fuel distribution company Delta Western progressed towards its goal of installing a new fuel dock on Japonski Island Tuesday. During their last meeting, the Planning and Zoning Commission approved changes to zoning language that will pave the way for a facility there.

Sitka Counseling and Prevention Services is one step closer to moving onto the Sheldon Jackson College campus. The Planning Commission last/Tuesday night signed off on a minor subdivision of the campus that could become the mental health agency’s residential treatment program. But first, the Planning Commission has to approve the project, something they failed to do during Tuesday’s meeting.

Sitka kindergarteners will begin the next school year on the same daily schedule as last year. The Sitka school board Tuesday night (6-17-08) defeated a controversial plan to extend the kindergarten day by forty-minutes, but agreed to reconsider the idea later this fall in the hope of reaching consensus on how best to improve student achievement in the early grades.

Work has begun on Sitka's first off-leash dog park. The Dog Owners Group (DOG) started to put up the fences for the park last Saturday (6-14-08) at the Turnaround. The work party was open to the public, but not all the public who showed up were totally behind the project.

Devoted paddlers from Sitka and beyond donned their spray skirts Saturday (6-14-08) to compete in the second annual Sitka Sound Ocean Adventure Race. Andi McDaniel brings back this report.