The Alaska House of Representatives is working on a resolution that would develop a task force to look at entry practices in Southeast Alaska’s sportfishing. On September 15th there will be a roundtable event at Centennial Hall (as well as on Zoom), where experts from sportsfishing and other fishing communities will discuss ideas on the topic based on current research. Alaska State Representative Rebecca Himschoot joins KCAW for the Morning Interview to discuss more of the specific presentation topics, as well as how community members can get involved.

Are we gonna need a bigger pier? That was one question presented to the Gary Paxton Industrial Park board of directors last week (1-12-23), as it discussed how to get Sitka’s highly anticipated marine haulout project off the ground. 

Last fall, just over 80% of Sitka voters approved $8.2 Million in city funding to build a haulout at the city-owned industrial park. The facility will serve the fishing fleet, which currently has no way to pull large vessels out of the water for maintenance, locally. 

But the language voters approved for the haulout wasn’t highly specific– the main requirement was a travelift that can haul up to a 150 ton boat out of the water.  That leaves a lot of the design up to city and industrial park officials.

One unanswered question is how wide the haulout’s pier should be. GPIP director Garry White told board members that a wider pier could expand the haulout’s customer base.  

“I had a conversation this week with a representative from Allen Marine, they suggested that if we made it wide enough to accommodate their boats, they would use the heck out of this haulout and they need 32 [feet],” White said. “So somewhere we gotta settle on how wide our piers are going to be. And I think that’s going to take some more discussion,” White added, saying that he originally suggested 25 feet, but now he’s leaning toward 32.

A wider pier would likely cost more money, though it’s not clear how much. The industrial park’s board has yet to vote on the question or consider detailed proposals. Development is essentially on hold while the city works to hire a project manager.  

But there’s still plenty to talk about in the meantime, and White said the more specifics the board could nail down, the less money they’d end up paying a consultant down the line. In an hour-long discussion with city staff, board members considered everything from the recommended width of the pier, to how many washdown pads the facility will include, to exactly where the lift will be located in the park. City Administrator John Leach said one main thing to remember was they would never be able to build a structure that serves every possible user.

“We know this envelope 97% of our vessels fall in. And if we can serve that 97%, just in that first chunk, you know, then there are little add on pieces after that,” Leach said. “Yes, we would hear everything. But initially, we’ve got to get the one that fits the biggest need.”

White, the park director, said next steps include goal setting, a joint work session with the Port and Harbors Commission, and lots and lots of public input as the city designs the new facility.

To learn more about the work NWF is doing visit their website or contact Kindle at kindle@nwf.org. To get in contact with Jackson or learn more about SEACC, email matt@seacc.org or visit the SEACC website.

The Alaska Food Policy Council has awarded Sitkan Marsh Skeele an Alaska Food Hero Award. Skeele is a co-founder of the successful community supported fishery, Sitka Salmon Shares.

He and his business were one of three awardees chosen from a pool of 17 nominees. Alaska Food Policy Council board member Diane Peck says they were chosen for making a sustainable impact on Alaska’s food system, strengthening the local food system and improving Alaska’s health, prosperity and self-reliance.

“Marsh and the Sitka Salmon Shares are part of many activities that advocate for sustainable fishing practices and environmental stewardship, but they’re also clearly walking the talk,” Peck said. “And they’re improving the fisheries and food systems in Alaska.”

Skeele is a second-generation fisherman who grew up fishing out of Sitka and Port Alexander. During his first season trolling on his own boat, he met co-founder of Sitka Salmon Shares Nic Mink and decided to buy into the company. It’s now one of the largest community supported fisheries in the country, and Skeele has a lot to do with that. They buy seafood from small fishermen and sell it directly to consumers around the country.

“Through fishing and building the company, I think we’ve been able to build something that I see as really the future for fishermen across Alaska and potentially other places,” Skeele said.

Skeele said he’s humbled and gratified to receive the award, and he’s proud to be part of a community of food heroes in Sitka and Alaska working to make the food system more sustainable.

Erin McKinstry is a Report for America corps member.

All along Alaska’s coastline, there are few sights more familiar than a fishing boat plowing over the waves and out to sea, diesel engine rumbling, while a trail of bluish smoke hangs in the air. But this year, keen observers will notice an odd duck on the waters around Sitka — the town’s first hybrid electric fishing boat, working the nets in near silence. 

On a recent afternoon, Fabian Grutter eases his boat, the Sunbeam, out of its slip in Crescent Harbor. If you listen closely, you’ll notice something is missing: No chugging, roaring diesel engine. In its place, the whir of the electric motor. It’s remarkably quiet, at least until Grutter puts it into gear a little too quickly and slips a belt. 

“You have to be careful not to throttle up too quickly, there’s just so much power instantly,” Grutter said.

This is only the third time Grutter has taken the Sunbeam out under electric power, and there’s still a lot to get used to. Joining us today is Grutter’s two year-old son, Vinden. Decked out in a red life jacket, he’s already earned his tiny sea legs, having accompanied his dad on many fishing trips. And, like a good first mate, he wants to take a look under the cabin floor at the new engine setup. 

“Do you wanna look down there too Vinden?” Grutter asked. Vinden nodded. “Ok but Dad’s gotta go down too cause that’s a long way down there. Yeah it’s exciting, isn’t it?”

Grutter has been fishing his whole life, and he’s had the Sunbeam for 20 years. He’s also a self-described electric vehicle enthusiast, and five years ago he started the project of hybridizing his fishing boat. He thought an electric motor would work particularly well with gillnetting, which involves a lot of idling, when a diesel engine is least efficient. 

“Basically hanging around the net for 18 hour days, 15 hour days,” he said. “You don’t really push anything hard so the electric motor’s ideal for that.”      

Grutter makes it all sound pretty casual, but this is not your average science fair project. First of all, it’s cost him over $30,000 in  batteries, motors, wiring, and a computer system to make the whole operation spin. And that’s not figuring in the countless hours spent bringing his dream to fruition. 

“I’m just constantly on Google and the internet and asking questions and stuff and then calling these different people and stuff,” Grutter said. “And I kinda purposely did it, bought stuff from different people so I could get different information from different people. Different opinions.”         

Five years later, he’s got Sitka’s first hybrid electric fishing vessel, albeit with a few kinks left to work out. He’ll be able to charge the 70 kilowatt battery bank off the diesel engine, or by plugging in to shore power at the dock. Grutter will still use the old engine for hustling to and from the fishing grounds, but once he sets the net, there’s enough juice to fish all day under electric power. 

He estimates that’ll translate to a 30 to 40 percent reduction in fuel use and engine hours, and a near total reduction in noise while he’s fishing. 

It turns out that Fabian Grutter is not the only one experimenting with hybrid technology. The Washington State Ferry service is converting its three largest ferries to diesel electric drive, part of a statewide effort to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.

Matt von Ruden, director of vessel engineering and maintenance for the Washington State Ferries, says ferries are a natural fit to work as plug-in hybrids, because they generally travel short, repetitive routes at predictable speeds. 

“You know if you’re plugging in you want a repeatable route where your operational profile is very steady,” he said. “Your distance has to be fairly limited, ten miles or so is probably about where you want to be at his point.” 

Ten miles wouldn’t get you very far along most Alaska Marine Highway routes, but it’s more than enough for the quick hop across Puget Sound from Seattle to Bainbridge Island, for example. That means even though the ferries will still have diesel engines, they’ll be able to operate some routes on battery power alone, using their time at the dock to recharge.  

Von Ruden says there are over one hundred battery-operated ferries worldwide, and that number is increasing rapidly as more countries embrace the technology.   

“Primarily it’s been in Scandinavia up to now, and now it’s expanding more into Europe and North America,” von Ruden said. “Just becoming more and more common for ferry vessels in particular.”   

In the fishing industry, however, Grutter’s hybrid gillnetter is still an outlier. On a recent afternoon he took it out for its third sea trial under fully electric power. 

Grutter doesn’t plan to use the electric motor for cruising, but today he flexes it anyway, to see how fast it’ll go. 

“That is probably, oh, 30 kilowatts, 25 to 30 kilowatts,” Grutter said as we accelerated through the harbor chop. “At that speed I get about a little over two hours from the battery bank. Six knots right now, 6.2.”    

Soon, though, it’s time to head back to the dock. Grutter doesn’t want to push the electric motor too hard just yet. Also, the first mate is getting sleepy — we’ve cruised right through Vinden’s naptime. 

The next item on Grutter’s agenda is installing a second electric motor to power the boat’s hydraulic fishing gear. He plans to have the Sunbeam’s hybrid drive ready by the start of the fishing season in March. 

Southeast Alaska’s winter troll season for king salmon has gotten off to a little better start in 2019. 

Commercial landings and number of fish caught are up from last year. However, both still lag behind five- and ten-year averages for this point in the season. 

Perhaps the most encouraging sign was the opening price of $12 per pound. Alaska Department of Fish and Game biologist Grant Hagerman says that’s the highest starting point on record.

“At this time last year the price had increased over the first month and it was just under 12,” Hagerman said. “So it’s pretty similar to last year. But starting out at 12 dollars is the highest that we’ve had on record.” 

Hagerman suspects the price may be a simple case of supply and demand following a less productive summer season. 

“With a lower abundant year, I think with just catch ceilings throughout the west coast down for the summer fishery, there may not have been as much fish hitting that market in the summertime,” he said. “And so there might be more of a demand for these winter kings now.” 

Over 5,700 chinook have been caught so far. District  13 — off the west coast of Baranof Island — has seen the highest number in Southeast, with close to 2,000 fish. 

The average weight of 11.5 pounds is consistent with the ten-year average. 

Effort is also up this year across Southeast, with 188 permits compared to 141 at this time last year.  

Governor Walkers looks out over Sitka Sound, as trollers pass by calling for him to not sign a Pacific Salmon Treaty that would further cut Alaska’s allocation. The salmon fleet organized a boat parade and rally to send that message. (Emily Kwong/KCAW photo)

Sitka’s salmon fishermen are worried about the state’s strategy for renegotiating the Pacific Salmon Treaty. That’s the document between the United States and Canada that allocates the king salmon harvest across borders and expires at the end of the year. As KCAW’s Emily Kwong reports, the fleet took to the seas yesterday (06-20-18) to send Governor Bill Walker a strong message not to sign “a bad treaty.”

Downloadable audio.

Governor Bill Walker’s agenda in Sitka was pretty straightforward: meet with the mayor, speak at a conference, hold a campaign rally. He expected that. What he wasn’t expecting, was this.

(Fireworks crackle)

(Fishermen chanting: Let us fish! Let us fish!)

Three dozen fishing vessels are parading along Sitka Sound on a blazing, sunny day. They’re blaring boat horns and shooting off fireworks. Perched on the bow, troller Cavan Pfeiffer has an orange traffic cone against his mouth, a makeshift megaphone. He shouts, “Governor Walker! We need you! Stand up!”

Aboard F/V Sword, troller Caven Pfeiffer used a traffic cone to amplify his voice. He shouted, “Governor Walker! We need you! Don’t forget about Southeast.” Another troller simply shouted, “This treaty is killing us Governor.” (Emily Kwong/KCAW photo)

Salmon fisherman are worried the Governor will agree to a Pacific Salmon Treaty that deepens cuts to Alaska’s king salmon fishery. Standing with a group of conservationists and fisherman to greet the Governor’s vehicle, Eric Jordan said, “It’s a tough time for trollers.”

“There are things going on out here in the ocean. I fished all morning, got up at 3 a.m. in the morning and was out there in the fog and stuff for one fish,” he said.

King salmon populations are crashing across Alaska and no one knows why for sure. In response, the Board of Fish passed a conservation plan for Southeast in January and limited fishing at certain rivers. While Jordan supports those measures, he said he and other trollers cannot afford to lose more fish. “We’re willing to make the sacrifices written into the treaty. But we’re not willing to just arbitrarily have our share reduced,” he said.

Sitka troller and former Board of Fish member Eric Jordan calls for Governor Bill Walker’s leadership on this issue. Walker told him he’s been talking with Commissioner Sam Cotten and said, “I’m here to say hello and hear your concerns.” (Emily Kwong/KCAW photo)

Alaska’s negotiation team does not consider a reduction arbitrary. ADF&G Deputy Commissioner Charlie Swanton told trollers and processors at a Chinook Symposium in Sitka last month that the proposed cuts were carefully negotiated with Canada, as part of a strategy to protect endangered stocks in Washington state’s Puget Sound — and to avert a potential federal takeover of the fishery under the Endangered Species Act.

While Sitka trollers are on board with taking their share of cuts to protect fish runs in this region, they’re tired of taking the fall for problems elsewhere. The Sitka Conservation Society’s Heather Bauscher said the state needs to prioritize Alaskan interests. “Where are the positives? What are the things that are being done to support this region?,” she asked.

After arriving by car, Walker took in the whole scene. He waved to the vessels, listening to the words being shouted from the decks. He stood in the street and spoke with the group assembled. He told them, “We’re going to try to get the best deal that’s available. I’m known for doing bold things and so I’m not a very good follower of this is the way we’ve done it in the past necessarily.”

Walker did not elaborate on what that meant, but lingered looking at the water for a few minutes more. We then walk into a restaurant, where there’s a single customer eating a buttered scone. It’s Lieutenant Governor Byron Mallott. 

Walker greets him heartily and they confer on the boats still circling the harbor outside. Walker said he’s keeping an open mind on the Pacific Salmon Treaty as treaty negotiations are still ongoing.

“Well, I have nothing to sign at this point. What I like to do before I make any decisions on anything is I like to hear from all different sides of it. So, that’s the beauty of being in Sitka today and the graciousness of those who have come out to express their opinion. I celebrate that,” Walker said.

Governor Bill Walker and Lieutenant Governor Byron Mallott wave to the troll fleet demonstrating in Sitka Sound. The pair are running for re-election as independents, in a race with competitors on the left and the right. Elections are November 6th. (Emily Kwong/KCAW photo)

What Walker is not celebrating is a potential trade war with China. News broke of China’s retaliatory tariffs on American goods on Friday (06-15-18), including 25% on seafood imports — though not to secondary processing. Walker will meet with U.S. Department of Commerce next week to illustrate what a blow this would be to Alaska’s seafood industry and plans for a natural gas pipeline.  

“We have probably the largest trade opportunity with China from the United States and that’s in our liquefied natural gas. That’s about an $8 to $10 billion dollars export per year and we believe there’s about 100 years of supply. That’s about a trillion dollars,” Walker estimated.

Fresh last month’s trade visit to China, Walker believes a deal between the two nations can be brokered before the tariffs take effect.  “I think there’s a deal to be made. I really do. And I think Alaska could likely be a part of the deal,” he said.

Walker said he and Mallott also sent a message to the White House, calling for an end the practice of separating children from their parents at the U.S./Mexico border. The Congressional Delegation has spoken out as well. Walker called the separations “intolerable.” Mallott spoke to the history of Alaska Native children being separated from their parents to attend boarding school.  

“I was one of those and as a young person, you don’t think about the anguish and grief that just had to have caused your parents. Now to reflect upon it, it almost takes me to my knees. So I understand fully what’s at stake here,” Mallott said.

Ellie Green naps in her stroller, donning a Stand for Salmon hat — a campaign to protect spawning habitat. It’s been a perfect storm of challenges for salmon fishermen and processors in Southeast: low returns and changing ocean conditions, restrictions made at the state level, and now, the potential for seafood tariffs in China. (Emily Kwong/KCAW photo)

Walker listens intently to Mallott talk about this. The two men had an usual road to statewide public office, merging on an independent ticket in 2014. They speak in turns about the tough choices they’ve had to make and how their professional relationship has only grown. Walker said, “We chose each other. We weren’t an arranged marriage as a result of an election or a primary. We chose each other and we remain that way.”

They’re entering this election season with the raceway crowded. Former Senator Mark Begich filed to run as a Democrat, which means voters will have choices on the left and the right — led by former Lieutenant Governor Mead Treadwell and former state senator Mike Dunleavy. As an independent, Walker said they’ll have to work harder to win a three-way race. But his strategy is to shoot down the middle with a bipartisan message. He said, “We’ll continue to be who we are.” 

An earlier version of this story said there were two dozen troll vessels in the water. That number was closer to three dozen. 

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. 

“I find myself constantly identifying as being fisherman, and then realigning myself and being like, ‘I don’t really do a whole lot of money making anymore. I haven’t pulled a whole lot of fish in the last year,'” Nash admits.

That’s because Iris is a new mom. Her son turns two this year and she’s pregnant with her second child. To answer some of her questions about balancing being a mom and co-managing a fishing business, Iris sat down with Sarah Jordan. Sarah also married into a fishing family and raised her own two sons aboard the family boat.

Downloadable audio.

Iris: When your kids were old enough to be out on the boat with you, what did you do to keep them entertained?

Sarah: Well, at the point that there were two of them, they always played together. Although, sometimes it would start out fun wrestling and then the boat would lurch and someone’s head would smack into something and then they would be crying and then I’d have to separate them. We had to have this no wrestling rule, which they didn’t like. I’d say, “Hey, if I have to separate you, somebody’s going in the fo’c’sle and somebody’s going on the back deck and it’s raining, so you don’t want to be the person out on the back deck.”

They’re really both excellent readers because that was one of the main activities on the boat– you read all your library books and then you read all your brother’s library books and then you read your mom’s library books and you read your dad’s library books. So , yeah, the reading was a really important aspect of it.

Iris: Were they occupied enough where you were able to help more on deck? Was that something that you were interested in? Were you wanting to be more on deck?

Sarah: Oh, I was always the deck boss. That’s what I wanted to do. I never wanted to steer the boat. A lot of wives and women on boats, that’s kind of their main job, but I didn’t enjoy it. I just wanted to be out landing fish– just land fish and clean fish.

Iris: Yeah, I’d much rather be in the pit, just doing my own thing, head down, but there are these really strong gender divisions. I feel like I signed on for a life where my husband is ultimately in charge of all things boat.

Sarah: There’s a built-in safety thing. When the skipper says, “Go do this,” or “I need you to do that, right now,” you don’t stop and say, “but I did it last week so it’s your turn to do it now and it’s not fair.” No. It’s safety.

Iris: Did you find the transition [from] deckhand to mother to be really challenging mentally, that transition of roles? 

Sarah: After I got to the point where, for a lot of reasons, I didn’t physically want to be on the boat, I wanted to be doing shore support– the first year our accountant called us and he said, “I need your days at sea,” for doing income taxes. And I said, “I didn’t have any days at sea last year,” because you get this grocery allowance. I said, “I’m shore support. I’m only changing the oil on the boat and bottom painting and laundry and groceries and cooking casseroles and doing the books.” And he goes, “Only? Sounds like you’re the glue that’s holding the operation together.” And I [said], “well, thank you.”

Iris: That is nice. That’s a nice reminder.

Sarah: You know, when you’re going through it at the time it’s like the days are long, but the years go by fast. When your kids are adults, they’re thankful that they know how to work hard. We don’t get paid by the hour. You get paid by the pound, and I just know that both of my sons know the value of hard work and they know that the harder they work, the better they do. On the boat you’re always instilling in them, you know, okay you get this job done [and then] you look around. Something always could be scrubbed.

Iris: Yeah, just instilling that in them through real life. Nowadays I feel like I’m a pretty young mother– I’m 23 and my son is a year and a half and I feel really good that my son will remember the day that we pay off our boat. That was the first loan my husband and I ever took out and we did that together. We made this for ourselves.

On Monday (09-22-15), Sean P. Pilutik, age 20, and Daniel B. Rasmussen, age 19, pled guilty in Sitka District Court to molesting or impeding salmon. Pilutik is from Auburn, WA and Rasmussen is from Chimacum, WA. The men were fined $210 each.

Also on Monday (09-22-15), Bryce Phillips, age 22 of Juneau, pled guilty in Sitka District Court to one count each of taking a doe in closed season and unlawful possession and transport. Phillips was fined $1250, placed on probation for one year, had his hunting license revoked for one year, and forfeited the shotgun used to take the dear. Sean Barclay, age 31, pled guilty to one count of unlawful possession. He was fined $500 and placed on probation for one year.

Updated 5 p.m., 09-11-12

Alaska Wildlife Troopers responded to several wildlife violations in Sitka this month.

Last Thursday (09-03-15), James “Mitch” Cowan, age 65, posted an internet advertisement that a big game trophy was available for sale. Cowan was attempting to sell a mounted set of moose antlers. Under Alaska law, big game trophies can not marketed or sold, except through special permission of a court, in the adjudication of an estate or similar legal settlement. Troopers seized the antlers and Cowan was issued a summons to appear in court.

On Saturday (09-15-15), two Washington men were cited for one count of molesting fish. According to the troopers, Sean P. Pilutik, age 20, and Daniel B. Rasmussen, age 19, were “smashing spawning salmon” on Indian River on September 3rd. The men were allegedly harming the fish using rocks in the stream. Under Alaska law, it is illegal to interfere with or molest salmon in any way during spawning. The arraignment for both men is September 22nd in Sitka District Court.

And on Monday (09-17-15), Alaska Wildlife Troopers Sitka Post responded to a report of a gunshot along Granite Creek Road in connection with a deer in the area. According to the Troopers, Bryce B. Phillips, 22 of Juneau, shot a doe out of season near a roadway. Phillips killed the doe prior to the September 15th opening for does and did not have a valid hunting license. Phillips allegedly hid the deer in the home of Sean A. Barclay, age 31, who was charged with unlawful possession after he assisted in cleaning and hanging the deer. Phillips was charged with counts of Taking a Doe in a Closed Season, Unlawful Possession, and Hunting without a License. His firearm and deer were seized. Both men are set to appear for arraignments in Sitka District Court on September 22nd, 2015.