KFSK - Petersburg

The state’s commercial fisheries industry went from $1.48 billion in 2019 to $1.04 billion in 2020. That’s a loss of 35% from the recent five-year average.

GCI’s customers have lost ABC, FOX and CW networks in many communities connected to the company’s fiber-optic system.

The COVID-19 relief bill signed into law this week includes $300 million for fishery assistance nationwide.

The bill creates a marine debris response trust fund for clean up and aims to reduce plastic waste entering the ocean with grants for studying waste management and mitigation.

On the east coast, these hardy crustaceans are known as aggressive eaters and have meant millions of dollars lost in fisheries for clams, mussels and scallops. The crab are destructive to eelgrass beds, which are important to young fish. They’re also known to eat juvenile salmon and could compete with native Dungeness crab.

Legislation introduced by Alaska’s congressional delegation this fall would grant over 23,000 acres each to five new urban Native corporations, in Petersburg, Wrangell, Haines, Tenakee and Ketchikan.

The Alaska Department of Fish and Game is forecasting a harvest of 28 million pinks in the region next summer. This year’s catch wound up at 8.1 million pinks, roughly the same harvest as two years ago.

Petersburg’s assembly extended a health order that measure requires pre-approval before cruise and other passenger ships can tie up.

A sizeable portion of the hillside above Mountain Point on the Kupreanof shoreline has been cleared of trees and mud.

The policy is for travel by any means off Mitkof Island — by plane, boat or ferry.