KUCB - Unalaska

Scientists have finished another research season without solving the 40-year-old mystery of the Steller sea lion decline in the Aleutian Islands. But this summer, a team from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration may have found a new clue.

For five years, Sharon Livingston has organized “Camp A”, where first-, second- and third-graders immerse themselves in traditional stories, crafts and foods. By encouraging kids to explore Unangan culture, she said they learn to see the value in cultures of all kinds.

Blue king crabs around the Pribilof Islands are getting their first major assessment in more than 30 years.

“To the Aleut people interned at Funter Bay and their descendants, who continue to carry this burden, I am sorry,” Wes Kuhns of U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service told a small crowd at the St. George community center.

Starting Monday, the U.S. Coast Guard is holding two weeks of public hearings as part of its investigation into the sinking of the F/V Destination.

In a statement released Monday, PenAir officials said the Chapter 11 reorganization won’t affect scheduled flights in Alaska, where the company serves eight communities: Unalaska, Cold Bay, King Salmon, Sand Point, Dillingham, St. Paul, St. George, and McGrath.

Sand Point faces a problem with its police force: It doesn’t have one any more. In just three weeks, all its officers resigned. City Administrator Andrew Varner said the first officer wanted to be closer to a spouse who is in the military. A week later, two more officers, a married couple, left because of a “family decision.”

Before sending a $6,000 drone to record aerial footage in Unalaska, Emmett Fitch warned the pilot he might want to reconsider one thing. “It was black with a white body,” Fitch recalls. “I said, ‘That looks a lot like an eagle. We should maybe paint it a different color.’”

Counting Atka mackerel became really important when Steller sea lions were declared endangered in 1997, according to National Marine Fisheries Service Biologist Suzanne McDermott.

Wreckage from the F/V Destination has been found off St. George Island. The boat and its six crew members were fishing for snow crab when they disappeared Feb. 11.