A lot of port calls - and a few close calls - bring Sitkans together in '23

An Air Station Sitka helicopter is salvaged after crashing on Read Island during a rescue mission on November 13, 2023. The aircraft has been sent to North Carolina to determine what went wrong; the four crew members — thankfully — are recovering. (USCG photo)

Usually, looking back on the year’s top news stories involves recalling a lot of not-so-good things that may have happened. In Sitka, however, the list of 2023’s positives is probably a bit longer than the list of negatives. And while our hearts go out to our neighbors in Wrangell who are still reeling from tragedy there, Sitkans showed a strong capacity for working together in 2023, that makes us optimistic for ‘24.

Cruise Tourism

Sitka’s high cruise visitor numbers attracted economic interest from outside of the community. A visiting band called “Tumbleweed Stew” turned out to busk beside the Moose Lodge. In the group’s musical quiver: A converted washtub called a “gut bucket.” (KCAW/Redick)

This is Tumbleweed Stew, a band of rag tag buskers frequented Lincoln Street for a few weeks this summer, playing bluegrass and an instrument called a gut bucket.

Many of our stories on Raven News this year were like “tumbleweeds.” You think you know what direction the story is heading as it blows down the street, but then it takes an unexpected turn. Cruise tourism might be one of those tumbleweeds – a really, really huge tumbleweed. And for a while this fall, it looked like we were headed for a showdown over passenger numbers.

Not everyone was happy about the increased traffic, safety issues, and overcrowding that came with the rapid growth in cruise ship arrivals. Larry Edwards and a group of around 40 other Sitkans filed two citizen petitions to cap next summer’s cruise passenger counts at 240,000 people.

“There have been a number of surveys done that have shown that about two-thirds of people in town think it’s way over the top, and has been for quite a while. It’s been controversial since the 1990s. And nobody’s really ever asked…the people of the city of Sitka what they want, and asked them to vote on some number. This is the first, and someone had to stick their neck out to do it.”
Larry Edwards on his petition to cap the number of cruise passengers visiting Sitka in 2024

Edwards tried twice to get his petition on the ballot, but it didn’t pass legal muster in city hall either time. If it had, we may have had a special election this winter.

The final count is in, and Sitka hit around 585,000 cruise passengers in 2023 – with about the same numbers expected next year. Is this our new normal? Maybe not, because something unexpected happened. After previously saying he wouldn’t turn any ships away, Sitka Sound Cruise Terminal owner Chris McGraw announced that he’s developing a berthing plan to set his own limits.

“Let’s go get our numbers and see if we can slow everything down a little bit. But then also work to catch up our infrastructure, catch up our tours, so that we can meet the demand that that we’d like to see and that is ultimately healthy, in my opinion, for the community.”
Cruise dock owner Chris McGraw, on developing his own berthing plan to curb traffic in 2025

KCAW will be chasing a lot of smaller tourism tumbleweeds, too in 2024: Sitka’s sales tax revenue is up dramatically, and there’s no clear plan yet on how best to spend it. Sitka’s food truck scene is growing all the time, and business startups are entering the tourism market, almost weekly, it seems.

Trolling and the WFC Lawsuit

When the US District Court of Western Washington ordered the National Marine Fisheries Service to halt the Southeast Alaska King Salmon troll fishery, on grounds that it violated the Endangered Species Act, trollers like Rob Bateman began to look for other work. However, on June 21, 2023, the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals stayed the order, allowing trolling to open as usual on July 1. Still, the legal battle — which has not been resolved — left many trollers feeling unfairly targeted in the dispute. (KCAW/Wilber)

While tourism was booming this summer, salmon trollers were singing an entirely different tune. The July 1 troll season almost did not happen. Just a few days before the summer opener, on June 21, the 9th Circuit Court stayed a lower court ruling, and allowed the season to open. The stay bought time for the National Marine Fisheries Service – the actual defendant in the lawsuit – to revisit the relationship between salmon trolling in Alaska and an endangered population of killer whales in Puget Sound in Washington state which preys on king salmon. Given how much fishing goes on all up and down the Pacific Northwest Coast, Southeast trollers felt unfairly targeted.

“Anyone claiming that Southern Resident killer whales are starving because Alaska trollers were taking food from the mouths of their babies would be laughed out of court. That’s what we thought. Yet a judge is recommending that the historic Southeast Alaska troll fishery, which for 100 years has never closed, will shut down this winter. If that happens, the industry will die and so will a large part of Southeast Alaska’s economy.”
Alaska Trollers Association President Matt Donohoe addressing the Sitka Assembly

It was touch-and-go for the troll fleet this season. King salmon and coho prices were in their usual range. But the bottom fell out of the chum market, after three great years, and that was a big hit for the fleet. But trollers don’t troll because they like routine.

“Every year the fish – it’s exactly the same and nothing alike. You’re in the water, you’re dragging hooks. But are they going to hit the herring this year? Or is it going to be this spoon? Or is it gonna be the spoon that you have buried in there that worked 10 years ago that might work now? It’s about the puzzle. And it’s about the fact that our entire year really starts July 1. That’s our New Year: our whole life is centered around that July 1 opener.”
Jacquie Foss in KCAW’s three-part series on trolling

Troller Jacquie Foss was preparing for a summer without trolling when she shared her views about the Wild Fish Conservancy lawsuit with KCAW. “You know, it’s more of a spiritual problem than a financial one,” she said. “Because fishermen are scrappy people. We will always figure out how to make expenses somehow. It’s just…we’d be broken in some way doing that, if that makes sense?” (KCAW/McKinstry)

Home Health

Besides trolling, Sitkans were worried about another big closure in 2023. Earlier this year, the Southeast Alaska Regional Health Consortium unexpectedly announced they’d be closing their Home Health department, which provides Sitkans with occupational and physical therapy, as well as some end-of-life care in the home.

This touched a big nerve in Sitka. SEARHC’s Chief Medical Officer, Dr. Elliot Bruhl told KCAW that it was an administrative change, and they would continue to provide patients with the same services.

“So our intention is not to abandon that care, abandon patients or leave patients who need that type of care without access to those services, it’s just we’re not going to provide it through this department.”
Dr. Elliot Bruhl on the future of home health services in Sitka

The Southeast Alaska Regional Health Consortium may have been unprepared for the amount of pushback on its decision to close the Home Health Department. Although Chief Medical Officer Dr. Elliot Bruhl took pains to reassure the public that home health services would continue uninterrupted, many patients and caregivers — like Cindy Litman (holding a photo of her late husband, Tony) — disagreed. A Town Hall meeting hosted by the Sitka Women’s Club generated many questions, but few answers, as no one from SEARHC attended. (KCAW/Rose)

But this explanation was a tough sell for some. The Sitka Women’s Club held a town hall on the issue, and most participants still had questions, retired physician Marilyn Coruzzi was one of them.

“How can it be the same, if we hear one nurse is available where we had three? How is it going to be the same without much more support and commitment by SEARHC? How is it going to be the same? Give me the details. If somebody’s dying at home, who is going to pronounce the patient, who is going to do the doctor’s orders for pain management?”
Retired Dr. Marilyn Coruzzi at a recent home health town hall

Dr. Bruhl recently appeared before the Sitka Assembly to reassure everyone that patients were receiving the same level of care, but there was still more pushback from several current and former healthcare professionals who doubt this is the case. So where this tumbleweed is rolling is to be determined.

A home for unhoused teens

Same for Sitka’s other big “home health” issue in 2023: Where to locate a residential treatment center for at-risk teens from across the state. Youth Advocates of Sitka received a $2 million federal grant to open a facility, but there was significant neighborhood opposition to a couple of proposed locations.

“I get why people are nervous. There are a lot of unknowns welcoming something like this into your own backyard so to speak. These kids, these young people have been through more than we understand, and it wasn’t their fault. The only hope they have of having a healthy, normal life, is to be in a regular neighborhood and feel like regular people, and learn what healthy is, and what it looks like, and what they could have.”
Wendy Leverett advocating for a YAS teen treatment center

In a rare move, the assembly overruled the Planning Commission, and allowed the project to move forward at a duplex on Halibut Point Road, although two neighbors have since filed a lawsuit to block the purchase.

Four survive Coast Guard helicopter crash

An Air Station Sitka helicopter rests inverted on the beach at Read Island, after crashing during a rescue mission on November 13. The crew of the Lydia Marie — the vessel the helicopter was sent to rescue — safely anchored and came to the aid of the crash survivors. “It was just people helping people at that point,” said the Lydia Marie’s skipper, Logan Padgett. In a way, even the “bad news” of 2023 in Sitka had a way of unexpectedly turning toward something more positive. (USCG photo)

Chances are, when a helicopter from Air Station Sitka takes off it’s a training flight, but it could also be a medevac to town without an airport, or a search and rescue mission, like it was the night of November 13, when a crew from Air Station Sitka took off in rough weather for Frederick Sound to respond to a sinking fishing boat. But things didn’t go as planned. Logan Padgett was one of the fishermen they were helping that night.

“Well, it was it was dark. So we were just looking at the helicopter lights and there wasn’t really much to see. But we could hear the rotors one second, and then loud crash the next. Then silence…”
Logan Padgett, skipper of the Lydia Marie

Padgett and his brother, Levi, were anchored behind Read Island, and out of danger. They turned on the boat’s crab lights and saw the helicopter upside down in the woods just off the beach. Logan and Levi rowed ashore and assisted the four surviving crew all night until more help arrived. “It’s just people helping people at that point,” he told KCAW.

Sitka’s ‘Homeward Bound’ story: Stella

Some situations – especially in Alaska – quickly become about survival. This year, one of Sitka’s ultimate survivors was Stella. Stella is probably equal parts survivor and miracle. She’s a 13-year old golden retriever who was spooked by fireworks last summer, and went missing for 65 days.

“He said, do you have a golden retriever? And Jerome said, Well, we did have a golden retriever. And he says, Well, I think this is your golden retriever. She was on this cliff side and it was basically this ash and rock that was the same exact color as her. She totally blended in. The fact that Tim saw her – I just kept saying to him, how did you see her?”
Sara Mahoskey on finding their golden retriever Stella after she disappeared for 65 days

Long scars across Stella’s belly pointed to a run-in with a bear. And it wasn’t her first close call. Stella was in the cab of her dad’s truck in 2015 when it was crushed in the Kramer Avenue landslide. She was safely rescued both times, and happy to be the tumbleweed who tumbled home again.

Spooked by fireworks, Stella, a 13-year old golden retriever, survived 65 days on her own in the wild — skinny, and with a long scar likely the result of an encounter with a brown bear. (KCAW/Redick)

Unexpected visitors and ‘whale soup’

While reports of gray whale strandings along the Pacific coast have jumped since 2019, there’s at least one place where these whales seem to be thriving. Hundreds of gray whales migrating from Mexico to their Arctic feeding grounds are stopping in Sitka along their route.

“If people have been seeing them, they’re seeing whales rolling around and playing with each other. They’re seeing a lot of feeding behavior, a lot of social behavior. Some people are seeing what looks like mating behavior.”
Dr. Lauren Wild on Sitka’s gray whale visitors

We don’t know what will happen in the future with these new visitors, or what the implications are for the West-Coast gray whale population as a whole, but for now, it seems that this struggling population has found a haven in Sitka feeding, socializing, and even mating, as sail boat captain Blain Anderson observed.

“It was all supposed to happen down to Mexico, but it does seem like they’re continuing their frisky ways up in – as we call it – romantic Sitka Sound.”

Not exactly a tumbleweed, but some tumbling to be sure.