Author: Melissa Marconi Wentzel

Close to 100 Sitkans gathered Sunday afternoon for the annual Blessing of the Fleet. The spring ritual honors those who earn their living upon the seas and pays tribute to mariners who have died over the past year.

After lengthy testimony and deliberation Thursday night (3-27-08), the Sitka assembly granted Dove Island lodge a conditional use permit for 8 guests, possibly bringing an end to a multi-year dispute over the lodge’s reportedly unregulated growth. The lodge – and its legal counsel – did not take the restriction lying down.

Eighteen-year-old Jason Abbot was arraigned in Sitka Superior Court Wednesday morning, March 26, on four counts of first-degree murder, and one count of attempted murder in the first degree, following a homicidal rampage in his family's home on Tuesday.

Sitka wilderness manager Mary Emerick chairs the Forest Service's national Wilderness Advisory Group. She speaks with KCAW's Robert Woolsey about how forest users can help ensure that wilderness continues to serve the purposes it is intended for.

The city of Sitka is dropping its objections to proposed Sealaska land selections – for now. The Sitka assembly last night (Tue 3-25-08) failed to pass a resolution opposing three of the regional Native corporation’s selections on the grounds that Sealaska has made a good faith effort to choose less controversial sites.

A humpback whale became entangled in a herring seine during test fishing Tuesday morning (3-25-08) in Sitka. The vessel's skipper notified ADF&G, who notified NMFS, who dispatched local whale biologist Jan Straley to the rescue.

The Department of Fish & Game says it will continue to test-fish for herring – and to hold commercial seine openings, if necessary -- in an area of Sitka Sound considered critical for subsistence. The decision was made over the objection of the Sitka Tribe of Alaska. The herring sac-roe fishery is now on two-hour notice. At a meeting of permit holders, processors, and tribal officials this morning (Mon 3-24-08), ADF&G management biologist Dave Gordon said he had no plans to abandon test fishing, and no authority to close an area.

A Sitka fisherman is facing a possible total loss after his boat was towed out of the harbor and set adrift over the weekend. The forty-one foot wooden troller Sonray was untied from its berth in Sitka’s ANB harbor sometime between 10PM and 11:30 last Friday night (3-21-08), and towed to sea. The Sonray was located about 12 hours later by state troopers at the Apple Islands, pounding against the beach in heavy swell. KCAW’s Robert Woolsey talked with the Sonray’s skipper, Eric Robinson, as he surveyed the splintered underside of his boat Monday morning at the Halibut Point Road haul-out:

Mary Emerick runs the wilderness program in the Sitka Ranger District, and chairs the national Wilderness Advisory Group. Emerick is just back from Washington DC, where she briefed Forest Service chief Abigail Kimball on the Ten-Year Wilderness Stewardship challenge. In the first of a two-part interview, KCAWs Robert Woolsey spoke with Emerick about how the Forest Service’s recently-appointed top officer responded to the idea of measuring wilderness stewardship.