Author: Melissa Marconi Wentzel

The state Department of Fish and Game’s preliminary guideline harvest level for the 2008 Sitka Sound Sac Roe herring fishery is the highest ever. Still, fishery managers say they’re being conservative. Meanwhile, the Sitka Tribe of Alaska is calling the commercial quota “shocking”, and predicts it will jeopardize the subsistence herring egg harvest.

Research published this week (12-13-07) in the journal Science indicates that a well-known parasite may threaten wild Pacific salmon stocks to a much greater extent than previously thought. Sea lice reared in British Columbia’s salmon farms are spreading to -- and killing – wild runs of juvenile salmon. News of the Science study is being met in Alaska’s fishing community with renewed concern over salmon farming. In Sitka, the assembly wasted no time in passing a resolution supporting the protection of wild salmon. Robert Woolsey (with help from Steve Heimel, Anchorage, and Joel Southern, Washington DC).

The purchase of the 200-acre University benchlands will go ahead as planned. The Sitka assembly (on 12-11-07) voted down a proposal from the mayor to cancel the $3-million dollar purchase, in the hope that development costs can be kept to a reasonable minimum, and that Sitkans could have access to some of the last, prime residential real estate in town.

Assemblyman John Holst cited his growing consulting business as the reason for his sudden resignation from Sitka's governing body. But, friction with the mayor -- in plain view Tuesday night (12-11-07) during debate over the benchlands purchase -- may also have been a factor in the timing of his decision.

An ornament handcrafted by Sitka artist Tommy Joseph is adorning this year’s White House Christmas Tree. The Northwest Coast-themed ball is sharing space with over 300 other holiday ornaments representing the country’s national parks.

Sitka residents came out en masse to participate in International Coastal Clean-Up Day Saturday [September 20th], beach combing for garbage on a nearby island, in Sitka National Historical Park and even underwater, dumpster diving in one of the local harbors. The event was sponsored locally by the Sitka Conservation Sociey, the National Park Service, The Sitka Global Warming Group, and the Sitka Chapter of Turning the Tides.

Sitka voters this October will fill four municipal seats – two on the assembly and two on the school board. The four candidates who have filed for those seats met for the first election forum of the season this week at the Sitka Chamber of Commerce luncheon on Wednesday (9-23-09).

Extended interview with House District 2 candidate Reber Stein of Sitka.

A top official with the U.S. Department of Agriculture will be in Sitka on Friday to meet with community leaders.