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Southeast Alaska spring troll fishery shut down for lack of king salmon
100+ KFSK by Joe ViechnickiThe spring season for commercial salmon trolling in Southeast Alaska is shutting down Monday, May 29 except for a few areas near hatchery salmon release sites. The spring season began in May and was to run through the end of June. However, poor returns of king salmon are prompting the closure.
King numbers are low for wild stock fish returning to the Stikine River near Wrangell and Taku River near Juneau as well as some other mainland rivers. Early catches of hatchery kings have not been strong either.
Grant Hagerman, the Alaska Department of Fish and Game’s troll management biologist for Southeast said region-wide the hatchery king catch has just been 14 percent of the overall harvest. That’s well below recent averages.
“Hatchery fish are also down as well in addition to those wild fish and so with these fisheries designed to target those hatchery fish, without really having many of those in the catch and concerns for those wild fish at this point, we felt like it was no harvestable surplus on those wild fish and any fishery, directed Chinook fishery for troll, or incidental harvest in other salmon fisheries, basically being the chum fishery that we wanted to limit that and basically closing this fishery does that,” Hagerman explained.
The season is closed starting Monday, May 29th until further notice. Hagerman said this is a first for a region-wide closure.
“This has happened in individual spring areas,” he said. “We did have an area near Ketchikan last year close for several weeks for this for conservation concerns. But a region-wide closure for a fishery like this has not happened before.”
Fishing remains open in some terminal harvest areas around the region, where hatchery salmon are returning. Those are at Neets Bay north of Ketchikan, Anita Bay near Wrangell, Port Armstrong and Hidden Falls on Baranof Island and Deep Inlet near Sitka. [Full Report]
3 things for Alaskans to know about Trump’s budget
KTOO by Liz Ruskin, Alaska Public Media1. President’s budget doesn’t actually open the Arctic Refuge to oil drilling. Congress would have to pass legislation to let the rigs in. But a president’s budget is about vision as well as numbers. Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke made that clear as he discussed the ANWR portion of the document.
“The president has used the term ‘energy dominance,’ and quite frankly Alaska is important, if we’re going to reach dominance, Alaska is important. And that pipeline is extraordinarily important,” Zinke told reporters.
The budget assumes ANWR revenues would begin in 2022 and total $1.8 billion over 10 years.
2. The budget, as expected, has deep cuts, especially for rural Alaska. The president proposes to cut more than half of the funding for the Denali Commission. According to one of the supporting documents:
“The rationale for a unique and additional Federal subsidy to Alaska is difficult to justify given that the State of Alaska’s oil revenues allow it to pay an annual dividend ($1,022 in 2016) to each of its residents.”
The budget would also zero out a $20 million program for Alaska village water systems, slash funds for Alaska Native education and housing, and eliminate subsidized flights under Essential Air Service. [Read the 3 thing here]
Artist receives grant to replicate Annette Island basketry
KRBD by Maria DudzakKandi McGilton is a beadwork artist from Metlakatla. Three years ago, she decided to take up basket weaving. She spoke with master weaver Holly Churchill of Ketchikan, who introduced McGilton to Churchill’s mother, master weaver Delores Churchill.
“Because I’m Tsimshian and they’re both Haida, Holly realized right away that I was having a hard time weaving Haida-style. And her mom, Delores, actually learned Tsimshian-style weaving from some of the past ladies of Metlakatla.”
McGilton says the Tsimshians weave clockwise, and the Haida, counterclockwise. She says each of the Churchills are teaching her different skills.
“Delores, she’s really good at the Tsimshian style. And Holly, she’s a really phenomenal teacher with all the technical aspects of weaving a basket.”
McGilton says the Annette Island weaving style is unique among the coastal people. She says it is not only different from Haida and Tlingit, but also from other Tsimshian styles.
“And the big difference with that is the ladies of Metlakatla, Alaska used a ‘z’ twist instead of an ‘s’ twist, like other Tsimshians normally use.”
McGilton says that changes the entire look of the basket. She says the Annette Island Tsimshian also borrowed features from other tribes. [Read the full story]
Oregon burrito shop run by white women shuts down amid accusations of cultural appropriation
The closure of Kooks Burritos comes a week after its owners, Kali Wilgus and Liz “LC” Connely were featured in the popular Willamette Weekly, Fox News reported. The weekend pop-up shop, initially housed in a taco truck, was an immediate hit when they first started dishing out their Mexican-inspired cuisine after a trip to Puerto Nuevo last December.
“I picked the brains of every tortilla lady there in the worst broken Spanish ever, and they showed me a little of what they did,” Connelly told the Wilamette Week. “They told us the basic ingredients, and we saw them moving and stretching the dough similar to how pizza makers do before rolling it out with rolling pins.
While the shop had already been opened for months, the May 16 profile prompted harsh critiques and editorials that further fanned the outcry.
“Because of Portland’s underlying racism, the people who rightly own these traditions and cultures that exist are already treated poorly,” an article in the Portland Mercury reads. “These appropriating businesses are erasing and exploiting their already marginalized identities for the purpose of profit and praise.”
Mic.com also offered commentary: “In less than six months, Wilgus and Connelly have managed to build a business. And depending on how you look at it, their methods are either genius or the latest example of white folks profiting off the labor of people of color.” [Source]
Trump travel ban blocked; fight headed for Supreme Court
WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump's revised travel ban "speaks with vague words of national security, but in context drips with religious intolerance, animus and discrimination," a federal appeals court said Thursday in ruling against the executive order targeting six Muslim-majority countries.
Trump's administration vowed to take the fight to the U.S. Supreme Court.
In a 10-3 vote, the U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals for the 4th Circuit said the ban likely violates the Constitution. And it upheld a lower court ruling that blocks the Republican administration from cutting off visas for people from Iran, Libya, Somalia, Sudan, Syria and Yemen.
The Supreme Court almost certainly would step into the case if asked. The justices almost always have the final say when a lower court strikes down a federal law or presidential action.
Trump could try to persuade the Supreme Court to allow the policy to take effect, even while the justices weigh whether to hear the case, by arguing that the court orders blocking the ban make the country less safe. If the administration does ask the court to step in, the justices' first vote could signal the court's ultimate decision.
Ilya Somin, a law professor at George Mason University, said if the Supreme Court follows a partisan divide, the Trump administration may fare better since five of the nine are Republican nominees. Still, he said, it's difficult to make a confident prediction because "Supreme Court justices don't always vote in ideological lockstep."
The first travel ban issued Jan. 27 was aimed at seven countries and triggered chaos and protests across the country as travelers were stopped from boarding international flights and detained at airports for hours. Trump tweaked the order after the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals refused to reinstate the ban.
The new version made it clear the 90-day ban covering those six countries doesn't apply to those who already have valid visas. It got rid of language that would give priority to religious minorities and removed Iraq from the list of banned countries. [Story]
Scientists have worked out why flamingos stand on one leg
Flamingos are well-known for standing on one leg - but, until now, no-one has been entirely sure why they do it.
One theory was that they did it to help regulate their temperature, as putting both down when stood in water would draw away more body heat.
However, researchers now believe they have found an alternative answer. According to a new study published in the Royal Society journal Biology Letters, it actually requires less effort for a flamingo to stand on one leg than it does on two.
"We demonstrated that flamingo cadavers could passively support body weight on one leg without any muscle activity while adopting a stable, unchanging, joint posture resembling that seen in live flamingos," they wrote.
"By contrast, the cadaveric flamingo could not be stably held in a two-legged pose, suggesting a greater necessity for active muscle force to stabilize two-legged versus one-legged postures.
"Our results suggest that flamingos engage a passively engaged gravitational stay apparatus (proximally located) for weight support during one-legged standing." [Source]
[Dumbest Law Ever]
Australia Passes Bill That Would Fine Parents Who Don't Vaccinate their Kids
Parents who don’t vaccinate their children will be $14-a-week worse off, with $28 set to be wiped from their family tax benefits every fortnight.
The measure, which will start from July 2018, is expected to raise $15 million over four years, while sending a tough message to those who fail or refuse to immunise their children.
Social Services Minister Christian Porter and Health Minister Greg Hunt said last week that reducing fortnightly payments instead of withholding the end-of-year supplement would serve as a constant reminder to parents to vaccinate their children. [Full Source]
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