Volcanoes behaving badly: Mount Veniaminof, an 8,225-foot peak 25 miles southwest of Chignik Lake and 485 miles from Anchorage which first rumbled to life in early June of this year, is again showing signs of elevated activity, spitting at least one cloud of ash and steam into the air earlier this week and featuring higher levels of seismic activity and surface temperature. One plume on Monday rose to a height of about 12,000 feet, according to the Alaska Volcano Observatory. Meantime, NASA recently flew over the volcano and snapped a spectacular satellite picture showing the way that fresh ash is painting the peak, topping off the snow falling at the higher elevations of the mountain.
Surge of coho boosts bag limits on some Mat-Su streams: Sometimes silver is as good as gold -- at least when it comes to Southcentral Alaska anglers seeking salmon. After another disastrous year for king salmon fishing, the Pacific's second-largest salmon species are surging into northern Cook Inlet. So many, in fact, that the state has issued an emergency order increasing the bag limit to three silver salmon a day, and adding an extra day of fishing on the usually weekend-only Mat-Su Valley streams of Fish Creek, Cottonwood Creek and Wasilla Creek. Farther north, things are looking bright as well -- with the Deshka River seeing eye-popping 8,000 silvers through its weir on Tuesday. Anchorage's urban fishery, Ship Creek, is also seeing good catch rates for silvers.
New "Alaska State Troopers" season to start: The National Geographic Channel's "Alaska State Troopers" will begin its fifth season on September 5. The show that Alaska Dispatch writer Craig Medred loves to hate follows the daily work of troopers across the state. In a press release, Nat Geo said this season will contain semi drama-packed segments like, "Suspicious behavior at a gas station leads Troopers into a showdown with a suspect who locks himself into a bathroom in what looks like a last-ditch attempt to destroy his drugs," and another, "when a brown bear takes over a remote village dump, (Trooper) Sgt. Dobson must fly in to mediate." There was no word on whether Dobson's efforts at mediation involved the people, the bear, or both.
Alaska rowers make record medal haul in Italy: The Anchorage Rowing Association nabbed six medals to lead the U.S. rowing delegation at the World Masters Games in Torino, Italy, last week. The group nabbed two golds and four silvers. Kenai's Alaska Midnight Sun Rowing Association also took home a silver and a bronze medal. The World Masters Games are held every four years for athletes older than 27. The Anchorage Rowing Association practices at Sand Lake, in West Anchorage. Not only are these Alaskans fast, they're compassionate: While training for Italy earlier this year, the group's members rescued a loon after its beak was pierced with a fish hook and it became entangled in fishing line.
Trident picks Georgia for fish plant: The hot, humid Deep South seems like an expensive place to try to keep frozen fish filets cold, but, Alaska fisheries blog Deckboss reports that Seattle-based Trident Seafoods, a major player in Alaska's highest-volume commercial fisheries, has chosen Carroll County, Ga., as the location for a new $41 million value-adding seafood plant. The plant will create 175 jobs in the town of Carrollton, near metropolitan Atlanta. Workers there will add value to frozen fish filets and filet blocks by "producing portion-controlled frozen seafood products, as well as a diverse variety of battered, glazed, breaded, fryer- and oven-ready frozen items," according to the Georgia governor's office. Alaska's effort to jump-start such value-adding seafood industry in its largest city failed and ended up one of the state's biggest boondoggles.
Crews from two vessels rescued in Southeast: It was a double whammy for the fishing fleet in southeast Alaska, after two boats went aground overnight, prompting rescues by other Good Samaritans but no injuries. The Pacific Queen, a 75-foot tender, hit bottom and took on water 40 nautical miles south of Petersburg, Juneau's KTOO reports. The Windham Bay rescued the skipper and two crew members as a U.S. Coast Guard helicopter arrived. The U.S. Coast Guard also reports that the fishing boat Coral Sea hit bottom at 4:30 a.m. near Gourd Island west of Ketchikan. The Time Bandit rescued five crew members who had abandoned ship.
Occupational safety researchers' funding in danger: The National Institute of Occupational Safety and Health's Alaska Pacific Office, which collects statistics on commercial fishing deaths and works to mitigate the supposed causes, survived the chopping block last year, but its future remains uncertain, the Alaska Journal of Commerce reports. The agency was to be cut in a proposed fiscal year 2013 budget, but survived when Congress used a continuing resolution for government spending instead of adopting President Obama's proposal. Under the continuing resolution, the program was funded at the same level as the year prior, although it was subject to sequestration. But funding hasn't been decided for the 2014 fiscal year that begins Oct. 1, and the president's proposed budget once again calls for cuts while Congress' version would not eliminate the money. The NIOSH's Alaska Pacific Office is responsible for fishing vessel safety nationwide, despite its Alaska location.
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