thedutchharborfisherman

New sponge unearthed in Bering Sea canyon

Fri, 09 May 2008 11:25:00 -0800

Greenpeace has announced that its 2007 exploration of the Pribilof and Zhemchung sea canyons unearthed a new species of sponge.

The group has named the inch-long off-white sponge Aaptos kanuux '97 "kanuux" is the Unangan word for heart.

"If you squint a little and use your imagination it looks a little like a heart," said John Hocevar, an oceans specialist with Greenpeace.

The lumpish specimen makes an unlikely poster child, but Hocevar says that the discovery of a new species strengthens Greenpeace’s campaign to protect the canyons from some, or all, fishing activity.

"This discovery highlights how unique the canyons are and underscores how little is known about the deep sea," Hocevar said. "It’s less about this particular sponge or saying that this particular sponge is critical to the ecosystem."

"Clearly we know very little about what lives in these canyons, never mind how they’re connected to each other, never mind how important they are to fisheries," he said.

Greenpeace has requested that the North Pacific Fishery Management Council consider restricting fishing in the area of the canyons before, but the request was turned down due to lack of information. The canyons had never been explored, and little was known about what was there to protect.

Then, in the summer of 2007, the Greenpeace vessel Esperanza spent eight weeks in the Bering Sea, using manned submarines and a remote-operated vehicle to delve into the canyons.

Hocevar said that the mission found seven coral species and 14 sponges that had never before been found in the Bering Sea, including a pale, golf ball-sized sponge recovered at 700 feet down the Pribilof Canyon. That sponge, along with 19 other samples, were sent to Helmut Lehnert, an independent sponge taxonomist in Germany.

Lehnert spent about two months identifying the sponges by examining their spicules, or skeletal structure. About two months after receiving the samples, Lehnert confirmed that he had found a new species. He is preparing a formal description of the species for publication.

Hocevar said that Greenpeace hopes that the discoveries, along with evidence of damage from trawling and long lining in the canyon, will compel the NPFMC to reconsider protecting the canyons. He said that Greenpeace would like to see the area closed to all fishing, but at the very least bottom trawling.

The council meets in June and has no current plans to discuss the canyons. However, members of the public can raise issues at the meeting that are not on the agenda.

Hocevar said that Greenpeace intends bring up the topic but noted that "so far the council has not been receptive to efforts to formally present either our findings or a proposal to protect these areas."

Gerry Merrigan, of Prowler Fisheries in St. Petersburg, is a member of the council and sits on the North Pacific Research Board, which determines what research proposals will be funded.

Merrigan said in an e-mail that he was critical of Greenpeace’s argument for closing the canyons to fishing.

"Greenpeace did a very opportunistic sampling program ... in hopes of finding something/anything that might serve their agenda to shut down fishing. This is not a scientific hypothesis," Merrigan said. "Just because Greenpeace calls their agenda ‘science’ doesn’t make it so."

Part of Greenpeace’s official mandate is to encourage governments to set aside 40 percent of the world’s oceans as "marine reserves" '97 areas that are closed to all fishing.

"What’s needed is a more precautionary approach, considering how little we know about the deep sea," Hocevar said. "It’s been a little frustrating so far getting the council to consider these findings, but I’m hopeful that they will incorporate this new research into their management plans."

Victoria Barber can be reached at (907) 348-2424 or toll free at (800) 770-9830, ext. 424.

Unalaska band ices a blistering performance at Disneyland

Fri, 09 May 2008 11:25:00 -0800

For The Dutch Harbor Fisherman

Twenty-eight Unalaska City High School band students and six chaperones set out last month for a combined trip of Disneyland Magic Music Days and the Region II Music Festival.

The airport was full of loud talking, laughter and hugs for family members and promises of Disney souvenirs for friends. The excitement was palpable.

Then we all stepped off the plane into Orange County in California. Sweaters were shed with jubilation and sunglasses unpacked for the first time in many months.

A few van trips later and we were at our hotel in Anaheim, a good 15-minute walk from Disneyland. We spent the first day ignoring the construction noise and testing of the fire alarms at the hotel and headed to the swimming pool.

Finally, after a good night’s sleep, we awoke the next morning for our first day in the land of tomorrow, the past and fantasy. The group walked to the entrance to the park, flip-flops smacking the pavement and the smell of sunblock rising off everyone. We waited outside of Disney’s California Adventure for the gates to open and proceeded to the Tower of Terror for our band’s first Disney ride.

After our first ride as a group, the band students were given a meeting time, and we split up into groups. The band members who had gone two years previously tried to convince the freshmen and sophomores that rides like California Screamin’ and Space Mountain really weren’t half as terrifying as the Tower of Terror.

One of the best things about band trips, and especially Disney band trips, is that you are almost forced to split into groups of people you might not normally hang out with. Friendships and blisters were formed our first day, and the consequences of both can still be seen a week after Disney.

The second day, we woke up a little later, as we were going to Backstage Disney as soon as we arrived. A quick scan of everyone’s footwear soon revealed that only a few diehards were still wearing flip-flops, and we proceeded to make our more sensible approach to Disneyland on our second try.

The students had loaded up a van with their concert black-and-white dress clothes, instruments and music, and one of the chaperones, Lynn Norstadt, drove the van to Backstage Disney so our concert things would be ready when we needed them.

The students and chaperones all met at the entrance to Toon Town, and we were soon greeted by a Disney staffer named Melissa. She was wearing black and white as well and telling us she would probably have to change into a different black-and-white shirt later, once the concert was over.

She led us to the entrance to Backstage Disney, not far from Minnie’s house. A small sign by the entrance stated "staff only."

We were asked not to take any pictures when we reached Backstage Disney, and she explained Disney spent all of its money making the park a beautiful and magical place, and we were soon able to see that Backstage Disney did not have the same air as the park at all.

We saw the place where they launched the fireworks for the show at night, and we saw the extra cars for the rides, and the best thing so far '97 free water.

Melissa promptly told us she did not want us to dehydrate on our way to the concert and wanted us to drink as much water as possible. We complied with her wishes so quickly and in such large quantities, they were soon obliged to run for more water and fill the water containers with ice instead, which we all munched on while we waited for the water.

The students were directed to change into our dress clothes and come back out to grab our instruments. And thus, with a cup of ice in one hand and our instrument in the other, we tuned in the blazing heat of the California sun rising off the blacktop of Backstage Disney.

If we had thought we had felt uncomfortable before with the blisters on our feet from our flip-flops, it was nothing to cramming our feet into tight, shiny closed-toe dress shoes and feeling new sore spots coming through.

Tuned and ready to go, we walked through Backstage Disney to the back of the Carnation Garden Plaza, the place where we would play our concert. The heat in Backstage Disney could not even compare to the heat on the stage beneath the canopy.

The crowd was bigger than the last time we had come to Disney, or at least there were more people there to watch other than chaperones and a few parents who had been in California at the time.

We played our four songs, "Invicta," "Pocahontas," "Rhythm of the Winds" and "Cartoon Symphony" better than ever before. The students stood up to the applause hoping the audience wouldn’t see the backs of our shirts sticking to us like glue.

The walk back to our changing area was perhaps even more uncomfortable because of the extra sweat we had accrued in the plaza.

However, we changed, went back to the park in search of a long water ride and came back to Melissa in a few hours for our "tuning session." Melissa taught us things about music we might have already known, and some things we didn’t know.

As she was hired as a vocalist in Disneyland first, we even convinced her to sing a song for us before we left.

The park awaited. We spent two more days in Disneyland, then packed up and headed back to the airport, peeling skin and all.

Once the band and its chaperones reached Anchorage, we all immediately went to the Extended Stay in downtown Anchorage. The night there was somewhat frustrating for the people participating in Solo and Ensemble because we could not practice our instruments in a hotel room as we were politely reminded by our neighbors via the front desk calling our chaperones.

The 5-1/2 hour van ride to Nenana went very well. Almost everyone was in a van they had chosen for themselves. A lot of the way was spent sleeping.

Once in Nenana, we all hopped out of the van to see that snow did indeed still exist in some parts of the world. We unpacked our things into our rooms '97 Mrs. Haken’s kindergarten class for the girls, and a classroom in the high school end for the boys. Later, we all drove in our vans to the Student Living Center and had dinner.

We were then split up into groups, those in Honor Band and those in Mass Band. One from our group was able to participate in Mass Choir. The eight-hour days of playing our instruments and only breaking to eat and sleep were grueling, but everyone from the Unalaska band was up for the challenge.

We played for our judges the last day of the festival and were given second place in our region, a title made even more special because our band did not rank last year.

The Solo and Ensemble people performed for the adjudicators the night before, and one judge said, "I certainly know now where students need to go if they want to be serious musicians."

Kaia Machalek, Erin Dickson and myself received Superior ratings for the solos, and all three of us are going to State in May.

A final concert for the town of Nenana and anyone else who might wish to watch their children perform took up much of the last night. Some students who had received superior ratings were given command performance and performed at the last concert.

At four in the morning we all woke up and loaded back into the vans. The trip to Nenana had been much louder than this one, which was spent sleeping the whole way to Anchorage.

Band trips are always fun to go on, but this one, my last one, will always be my favorite.

Megan Lane is a 12th-grade student at Unalaska City School, where she plays flute in school band.

Sparrows of Shishmaref sing happily far from their normal range

Fri, 09 May 2008 11:20:33 -0800

For Alaska Newspapers

Just in from Shishmaref science teacher Ken Stenek: On this late April day, two house sparrows are singing their little hearts out while perched on the metal roof of the Shishmaref School.

This is unusual, because the closest brethren of the tiny birds are at least several hundred miles away, with most of the population many thousands of miles away.

Stenek, who for the last decade has lived in the village on the exposed sand spit just above the Bering Sea, saw a group of about five birds near the school last October. At least two of them seem to have survived a harsh winter in the windy village, and birders have taken note.

The "house sparrow is a very rare visitor anywhere in Alaska, with only a few records in the state," wrote renowned birder David Sibley on his blog.

"Interestingly, one of the few prior Alaska records comes from Gambell, on St. Lawrence Island, in mid-summer about 15 years ago. So the question is whether these (Shishmaref) birds, at the very western edge of Alaska, came from North America or Asia."

House sparrows are one of the most common birds in the Lower 48, but they don’t normally occur farther north than about Fort Nelson, B.C. The same species occurs in Asia but thousands of miles southwest of Alaska.

Stenek first identified the Shishmaref sparrows when he e-mailed a photo to Dan Gibson, an ornithology research associate at the University of Alaska Museum of the North. Gibson replied: "Where in the world did you get those pictures of house sparrows?"

In Fairbanks, from his office at the museum, Gibson said that if house sparrows are indeed residing in Shishmaref, they might have reached there from the Russian Far East. Though naturally occurring populations of house sparrows do not exist close to northeastern Russia, people have introduced the house sparrow to communities there several times in the recent past.

People brought a few house sparrows from Moscow to Provideniya in the early 1990s, Gibson said. Shortly thereafter, a group of researchers on a birding fieldtrip to Gambell found a dead house sparrow in the dump there and brought it back to the museum in Fairbanks. It was only the second specimen of a house sparrow from Alaska; the other was a bird found in Petersburg.

As for the Shishmaref sparrows, Gibson had many questions on how such a bird survived the winter in a place with such brutal weather.

"What are they doing to sustain themselves during the winter, where are they roosting, where are they feeding?" he asked. "I would have expected a bird like that to perish during the winter."

He thinks that the Shishmaref sparrows are probably from one of the communities in eastern Russia where people imported and released them in the recent past. Another researcher has a theory that the Shishmaref birds are the result of range expansion, but Gibson doubts that.

"I think it’s unlikely this would be a case of natural range expansion in Asia, because of the absence of appropriate habitat and a good travel corridor," he said.

Stenek has a guess that the birds couldn’t have survived a trip across the Bering Strait, and that they may have hitched a ride in one of the many large boxes on a barge that came up last fall. Right now, the origin of the birds is a mystery, and the two male house sparrows sing from the roof of the Shishmaref School, calling for a mate that probably isn’t there.

Ned Rozell is a science writer at the Geophysical Institute, University of Alaska Fairbanks.

Statewide photography exhibition winners announced

Fri, 09 May 2008 11:20:00 -0800

Alaska Positive 2008, a statewide photography-as-art exhibition organized every two years by the Alaska State Museum in Juneau, opened with a reception on Friday, May 2.

The Alaska Positive show was juried by Bill Owens, a photographer known for his depictions of American lifestyles, most notably in the landmark book "Suburbia" published in 1972, showing life in a new California tract-house development.

Owens selected 56 photographs by 42 photographers for the Alaska Positive exhibit. Overall, 80 Alaska photographers from 10 Alaska communities submitted 267 photographs for the competition.

The top award, the Juror’s Choice Award, went to Bonnie Landis of Anchorage for a photograph titled "Rooftop." Second- and third-place cash awards went to Ben Huff of Fairbanks and Deanna Lampe of Juneau. Brandon Hauser of Juneau received a fourth-place award.

In addition, 10 other photographers were given honorable mentions. They are: William Heath, Kenai; Ben Huff, Fairbanks; Jayne Jones, Kenai; Pat Kalbaugh, Juneau; Barbara Kelly, Juneau; Clark James Mishler, Anchorage; Tama Phelps, Anchorage; John Schwieder, Anchorage; Nathaniel Wilder, Anchorage; and Carol J. Zeien, Seldovia.

Commenting on the exhibition, Owens said, "There were about 270 photographs to look at, and from that number I had to select the best first, second, third, and fourth place and 10 honorable mentions.

"As a photographer who is always involved in the documentary image, I was looking for the winners to be people who had a big vision of Alaska, and the winner was a landscape image with an abandoned building that had the composition and color, the mountains, and the mist and spoke to me over other images where the photographer failed to get the composition right, the subject material was not interesting, or the making of the image wasn’t really thought through.

"One thing that was conspicuously absent from the group of photographs were photos relating to other humans '97 a dynamic portrait. There were only a handful of portraits of people in their environment. The images tended to be random, not really giving me the photographer’s point of view of concern for the environment, or concern passion for other human beings.

"It is time for photographers to move on to photographing our environment and to show the impact that we have on the land and the sea. Today, with global warming being real, it is time for us to evaluate our lifestyles and to become concerned about how we live. Photographers should show this environment."

Alaska Positive 2008 will be on exhibit in Juneau through Oct. 18. It then begins a one-year tour of other museums in Alaska.

For more about the Alaska Positive and its winners visit online http://www.museums.state.ak.us.

DNA links Alaska Natives to ancient glacier man

Fri, 09 May 2008 11:20:33 -0800

Seventeen Alaska and Canada Natives have been linked by DNA to an ancient man whose remains were found in 1999 in a glacier.

Among the first to be notified last week was Juneau resident Fernando Rado, who found out on Thursday, May 1, he is one of them.

Rado was one of 250 Native people tested for a DNA match in a project sponsored by the Champagne and Aishihik First Nations and Sealaska Heritage Institute.

The DNA results show nine people from Alaska and eight people from Canada are related to the ancient man, named by tribes Kwaday Dan Ts’inchi (Long Ago Person Found).

"It’s kind of overwhelming and it’s kind of very exciting because I feel like I’m related to a piece of time in history," said Rado, an Eagle Killerwhale whose family is from Klukwan.

Hunters found the remains in a melting glacier in British Columbia, and scientists believe he died roughly 200-300 years ago, possibly longer. He was wearing a spruce-root hat and a robe made of squirrel skins.

In 2001, a DNA study was launched to determine whether Long Ago Person Found had any living descendants in Canada and Alaska. Mitochondrial DNA was extracted from blood samples given by Native people in Canada and Alaska.

Of the Alaskans related to him, three are affiliated with CAFN and have been notified by the tribe, including Rado, who believes his mother enrolled him with the Champagne tribe.

The remaining six Alaskans have yet to be notified, and Sealaska Heritage plans to work with CAFN to locate them. Their identities will be kept confidential unless the individuals authorize public release of their names.

Fifteen of the people identified themselves as Wolf or Eagle moiety; two did not identify their moiety.

It’s not a huge surprise Long Ago Person Found is related to tribes from both Alaska and Canada. Oral histories and genealogical studies have shown there were migrations of Southeast Tlingits into the Interior and of Interior Natives to Klukwan.

There were also intermarriages between the two tribes. It’s also known that people from the Yanyeid'ed (Wolf) clan live in both Alaska and Canada.

"Alaska Native oral traditions talk about extensive contact between Southeast Natives and Canadian tribes," Dye said. "Oral histories also indicate Native people did travel from Southeast to the Interior and from the Interior to Southeast. So, the test results really just strengthen that bond that already existed between Alaska and Canadian tribes."

The news has strengthened Rado’s ties to Canadian Natives, too.

"With this information, I need to go and visit the Champagne tribe, because there’s a whole piece of family that has 100 percent enlarged my family," said Rado, also a shareholder of Sealaska, the regional Native corporation for Southeast Alaska.

Long Ago Person Found may have been from Southeast Alaska. One study found more than 90 percent of the protein in his diet was from marine sources.

That study, by the University of Glasgow, concluded he "had strong coastal connections during his life and had been on the coast shortly before he died about 550 to 600 years ago."

Some Southeast Alaska Natives believe him to be Kaakaldeini, who was immortalized in oral traditions. Many years ago Kaakaldeini was hurt while traveling to the Interior to trade.

When a storm rolled in, he told his companions to leave him, fearing if they carried him, they would go too slowly and all die in the storm. His companions piled blankets on him and left, and he was never seen again. Kaakaldeini was of the Sockeye Clan.

Cancer survival handbook aims at Alaska Natives

Fri, 09 May 2008 11:20:33 -0800

The best defensive weapon of choice for Alaska Native cancer survivors is a return to traditional subsistence food.

In a world gone awry with high-fat, processed food, scientific health studies show that a cancer-fighting, low-fat, low-processed diet can be found locally for Alaska Natives '97 indigenous people with the highest cancer death rates in the country.

In fact, the evidence is so powerful that the Alaska Native Tribal Health Consortium has built a book, "Traditional Food Guide for Alaska Native Cancer Survivors," around the research.

Beyond its role for cancer patients, the book serves as a practical guide to wild food available throughout the state.

"The traditional food guide is not only for Alaska Native cancer survivors and their medical providers, but (also) for everyone who enjoys the natural foods from Alaska’s lands," said Desiree Simeon, a Tlingit nutritionist from Ketchikan.

Co-authored by Simeon, Christine DeCourtney and Karen Mitchell, a Yup’ik, the full-color spiral-bound book has an initial press run of 3,000. The co-authors work in the consortium’s cancer program.

"It’s the first of its kind," said DeCourtney, the consortium’s cancer program planning and development manager. "It’s healthy eating for all people."

The book, available for $24.95, is being distributed statewide by the consortium so that Alaska Natives have one of their first opportunities to not only see traditional subsistence food move center table in the cancer fight but also read about the nutritional value that scientific research has assigned to it.

"The book is very informative," said Patricia Bunyon, a Yup’ik elder from Hooper Bay. "I eat some of the Native foods described in the guide but did not know a lot about some of them, like gumboots, and some of the plants gathered from areas other than the Y-K area."

Developed with grant money from the Lance Armstrong Foundation, the 142-page book also received financial support from the consortium, the Alaska Cancer Survivorship and Wellness Program, Alaska Regional Hospital’s Cancer Care Center, the American Cancer Society, the Intercultural Cancer Council, the National Cancer Institute’s Cancer Information Service, Seattle Children’s Hospital and Regional Medical Center and the state’s Comprehensive Cancer Control Program.

Two years in the making, the book was an idea in the development stage since reports on nutritional information regarding traditional Alaska Native foods became available about 10 years ago, said DeCourtney.

"I always thought that information would be so valuable to someone someday," she said. "Now it’s going to be distributed to every Alaska Native cancer survivor in the state."

DeCourtney said that all Alaska Native village clinics, libraries and regional hospitals in the state would be sure to get copies for distribution.

"Of course, we want them to go to people who will use them," she said. "It’s information for healthy eating and healthy living and it connects to the true value of wild Alaska food."

After an introduction that sets out the connection that binds subsistence lifestyle with healthful food resources, the book offers several pages of tips and suggestions on some primary cancer-battle challenges, including getting protein and fiber in the diet.

In addition, it addresses the importance of diet in fighting fatigue '97 long a cancer survivor’s enemy. Then it shifts to accurate explanations about natural vitamins and their importance to healthy body function.

After some tips on disease prevention, such as hand washing and food preservation, the handbook moves quickly to subsistence meat sources, with Alaska Native names, definitions, explanations and nutrition information.

Included are glimpses of the historical role each subsistence animal has had in the traditional lifestyle of Alaska Natives. And preparation tips are provided for those who have disconnected from the traditional lifestyle.

From meat to seafood and then to plants '97 from beach asparagus to stinkweed '97 the handbook continues to provide essential information on nutritional value based on one-cup servings.

In a wrap-up choked with tried-and-true recipes, the book shares instruction on how to make just about anything from caribou soup to herring egg salad.

Under other foods, the book focuses on at least two favorites: pilot bread and Eskimo ice cream. And tucked on two pages near the end is a useful outline of moose and caribou parts, along with tips on how to use everything but the noise.

With 11 Alaska Native cultures in more than 200 rural and urban areas, the book signs off with a pitch for sharing and exchange '97 again, part of the traditional lifestyle known today mostly to the elders.

But that pitch is an invitation for urban and rural Alaska Natives to continue using their strong family ties to share the subsistence food resources that have sustained the many cultures for thousands of years.

For more information, contact DeCourtney at (907) 729-3922 or by e-mail at ul cdecourtney@anmc.org . Or go to the consortium’s Website at ul www.anthc.org .

Randall Howell can be reached at (907) 348-2463 or toll free at (800) 770-9830, ext. 463.

State tries to get a grip on deckhands’ economic impact

Fri, 09 May 2008 11:20:33 -0800

It’s hard to account for a work force if you don’t know who or where it is.

An ambitious new project aims to craft a system that will provide labor data on the thousands of crewmembers who work aboard Alaska’s fishing fleets.

Best guesstimates peg the number of deckhands at 20,000. Because fishermen are contract workers, no wage reports are collected by the state. Crew licenses are required, but they don’t tell where or when a crewmember fished, how much they earned or if they even fished at all.

"Without that information, communities really don’t have any basis for accurately estimating the effects of fishing. It makes it difficult for both harvesters and communities to apply for economic assistance or other state and federal programs," said Mike Catsi, executive director of the Southwest Alaska Municipal Conference.

The conference has led initiatives to get fish harvesters counted for several years.

The project will use a $150,000 one-time appropriation to develop a system to collect and input the new information into a database at the Alaska Department of Fish and Game.

It will be able to use electronic landing reports and fish ticket systems already in place.

The first step will be to hire a contractor and begin scoping meetings around the state, said Geron Bruce, deputy director of the state commercial fisheries division.

"I want the stakeholders to have an advisory role in what questions we ask, how we shape the study and what outcomes we want. From the beginning, everyone needs to feel that we are moving forward together with a common purpose," Bruce said.

Two advisory groups will be formed during the summer, Bruce said. One will comprise members of various state agencies; another will include fishing stakeholders representing different regions and gear groups.

"We really need to broaden the discussion to include more regions," Bruce said. "Basically it has been focused in the'a0Westward Region, particularly dealing with fishery rationalization programs, either existing or proposed ones. For other regions, it’s not even on their radar screen. But it’s going to be a statewide program and will affect everyone."

"Given the wide variety of fisheries and areas around the state, it will take some time to sort through all the issues," division director John Hilsinger said.'a0"We need a system that works in Bering Sea crab fisheries as well as skiff fisheries on remote rivers."

There is general agreement that the harvester workforce is an important part of the employment and economic picture, and better data is needed. But there is no consensus yet on how, who or where to get it.

"Both the state and'a0the fishing industry would be best served to take their time to design a program that works best for everyone," Bruce said. "It might put a year or more lead time before it is in place, but it will be time well spent."

Solar tenders

Alaska fishermen, processors and small businesses can benefit from two federal grant programs aimed at reducing reliance on fossil fuels.

Nearly $16 million is available nationwide through the U.S. Department of Agriculture Rural Development Program.

One grant helps fund renewable energy projects that include geothermal, biomass, wind and solar energy. That could be a natural for fishing tenders, said Dean Stewart, program director of the Alaska USDA Rural Development Program.

"They could use solar energy or some other type mounted on their vessel while they are anchored up in the fishing grounds rather than using diesel generators. Solar panels also can power ice machines," he said.

A second grant is designed for energy efficiency projects, such as improving insulation in fish holds or improving fish chilling systems.

Both grants cover up to 25 percent of the eligible costs of the project. The maximum grant for renewable energy projects is $500,000 and $250,000 for energy efficiency projects.

Deadline to apply is June 16. Call the USDA Rural Development agency in Palmer at (907) 761-7722 or visit online at www.rurdev.usda.gov/ak/.

Feed me Omegas

Omega-3s have become one of the most popular food additives due to a whole host of health benefits. Last year, omega-3 fatty acids were added to 250 food products, from eggs to orange juice, and the list is growing fast.

National surveys show that baby boomers are very aware of the benefits of omega-3s and are adding more to their diets. But most young parents don’t know how essential omegas are to developing'a0babies. According to a Harris Interactive poll of 1,220 U.S. parents, 60 percent were not aware of the benefits of so called DHA omegas to their children’s health.

DHA is one of two key omega-3 fatty acids essential for brain and eye development. It is especially important between birth and 5 years of age, when the brain increases nearly 3-1/2 times in weight. Leading authorities recommend 150 milligrams daily for children aged 1 through 5.

Omega-3s cannot be produced by our bodies and must be obtained from foods. All omegas are not created equal – the critical DHA compound is found only in seafoods, especially wild salmon, or in fish supplements.

The Fish Factor column appears weekly in 20 newspapers and Websites. Laine Welch’s daily "Fish Radio" programs air on nearly 30 stations across Alaska.

Rat Island, no more

Fri, 02 May 2008 10:13:00 -0800

By next winter, Rat Island will be in need of a new name. The Alaska Maritime National Refuge, in partnership with Island Conservation and the Nature Conservancy, has announced that it will move forward with an effort to exterminate the entire rat population of the uninhabited island this fall.

The rats will meet their fate via a helicopter airdrop of rodenticide. It’s the first time a whole-island rodent extermination has been attempted in Alaska.

The rats infested the island after a shipwreck in the late 1700s. State scientists believe that since then, they have decimated seabirds and other native species. The refuge hopes that once the rats are gone, the native bird populations will flourish on the island once more.

Steve MacLean, Bering Sea program manager with the Nature Conservancy, said that exterminating the rats is expected to cost between $2.8 million and $3.1 million, depending on how smoothly the operation goes. He said that the majority of the funding has been drawn from private donors and settlement funds from oil spills.

When it came time to pick the poison, the refuge chose a highly lethal anticoagulant called brodifacoum, the same chemical you’d find under a variety of trade names in a hardware store for the pests in your backyard.

The poison will be dropped in the form of bait and, if all goes according to plan, every square foot of rat territory on the island will be coated with the stuff.

"We have to get into every rat burrow," said Poppy Benson, public programs supervisor for the refuge. "We have to succeed the first time because rats breed so fast – if there are any rats left it will all have been for naught."

Benson said that wide-scale poisoning is the only chance the refuge has of getting all the rats in one outing and restoring birds to the island.

Two helicopters will take two months to make the killing. Guided by GPS, the helicopters will systematically drop the bait over one swath of land at a time.

It’s not an easy job – the pilots will have to make sure the poison is distributed evenly while contending with stormy weather conditions.

That’s why the refuge looked outside Alaska for expertise, hiring two New Zealand pilots who have handled island-wide eradications in the past. Benson said that some local pilots will train with the experts so that they can perform similar operations in the future.

Gregg Howald is a biologist and program manager for Island Conservation. He said that of the 300 whole-island eradications that had taken place around the world, the majority had used the brodifacoum rodenticide.

He said that studies of California water systems and sea life after an extermination on Anacapa Island, where brodifacoum had been administered to black rats, showed no ecosystem effect from the chemical.

However, that does not mean that other animals aren’t endangered by the poison. While studies of rat behavior showed that about 80 percent will go underground to die, there is a chance that some birds could peck at the dead rats and die from poisoning.

Howald said that the refuge is planning to monitor island for bird deaths after the rodenticide has been dropped.

"Strictly from a toxicology standpoint, yes, birds could be affected," Howald said. "We could lose a few birds, but the point is that once this project is completed we won’t have to go to the island in the future, and those birds would have been prey to rats anyways."

"In short order, once the rats are gone, the ecosystem of the island will restructure," Howald said.

The refuge is hoping to mitigate potential bird fatalities by scheduling the eradication for fall, after most of the bird population has migrated. By the time the birds migrate back to the island, the rat carcasses will have long since decomposed, and the poison will have broken down into carbon dioxide and water.

Benson said that if the Rat Island eradication is successful, the refuge might move forward to get more of the Aleutian Islands rat free.

"Kiska is a real concern," Benson said. "Most bird experts say that the Kiska auklets are doomed if something doesn’t happen."

Benson said that the public response to the initiative has been overwhelmingly positive. However, she has had comments from people who don’t believe the refuge should kill rats.

"People focus so much on the rats, but the story not just that we’re killing rats, but we’re making birds," Benson said. "With so many bird species declining worldwide, how wonderful will it be to create new bird habitat?"

Victoria Barber can be reached at (907) 348-2424 or toll free at (800) 770-9830, ext. 424.

Hommans, Southworth honored by Alaska Press Club

Fri, 02 May 2008 10:13:00 -0800

Two Unalaska reporters won top honors at the Alaska Press Club awards banquet in Anchorage on Saturday, April 19.

Monica Southworth’s and Charles Homans’ work was evaluated by journalists from across Alaska and the nation. Altogether the two took home six awards, five of which were first-place finishes.

Southworth’s article, "Camp Qunguyaax passes the Aleut flame," won the first prize for the best use of story and photos by a journalist for a small newspaper. Southworth wrote the story about the Aleutian cultural camp last summer while working as a staff writer for the Dutch Harbor Fisherman.

"I’ve never had any interaction with the press club, so I didn’t know how much about about how good a chance I had," said Southworth, who is currently a completing her undergraduate studies at St. Olaf College in Northfield, Minnesota. "I was really surprised and excited and proud of myself."

Judge Doug Parker, photo editor at the New Orleans Times Picayne, said of the piece that a "nice variety of well-displayed images helps form a complete package ... clearly the leader of the pack and a unanimous vote by judges."

Homans, news director for Unalaska Community Broadcast radio station KIAL, swept the awards for the radio division. Homans won first for best breaking news story, best feature story, best environmental reporting and best arts reporting and won second place for best profile.

Homans’ best feature story, "End of an era in Unalaska," was about the closing of Latitudes, n'e9e the Elbow Room, a famous and notorious bar in Unalaska. The press club played the piece at the awards banquet.

"Nothing else comes close. Wonderful writing, terrific use of sound, well structured, a wonderful ear for details, marvelous storytelling," said judge Karen Michel, NPR contributor and Peabody award winner. "If only all radio sounded this good!"

Renowned NPR journalist and former Alaska resident Cory Flintoff chose one of Homans pieces, "Fire on the Stellar Sea," as the best breaking news story on the radio in 2007.

Flintoff remarked that beyond the initial drama of a processor boat fire, Homans "went further, and got an analyst to reflect on what the temporary loss of the processor could mean for local fisherman. The story was well-delivered, well-reported, nicely produced, written and delivered."

Reached while on vacation in Minnesota, Homans said that finding good stories in Unalaska is "like shooting fish in a barrel."

"I feel privileged to have had a lot of interesting subject matter pretty much to myself," said Homans, who is leaving Unalaska this June after two years at KIAL. "I think Unalaska comes across pretty well on the radio, and as far as a story goes fisherman are inherently more interesting than cruise ship passengers."

Victoria Barber can be reached at (907) 348-2424 or toll free at (800) 770-9830, ext. 424.

Twenty years of the Alaska Volcano Observatory

Fri, 02 May 2008 10:12:44 -0800

For Alaska Newspapers

Twenty summers ago, earthquakes rocked the town of King Cove on the Alaska Peninsula. Some people were so worried that the nearby volcano, Mount Dutton, was going to erupt that they caught flights out of town. Others called in the cavalry – members of the fledgling Alaska Volcano Observatory.

In 1988, John Power had just finished his master’s degree when he became the observatory’s first full-time employee. He flew out to King Cove with a few colleagues to check on the volcano.

"I remember that the biggest earthquake happened in August, on 8/8/88," said Power, a geophysicist with the U.S. Geological Survey’s Alaska Science Center who still works for the observatory in Anchorage. "It happened right at the peak of salmon season, so there were a lot of people in town."

After installing a few seismometers on the flanks of 4,800-foot Mount Dutton, eight miles from King Cove, Power and his comrades saw that the character and the size of the earthquakes didn’t suggest that Mount Dutton was going to explosively erupt that August.

"We told people, ‘We’ll watch it, but evacuation doesn’t make sense right now,’" Power said.

While spending a few weeks in King Cove and bunking at the Peter Pan cannery, Power noticed the earthquake activity waning, showing that the volcanologists had made the right call. The new Alaska Volcano Observatory was one for one in advising people what to do, or, in the case of Mount Dutton, what not to do.

Since that first response in 1988, the Alaska Volcano Observatory has grown from a good idea lobbied for by scientists – including John Davies, Syun-Ichi Akasofu, John Filson and Tom Miller – into a team of people in Anchorage and Fairbanks who have their fingers on the pulse of more than 30 volcanoes in Alaska.

The observatory is a cooperative program of the Geophysical Institute, the USGS and the Alaska Division of Geological and Geophysical Surveys. The job of the experts there is to monitor volcanoes and give Alaska residents information when they need it most.

"Alaska has more explosive eruptions than any other state," said Jon Dehn, an associate research professor at the Geophysical Institute.

"It’s AVO’s responsibility to be prepared so the average person doesn’t have to worry about it."

Like other AVO scientists tuned into Alaska’s volcanoes, Dehn is never far from his cell phone, which rings with Jimmy Buffett’s "Volcano" when an Alaska volcano shows signs of unrest. He and other observatory scientists now monitor an impressive data stream, which was just a trickle in 1988.

The last two decades have seen the development of satellite sensors that allow people to check for volcano hotspots several times a day, precise GPS receivers that enable scientists to watch volcanoes inflate and deflate, infrasound sensors that record sudden changes in air pressure during explosive eruptions and the advent of a helpful tool called the Internet.

"When AVO was founded, there was no e-mail," Power said.

"We were really kind of winging it in 1988," Dehn said. "But in ’08, our game is pretty tight."

Nowhere was that more evident than during the 2006 eruption of Augustine Volcano, across Cook Inlet from Homer. The observatory not only predicted the eruption but also forecast the migration of ash clouds, which can shut down aircraft engines.

"We ended up with the best dataset we’ve had so far," said Steve McNutt, coordinating scientist at AVO and a research professor at UAF’s Geophysical Institute.

Other improvements to the volcano observatory include the late 1990s instrumentation of volcanoes in the Aleutians. Right now, scientists are monitoring most of the potentially dangerous volcanoes that make up the remote islands, which about 80,000 large jets fly over each year.

That wasn’t the case when McNutt joined AVO in the early ’90s, when a volcano named Westdahl was spewing ash into the sky.

"The first report was from a pilot who said Shishaldin (a nearby volcano) was erupting," McNutt said. "That’s what happened 16 or 17 years ago. Nowadays, we catch it first. We’re the ones telling airline pilots, not the other way around."

Ned Rozell is a science writer at the Geophysical Institute, University of Alaska Fairbanks.

Alaska Army National Guard returns from Iraq

Fri, 02 May 2008 10:12:00 -0800

Families welcomed home soldiers of the 297th Support Battalion at the Alaska National Guard Armory on Fort Richardson upon their return from Iraq on April 24.

Nearly 180 soldiers with the Alaska Army National Guard returned home after a successful six-month deployment to Iraq.

The returning Guard members are from Bravo Company, 297th Support Battalion and hail primarily from Southcentral Alaska, although most regions of the state are represented by unit members. The soldiers have been serving as security forces based out of Camp Anaconda, Iraq, since October 2007.

"We are excited to welcome home another successful Alaska Army National Guard unit," said Maj. Gen. Craig E. Campbell, adjutant general of the Alaska National Guard. "These soldiers had the difficult and dangerous mission of providing convoy and route security, in addition to their other security forces duties; we are proud that they are returning home safe and victorious."

The soldiers of the 297th Support Battalion were mobilized for active duty at the end of August 2007. They spent two months training at Fort Richardson in preparation for the deployment to Iraq.

"We executed our security mission effectively and efficiently while we were deployed to Iraq despite attempts by the enemy to counter our productiveness," said Capt. Joshua Shrader, commander of Bravo Company, 297th Support Battalion. "We encountered numerous IEDs (improvised explosive devices) and enemy fire while on missions, but our training, skill level and the caliber of our soldiers were no match for the enemy. We are returning to Alaska with success and the knowledge that we helped keep U.S. and Coalition Forces safe while were there."

The unit was recognized for exceptional service while deployed. So far, unit members have received four Bronze Stars for Valor, 21 Bronze Stars for Service, two Army Commendation Medals for Valor, 62 Army Commendation Medals for Service, six Purple Hearts, 79 Army Achievement Medals for Service, 31 Combat Action Badges and four Combat Infantry Badges.

Tribal health issues find champion with Gilbert

Fri, 02 May 2008 10:12:00 -0800

For Alaska Newspapers

Alisa Gilbert is committed to bringing quality health care to Alaska Natives

The director of the Healthy Alaska Natives Foundation said she draws on her own life experiences, her indigenous heritage and family support as she builds toward the goal.

Also, Gilbert is quick to attribute her accomplishments to teamwork and the many mentors she has had throughout her career.

A cancer survivor, Gilbert has been instrumental in getting the foundation off the ground. Part of that launch effort was a recent inaugural Raven’s Ball fundraiser in Anchorage that brought the black-tie-only set out for a Saturday evening that included an Alaska Native art auction that reportedly hit the $300,000 mark.

The foundation, part of the Alaska Native Tribal Health Consortium, is focusing on five basic initiatives: cancer care improvement, wellness and prevention, healthy village environments, scholarship funds and elder care support, according to Gilbert, former director of the Alaska Chapter of the American Cancer Society.

She said that the consortium, which is less than 10 years old, already has made significant contributions for the birth of the foundation.

"The one thing they didn’t have was the fundraising stream," she said, noting that that’s why she came on board a year ago this month.

"Our vision is that the Alaskan Native people (can be) the healthiest in the world, but right alongside that vision, we have a huge challenge of not having enough funding to provide support to many of our programs," Gilbert said.

"So how are we going to figure that out?" she said. "A lot of that has to do with building signature events, fundraising, building community to support what we’re doing, and those are the things that I happen to be pretty good at."

Gilbert, who sees the Raven’s Ball as the foundation’s annual signature fundraising event, said the financial goal is likely to be at $500,000 next year.

"I believe in what I’m doing, so it makes it easy for me to do this work," said Gilbert, who has been working in the nonprofit world for more than a dozen years, 10 of which have been in Alaska.

She said she was drawn to nonprofit work because of adversity she faced when she was diagnosed with breast cancer.

Gilbert said had to choose between treating her cancer and getting a job so there would be enough money for food and rent. She said she knew she couldn’t do both.

Bald and struggling through chemotherapy, Gilbert forced herself to ask for help. She said that was humiliating but life changing.

She said afterward she dedicated herself to making sure others would not have to go through the same experience.

"I know there is an easier road," said Gilbert, who worked for many years with the American Cancer Society before becoming its director. "I know we can connect patients with the care they need. I know there are these missing gaps because I faced them myself."

Gilbert, who left that post to join the consortium, also was chosen as an Echoing Green Fellow for her program working with Alaska Native cancer survivorship. Echoing Green provides seed money to organizations.

She said that being chosen as a fellow opened her eyes to the "enormous possibility for change."

Gilbert said she always has been drawn to Native issues because of her American Indian heritage. Her family and that background have been very influential in shaping her altruistic perspective, she said.

Gilbert said her grandmother and mother taught her that the issues close to home should always come first. For that reason, she said she is "extremely community driven" and believes that "we must take care of the people in our own backyard" before addressing the plights of people on other continents.

There is much to do, she said.

Cancer is the leading cause of death among Alaska Natives, and there are 39 villages in Alaska that do not have access to fresh water, she said.

"We can do better," said Gilbert, who along with her husband has two children, two stepchildren and a grandchild.

Gilbert said her husband, a senior director at the consortium, supports her work. She said he even took over all the parenting and housekeeping responsibilities during the intensive periods of planning for the recent Raven’s Ball.

If it weren’t for that support, Gilbert said she thinks it would be impossible to give so much back to the community.

Gilbert said she believes that anyone can make a difference in the nonprofit world if they believe in what they are championing.

She confesses to being "up at night" thinking about what to do next.

"All of these problems have solutions. That’s the great thing," said Gilbert, who considers herself an optimist.

It’s just about getting the right people involved, she said.

U.S. lawmakers take aim at uninspected seafood from foreign farms

Fri, 02 May 2008 10:12:00 -0800

The 2008 Alaska legislative session might be a near wrap, but several new "fish laws" are still moving at a good clip through Congress.

One is aimed at improving the safety of seafood surging into the United States from foreign countries.

"This bill will deal with about 80 percent of the seafood consumed by Americans, because it is imported seafood," said Sen. Ted Stevens, a co-sponsor of the bipartisan bill. "We’ve had enormous increases in imports, but strangely enough, we only inspect about 1.6 percent of that seafood."

Seafoods from foreign aquaculture operations – mostly farmed shrimp, salmon and tilapia – often are not held to the same health and environmental standards as U.S. producers.

"Some of this is full of all kinds of crap. It is not fit for consumption," Stevens said in a phone conversation from Washington, D.C.

The seafood safety bill would expand the authority of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and U.S. Food and Drug Administration agents to test and track imported seafood as it is distributed throughout the United States.

FDA agents also will have authority to inspect foreign seafood operations and facilities.'a0Funding for the seafood safety program has been authorized at $15 million through 2013.

Agents already are in Chile inspecting its farmed salmon industry, according to the Pew Environmental Group. The FDA will gather data on chemical use in five fish farms and assess'a0Chile’s overall operations, a press release said.

"In contrast with Norway and Scotland, Chile has not been forthcoming with adequate data on the amount of antibiotics, anti-foulants and other chemicals used in its operations. The public needs to know," said Andrea Kavanagh, an aquaculture specialist and Pew spokesperson.

Last year Chile sent more than 250 million pounds of farmed salmon to U.S. markets, and only 40 samples were tested by the FDA, a Pew report said.

Stop fish pirates

Another new law aims to stop illegal fishing on the high seas, a piracy valued at $9 billion annually. The International Fisheries Stewardship and Enforcement Act of 2008, introduced last week by Sens. Stevens and Daniel K. Inouye, D-Hawaii, would tighten U.S. laws and ban products from illegal, underreported and unregulated fisheries from entering this country.

"These huge vessels the size of battleships fish on the high seas, then dump it in various places. They know what they are doing is illegal, and they try to convince the world they have the right to fish outside the 200-mile limit using any method they choose," Stevens said. "We want to send a strong message to the world that these vessels and fish products are not welcome in U.S. ports and we hope other nations will follow suit."

Stevens said he is working with the United Nations and hopes to get global support to stop IUU fishing this fall.

"The world did not take any action against high seas driftnets until we did it. Same for the 200-mile limit. We went to the U.N. and asked them to follow us and they did. Now we’re going to do the same thing with IUU fisheries."

Stevens said curtailing IUU fishing is especially important to protect waters of the Arctic Ocean, which are expanding from global warming and can be entered from many regions.

Stevens said he is optimistic that IUU, seafood safety and other "fish laws" will be passed by Congress.

"Most of these will not have to be debated. They will be worked out on a consent agreement, and I think these bills should go very quickly," Stevens said. "Also, we have built strong bipartisan support. That has made things work out much more easily."

Farmers of the sea

It appears the keepers of the U.S. Farm Bill have finally opened the door a crack to America’s fishermen. U.S. fish farmers have long been eligible for subsidies and other federal programs and benefits.

"The House indicates it is going along with my amendment that allows the U.S. Department of Agriculture to make loans to small commercial fishermen, the same way they make loans to small farmers," Stevens said.

"This will help the next generation of fishermen be able to get long-term, low-interest loans to help with purchases of vessels and permits and operating expenses," said Mark Vinsel, director of United Fishermen of Alaska.

"The fleet is graying – and to continue sustainable fisheries, the first thing we need to sustain is the occupation."

Also tagged onto the Farm Bill is a measure by Sen. Lisa Murkowski that will help reduce the tax burden to Exxon award recipients.

Another bill coming before lawmakers this week is the Commercial Fishing Industry Health Care Coverage Act. It would provide $50 million in'a0matching grants to states or organizations to jump-start health-care programs for fishing industry families.

"Alaska’s delegation can’t go it alone. Any coastal senators should be hearing from their fishermen in support of fishermen’s health care," UFA’s Vinsel said.

"If they are not hearing from us, then we can’t expect anything from them. But we need them to help support our industry."

Tattletale trash

To provide a "global snapshot of the trash problem out on the water," the environmental group Ocean Conservancy organized an International Coastal Cleanup day last September.

Nearly 400,000 volunteers scoured 33,000 miles of shoreline in 76 countries and in 45 U.S. states. In all, they picked up 6 million pounds of trash in one day from world beaches.

The volume of the trash tells only part of the story. To learn how people were behaving around or on the water, the conservancy cataloged the collected trash into more than 7 million items.

In all, 57 percent of the trash came from two million food wrappings, containers, cups, plates and plastic eating utensils and 1.2 million bottles and beverage cans.

One-third of the ocean trash came from smokers. Beachcombers and divers collected 2.3 million cigarette butts, filters and cigar tips.

It reveals a "general carelessness" about what’s being tossed into the water, the conservancy stated in a report released on Earth Day. Find it at

The Fish Factor column appears weekly in 20 newspapers and Websites. Laine Welch’s daily "Fish Radio" programs air on nearly 30 stations across Alaska.

Energy authority to host local town hall meetings

Fri, 02 May 2008 10:12:44 -0800

The Alaska Energy Authority has begun a sequence of meetings it will present in 25 communities around the state with the goals of hearing what Alaskans know about local energy resources and asking how they think those resources can be developed to lower energy costs.

AEA’s Energy Plan Town Hall meetings, to be held throughout Alaska, started April 28 in Palmer and will conclude June 4 in Anchorage.

"Our goal is simple: We must reduce the cost of energy in Alaska by using locally available energy resources," said AEA executive director and energy coordinator Steve Haagenson.

"To reach that goal we are engaging Alaskans in the process of creating and deploying solutions that will not only provide stable-cost energy now but will help ensure affordable, reliable energy for our children and grandchildren as well."

Teams comprised of representatives from AEA, the Alaska Department of Natural Resources, the Alaska Department of Commerce, Community and Economic Development and the Denali Commission will be traveling throughout Alaska to meet with the public, business, community and regional leaders and utility managers.

"We are holding these Town Hall meetings to gain answers for two fundamental questions," Haagenson said. "First, we want to ask Alaskans what they know about local energy resources and which resources they think could possibly be developed to help lower costs. Second, we want to ask residents which resources they prefer not to develop, and why."

Alaskans are invited and encouraged to participate in this process by attending a Town Hall meeting or by e-mailing comments to energycoordinator@aidea.org . Comments may also be sent to Alaska Energy Authority, Attn: Steven Haagenson, 813 West Northern Lights Blvd., Anchorage, AK 99503.

Energy Plan Town Hall meeting schedule:

Meetings were held last week in Palmer, Soldotna and Fairbanks.

Upcoming meetings are as follows:

Galena May 1, 5-9 p.m., High School

Fort Yukon May 1, 4-8 p.m., Council Elders Hall

Tok May 1, 4-8 p.m., Tok Visitors Center

Bethel May 6, 4-8 p.m., Cultural Center

Aniak May 7, 4-8 p.m., Community Hall

Nome May 8, 4-8 p.m., Mini-Convention Center

Kotzebue May 8, 4-8 p.m., Northwest Arctic Borough Assembly Chambers

Valdez May 12, 4-8 p.m., Valdez Convention and Civic Center

Naknek May 14 *

McGrath May 14, 4-8 p.m., Captain Snow Building, Assembly Room

Dillingham May 15 *

Unalaska May 20, 4-8 p.m., The Grand Aleutian Hotel, Makushin Room

Sand Point May 20 *

Kodiak May 22, 4-8 p.m., Kodiak College

Juneau May 27, 5-9 p.m., Centennial Hall Ballroom 1

Ketchikan May 28 *

Wrangell May 28, 4-8 p.m., City Hall, Council Chambers

Craig May 29 *

Kake May 29, 4-8 p.m., Community Hall Gym

Barrow June 2 *

Glennallen June 3 *

Anchorage June 4 *

* Time and location to be announced.

More information on the Alaska Energy Plan and updates to the Town Hall meeting schedule are available at www.akenergyauthority.org

‘Natural Helpers’ host retreat

Fri, 25 Apr 2008 10:54:00 -0800

Ice cream, burgers, swimming, movies and even a dance were on the schedule for 57 Unalaska junior high and high school students who attended a Natural Helpers retreat on Friday, April 11.

The topic of the retreat, however was, serious.

Family violence, bullying, drug use and accidental pregnancy are just some of the issues that touch many teenagers’ lives at a time when they are going through the already big challenge of growing up.

These issues are not new, but the Natural Helpers program has developed an innovative approach to helping teenagers: It teaches them to help each other.

"Who sees the problems with their classmates? Who sees the bullies? Who sees the drug use? It’s the kids, and they’re going to their friends," said Claire Musgrove, who teaches health and physical education at Unalaska School and coordinated the Natural Helpers program.

"Natural Helpers gives them the tools to help and lets them know who they can refer their friends to."

The program is based on the premise that when high school students have problems they will usually turn to a friend first rather than to an adult or a professional.

The Natural Helpers goal is to identify the teens that other teens naturally turn to, and then give those leaders the skills and tools to help their peers and guide them to other resources in the community.

The program in Unalaska began more than three weeks ago, when junior high and high school students were asked at a school assembly to fill out an anonymous ballot. The ballot asked only, "If you had a problem, who would you go to?"

Teachers counted the ballots and invited anyone whose name had come up twice or more to participate in the Natural Helpers program – a weeklong process that involved some study, training and even some light cooking.

Michelle Woods trains the Natural Helpers, and has worked with program since it began. She said it was created to prevent suicides in the Lower Yukon School District, which in 2000 had an astonishing average of seven to nine suicides per year.

Since the Natural Helpers program began in 2000, that number has gone to zero, with only one to two attempts in 2007. Woods said that part of the success of the program was that it could be adapted to different cultures or social problems.

"Not only were students doing suicide interventions, they could do a lot more," Woods said. In schools where the program has been implemented, this has meant everything from self-esteem workshops to cultural celebrations and ice safety information sessions.

Anything that students feel is important to their community can become the focus of the Natural Helpers.

"Their (the students’) confidence levels zoomed," Woods said. "And now they weren’t afraid to go in front of the local school board or the traditional council."

The program is structured around workshops that have students participate in trust-building exercises, group activities and sessions where they learn about issues such as bullying, self-esteem and communication.

Led by Woods and veteran Natural Helpers trainer Reynold Okitkun, the Unalaska Natural Helpers learned skills such as how to listen, recognize suicidal thoughts and other danger signs and when to turn to resources available in their community.

The Unalaska Natural Helpers also got a big assignment. They had to help plan a two-day retreat for junior high and high school students for the following weekend.

In planning for the retreat, Woods said that she started by asking teachers and students what they thought the big problems in Unalaska city school are. Bullying and racial tensions were both identified as issues, but Woods said she was shocked by how healthy the environment was on the whole.

"Unalaska doesn’t have some of the social ills that we (in the Lower Yukon school district) have," Woods said. "To see so many healthy kids – talk about a shot in the arm, we didn’t know that many existed."

However, Woods said that problems would always big for teens, regardless of the relative size.

"The one thing I’ve learned with all the kids is that they all have problems, and these problems are huge in their eyes," said Woods. "Natural Helpers can be adapted to whatever their problems might be."

Fifty-seven students showed up to the Natural Helpers retreat, including the Natural Helpers. The retreat began on Friday and didn’t end until the stroke of midnight on Saturday.

The students were kept up and running, going from trust-building exercises to workshops with local professionals, such as Lynn Crane from Unalaskans Against Sexual Assault and Family Violence, behavioral health clinician Jane Bye from the Aleutian Pribilof Islands Association and Unalaska school counselor Teri LaGrand.

Natural Helpers were on duty the whole time, helping to prepare meals, giving presentations and seeking out people who seemed uncomfortable and helping them to feel included.

The weekend culminated in a "sharing circle" on Saturday evening. Organizers turned out the lights in the gym, lit candles and arranged everyone in a circle.

Michelle Woods and Natural Helpers trainer Okitkun starting asking questions and passing around a small, illuminated ball to anyone who wanted to share.

"We had students saying they never realized how much they judged people by the way they looked, or they were new at school and they didn’t like the way they had been treated," Musgrove said.

After the circle was completed, Musgrove, Woods and Okitkun handed out bags that had been decorated by the Natural Helpers for everyone at the retreat.

The bag was filled with letters from the students’ parents, teachers and other community members. The letters described how important each youth was and how much they were loved and appreciated.

Musgrove said that it didn’t take long before all the students were in tears.

"The whole room was bawling, everyone hugging everyone else," Musgrove said.

Haleigh Zueger, a senior at Unalaska city school, is one of the 12 Natural Helpers in Unalaska. She said that she’s already seen changes in the school as a result of the program.

"Every single day now when I walk down the hall everyone says hi," Zueger said. "I’m definitely more open to people I have never talked to before, and more excited to talk with people ... now I take an extra second each day to acknowledge everyone."

Victoria Barber can be reached at (907) 348-2424 or toll free at (800) 770-9830, ext. 424.

King Cove ‘optimistic’ about land swap for road easement

Fri, 25 Apr 2008 10:54:00 -0800

King Cove community and tribal leaders are cautiously optimistic after a hearing on Senate Bill 1680 on Tuesday, April 15, before the U.S. Senate’s Energy and Natural Resources Committee.

"I feel that we had the more compelling arguments. Some of the questions were tough, but I feel that we came across as clarifying them very well," said Della Trumble, president of the King Cove Corp., who testified in Washington, D.C., on behalf of the Agdaagux Tribe.

"It was very more emotional than anything else, when I considered what people have through," Trumble said.

The Izembek and Alaska Peninsula Refuge and Wilderness Enhancement Act of 2007 would increase the size of the Izembek National Wildlife Refuge by more than 61,000 acres in exchange for a 206-acre easement for a single-lane gravel road running through seven miles of the park to connect King Cove to the airstrip of Cold Bay, 25 miles away.

At present, King Cove residents must travel by plane, boat or ferry to Cold Bay, a dangerous trip in gale-force winds and heavy fog.

Trumble said that 11 people have died flying between King Cove and Cold Bay since 1979, and that pregnant woman must relocate to Anchorage six to nine weeks before their due date for fear of premature labor or complications during unpredictable weather.

"My niece was born at sea on the galley table of a fishing vessel," said Trumble in her testimony at the hearing. "Her mother’s premature labor forced her to endure a dangerous, three-hour ocean voyage because of high winds and blizzard conditions."

The King Cove Corp. is calling the land exchange "a commonsense solution" to the King Cove access problem and an excellent deal for the federal government as well.

However, Stanley Senner, executive director of Audubon Alaska, said that no amount of acreage could compensate for the damage that a road would do to what he called "the ecological heart of the refuge."

"From the standpoint of migratory birds, especially, this relatively small area is unquestionably of global significance," said Senner in his testimony.

Senner said that while the site of the proposed road is small, it drives straight through the most critical and sensitive area of the refuge.

Waterfowl such as the brant, emperor goose and Steller’s eider are dependant on the eelgrass beds of the Izembek and Kinzaroff lagoons, which are close to the proposed route.

"The enormous productivity of eelgrass beds in Izembek Lagoon and other lagoon on the north side of the Alaska Peninsula is a key element in driving the productivity of the larger Bering Sea ecosystem," Senner said.

This is not the first time that King Cove and environmental groups have clashed before Congress. In 1998, a similar effort with less land was unsuccessfully proposed. As a compromise, Congress appropriated $37.5 million under the King Cove Health and Safety Act for improvements to the King Cove clinic, an airport and a hovercraft to transport residents between the two cities.

However, King Cove has found it difficult to attract appropriate medical personnel to man the clinic, and the cost of operating the hovercraft has proven prohibitive. Trumble said that the Aleutians East Borough is $832,000 out of pocket due to hovercraft, and she expects to see a complete shutdown of hovercraft operations soon.

When the federal government designated the land between King Cove and Cold Bay as wilderness, the people of King Cove were not consulted or informed. City Manager Gary Hennigh says that the land access issue is "an indigenous injustice done to the Aleuts of King Cove that needs to be addressed."

"Clearly it was a very positive day for us," Hennigh said. "Sen. (Lisa) Murkowski did a wonderful job ... and it showed that to the Audubon Society, birds and sports hunters are more important than the people who live in King Cove."

Trumble said that whatever the fate of bill 1680, the fight will continue for King Cove’s road.

"It’s still an uphill battle. This is never going away for us until we resolve it," Trumble said. "We’ve got to keep moving, there are kids that believe in this, it will never go away."

Victoria Barber can be reached at (907) 348-2424 or toll free at (800) 770-9830, ext. 424.

Powerhouse brings fuel-saving technology online

Fri, 25 Apr 2008 10:54:00 -0800

Unalaskans may not see it, but there is a quiet revolution taking place in the Unalaska City powerhouse, the result of the new piece of equipment called the Etorus FE.

It’s a small, fuel-saving device that city officials initially greeted with caution and doubt. They now say they expect it to save Unalaska millions of dollars and thousands of pounds of emissions.

"We’re really skeptical about stuff that sounds like hocus-pocus snake oil," said Jim Fitch, Unalaska powerhouse supervisor. Fitch said that the powerhouse tried a similar device 10 years ago but "it was just a big thing sitting in the back room and it didn’t work at all."

Then one day last November, Fitch was on the Internet and came across a company called Etorus, which claimed to have developed fuel catalyst technology that was environment friendly and cost effective. After doing some research, Fitch decided to give the fuel catalyst another shot.

Fitch brokered a deal with Etorus for the city to rent two Etorus FE units for a test drive. He said that the proof was immediate.

"We saw the changes in the first day, we started off with over 6 percent savings in fuel," Fitch said. "We were so excited when we first saw the results that we kept checking every hour to see how much more fuel we had saved."

Six percent may not sound like much, but in a city that uses two million gallons of diesel a year, it adds up fast. Fitch said that, at today’s fuel prices, a 5 percent saving translates to 20 cents per gallon less that the city pays for fuel – that amounts to about $2 million over five years.

That’s big results from a small contraption. The Etorus FE is a copper-colored cylinder a foot long that hooks into the fuel line of a diesel engine.

Prior to combustion, diesel flows through the Etorus FE and reacts to different minerals and elements in the cylinder. These reactions separate the clustered fuel molecules so that a greater surface area is exposed to oxygen, making the diesel burn more efficiently.

The Etorus FE Website compares this process to the way that charcoal burns when left on a furnace for 30 seconds. When charcoal burns in a lump, oxygen surrounds the outside of it but cannot penetrate to the center, allowing only the outer part to burn. 'a0

However, if the same piece of charcoal were crushed into a powder and spread out into the furnace for 30 seconds, more of the surface of the charcoal would be exposed to oxygen and a larger percentage of the charcoal would be burned.

Etorus says that the Etorus FE makes molecules of diesel burn in a similar way to the crushed charcoal. Since the fuel burns more efficiently, it doesn’t take as much to produce the same amount of energy. Since more of the diesel is used, there is less unburned fuel to be blown out of the exhaust as emissions.

Dan Winters, director of public utilities, said that after trying the Etorus FE for a couple months, the city was impressed enough with the results to purchase 14 of the units for seven of the powerhouse’s nine engines.

At $4,000 a pop, the Etorus FE does not come cheap. However, Winters said he expects to recover the $56,000 expense within six months.

So when can Unalaskans expect to see a drop in their energy bills? Not so fast, Winters > said . While the Etorus and other fuel-efficiency products can help save costs and the environment, it won’t be enough to counteract the rising price of diesel.

"Because the cost of fuel keeps rising, the consumer wouldn’t see it ... unless they do some fancy math," Winters said. "Also, the consumer wouldn’t see the savings of 100,000 pounds of emissions in the air per year."

Winters said that while the Etorus FE will relieve some of the pressure of rising diesel costs and higher emissions standards, the long-term solution would need to be more radical.

"It’s time to move on geothermal," Winters said. "Geothermal will happen. It’s just a matter of finding geothermal liquids in the valley."

Victoria Barber can be reached at (907) 348-2424 or toll free at (800) 770-9830, ext. 424.

Studying Steller sea lion scat requires getting up close, personal

Fri, 25 Apr 2008 10:54:23 -0800

For the Dutch Harbor Fisherman

When most people think of marine-related research, they think that because it is called "research" that it must be highly technical and hence difficult to understand.

In fact, most research is very simple and logical when it is put in the proper context. In the coming months, I will be describing several marine research projects with the intent of de-mystifying science to show what really happens and why.

To determine the distribution and diet of Steller Sea lions, researchers such as Lowell Fritz, of Alaska Fisheries Science Center, have a less-than-pleasant job to do, but he certainly doesn’t mind.

For this project, the first thing that happens is that researchers must perform aerial overflights of a specific area to determine where sea lions are hauled out.

Cameras fixed to a plane take photos of the haul-outs so that researchers can confirm the number of animals in attendance and also to some degree their age and sex. Flights are performed at between 600-1,000 feet to photograph the entire haul-out in one pass and reduce disturbance to the animals.

While the flights are going on, another group led by Steve Barbeaux of the Alaska Fisheries Science Center is in a research boat loaded with oceanographic and acoustic instruments. With the acoustic instrumentation, the researchers are able to determine what kind of fish are in the water column around the areas where the sea lions are hauled-out.

When the first group from the overflights has completed the aerial surveys and haul-out site attendance is determined, they board another research boat and visit the haul-out sites photographed.

From a distance, researchers count the number of animals and also look for ones that have been marked by hot branding, which is part of another study to determine survival and reproductive rates.

Sea lions are gently urged off of the haul-out, generally just by approaching them in a skiff or on land with arms outstretched. Once there, researchers using spoons and trowels scoop the sea lion excrement or scat into labeled plastic bags. Bags are sealed and transported back to land-based labs for inspection later.

Once researchers and scat have arrived in the lab, samples are inspected for hard parts that might indicate what the sea lions are eating.

Most of the evidence from these samples is in the form of fish bones, including vertebrae, ribs and ear bones, called otoliths. By counting the types and number of each in the scat and cross-referencing the information from the acoustics survey, researchers are able estimate at least a portion of the diet for sea lions.

So the process for determining Steller sea lion distribution and diets is fairly straight forward: Overflights to see where the sea lions are, acoustics to see what prey is locally available, scoop the scat off of the sites and analyze scat for remnants of prey eaten.

Note, though this process seems extremely simple, there is a tremendous amount of training and permitting required to approach Steller sea lion haul-outs.

Reid Brewer of Unalaska is a marine biologist with the University of Alaska Fairbanks Marine Advisory Program. He can be reached at 581-4589 or reidbrewer@hotmail.com.

Foundation creates Mindy Schloss Memorial Fund

Fri, 25 Apr 2008 10:08:00 -0800

Healthy Alaska Natives Foundation has created a memorial fund in honor of Mindy Schloss, a long-time health care worker who served village clinics throughout the state.

Schloss, who lived in Anchorage, was reported missing last fall. Her body was found in a forested area of Wasilla.

"This memorial fund has been initiated by close friends who cherished Mindy and her dream to improve and promote the wellbeing of Alaska Native people," said Robert Conway and Geri Yett in a statement.

The Mindy Schloss Memorial Fund will support goals that reflect Mindy's lifelong efforts to raise awareness of the need to improve avenues of wellness. During her nursing career she made efforts to visit and serve village clinics throughout the state, and her work touched countless lives in Alaska.

The fund will support the development and implementation of a Wellness Expo named in Schloss’s honor. The expo will be just one mechanism to showcase best and promising practices in the area of wellness for Alaska Native communities, such as how to initiate innovative wellness programs, suicide prevention, depression awareness and others.

"The Healthy Alaska Natives Foundation is honored to carry Mindy Schloss’s dream forward," said Alisa Gilbert, foundation director.

The Wellness Expo will be piloted this summer in Anchorage as well as two additional regional sites. It will begin with statewide wellness experts, partners and the Alaska Native Tribal Health Consortium's Division of Community Health Services working together to ensure the event success and begin plans to develop future participation sites for those interested regional partners.

Filthy desert air a half-world away from glacier that licks a river

Fri, 25 Apr 2008 09:56:03 -0800

For Alaska Newspapers

Cathy Cahill got a package in the mail last week from a desert on the other side of the world. She didn’t know what was inside, but she hoped it was air samples from Baghdad. When she opened the package, she didn’t believe her eyes.

"I’ve never seen that much dust (on a slide used for air sampling)," she said. "There’s so much that it’s flaking off."

Cahill, who works at the Geophysical Institute at UAF, studies air quality in Alaska and all over the world. In November, Pam Clark of the Army Research Lab in Adelphi, Md., asked Cahill if she could deploy a few air samplers at Army camps in Iraq, as part of an Army program to study the air in places where military members are stationed.

Cahill enlisted a few soldiers to help her and she is now sampling the air around the clock at two sites in Baghdad.

Her first batch of samples came to Alaska in the form of eight transparent slides that captured things floating in the air. The slides fit inside an instrument that uses a pump to suck in air and trap different-size particles on different slides. The slides she received are all filthy, from coarse reddish-yellow dust to fine black material.

"The black is usually diesel from generators, trucks, and other stuff along those lines," Cahill said. "Most of the sizes (of particles) I’m dealing with here are things that get in people’s lungs."

Cahill was preparing to send some of the samples on her desk to the University of Arizona in Tucson so that scientists can look for biological material in the air that soldiers are breathing in Baghdad.

She said sands often carry with them fungi and bacteria that can make people ill.

She will also send a portion of the samples to Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory in California to see the precise composition of the gunk on the slides. From her initial samples, Cahill thinks she can tell the days when dust storms struck.

"Looking at the color of the strips, they look an awful lot like the air I’ve seen from Beijing," she said. "They don’t look like anything we’d get in Alaska."

Cahill has set out the same air samplers near Augustine Volcano, in Cook Inlet, and at Poker Flat Research Range, and she’s grateful for the chance to put her expertise to work in Iraq.

"This is a case where I can do something that’s important," she said. "These are my neighbors (from Fort Wainwright in Fairbanks) that are over there. If I can get baseline information, we can figure out what we can do to help them."

***

Last week, Chris Larsen of the Geophysical Institute went out and checked on the surging Tweedsmuir Glacier, which has dipped its toe in the Alsek River in northern British Columbia.

With Paul Klaus of Ultima Thule Outfitters flying him, Larsen took some photos of the glacier, some of which he posted at fairweather.gps.alaska.edu/chris/. The glacier has advanced 1,200 meters from August until now. If it advances 350 more meters, the glacier will hit a knob of bedrock on the far side of the river and will block it, at least temporarily.

The Alsek flows into Alaska and then into the north Pacific at Dry Bay.

"At this stage, there will be some good icebergs in the river," Larsen said, noting that the glacier is surging into the river at the upstream end of narrow Turnback Canyon, which means the glacier could dam the river, which would someday eat through the glacier in an awesome outburst flood.

"It’s going to be a spectacular show regardless of what happens."

Ned Rozell is a science writer at the Geophysical Institute, University of Alaska Fairbanks.