Published Jan 4, 2024

Alaska’s seafood industry is reeling after Trident Seafoods announced its plan to sell off several processing plants.

The Seattle, Washington, U.S.A.-based vertically integrated seafood harvesting and processing company, which has a huge footprint across Alaska’s seafood sector, announced on 12 December that it plans to divest itself of its Alaskan assets in Kodiak, Ketchikan, Petersburg, and False Pass, as well as the South Naknek Diamond NN cannery facility and its support facilities in Chignik.

Gunnar Knapp, a professor emeritus of economics at the University of Alaska Anchorage Institute of Social and Economic Research, has studied Alaska’s seafood industry for much of his career. He said it’s still too early to determine the exact impact Trident’s move will have on the state, but it will definitely be negative.

“How soon might a buyer be found, what would that buyer’s plans be, and how soon would it take to bring them into effect? What is Trident going to do between now and when a buyer is found?” Knapp said. “Even the very best scenario, which is the buyer is found and smoothly picks up the operation ... [will still] be disruptive to plant employees, fishermen, and the community.”

Knapp said Trident is likely facing a tough financial situation after a very difficult year for Alaska’s processing companies but said Alaska’s seafood industry has always borne the brunt of the high volatility found in the global seafood trade.

Published Jan 4, 2024 by Alex Johnson

Home state, Fairbanks Ice Dog forward Gage Leonard announced where he is committing to play his college hockey, and that choice is to play for the Nanook’s. When asked if it was a hard decision, he says the choice was a pretty simple one for him, especially being from Alaska. “You know, being the Alaskan kid, it was always the dream to play Division One hockey, and being able to play Division One hockey in Alaska is just you know, you can’t beat that.

Leonard added, “What it really came down to was making sure it really was the right fit for me, because I knew I wanted to be in Alaska. Ultimately, this was the final goal, and so you know accomplishing that was pretty exciting.”

Alaska and hockey go together like any cliche match up phrase you can think of, and for Gage, the dream of being able to stay in Alaska his entire hockey career and getting the opportunity to continue to play in Alaska in college was not lost on him.

For those wonder when exactly Leonard will don a Nanook Jersey, Gage said the plan is to finish out his Juniors Career with the Ice Dogs and then join the Nooks after that.



Published Jan 4, 2024 by KFSK - Petersburg

Late this summer, two killer whales swam into an ocean-fed lake on Prince of Wales Island and got trapped. The effort to free the whales took a collaboration between scientists and residents of the remote island town of Coffman Cove — with some extra help from the whales’ friends.

The response team decided that their best chance of getting the whales out was during the big tides in late September, a few weeks away.

They would use nets in the water, which the whales experience as a barrier. And they would herd the whales using sound — by submerging metal pipes in the lake and banging on the exposed end. 

Towers was able to identify the whales as T051, a 42-year-old male, and T049A2, a 16-year-old male. Towers even knew which orcas they’d traveled with in the past. Not only that, he had actual recordings of those travel partners. The recordings could be played under water to lure the stranded whales toward the sound, a technique called “playback.”

Chloe Kotik studies Bigg’s killer whales for her doctorate degree at the University of Alaska Fairbanks. She says the barrier nets and sounds of metal pipes are stressful to whales. She says playbacks can be really effective, but they’re also stressful.

The playback boat led the whales through the channel. 

Scientists don’t know where the pair is now, but they will be spotted eventually.

Published Jan 4, 2024

Brian O’Donoghue, one of the best investigative reporters in Alaska, is nearing completion of his long-awaited book, “The Fairbanks Four: Murder, Injustice and the Birth of a Movement.”

O’Donoghue is to speak Friday at 3 p.m. at the Morris Thompson Center auditorium. His book, to be published by Sourcebooks, is available for advance ordering now at major outlets.

I can think of no one better qualified to comment on this prolonged legal and ethical morass than O’Donoghue, a former newspaper reporter, author and a retired journalism professor from the University of Alaska Fairbanks.

The publication of his book will be an important event in Alaska history and it should spark a renewed discussion on what went wrong in our justice system and how things could have been different.