Drama by Bering Sea in 2008

VICTORIA BARBER

December 31, 2008 at 2:30PM AKST

The past year has been marked by stories as dramatic as the Aleutian landscape. Scientists plumbed the vast depths of the Bering Sea to reveal new species that expand our understanding of the ocean, volcanoes rumbled and erupted — reminding us of this community’s fragile perch on the Ring of Fire.

While new species were discovered, one known was extinguished on Rat Island, placing an unexpected spotlight on a remote and unpopulated island.

Some stories were tragedies. The fishing fleet that sustains Unalaska suffered terrible losses in 2008, the sinking of the Alaska Ranger and the Katmai resulted in the deaths of 12 fishermen, and questions remain over what went wrong for these vessels and their crews.

Other stories were happier, such as the gift that a 101-year-old woman made to Aleutian communities — an extremely rare Attu basket her father had given her almost 60 years before.

Here’s a look back at some of the significant stories of 2008 from the Dutch Harbor Fisherman.

New species discovered in Bering’s depth
Scientists uncovered two new species in the Bering Sea. NOAA Fisheries, Kobe University and the University of British Columbia announced the discovery of the Golden V kelp in February. The kelp, up to 9 feet long with a paddle-shaped leaf and golden-yellow “stem,” grows in cold, shallow water attached to large boulders. The “holdfast” — the portion of the kelp that attaches to the rock — is an unusual disc shape that can withstand high-energy waves of the Aleutian Islands. Scientists believe the Golden V kelp can help them learn more about the evolution and spread of kelp species throughout the Pacific Ocean.
A somewhat less photogenic discovery was the lumpen, off-white Aaptos kanuux sea sponge found during a Greenpeace mission 700 feet down the Pribilof Canyon in the Bering Sea. Greenpeace officials have said the golf-ball-sized sponge, named for the Unangan word for heart, demonstrates how little is known about the deep sea canyons.

Volcanos spew ash, cause chaos
The summer saw three major eruptions from volcanoes along the chain. The Okmok volcano on Umnak Island erupted suddenly on July 12, forcing 10 people to evacuate the Fort Glenn ranch. Within a month, Cleveland and Kasatochi also erupted, belching clouds that coated Unalaska in ash and floated out to Anchorage, where they caused over 50 flight cancellations.

Ranger, Katmai sinkings
The Aleutians saw two fishing vessels go down with loss of life in 2008. The F/V Alaska Ranger sank 120 miles west of Unalaska on March 23 after reporting progressive flooding hours earlier. Five crewmembers died and 42 were rescued. The 93-foot Katmai was fully loaded with about 120,000 pounds of cod and headed back to Dutch Harbor by way of Amchitka Pass when it began flooding the evening of Oct. 21, sinking just after midnight. Only four out of a crew of 11 survived.
The Alaska Ranger and the Katmai are two of the four fish processing vessels — boats in the so-called “head-and-gut” fleet — to have suffered catastrophe since the 2001. As the U.S. Coast Guard continues to investigate what caused the Katmai to sink, the larger question looms of whether there are sufficient measures in place to enforce adequate vessels, best practices and workers’ rights aboard Alaska’s fleet.

Island eradication brings rat lovers out of their burrows
In what must certainly be the most controversial rodent extermination in Alaska history, the Alaska Maritime National Wildlife Refuge launched an island-wide extermination of the namesake rodents of Rat Island this fall. The refuge hopes that killing all the rats, which arrived by shipwreck in the 1780s, will restore the island habitat for native seabirds.
News of the proposed eradication brought an unexpected flurry of controversy, as people from around the world sent irate e-mails defending rodents and proposing alternatives to rodenticide — including relocating polar bears to the island, administering rodent birth control and flying in a club of dachshunds and their owners for the week.
Nevertheless, the refuge completed the eradication as planned ahead of schedule thanks to an unexpected spell of good weather in early October. In the meantime, the project, which received $150,000 through Senate appropriations, earned a spot on the Time’s “Top 10 Everything” list for year: tenth most outrageous earmark of 2008. “Some people seem to like rats more than birds,” said Poppy Benson, public programs supervisor at the refuge.

‘Flying boat’ collides with runway
Nine people walked off the April 9 Pen Air crash on the Unalaska runway, a collision that put an end to the airborne days of one of Alaska’s last commercially-flown Grumman Goose aircraft. The Grumman Goose was arriving Akutan when it clipped a tractor trailer on Ballyhoo Road and crashed on the runway. The pilot, passengers and driver of the tractor trailer sustained either minor injuries or none at all. The plane, one of the last remaining of the historic, amphibious Goose fleet used widely during World War II, was grounded indefinitely.
The Department of Transportation has since installed new airport crossing arms similar to those at railroad tracks to prevent airplane-vehicle collisions.

Rare Attu basket returns to Aleutians
It was a homecoming long in the making, but a rare basket returned to the Aleutian Islands after about 70 years of traveling the United States last February, the gift of 101-year-old Washington resident Evangeline Baker Payette, who donated the piece to the Museum of the Aleutians.
“It’s in the right place,” Payette said of the donation. “I say it’s gone home now.”
Payette had kept the basket under a glass dome in her living room for 58 years, never knowing that it was an extremely rare example of early 20th century Attu basket weaving. She had received it 1950 as a gift from her father, a piano tuner named Harry Baker who told her only that he believed it was made in 1935 or 1936. Payette said her father traveled throughout Alaska tuning the pianos of army and naval bases during World War II, but how he came by the exceptionally fine basket is a mystery.

Mayor fined over campaign finance
After a five-hour-long debate on June 12, the Alaska Public Offices Commission found that Mayor Shirley Marquardt had broken campaign finance law when she sent an e-mail about local union activity last August and used a printer at her office at Samson Tug & Barge Co. to produce campaign materials during her re-election campaign in August 2007. Marquardt was fined $150 for the violation.

King Cove T-Jacks’ March madness
For the first time since 1995, the King Cove T-Jacks basketball team won the regional championship and went to state, leading to one most dramatic trio of games at the tournament. The event was so important to the town that King Cove used the city’s hovercraft, recently decommissioned for all but medivacs and charter trips, to ferry the team and most of the town to the airport to fly to Anchorage.
The team muscled past Fort Yukon Eagles 55-49 in the first game, but elation was short-lived when their coach – Ralph Lindquist – suffered a mild heart attack courtside after the game.
Playing for their hospitalized coach, the team was leading by 22 points in their game against Kalskag and seemed destined for an easy chance at the finals when suddenly the game turned, with key players fouling out and Kalskag nibbling away at the lead, until Kalskag finally slipped past the T-Jacks. The loss was crushing for King Cove players, some of whom fought back tears or buried their head in towels.
The T-Jacks went on to crush Napaskiak 74-29 for second place.

Pollock quota down again
Following recommendations by the National Marine Fisheries Service Alaska Groundfish Plan team, the North Pacific Fishery Management Council cut the Bering Sea pollock quota by about 18.5 percent. It’s the second year that the pollock quota, the city’s largest revenue stream, has been decreased due to a sparse year class. While Greenpeace raised alarm that the smaller fish stock is a sign that pollock are overfished, NOAA scientists say they anticipate a strong 2006 year class growing to maturity in 2010, with a corresponding increase in the Total Allowable Catch.

Back