Southeast

Metlakatla’s fisheries have been certified as sustainable by the Marine Stewardship Council.

That should help the southern Southeast community maintain salmon sales overseas. Officials say it’s the first tribal fishery to earn the certification.

Metlakatla is a Tsimshian community on Annette Island, about 15 miles southwest of Ketchikan. It’s an Indian reservation, and its tribal government controls fishing within 3,000 feet of its shores.

Its fisheries used to be included in the Marine Stewardship Council’s certification of Alaska waters. But a few years ago, that changed.

“The certifier examines the management of the fishery, as part of assessing to the standard,” says Kerry Coughlin, the council’s regional director.

“So when it became clear that the Metlakatla fishery was the only small part of the Alaska salmon fishery that’s not managed by the Alaska Department of Fish and Game, then it became clear they couldn’t be covered under the certificate because the management of the Metlakatla fishery had not been assessed,” she says.

So community leaders decided to pursue their own certification.

Jeff Moran runs Metlakatla’s Department of Fish and Wildlife. He says the move was motivated by economics – but that wasn’t all.

“We had certain markets that we had been selling to that came back and said we won’t be able to buy your fish unless you’re certified. That was one of the primary factors that drove us to seek certification. But the more we started looking into it, the more it became obvious that it seemed like the right thing to do,” Moran says.

Metlakatla hired Scientific Certification Systems of California to handle the review process. Coughlin, of the London-based stewardship council, says it’s lengthy, and detailed.

“There are 31 different scoring indicators in the MSC standard under three different principles around sustainability of the stock, the impact on the marine ecosystem and the ongoing management of the fisheries,” Coughlin says.

Metlakatla’s Moran says it already followed many of the required practices. He says it’s been managing its fisheries for decades.

“It’s been pretty tried and true in our eyes. A lot of the issues we had to deal with were genetic
conflicts between hatchery fish and wild fish. And  
then, how our fishery impacts areas outside of the reserve,” Moran says.

The council certified Metlakatla’s pink, chum, coho and king salmon fisheries earlier this summer. That will maintain European markets that require proof of sustainability.

Moran says that’s important to the 50 to 70 gillnetters and 10 to 15 seiners working out of the community.

“A very, very significant percentage of the community relies very, very heavily on fisheries. And then on top of that we have our own processing plant, a packing company, which hires many people for processing the product,” he says.

Marine Stewardship Council staff traveled to Metlakatla to celebrate certification in late August. But that’s not all that has to be done.

Coughlin says the review process recommended some changes that will help make the fisheries even more sustainable.

“The rebuilding strategy, the sampling programs, monitoring and reporting, those would  be some areas where they passed, but the certifier flagged them as having room for improvement,” she says.

But she says overall, Metlakatla meets the standards. And that should help maintain – if not expand – its markets.

“What’s exciting to me is to see such a clear example of a community fishery that is going to see market benefit from demonstrating their sustainability. It’s not only a good example of how the MSC program is designed to work, but it’s just a wonderful thing to see that tribal community ensuring the continuation of their fishery,” she says.

Alaska salmon, as well as western flatfish and pollock, are among other in-state fisheries certified as sustainable by the council.

The state is setting aside more of its land for logging.

Governor Sean Parnell today (Sept. 7th) signed a bill adding 23,000 acres to the Southeast State Forest. The measure nearly doubles the size of the forest, which was created in 2010.

The forest is spread out, rather than in one concentrated area. The new acreage is in Southern Southeast and includes 23 parcels on Mitkof, Wrangell, Prince of Wales, Dall and some other islands, as well as the mainland. Click here to view a map of the forest additions.

Haines Representative Bill Thomas helped get the bill passed. He says a larger state forest should be of value to the region’s mills.

“There’s not very many around and they need all the help they can get. So I’m just hoping our efforts will be able to supply some volume of timber to them rather than having them litigated and shut down,” he says.

The land was already slated for eventual timber harvest. The state forest designation allows officials to manage it by enhancing tree growth with techniques such as thinning.

The Southeast State Forest, at about 50,000 acres, is the third and smallest such entity.

The quarter-million-acre Haines State Forest is in northern Southeast. The 1.8-million-acre Tanana Valley State Forest stretches from Manley to Tok in the Interior.

Thomas says the areas remain open to uses other than logging.

“We have a state forest in Haines too and it’s multi-purpose. It’s open to hunting, fishing trapping, subsistence, personal use, the whole thing,” he says.

Parnell sponsored the measure, House Bill 105. It passed the House and Senate last spring without objection.

The governor this year also created a timber task force to work on plans to rejuvenate Southeast’s depressed wood-products industry. It includes state and other logging supporters who left the Tongass Futures Roundtable. That group included environmental organizations, which the task force does not.

 

Sitka’s home-grown cruise company has wrapped up its first season. And it’s already planning to expand, with sailings to southern Southeast starting next year. Several other small lines also plan to increase capacity in 2012.

Allen Marine has offered whale-watching and other day tours for years. They’ve been popular with independent and cruise-ship tourists stopping in the company’s hometown of Sitka, as well as ports in Ketchikan and Juneau.

Last year, the company announced plans to expand into the small cruise market with a new brand, Alaskan Dream. It readied the 78-passenger Admiralty Dream for week-long roundtrips based out of Sitka.

Vice President Michael Wein says the season started slow.

“By the time we got everything up and running as far as marketing, our May had some very light loads. But every consecutive month we’ve had an increase in bookings and we’re sailing the month of August with very impressive loads,” he says.

A second ship, the 46-passenger Alaskan Dream, was brought into service when needed.

The company is expanding its itineraries in hopes of filling both ships next season. It will add one-way cruises between Juneau and Sitka. And it will begin sailing to Ketchikan.

“We’ll be offering two departure dates of an 11-day cruise that goes from Sitka to Ketchikan. And that’s a complete Southeast Explorer itinerary which has Glacier Bay, Skagway, Haines, Juneau, Petersburg, Wrangell, and of course Hobart Bay and Tracy Arm.”

Alaskan Dream offers the only cruises stopping in Hobart Bay, on the mainland between Juneau and Petersburg. The site, owned by Juneau Native corporation Goldbelt, offers kayaking, ATVs and small, powered inflatable boats.

The Sitka-based company is one of several offering up-close, small-ship voyages in Southeast Alaska. Wein says the difference is in the staff and approach.

“We’ve used the philosophy, which we’re very proud of, is ‘True Alaska with True Alaskans.’ The program we offer shows a complete history of Alaska and what life is like up here in Alaska 12 months out of the year versus just a couple months out of the year,” he says.

Alaskan Dream Cruises is among several small-ship companies expanding Inside Passage sailings next summer. InnerSea Discoveries, American Safari and American Cruise Lines will also increase offerings.

They’re, in part, filling a gap left when small-ship pioneer Cruise West went out of business about a year ago

“I think the cruise industry and the small-ship cruise industry in Southeast is really starting to see a rejuvenation of sorts,” says Hunter McIntosh, chief operating officer of The Boat Company, which sails between Sitka and Juneau.

McIntosh says its two boats, which carry up to a total of 44 passengers, ran at 90 percent occupancy this year. He calls that “phenomenal.”

“I think what’s happening is people are realizing that while our economy is down, and while things are difficult, people still want to take vacations. They still want to be able to relax and they still want to be able to enjoy small ship cruising,” he says.

The nonprofit company does not plan to add vessels or itineraries next season. But McIntosh says it will increase the number of guest-hosted tours. This season saw environmental activist and TV documentary producer Philippe Cousteau.

“We’d like to do more of those types of trips with Robert Glenn Ketchum, who is an Ansel Adams-award-winning photographer, and with one of our business partners, Orvis, bringing fly-fishing guides up. That is the sort of direction that we’re taking,” he says.

Both lines target the upper end of the cruise market. Alaskan Dream charges $1,500 to $7,000 per passenger, depending on trip length and cabin size. The Boat Company fares run up to $10,000.

Read or hear: Small cruise lines send more ships to Alaska

Government and nonprofit groups gathered on Prince of Wales Island recently to celebrate a pair of restoration projects.

The Nature Conservancy, Trout Unlimited and the U.S. Forest Service worked together on the Harris River and Fubar Creek. Both were damaged by logging in past decades.

Randy Hagenstein of The Nature Conservancy says loggers removed fallen trees from waterways, which changed habitat and flow.

“By going into these streams and engineering logs and logjams, we accomplish a number of goals to change it back to what would have been a more natural condition. And that improves the habitat for salmon and steelhead and other resident fish,” he says.

The work also included new trails and recreation areas. Fubar Creek was also given a Haida name, Gandláay Háanaa, which translates as Beautiful Stream or River. Roads were also improved, culverts were unblocked and second-growth forest areas were thinned.

Forest Service officials stressed the importance of the collaborative nature of the projects.

Hagenstein says his group helped raise funds, handle contracts and gain needed permits.

“The fourth role is to do some of the follow-up monitoring to make sure that the results that we hope to get from the project are realized,” he says.

The celebration was held August 25th in Craig.

The restoration work has its critics.

“The Harris River Restoration Project is a good example of taxpayer dollars being wasted on a phony stream restoration project,” writes timber advocate George Woodbury in a commentary published by the Juneau Empire. “The truth — the sedimentation in the river is natural.”

“Large amounts of sediment have been washing out of the surrounding hillsides since the last ice-age,” he writes.

The Juneau Economic Development Council has taken its show on the road. Its operations director, Margaret O’Neal, was in Sitka this week to talk to local entrepreneurs and offer advice on starting up a business. The council does what it calls “gap financing” – putting up the money to help startup businesses. O’Neal gave a presentation to the Greater Sitka Chamber of Commerce on Wednesday. KCAW’s Ed Ronco reports.

A group of students from Sitka are in Kodiak this week for the second half of an exchange with the Woody Island tribe. Like many exchange programs, this one aims to foster better understanding between two cultures. But it also could help preserve traditions lost to either side, and foster healing between two cultures with a difficult history.

A group of students is walking down the trail at Sitka National Historical Park, learning about the totem poles that line it. They’re preparing for a visit to Kodiak, as part of a cultural exchange program run by the park.

Becky Latanich is chief of interpretation and education at the park. She says sending the Tlingit youth to Kodiak is the second half of the exchange program, which began last summer.

“The first year when they came over the Kodiak people, who are Alutiiq or Aleut or Sugpiaq, came here to learn about a series of dances called the Aleut series or the Alutiiq series that, over a period of time, was lost to them, but preserved in the Tlingit culture,” Latanich said.

This year, the Tlingit students will learn more about their relationship with Kodiak. Latanich says there are some Tlingit sites in Kodiak, and the trip will offer a way for them to learn about that history.

She says all of it – the history and the dancing – is an effective way to preserve and further Native culture and tradition.

“What’s so neat is the youth involvement in the dance, because it’s the youth who are performing the dance,” Latanich said. “It’s not just something that’s locked away in the elders’ memories. It’s something that they practice, that the dancers are engaged in. We just had an evening program last Thursday where the students performed the Aleut series for their practice. More than anything you could tell that they enjoyed doing it; it was really fun. I hope they bring not just the tradition back to Kodiak but that they bring back that sense of excitement and engagement with culture back to Kodiak as well.”

Latanich says it’s one thing for the students to learn about cultural traditions. But immersing in those traditions is another thing entirely, she says.

“It’s not something you read about in a book,” she said. “It’s something that’s real and continues to exist. And it gets them excited about their past, and about the present.”

The trip is funded with a $15,000 grant from a program called “America’s Best Ideas.”

“And I think this is a very good idea,” said Kathy Drabek, tribal administrator of the Woody Island Tribal Council, which represents the Tangirnaq Native Village.

She says the visit to Kodiak will include dinners and tours, but also a healing ceremony Friday on Afognak Island, which was the site of a battle between the Tlingit and the Alutiiq people. Drabek says the majority of Tlingits were killed in the battle.

“Cries can still be heard in that location,” she said. “We’re hoping that any animosity and spiritual disruption would be forgiven with the apology ceremony and prayers.”

Drabek says giving students and elders the opportunity to engage in that kind of cultural sharing is hugely important.

“The analysis of what about history matters to an individual culture, and the similarities of different cultures interacting – I just think that’s productive for any society,” Drabek said.

16-year-old Sitka resident Sabrina Gamble was part of the program last year. She says it was tough going at first, but that a transformation took place during the visit.

“At first, everyone was just kind of ‘I don’t know what I’m doing here, I don’t want to be here.’ But by the end, all of them didn’t want to leave, because we all connected so well, and they were learning so much,” she said. “It seemed like they wanted to keep on learning more about what we were teaching them.”

Gamble says she hopes to have similar feelings on this trip to Kodiak.

“While they were here we didn’t get to learn anything about their songs,” she said. “They performed, but I think it would be nice to actually have them teach their songs.”

The students will keep journals during their trip. Sitka National Historical Park has created a Facebook page, where the students will share their observations.