Deadliest Fans

2008-02-08T11:37:00.000-08:00

Comming Back Soon !

February-ish --- March-ish 2008

2007-09-11T12:57:00.000-07:00

Upcoming Deadliest Catch Crew and Captain Appearences

2007-08-13T15:08:00.000-07:00

*Monday, August 13th

Wheeling, Illinois

Bob Chinn's Crabhouse

Starting at 6pm

"Bad Boys of the Bering Sea"

"Party with the Skipper's"

*Tuesday, August 14th

Coeur d'Alene, Idaho

The three captains(Sig Hansen, Johnathan Hillstrand, Keith Colburn) will appear Tuesday at 5 p.m. at a five-course, crab-themed dinner at the Beachouse restaurant, 3204 Coeur d’Alene Lake Drive in Coeur d’Alene. Reservations are still available by calling (208) 664-6464.

The captains will appear at three area bars on Wednesday: the Beacon at 9 p.m.; the Iron Horse at 10; and the Shore Lounge from 11 on.

Everett, Washington-Everett Aquasox

"Fans are invited to come out early to the ballpark and meet Captain Phil Harris of the FV Cornelia Marie, his two sons Jake and Josh Harris, as well as the captain of the Farwest Leader, Greg Moncrief and his wife Ragnhild who spent season 3 of the show as the boats cook and part time deckhand."

Captain Johnathan is on VH1!

2007-08-10T23:11:00.000-07:00

Don't forget to catch VH1's 40 Greatest Reality TV Moments 2 this weekend!

Captain Johnathan Hillstrand of the Deadliest Catch is on the list.

40 Greatest Reality TV Moments 2 will include new, exclusive interviews with a plethora of A-list reality stars and the shows' producers and creators, plus an exciting assortment of comedians, writers, and reality TV "experts," all backed by insanely captivating footage. Moments from American Idol, The Amazing Race, Flavor of Love, Project Runway, Big Brother, America's Next Top Model, The Real World, Deadliest Catch, Hell's Kitchen and many more will be featured.
Check here for times

2007-08-01T11:56:00.000-07:00

We are on vacation!

We will be back soon!

TWO COAST GUARD MEMBERS PERISH IN DIVE OPERATION

2007-07-29T21:38:00.000-07:00

God Bless them and their families. They risk their lives for all the fishermen and for us water lovers.

PRESS RELEASE

COAST GUARD ISLAND, ALAMEDA, Calif. - Two Coast Guard divers assigned to the Seattle-based Coast Guard Cutter Healy died Thursday afternoon during a routine dive operation in the Arctic Ocean approximately 500 miles north of Barrow, Alaska.

Deceased are Lt. Jessica Hill, 31, of St. Augustine, Fla., and Petty Officer 2nd Class Steven Duque, 22, of Miami.

The victim's next of kin have been notified and additional support services are being provided to each family, as well as Healy crewmembers.

"I felt a deep sense of loss when I received the initial report on this situation," said Vice Adm. Charles D. Wurster, Commander, Coast Guard Pacific Area, adding, "I offer my prayers to the families and friends of Lieutenant Hill and Petty Officer Duque in their time of grieving."

Healy was engaged in a science mission when the accident occurred. The dive was intended to be a cold-water familiarization dive near the bow of the ship, a routine activity when the ship is operating in Arctic ice.

The cause of this dive accident is under investigation.

"The Coast Guard will conduct a thorough investigation to determine the cause of this accident," Wurster said.

The 420-foot Healy is one of three polar ice breakers operated by the Coast Guard. Healy is primarily used for Arctic science operations under sponsorship of the U.S. National Science Foundation.

More information about Healy can be found by visiting http://www.uscg.mil/pacarea/healy/.

Famed "Deadliest Catch" captain starts tour operation

2007-07-29T14:07:00.000-07:00

July 29, 2997

By Margaret Bauman

Alaska Journal of Commerce

For landlubbers intrigued by the popular Discovery Channel series “The Deadliest Catch,” there's a new reality adventure offering a once-in-a-lifetime chance to experience commercial fishing, in the calm, protected waters of Southeast Alaska.

David Lethin, owner of the 107-foot Aleutian Ballad, says the idea of a commercial tourism adventure that allows visitors to experience commercial fishing from the deck of a seasoned vessel came to him after scores of tourists kept watching fishermen like himself unload their catch at the docks.

It was about 10 years ago, while Lethin was unloading black cod and halibut at a dock in Southeast Alaska and he observed visitors aboard a cruise ship fascinated with his and other vessels unloading their wild Alaska harvest.

David Lethin, one of the famed “The Deadliest Catch” crab boat captains, has transformed the Aleutian Ballad into a tour boat. Lethin spent $2.5 million to remodel his vessel to offer fans the chance to safely and comfortably see a working fishing boat. Lethin planned to launch his first tour out of Ketchikan July 25. The captain was featured in the Discovery Channel's “The Deadliest Catch,” which displayed the dangers of crab fishing in the unpredictable waters of the Bering Sea. Photo courtesy of Bering Sea Crab Fishermen's Tour

“I thought “I want to show people what's under the water; if I could just do that,'” he said.

The idea took seed. Lethin proceeded to spend $2.5 million at Giddings Boat Works in Charleston, Ore., remodeling the Aleutian Ballad to safely accommodate a total of 150 visitors on the upper and lower decks, out of the way of working crew, but in clear sight of their activities.

After several trial runs, with employees in the tourism industry as his guests, Lethin planned to launch his first tourist trip July 25, from the dock at Ketchikan.

He expects most of his guests, travelers on cruise ships, will find it the trip of a lifetime.
In the heated comfort of sheltered observation areas, visitors will be able to watch the crew launch and retrieve crab pots weighing 700 pounds each. During the four-hour tour of the fishing grounds offshore of the Metlakatla Indian community, the crew will talk with passengers about fishing practices and share stories of the sea, as other types of gear are baited and set to catch halibut, octopus, rockfish and numerous other species. Some of the sea life brought aboard will be placed in a huge live tank before they are released back into the sea.

“The key to this whole project is the Metlakatla Indian community, which lives on Annette Island,” Lethin said. Metlakatla Indians have agreed to a joint venture in which they are compensated for every individual who comes aboard the Aleutian Ballad for the journey, because the vessel brings them into Metlakatla waters. A bonus is that when local residents, whom Lethin describes as some of the best salmon fishermen in Alaska, are hauling in their catch, the Aleutian Ballad can pull up alongside so its guests can watch and photograph the salmon fishery.

Lynn Walton, a partner in the venture with Lethin, is equally excited about the venture.

“It's an actual fishing operation, and will depend on tides and winds,” Walton said.

Tours run for four hours, and cost $189.

Deadliest Discovery

2007-07-29T10:57:00.000-07:00

Fun Products for the Deadliest Fan

Crab and Shells Socks

BUY ME

Deadliest NOT on TOP?

2007-07-29T10:39:00.000-07:00

From Pacific fisherman Magazine
by Cassandra Marie Profita

The Wall Street Journal did a piece about the new chief at The Discovery Channel, home to Deadliest Catch. DAVID ZASLAV was explaining why he had cut costs by canceling some shows(American Hotrod, Monster Garage) and closing the channel's retail stores. In doing so, he mentioned his most-noticed shows: Mythbusters and Cash Cab("a quiz show in a taxi"). Not mentioned was D.C.

Hmmm, DC got 4 Emmy nomination's this year and 3 last year....not MOST NOTICED?

Want to write Mr. Zaslav and set him straight from the FANS? Click HERE

Much ado about pollock

2007-07-29T10:28:00.000-07:00

Jun 21st 2007

DUTCH HARBOR, ALASKA

From The Economist print edition

Sleight of hand in the Atlantic and the Bering Sea

ALASKA POLLOCK—an inexpensive whitefish, used for processed seafood such as fish sticks and imitation crab meat—does not usually command the attention of the State Department. But a $9m shipment of it, currently sitting on a dock in the Moroccan port of Agadir, has embroiled governments on both sides of the Atlantic, and underscores the risks of doing business at sea.

The pollock was bound for Germany onboard the Polestar, a seafood-shipping vessel detained by Morocco's armed forces on May 24th at the request of several European countries. Although the fish was legal, the Polestar was on a blacklist of ships involved in illegal fishing kept by western European maritime authorities.

The Polestar's cargo originated in the port of Dutch Harbor, Alaska, and the incident is an embarrassing one for the west-coast seafood industry. Alaska pollock caught from the Bering Sea are one of America's largest seafood exports. They come from a sustainable fishery, a rare thing in the seafood business, but one that consumers increasingly care about. Alaska pollock carries the label of the Marine Stewardship Council (MSC), a London-based organisation which certifies sustainable seafood. Wal-Mart, America's biggest retailer, announced last summer that within five years it would stock only MSC-certified fish.

No one has seriously alleged that the Polestar's MSC-certified cargo, which was shipped by Trident Seafoods, was tampered with after it left Alaska. But the fact that it was on board a ship that had recently been caught loading illegal fish in the North Atlantic does not look good. The Polestar is a “tramper”, a ship that carries seafood without using containers—and can therefore, without need of a large crane or other port machinery, load up on the high seas from boats that have been fishing illegally. (It was caught loading redfish from Georgian vessels, and fled the scene.) In the pollock case, the State Department and the Fisheries Service of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration have spent recent weeks attempting to distance the legitimate fish from the illegitimate vessel.

The North East Atlantic Fisheries Commission, meeting last week, decided that the pollock could proceed to Europe as long it was on a legal ship. The Polestar's fate remains undecided. But the business of international shipping is notoriously lawless and, in some respects, becoming more so. American and European fisheries regulators believe that as countries crack down on illegal fishing in their own waters, more outlaws are engaging in the kind of high-seas transactions that got the Polestar into trouble. And this case serves warning to the intermediary companies involved in shipping seafood that they are sailing in dangerous waters.

Greenhorns look for answers while sockeye fishing on Alaska Peninsula.

2007-07-29T09:51:00.000-07:00

Escape and justification in Bristol Bay

PILOT POINT: Greenhorns look for answers while sockeye fishing on Alaska Peninsula.

By KEVIN SIEFF
Daily News correspondent

July 29, 2007

PILOT POINT -- Three fishermen from different parts of the Lower 48 huddle on the beach in Pilot Point, a village near the mouth of Bristol Bay. It is 1 a.m. in early July, and the sunset's orange afterglow offers just enough light so the men can see each other's swelled hands.

They see the bright red cuts infected by salmon blood and guts.

They see purple fingernails, ready to fall off.

Every summer, 60 setnet fishermen descend on Pilot Point, a village of 70 people with no paved roads, to pull millions of pounds of sockeye into 25-foot metal skiffs. These men and women are a fraction of the nearly 7,000 people who harvest fish every year in Bristol Bay, according to an estimate by the Alaska Department of Labor.

Most of those laborers arrive in June -- for the biggest run of wild sockeye in the world -- and leave in late July. Some are in the United States on temporary work visas. Others inherited fishing permits from fathers and grandfathers.

The three men in Pilot Point have their own stories.

"I'd never been fishing before this," says one.

"I'd never seen the ocean," says another.

Now, as the night dims and the Aleutian mountain range disappears from view, the men are nearly indistinguishable. All are unshaven, unwashed and wearing waders and orange raincoats. To tell them apart, you have to get close. You have to note the marked differences -- in both content and inflection -- as they take turns telling their stories.

WALL STREET ON HOLD
Reuben Dvoretsky's friends think he's nuts. You don't graduate at the top of your class from the University of Michigan's business school, land a high-paying job on Wall Street and then fly from Buffalo, N.Y., to Alaska to try your hand at commercial fishing. That's how people get hurt, they tell him. That's how people get killed.

Dvoretsky booked the flight anyway.

Last fall, as he was preparing for job interviews, he watched every episode of The Discovery Channel's "Deadliest Catch." He was struck by the polarity between the business world he was preparing to enter and the world of Alaska fishermen.

"I thought, 'Man, before I devote my life to Excel spreadsheets, I need to get up there.' "

But by the time king crab season starts in October, Dvoretsky will have moved into his cubicle in Manhattan, where he will work for Huron Consulting Group. He has only two months, June and July, to play fisherman, and those months coincide with sockeye season in Bristol Bay.

He paid $13 to register at Alaskajobfinder.com, and through the Web site, Tom Bursch offered him a job that would be physically demanding but relatively safe.

He looked at his hands; they were soft and unblemished. He wanted calluses. Dvoretsky accepted the job.

After a month of fishing, he wonders if Pilot Point was the best place to spend his last summer break before going to work full time.

"No one has ever worked this hard on a vacation," he says. "I don't think I thought seriously about how hard this would be."

Though the work is hard, the risk is much less significant in Pilot Point than it is for the crab fishermen who inspired Dvoretsky's trip. That's OK with him. He doesn't need a severed finger to memorialize his fishing excursion; he's happy enough with a four-week beard.

"Look at me," he says, stroking his beard. "I look like a fisherman."

HUNTING FOR A CAREER
As a deckhand in Pilot Point, Bill Andrews, a 32-year-old from Michigan's Upper Peninsula, sleeps on a plywood bunk in an old metal cargo hold. The cabin is cold and damp, causing Andrews' shoulder to ache so badly that he winces throughout the night.

In the morning, he swallows five Tylenol caplets without water and gets ready to haul the catch over the skiff's bow. He wonders how many more pills he can take without seriously damaging his liver.

Andrews had waited for months to get to Pilot Point, and when he arrived it looked like paradise. When he walked into the placid bay, it was the first time his skin had ever touched saltwater.

He was hopeful. If he met the right people, he could land a gig as a bear-hunting guide. He could raise his 10- and 12-year-old boys in the wilderness so that, like their father, they could grow up "with a rod in one hand and a gun in the other."

But the weeks wore on Andrews. He hated spending so much time away from his sons. He wondered if his ex-girlfriend, who left him during his steady decline into alcoholism, had met someone else.

He grew frustrated with the city boys with college degrees who try commercial fishing on a whim after watching a television show. Many of them, he says, don't pull their weight. For Andrews, this is no whim.

He worries that he is getting too old to start a hunting career. If he can't make contacts this summer in Pilot Point, where several fishermen are also guides, then he expects to spend the rest of his life in Michigan, working as the supervisor of a call center, asking strangers if they are happy with their long-distance phone service.

STARTING A NEW LIFE
Robert Osak, a 24-year-old activist from Visalia, Calif., is an unlikely escapist. But when he saw the miles of tundra that separate the village from the nearest city, he smiled. He had been to rural towns in Bolivia and Thailand, but he had never felt so isolated, so far away from his home.
This was exactly what he was looking for.

Osak, who has a degree in urban studies, sits on the board of two nonprofits in California's Central Valley and is the co-founder of a community radio station in Visalia.

Until last year, he says, he also was addicted to methamphetamines.

"I wanted to travel," Osak says, "I wanted to learn a foreign language, but I had to deal with this disease."

When he started to recover, a friend told him about "Deadliest Catch."

At the time, Osak didn't own a television and he didn't care to watch the show. He wasn't interested in its plot, he was looking to jolt himself out of a two-year rut.

After landing a job with John Peterson in Pilot Point, he wrote his will, spent $500 on airfare and gear and arrived in Alaska with hardly enough money for food. When his shoe tore in half after a week of work, he tied it to his foot with rope and duct tape; buying a new pair was out of the question.

"It seems strange that I'd want to do this even though the finances don't make sense," he says, "but I needed this adventure."

After two years of trying to make sense of his life, Osak finds himself in a small aluminum boat, struggling to pull one of the season's last salmon out of a nylon net.

"Here I am," he says, "pulling at the fish's gills, yanking on the net and I'm only making it worse. And then, thanks to luck or God, the thing just falls out."

Osak pauses to recall his revelation.

"And that's how I'm going to remember this experience. A series of haphazard decisions led me here, to this tiny village, to this crazy job. And then, after two years -- as if I managed to pull on the net just right -- things feel sorted out for me. The salmon has magically slipped out of the net."

CAPSIZED LANDING CRAFT SUCCESSFULLY SALVAGED

2007-07-28T11:49:00.000-07:00

July 27, 2007

JUNEAU, Alaska - A private salvage team succeeded last night in safely dewatering the 61-foot landing craft Pegasus, which capsized Tuesday morning in Lynn Canal while carrying a load of freight north toward Kensington Mine. The vessel had remained partially submerged off of Sunshine Cove for two days while salvage crews and divers recovered the freight and refloated the vessel.

Though commercial divers were able to plug the engine vents soon after the accident, the risk of release of 1,200 gallons of diesel fuel still aboard the stricken vessel drew the close scrutiny of Coast Guard and State of Alaska officials. Now that the vessel has been refloated and dewatered, the risk of a fuel spill is negligible.

The salvers towed the Pegasus to the dock at Yankee Cove, where the fuel will be off-loaded under the supervision of the Coast Guard and the Alaska Department of Environmental Conservation. The vessel's two-man crew escaped the incident without injury. The vessel was carrying an excavator and two 20-foot shipping containers of explosives.

The excavator sunk in 200 feet of water, but the two 20-foot shipping containers floated and were recovered with no damage. Both containers were transported to Comet Beach for use by the mine.

VIDEO AVAILABLE

Shell and whaling captains come to an agreement

2007-07-28T11:44:00.000-07:00

July 27, 2007
Kodiak Daily Mirror

ANCHORAGE, Alaska (AP) -- Shell and North Slope whaling captains have come to an agreement that settles one of the problems the oil giant faces to proceed with plans for offshore drilling in the Beaufort Sea.

Both sides hailed the "conflict avoidance agreement" signed this week to keep offshore drilling from disrupting subsistence hunts.

The whaling captains were afraid noisy drilling operations might drive the bowheads farther offshore, increasing the danger for whaling crews forced to range farther in small boats to subsistence hunt and harpoon whales.

Both sides hailed the agreement, which settles one of several problems facing Shell before it can put its two drilling ships to work. Shell hopes to drill exploratory wells this year in the Beaufort Sea.

"We are very glad that Shell has decided to recognize the risks to our bowhead whale resource, our bowhead whale subsistence hunt and the lives of our hunters," said Harry Brower Jr., chairman of the Barrow-based Alaska Eskimo Whaling Commission, which represents whaling villages.

"We thank the AEWC for working with Shell to create a comprehensive plan of communication, mitigation and cooperation," said Curtis Smith, Shell spokesman in Anchorage.
Shell agrees to move only one of its drilling ships, the Frontier Discoverer, into position at the Sivulliq oil prospect initially this summer, and to halt drilling operations on Aug. 25 and move away the ship within two days.

This will clear the area for the Cross Island whale hunt. Once the hunt is over, Shell can put both its drill ships to work at Sivulliq, which is in Camden Bay west of the village of Kaktovik.

The conflict avoidance agreement does not mean Shell will actually drill this year before ice covers the Beaufort Sea.

The North Slope Borough, the whaling commission and environmental groups are fighting the drilling plan in federal court. The borough and others also have fought to prevent the company from securing air pollution permits to run its drilling rigs.

Unless Shell can get those permits and can overcome a court order blocking the start of drilling until at least Aug. 14, then the company can't drill, said Cam Toohey, Shell's Alaska government relations manager.

Deadliest Catch ALL day long!

2007-07-28T11:41:00.000-07:00

Today on TV

July 28, 2007

The Deadliest Catch, the Discovery Channel's most-watched and Emmy-nominated show last year, recaps its third season with an all-day marathon. Filmed in the cold, wet darkness of the heaving seas, the documentary-style show follows fishermen as they work for days straight and risk their lives to capture sought-after seafood. (9 a.m.-midnight, Discovery).

Schedule

Oldest-known Aleut whalebone mask found?

2007-07-28T11:37:00.000-07:00

Whalebone mask may rewrite Aleut history

By ALEX deMARBAN

ademarban@adn.com

July 28, 2007

Archaeologists unearthing an ancient village from an Unalaska hillside believe they've found the remains of the oldest-known Aleut whalebone mask.

Much of the mask is missing -- it's mostly intact above where the cheekbones would sit -- but archaeologists are pretty sure it's about 3,000 years old, said Mike Yarborough, lead archaeologist at the dig.

Stained brown by soil, cracked in two at the left temple, the discovery made early this month by a member of Yarborough's team is about 2,000 years older than any known Aleut mask, he said.
It was created around the time Mayan civilization began, around the time Homer was producing the Iliad and Odyssey.

The Earth had suddenly cooled then, and ice surrounded the Aleutian Islands nearly year-round, said Rick Knecht, an archaeologist and University of Alaska Fairbanks professor.

People at the ancient site -- a sprawling village marked by unprecedented stone houses and delicate ivory carvings -- ate polar bears, ice seals that no longer visit the island, and a whale that's never been documented in North American waters, said Knecht. He led a dig at the village in 2003 but wasn't part of the mask discovery.

Perhaps six inches wide once, the mask could have been worn and broken at a funeral, Yarborough said. Cultural anthropologist Lydia Black, who died earlier this year, wrote that members of ancient Aleut burial parties wore and shattered tiny masks during funerals.

"It's speculation to say what happened 3,000 years ago, but it was broken when we found it," Yarborough said. "It very well could have been (a funeral mask)."

People occupied the village sometime between 2,400 and 3,400 years ago, but materials found near the mask indicate it's 3,000 years old, he said.

It's generally similar in appearance to its next oldest cousin, a 1,000-year-old mask found at Izembek Lagoon on the Alaska Peninsula, he said. That one, also a half mask, is on display at the Anchorage Museum at Rasmuson Center.

Denise Rankin, vice president of the tribal government in Unalaska and an employee with the Native corporation, said features such as the round head, almond-shaped eyes and slender nose remind her of people she sees today.

"They look just like an Aleut face," she said.

Knecht, e-mailed a picture of the mask, said the giant eyebrows evoke ancient images of faces pecked into granite boulders at Cape Alitak on Kodiak Island. The petroglyphs, made with hammer stones more than 500 miles east of Unalaska, were created more than 2,000 years ago, he said. "It's a great find," he said of the mask.

The ancient village where the mask came from has yielded several important discoveries, including the remains of dozens of homes, Knecht said. They had stone walls and sub-floor heating ducts to spread heat through the homes, he said.

Archaeologists have also found well-preserved human remains from ceremonial burials and elaborate jewelry such as an ivory hair pin with decorative faces carved on both sides.

The state has spent about $1.65 million on the excavation so it could replace a wobbly, wood-surfaced bridge built in 1979. A $28 million, 700-foot concrete bridge is scheduled to rise alongside it within two years, said Michael Hall, design project manager.

The state has budgeted $950,000 for the dig Yarborough started last year, Hall said. His effort touched off a controversy because he agreed to excavate with backhoes and truck the dirt to a fenced area, where Hall said it would later be sifted.

The heavy machinery was meant to speed the excavation so the bridge could be built more quickly, Hall said. The dig was originally supposed to take only a month last spring and cost $250,000, but the village has turned out to be much larger than anyone expected. The state extended the deadline to Aug. 15, Hall said.

Opponents, including some Aleut residents, grumbled that the excavator would smash clues to the past and shatter ancestors' bones as it punched through earth.

The tribal government, which called the old bridge unsafe and voted to support the quick excavation along with the local Native corporation, hailed the mask as one sign that archaeologists are working carefully.

They seem to be doing detail work with shovels and hand tools a lot more than they're using heavy equipment, said Rankin, with the tribal government.

"They're doing an excellent job," she said.

Archaeologists have trucked about 2,700 cubic yards of dirt to the fenced area and seeded it so grass will grow, Yarborough said. Some people have talked about letting students sift through the dirt as part of a class, he said. Discovered artifacts have gone to a lab for storage and later will be sent to the local museum. But the mask went directly to the museum to be placed in a climate-controlled area and watched by a curator.

The heavy equipment didn't break the mask -- there are no lighter colors indicating fresh cracks, he said.

"It was broken sometime in antiquity," he said.

Knecht, who opposed the backhoe excavation, said a more traditional dig with archaeologists sifting dirt through screens might have found the rest of the mask. Those pieces are likely buried in the big pile behind the fence, he said.

"I shudder to think what's been damaged or lost," he said. "I know they're being as careful as they can given the limitations of digging with heavy equipment. But inevitably there's a price to be paid in history and culture by taking that shortcut."

Don't forget! 33rd annual Ballard Seafood Fest this weekend

2007-07-27T13:16:00.000-07:00

Do Vikings say "Arrr!"?

An inflatable climbing wall is part of the kids activities at the Ballard Seafood Festival this weekend.

Polka anyone? How about a lutefisk eating contest? You can learn the dance and eat the fish at the 33rd annual Ballard Seafood Fest.

The theme, "Feed Your Inner Viking," honors Ballard's Scandinavian and maritime heritage.

This year's fest has more food, more booths and lots of entertainment on three stages.

Entertainment highlights include: Grammy-winning band Brave Combo, at 3:15 p.m. Saturday; and Wylie & the Wild West Show at 5:30 p.m. Sunday.

On the family stage, the Kings of Crab, Captains Larry Hendricks, Sig Hansen and Phil Harris from the Discovery Channel's "Deadliest Catch," will tell tales of the sea and answer questions at 6 p.m. Saturday.

For kids: carnival games, giant inflatables, toy-boat building, rock climbing and other activities all weekend.

Ballard Seafood Fest, 11 a.m.-8 p.m. Saturday and 11 a.m.-7 p.m. Sunday, 2208 N.W. Market St., Seattle; free (206-784-9705 or www.seafoodfest.org).

— Rachel Dooley, Seattle Times staff

Boat with tons of explosives sinks near Juneau

2007-07-27T13:09:00.000-07:00

July 25, 2007

U.S. Coast Guard official says there is no eminent danger of explosion in Lynn Canal

GREG SKINNER

JUNEAU EMPIRE

Photo Provided by Kyle Ziemer

Under water: U.S. Coast Guard boats approach the partially sunken 61-foot landing craft Pegasus on Tuesday in Lynn Canal.A 61-foot landing craft carrying 21 tons of mining explosives capsized Tuesday in Sunshine Cove, according to the U.S. Coast Guard.

"There is no iminent danger of explosion," said Coast Guard Chief Petty Officer Barry Lane.
The Pegasus sank in 50 feet of water in Lynn Canal shortly before 11:35 a.m. in Sunshine Cove, off Mile 35 of Glacier Highway. The ship was transporting blasting caps that require "a high-impact ignition," Lane said.

Two people were on board when the Pegasus capsized. They escaped with no injuries, Lane said.

Video from the Air of Ship

Ship hull and containers Gumption Leasing, a Juneau company with an office in Auke Bay, owns the Pegasus, Lane said. The company did not return phone calls Tuesday night.

Officials said an excavator also was lost overboard during the incident.

Lane said the ship was headed to an unknown work site, but he did not know the ship's origin or destination.

Local mine officials could not be reached.

Investigators were expected on scene early Tuesday evening. The investigation would take weeks, Lane said.

The Coast Guard said it was posting a patrol boat at the scene to provide security until either the explosives were recovered or Gumption Leasing provided security.

Trucano Construction has been contracted to recover the explosives and the vessel.

Deadliest Catch Captain's coming to Massechusetts

2007-07-26T23:05:00.000-07:00

Join us for the 2007 Working Waterfront Festival

September 22 & 23, 2007

New Bedford, Massachusetts

Fisherman's Wharf/Pier 3 — Steamship Pier

The Working Waterfront Festival is presented free of charge.

Meet Captains Phil Harris and Johnathan Hillstrand from the Deadliest Catch!

Discovery Channel's Emmy-nominated series Deadliest Catch thrust commercial fishing into the national spotlight. For the first time ever, viewers had a window into the real life adventures of those who fish the Bering Sea. The show follows the captains and their eight-man crews as they struggle against treacherous weather conditions doing one of the deadliest—and most lucrative—jobs in the world.

The 2007 Working Waterfront Festival is thrilled to present Captains Phil Harris and Johnathan Hillstrand who are featured on the show.

Look for them on the Festival's Main Stage at 5:00 p.m. Saturday, September 22nd for an informal Q & A followed by autograph signing.

Final plans to tow stricken vessel underway

2007-07-26T22:56:00.000-07:00

July 26, 2007

The owner of the NORDIC VIKING, in conjunction with response personnel from the Alaska Chadux Corporation, Coast Guard Marine Safety Unit Valdez, and the Alaska Department of Environmental Conservation are continuing to work on final plans to tow the fishing vessel (F/V) NORDIC VIKING to Seward and complete spill clean-up efforts.

Fishing vessel (F/V) NORDIC VIKING, which ran hard aground near Valdez late Saturday evening USCG photo

The fishing vessel, which ran hard aground near Valdez late Saturday evening breaching one of its nine fuel tanks releasing an estimated 3,500 gallons of diesel, was freed from the beach late Tuesday evening after response crews safely transferred 12,113 gallons of diesel off the vessel into awaiting barges. The engine space and fuel tank have been patched and currently the owner is making final arrangements to have the anchored vessel towed to Seward, Alaska.

Response crews arrived on scene early Sunday afternoon to assess and control the extent of pollution from the F/V NORDIC VIKING. An estimated amount of up to 3,500 gallons of diesel fuel was spilled upon grounding.

Light, scattered sheening remained in some areas near St. Mathews Bay and Olsen Bay as of Wednesday afternoon. USCG photo

Efforts to collect that sheening were not feasible. Shoreline assessment teams are evaluating these areas for any impact, which will dictate any additional response measures necessary.

These teams are comprised of trained monitors from the Alaska Department of Environmental Conservation, NOAA, the Coast Guard, U.S. Forest Service and experts hired by the owners.

To date, there has been no discernable impact to wildlife and monitoring actions of potentially affected wildlife populations continue.

The cause of the grounding remains under investigation.

LINK

Crab man’s arty grab bag

2007-07-26T22:51:00.000-07:00

July 27, 2007

By Ariella Cohen
The Brooklyn Paper

Two stories above the frozen fish and live crustaceans of the Red Hook Fairway, a man who has spent his adult life pursuing the Alaska King Crab has opened a gallery for the art he fell in love while at sea.

Look North Inuit Art Gallery is the brainchild of Jim Clark, a 15-year veteran of the commercial crabbing boats of the Bering Sea. The gallery opened this spring after Clark returned from an icy fishing season and signed a two-year-lease on the Fairway building loft that serves as both his home and gallery. He rents one of 45 mixed-use units created to keep artists and businesses on the fast-gentrifying waterfront.

“I’ve been in waterfront communities all my life that have been stagnant or in decline, so it’s good to be in one that is coming back,” Clark said, staring at New York Harbor through a large, round window.

Look North is the only Inuit Gallery in Brooklyn and so far, all compasses are pointing to its success.

“He’s got some fabulous stuff and a gorgeous location,” said customer Daniel Nimetz, who visited the gallery last week to buy an Inuit sculpture carved out of green-veined Serpentine stone.
Nimetz, who lives upstate and works in Manhattan, had been to Red Hook only once before — in 1955, for a junior high field day.

Clark’s love affair with the waterfront and the Inuit communities of the arctic shores began early.

He grew up in the whaling town that inspired “Moby Dick” — New Bedford, Mass. At 21, he left the East Coast for what he expected to be a short stint on an Alaskan fishing boat. The adventure, however, turned into a crabbing career dotted with art collecting trips in the Inuit villages of Canada and Alaska. During the off-seasons, he visited Red Hook and fell in love again
“I never planned to be a commercial fisherman,” Clark said. “But I fell in love with the land, the harshness, the stoicism of it and just kept moving up the ranks of the boats. The more I learned about the art and got to know artists there, the more I wanted to be there for that. At some point, I realized I wasn’t giving it up.”

And still, he says he is not giving it up.

“I’m still on a working waterfront,” he said, “But I have also realized that the sea is much more romantic from the dock.”

Look North (275 Conover St., in Red Hook) is open by appointment only. Call (917) 482-2878 or visit looknorthny.com.

NOAA considers leaving Seattle

2007-07-26T12:36:00.000-07:00

July 26, 2007
By Nancy Kelsey
Seattle Times staff reporter

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, which has maintained a presence on Lake Union since shortly after the Ballard Locks opened in 1916, is considering a move from its longtime Seattle home.

"Presently, NOAA is looking at sites within Washington and Oregon," said Mark Ablondi, an NOAA commanding officer. "But no decision has been made."

Nearing the end of its current lease and more than a year since a fire destroyed its piers, the federal research and science agency is awaiting a report of potential sites for its Seattle-based research operations. The report, due in December or January, is being conducted by an outside agency.

On July 4, 2006, a fire caused by an electrical short destroyed two piers and two storage buildings on the Lake Union property leased by NOAA.

A year later, the piers have not been repaired, which is a factor as NOAA evaluates about 80 sites in the Puget Sound region and along the Oregon coast for its Marine Operations Center, Pacific.

"We're hoping that they [the property owners] will eventually rebuild," Ablondi said.
There are 60 employees in the administrative building who would be relocated if NOAA left Lake Union. NOAA also has a research and administrative-support center in the Sand Point area that would not be part of the proposed move.

The Lake Union location is home base for ships of NOAA's Pacific fleet, which gather information on the oceans, atmosphere, space and sun. The base provides fuel, spare parts and crew needs, and technical staff compile hydrographic and photogrammetric surveys of the Pacific and Arctic oceans.

NOAA leases the Lake Union land and piers from five families that own the property. But because NOAA is a government agency and must undergo a review before a lease is re-signed, it cannot give the landowners the assurance that they will lease the land again in 2011, said Michael Gallagher, a commander with NOAA. The last lease was renewed in 2000.

Moving along

The lack of a guarantee that NOAA will stay for the long term has slowed the rebuilding, NOAA officials said.

But the owners say they intend to rebuild the piers. Bill Wilson, an attorney and owner who represents the families that lease the pier to NOAA, said they have been working with engineers to move reconstruction along.

Gray whale gets tangled in Seattle's Elliot Bay

2007-07-26T12:31:00.000-07:00

Thursday, July 26, 2007

Gray whale gets tangled in Muckleshoot fishing net, swims free with gear attached

By Christina Siderius
Seattle Times staff reporter

A gray whale got tangled in a Muckleshoot Tribe's fishing net early this morning in Elliott Bay near the Edgewater Hotel.

The whale has since freed itself, said Brian Gorman, spokesman for the Northwest regional branch of the National Marine Fisheries Service.

Those on the tribe's boat originally thought the whale was dead and were trying to cut it from the net, when it sprang to life, said Gorman. They sped up their attempts to free the whale, and it eventually swam off with some fishing gear still attached.

The gear could pose a problem for the whale, depending if it managed to free itself from it or not, he said.

"The whale has skedaddled," said Gorman. "We don't know where it is, nor do we know if it is in danger."

The 13th Coast Guard District got a call at about 3:30 a.m. to report that the whale, which is at least 20 feet long, was stuck in the net, said Gorman.

Coast Guard Petty Officer Shawn Eggert said he was aware of the situation, but that it did not fall on the Coast Guard's duties, although they were standing by to help if a boat was needed.
Gorman said it is very unusual for whales to get trapped in fishing nets in this area, due to the deep waters and limited opportunities.

There are about 20,000 gray whales on the West Coast, he said.

Maritime history to fill museum in Homer, Alaska

2007-07-26T12:25:00.000-07:00

July 25, 2007

McKibben Jackinsky

Where better for a maritime history museum than here?

Alaska, that is, with a coastline measuring 33,000 miles according to the Alaska Coastal Management Program. In fact, by ACMP's calculations, if you walked 1,000 miles a year, it would take 44 years to cover the state's shores with your footprints.

Photo by McKibben Jackinsky Photo by McKibben Jackinsky; Homer News Michael Neece, president of Alaska Maritme Museum Inc., displays his shipwright skills during Sea Fair.

In terms of history, Alaska's connection with the sea stretches back hundreds, if not thousands of years and includes some eye-raising events.

For instance, the Alaska Historical Society reports the last shot of the Civil War was fired from the Confederate raider Shenandoah on the Bering Sea. What the crew aboard the Shenandoah didn't know was that the war was officially over.

To put a finer point on an Alaska maritime history museum, Homer is the place of choice to highlight a history that spans bidarkas to super tankers, at least in the eyes of Michael Neece, president of Alaska Maritime Museum, Inc.

"Through talking to various other museums, they agree that for a maritime museum, Homer is one of the best places in the state of Alaska," Neece said.

In the process of getting its official non-profit status, the Alaska Maritime Museum's stated mission is "to interpret, educate and inspire by collecting, preserving and restoring treasures from Alaska's rich and diverse maritime heritage for the benefit of future generations."

"This represents our past. It's a gift we give our children in the future," Neece said. "That's what the maritime museum is about."

Currently, plans call for a main exhibition hall with an attached convention or multi-media theater situated in Homer's Town Square area.

Groundbreaking for that first building is tentatively scheduled for 2009. A second building will be located near Homer's boat harbor and will focus on Homer's active waterfront, while a third building will house a collection of wooden boats, boatbuilding and design schools.

The idea for the maritime museum came to Neece after he'd spent 14 years developing a film school and then lost everything he had to fire and theft. Taking stock of his life, Neece recognized what he did possess: a personal history of being a shipwright and working on wooden boats, a love of history and, the more he explored, a growing network of mariner acquaintances who shared with him their experiences and adventures at sea.

Among them was Karl Schoeppe, who grew up fishing in Southeast Alaska and spent 33 years as an officer with the Alaska Marine Highway System.

"We started talking history and that really kicked it off," Neece said of the beginning inspiration to develop the museum.

Neece's connection to the sea is evident in other areas of his life, as well. He was one of the founding members of Cook Inletkeeper and was on the Alaska SeaLife Center's original board of directors.

A Web site alaskamaritimemuseum.org will be in place by this fall. It provides a place for Neece to store the growing body of material on Alaska's maritime legacy that he is finding in museums around the world. It also will be a place where viewers can be involved with what they see.

"If you look at museum sites, most don't move and are interactive to a point," Neece said.

"This will be interactive with movies, history, virtual things on there so kids can play as captain of a sailing ship or a modern commercial vessel."

Neece is receiving a growing interest from individuals wanting to serve on the museum's boards of directors.

"The museum will have two boards of directors, an advisory board and an actual (working) board," he said. "The advisory board will have 12 people; the actual board that runs the day-to-day operations will have nine."

Business plans from other museums are helping Neece identify avenues to minimize federal and state funding of the museum. Developing a maritime school is one of those avenues.

"It could be something between AVTEC, the university system and ourselves, to bring a program to fruition where we actually have a merchant seaman program in the area," he said.

Donation jars will be going up around town in the next week or so. This fall, Neece is planning to organize fund-raising events. Anyone wanting to donate or know more about the Alaska Maritime Museum can contact Neece at P.O. Box 2403, Homer, AK 99603.

"I just want people to think about the history of Alaska," he said, adding that the stories of Alaska's connection to the sea are "a lot of little wonderful gems, scattered like grains of gold that need to all be brought together. That's what I'm hoping to do with this."

LINK

Killer Whale eats King Salmon caught on fishing line

2007-07-26T00:24:00.001-07:00

Be careful where you fish, there may be competition!

This fisherman can't believe his 50lb King Salmon was snatched.

Warning: Graphic language

Collision doomed humpback whale

2007-07-26T00:10:00.000-07:00

NOAA whale expert Ed Lyman, left, and volunteer Kate Eifler examine a dead humpback whale at Cube Cove on Admiralty Island July 11, 2007. At first the whale's swollen tongue was blamed on an infection; now scientists think blunt-force trauma caused it.

NOT INFECTION: Trauma, maybe a ship strike, made whale's tongue balloon.

By JEANNETTE J. LEE
The Associated Press

July 17, 2007

The unusually swollen tongue of a dead humpback whale may indicate that it perished after colliding with a blunt object in the waters of Southeast Alaska, scientists said Monday.

The humpback, an endangered species, also suffered heavy internal bleeding and bruising under its right pectoral fin, suggestive of blunt-force trauma, said Aleria Jensen, a scientist at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration in Alaska.

Scientists believe some sort of impact forced air into the tongue of the 40-foot male humpback, said Jensen, a marine mammal stranding coordinator for the agency. They had initially guessed that the swelling indicated a severe infection.

"It's certainly possible that it was a ship strike, but that's still inconclusive," Jensen said.

According to a recent report prepared for the International Whaling Commission, NOAA's Alaska Marine Mammal Stranding database contains records of about 60 collisions between large whales and ships in Alaska since the 1970s.

The humpback population roaming the North Pacific, estimated at about 10,000, is believed to have been growing at an annual rate of about 7 percent since the mid-1990s. But researchers have said that as the whale population increases, boat strikes become more likely.

A tour boat based in Juneau first reported sighting the whale on July 7 as it struggled to swim with a giant, inflated tongue. Two state ferries also reported the sighting.

"When we flew out to find it, it was on its side struggling to get its blowhole above water," said Jensen. "Its tongue was the size of a small car."

The whale was found dead on Wednesday after tides washed it onto a steep rocky beach on the western shoreline of Admiralty Island south of Juneau.

Scientists secured the animal to some trees by its fluke and performed a necropsy on Friday, Jensen said.

They have collected skin for genetic samples and blubber for contaminants. They have also delved into the stomach cavity and retrieved samples from its intestines, liver and kidney tissue, Jensen said.

Scientists are waiting for the whale to decompose and be eaten by scavengers so they can further investigate whether the animal suffered any broken bones.

The whale had been observed by biologists in the past and was given the number 1211, according to Jan Straley, an assistant professor at the University of Alaska Southeast.

It was first seen in Sitka Sound in 1992 and again near Juneau in 2001. The last sighting was in July 2004 in Tenakee Inlet, according to records from Straley's lab.

Jensen said analyses will probably take several weeks.

"There's never any guarantee that we can find the cause of death, but that's always our goal," she said.