North Slope oil: $109.50 per barrel, down $2.24
U.S. natural gas (Henry Hub): $4.29 per million BTU, up $0.24
Gold (N.Y. Mercantile): $1,515.30 per ounce, up $6.50
Zinc: $0.9692 per pound, down 0.46 cents
Monday, May 23, 2011
Thursday, May 19, 2011
Fishermen make strong showing in Copper River opener
VALDEZ -- The Alaska Department of Fish and Game says the Copper River salmon catch is off to a strong start.
KCHU-radio in Valdez reports 105,300 sockeyes were caught during the first 12 hours of fishing Monday. The department had projected a catch of 41,000 sockeyes.
Commercial fishermen also report catching 1,700 king salmon and 6,000 chum salmon during the 12-hour opener.
The price of Copper River sockeye has been running at about $4 per pound and kings are fetching at least $6.50 per pound, with chums garnering at least 20 cents per pound.
The next opener is scheduled for 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. Thursday.
KCHU-radio in Valdez reports 105,300 sockeyes were caught during the first 12 hours of fishing Monday. The department had projected a catch of 41,000 sockeyes.
Commercial fishermen also report catching 1,700 king salmon and 6,000 chum salmon during the 12-hour opener.
The price of Copper River sockeye has been running at about $4 per pound and kings are fetching at least $6.50 per pound, with chums garnering at least 20 cents per pound.
The next opener is scheduled for 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. Thursday.
Man cited after shooting, wounding pregnant musk ox
A Western Alaska man repeatedly shot a musk ox in the head with a small-caliber rifle last month and left the animal wounded, according to Alaska Wildlife Troopers who charged the man with a pair of misdemeanors on Tuesday.
The shooting occurred April 11 just outside the Kuskokwim Bay village of Kwigillingok. At the request of a public safety officer, another villager killed the animal.
The musk ox later turned out to be pregnant, troopers said.
"It's doubly tragic," said wildlife trooper Michael Cresswell, by phone from Bethel. "It's really two musk ox that were killed."
Kwigillingok resident Jonathan Friend, 27, faces two misdemeanors: hunting in a closed area and using an illegal method, troopers said.
The bullets from Friend's gun -- a .22-caliber rifle -- were too small to legally hunt musk ox, Cresswell said.
Some villagers on snowmachines were watching and taking pictures of two groups of musk ox when Friend opened fire, Cresswell said.
"There was a large amount of blood, and (the animal) went to the ground and didn't die. But it didn't get back up," Cresswell said.
Three days later, Cresswell and a wildlife biologist performed a necropsy on the animal and found an unborn musk ox inside.
"It was about five days from being born," Cresswell said.
The musk ox meat was donated to charity, troopers said.
Reach Casey Grove at casey.grove@adn.com or 257-4589.
The shooting occurred April 11 just outside the Kuskokwim Bay village of Kwigillingok. At the request of a public safety officer, another villager killed the animal.
The musk ox later turned out to be pregnant, troopers said.
"It's doubly tragic," said wildlife trooper Michael Cresswell, by phone from Bethel. "It's really two musk ox that were killed."
Kwigillingok resident Jonathan Friend, 27, faces two misdemeanors: hunting in a closed area and using an illegal method, troopers said.
The bullets from Friend's gun -- a .22-caliber rifle -- were too small to legally hunt musk ox, Cresswell said.
Some villagers on snowmachines were watching and taking pictures of two groups of musk ox when Friend opened fire, Cresswell said.
"There was a large amount of blood, and (the animal) went to the ground and didn't die. But it didn't get back up," Cresswell said.
Three days later, Cresswell and a wildlife biologist performed a necropsy on the animal and found an unborn musk ox inside.
"It was about five days from being born," Cresswell said.
The musk ox meat was donated to charity, troopers said.
Reach Casey Grove at casey.grove@adn.com or 257-4589.
Clam diggers who died were from Calif., Oregon, company says
All five men killed in a boating accident in Cook Inlet this week are from outside of Alaska, and the seafood company they worked for is still trying to determine how they died, the company president says.
The men were aboard a 20-foot skiff that was first reported missing Tuesday afternoon. Co-workers soon found a body washed ashore. By 11 a.m. Wednesday, all five members of the group had been found dead in the area of a commercial clamming camp on the west side of the inlet.
Three of the men were from Oregon and two were from California, said Frank Dulcich, president and chief executive for Oregon-based Pacific Seafood Group.
Pacific Seafood is the parent company of Pacific Alaska Shellfish, which runs a Nikiski processing plant that prepares the razor clams for market. The five dead men worked as contractors for the seafood company.
Dulcich declined to name the men “out of respect for the families,” he said. State troopers also had not publicly identified the men as of this morning, pending notification of their next of kin.
Dulcich, however, said a company representative has met with each man’s family to offer condolences and assistance.
The company declined to name the men’s hometowns.
It was also unclear if all five men are United States citizens.
“To my knowledge, three are and two have work permits,” Dulcich said.
“As of this time we believe that they had work visa permits. That’s our understanding right now. That’s still part of the whole discovery of what and who,” he said.
The clam diggers were paid by the pound for razor clams they dug by hand from a six-mile stretch of shore southwest of Kalgin Island. It’s back-breaking work with beautiful scenery, one employee wrote in 2010. Last year, diggers were paid about 60 cents a pound for harvested clams, a state biologist said.
Workers at the Polly Creek camp regularly use rafts to access the shore and transport clams.
Asked what safety policies the firm has in place to avoid boating accidents, Dulcich said the workers are supplied with life vests, flares and whistles.
Three of the dead men were discovered wearing life vests, according to the U.S. Coast Guard. Two were not.
The seafood company provides water-safety training, Dulcich said. He didn’t know if the men on the skiff had received that training. That would have been the responsibility of the contractor who hired them, he said.
“We’ve never had a fatality around the water over 70 years in business and that’s why all this is very disconcerting,” Dulcich said.
The workers had varying levels of experience — one had worked for the clamming operation for nine years, while another may have been working his first or second year at the camp, Dulcich said.
The company president talked with reporters at a news conference in Oregon Thursday and in a brief phone interview with the Daily News.
Of the 25 people who hold commercial razor clam fishing permits with the state, 10 are from Oregon, eight are from California and six are from Washington state, according to the Commercial Fisheries Entry Commission. The sole Alaskan lists a Soldotna address.
Dulcich declined to comment on how exactly the accident may have occurred.
“Right now, we don’t know what caused this tragedy and until we have the facts, it would be irresponsible to speculate,” he told reporters in Oregon, according to a copy of the remarks.
The Coast Guard and troopers are investigating the cause of the accident, said Coast Guard Petty Officer David Mosley.
Meantime, the aluminum skiff reappeared Wednesday on the mudflats as tides receded, he said. Read The Village, the ADN's blog about rural Alaska, at adn.com/thevillage. Twitter updates: twitter.com/adnvillage. Call Kyle Hopkins at 257-4334.
The men were aboard a 20-foot skiff that was first reported missing Tuesday afternoon. Co-workers soon found a body washed ashore. By 11 a.m. Wednesday, all five members of the group had been found dead in the area of a commercial clamming camp on the west side of the inlet.
Three of the men were from Oregon and two were from California, said Frank Dulcich, president and chief executive for Oregon-based Pacific Seafood Group.
Pacific Seafood is the parent company of Pacific Alaska Shellfish, which runs a Nikiski processing plant that prepares the razor clams for market. The five dead men worked as contractors for the seafood company.
Dulcich declined to name the men “out of respect for the families,” he said. State troopers also had not publicly identified the men as of this morning, pending notification of their next of kin.
Dulcich, however, said a company representative has met with each man’s family to offer condolences and assistance.
The company declined to name the men’s hometowns.
It was also unclear if all five men are United States citizens.
“To my knowledge, three are and two have work permits,” Dulcich said.
“As of this time we believe that they had work visa permits. That’s our understanding right now. That’s still part of the whole discovery of what and who,” he said.
The clam diggers were paid by the pound for razor clams they dug by hand from a six-mile stretch of shore southwest of Kalgin Island. It’s back-breaking work with beautiful scenery, one employee wrote in 2010. Last year, diggers were paid about 60 cents a pound for harvested clams, a state biologist said.
Workers at the Polly Creek camp regularly use rafts to access the shore and transport clams.
Asked what safety policies the firm has in place to avoid boating accidents, Dulcich said the workers are supplied with life vests, flares and whistles.
Three of the dead men were discovered wearing life vests, according to the U.S. Coast Guard. Two were not.
The seafood company provides water-safety training, Dulcich said. He didn’t know if the men on the skiff had received that training. That would have been the responsibility of the contractor who hired them, he said.
“We’ve never had a fatality around the water over 70 years in business and that’s why all this is very disconcerting,” Dulcich said.
The workers had varying levels of experience — one had worked for the clamming operation for nine years, while another may have been working his first or second year at the camp, Dulcich said.
The company president talked with reporters at a news conference in Oregon Thursday and in a brief phone interview with the Daily News.
Of the 25 people who hold commercial razor clam fishing permits with the state, 10 are from Oregon, eight are from California and six are from Washington state, according to the Commercial Fisheries Entry Commission. The sole Alaskan lists a Soldotna address.
Dulcich declined to comment on how exactly the accident may have occurred.
“Right now, we don’t know what caused this tragedy and until we have the facts, it would be irresponsible to speculate,” he told reporters in Oregon, according to a copy of the remarks.
The Coast Guard and troopers are investigating the cause of the accident, said Coast Guard Petty Officer David Mosley.
Meantime, the aluminum skiff reappeared Wednesday on the mudflats as tides receded, he said. Read The Village, the ADN's blog about rural Alaska, at adn.com/thevillage. Twitter updates: twitter.com/adnvillage. Call Kyle Hopkins at 257-4334.
Five clam harvesters perish in Cook Inlet SKIFF VANISHES: Seasonal workers arrived at camp last week.
The U.S. Coast Guard found the bodies of two missing clam diggers Wednesday near a beach on the west side of Cook Inlet, raising the death toll to five after a commercial clamming skiff disappeared.
The men had arrived last week at a nearby camp where they are paid by the pound for digging razor clams along a six-mile stretch of shore southwest of Kalgin Island. The job is back-breaking work performed against a beautiful backdrop, one employee wrote, and is the only clamming operation of its kind on Cook Inlet, according to a state biologist.
A plant manager for Pacific Alaska Shellfish reported the crew's 20-foot aluminum skiff overdue at 3:46 p.m. Tuesday, according to the Coast Guard.
Co-workers found the body of one of the clam diggers washed ashore, the Coast Guard said. Searchers in a helicopter soon spotted two more bodies in the water, about a mile from the beach at Polly Creek, across the Inlet from the Kenai Peninsula.
Four Coast Guard MH-60 Jayhawk helicopters took turns blanketing the shoreline and Inlet overnight in search of the remaining men, with the last two bodies discovered around 11 a.m.
The three men discovered Tuesday were wearing life jackets, the Coast Guard said. The two men found Wednesday, less than a mile away, were not.
Coast Guard and company officials had not publicly identified the five dead men as of Wednesday evening.
"They were using the skiffs to move people around -- as well the clams that they would dig up. ... It was reported that they were going from the Polly Creek area back to the camp when they did not arrive," Petty Officer David Mosley said.
The razor clams are harvested with shovels and buckets between Polly Creek and Crescent River, according to the company website. The clam diggers had been at the camp -- reachable by plane or boat -- since May 12, according to a company spokesman. There were 23 people at the camp before the accident, a spokesman said.
The state manages the commercial clamming operation with a harvest goal of fewer than 400,000 pounds of razor clams in the shell each year, said Pat Shields, a state assistant area management biologist for Fish and Game's commercial fisheries division.
Many of the workers are from out of state, he said. The plant manager has told them many come from California, he said. "They stay in tents and they dig the clams from about mid-May to about mid-August."
When tides allow, the clam diggers walk to the beaches or take a skiff or raft to harvest clams, returning to camp when their buckets are full, said acting spokesman Jason Moore of public relations firm MSI Communications.
Individual workers can harvest about 200 to 250 pounds a day, Shields said. "Some even more." He said he didn't how much the workers made. "The last time I looked (sometime last year) it was about 62 cents a pound."
The eastern shore of Cook Inlet has been set aside for sport harvest of razor clams, with the only commercial digging approved for the western shore, where virtually all of up to 400,000 pounds allowed each year are dug by hand, according to Fish and Game.
Nearly 380,000 pounds of razor clams were harvested on Upper Cook Inlet in 2010, the agency says. Much of it goes to restaurant markets in the Lower 48, Shields said.
An eight-page newsletter titled "Razor Review," provided by the company, describes the Polly Creek operation.
"Each man is paid for what he digs. Two to four guys share a raft. The raft brings out the empty buckets and is filled with a tide's worth of razors," the report says. "The scenery is hard to beat."
Pacific Alaska Shellfish, a subsidiary of Oregon-based Pacific Seafood Group, flies the clams in a small plane from the camp to a seasonal processing plant in Nikiski, where they are shucked, cleaned and vacuum-packed for sale, according to the company website.
A company-owned plane makes several trips a day, Shields said, and workers dig as many as 22 days a month as tides allow.
The packaged clams are sold in Alaska, Washington and Oregon, Moore said.
Pacific Seafood chief executive Frank Dulcich was traveling Wednesday and unavailable for comment, Moore said.
In a prepared statement distributed to media and posted on the Pacific Seafood website, Dulcich said the company is heartbroken by the accident.
"This is the most tragic event in the history of our company. These hard-working and experienced individuals have contracted with our company for many years and are considered close friends and family," Dulcich said.
The crew members killed in the accident are supervised by a longtime contractor for Pacific Alaska Shellfish, the company said. That supervisor was not on board the skiff, Moore said.
"They're not direct employees of the company and so what happens is these guys sort of set their (hours) on when they're going to fish and when they're not going to fish," he said.
The company "will do everything within our power to comfort the family members ... and learn the facts behind this terrible tragedy," Dulcich said in a prepared statement.
The clam diggers held licenses and permit from the state Commercial Fisheries Entry Commission, Department of Environmental Conservation and the Department of Fish and Game, the company said.
The Coast Guard and Alaska State Troopers are investigating to determine the cause of the accident.
The men had arrived last week at a nearby camp where they are paid by the pound for digging razor clams along a six-mile stretch of shore southwest of Kalgin Island. The job is back-breaking work performed against a beautiful backdrop, one employee wrote, and is the only clamming operation of its kind on Cook Inlet, according to a state biologist.
A plant manager for Pacific Alaska Shellfish reported the crew's 20-foot aluminum skiff overdue at 3:46 p.m. Tuesday, according to the Coast Guard.
Co-workers found the body of one of the clam diggers washed ashore, the Coast Guard said. Searchers in a helicopter soon spotted two more bodies in the water, about a mile from the beach at Polly Creek, across the Inlet from the Kenai Peninsula.
Four Coast Guard MH-60 Jayhawk helicopters took turns blanketing the shoreline and Inlet overnight in search of the remaining men, with the last two bodies discovered around 11 a.m.
The three men discovered Tuesday were wearing life jackets, the Coast Guard said. The two men found Wednesday, less than a mile away, were not.
Coast Guard and company officials had not publicly identified the five dead men as of Wednesday evening.
"They were using the skiffs to move people around -- as well the clams that they would dig up. ... It was reported that they were going from the Polly Creek area back to the camp when they did not arrive," Petty Officer David Mosley said.
The razor clams are harvested with shovels and buckets between Polly Creek and Crescent River, according to the company website. The clam diggers had been at the camp -- reachable by plane or boat -- since May 12, according to a company spokesman. There were 23 people at the camp before the accident, a spokesman said.
The state manages the commercial clamming operation with a harvest goal of fewer than 400,000 pounds of razor clams in the shell each year, said Pat Shields, a state assistant area management biologist for Fish and Game's commercial fisheries division.
Many of the workers are from out of state, he said. The plant manager has told them many come from California, he said. "They stay in tents and they dig the clams from about mid-May to about mid-August."
When tides allow, the clam diggers walk to the beaches or take a skiff or raft to harvest clams, returning to camp when their buckets are full, said acting spokesman Jason Moore of public relations firm MSI Communications.
Individual workers can harvest about 200 to 250 pounds a day, Shields said. "Some even more." He said he didn't how much the workers made. "The last time I looked (sometime last year) it was about 62 cents a pound."
The eastern shore of Cook Inlet has been set aside for sport harvest of razor clams, with the only commercial digging approved for the western shore, where virtually all of up to 400,000 pounds allowed each year are dug by hand, according to Fish and Game.
Nearly 380,000 pounds of razor clams were harvested on Upper Cook Inlet in 2010, the agency says. Much of it goes to restaurant markets in the Lower 48, Shields said.
An eight-page newsletter titled "Razor Review," provided by the company, describes the Polly Creek operation.
"Each man is paid for what he digs. Two to four guys share a raft. The raft brings out the empty buckets and is filled with a tide's worth of razors," the report says. "The scenery is hard to beat."
Pacific Alaska Shellfish, a subsidiary of Oregon-based Pacific Seafood Group, flies the clams in a small plane from the camp to a seasonal processing plant in Nikiski, where they are shucked, cleaned and vacuum-packed for sale, according to the company website.
A company-owned plane makes several trips a day, Shields said, and workers dig as many as 22 days a month as tides allow.
The packaged clams are sold in Alaska, Washington and Oregon, Moore said.
Pacific Seafood chief executive Frank Dulcich was traveling Wednesday and unavailable for comment, Moore said.
In a prepared statement distributed to media and posted on the Pacific Seafood website, Dulcich said the company is heartbroken by the accident.
"This is the most tragic event in the history of our company. These hard-working and experienced individuals have contracted with our company for many years and are considered close friends and family," Dulcich said.
The crew members killed in the accident are supervised by a longtime contractor for Pacific Alaska Shellfish, the company said. That supervisor was not on board the skiff, Moore said.
"They're not direct employees of the company and so what happens is these guys sort of set their (hours) on when they're going to fish and when they're not going to fish," he said.
The company "will do everything within our power to comfort the family members ... and learn the facts behind this terrible tragedy," Dulcich said in a prepared statement.
The clam diggers held licenses and permit from the state Commercial Fisheries Entry Commission, Department of Environmental Conservation and the Department of Fish and Game, the company said.
The Coast Guard and Alaska State Troopers are investigating to determine the cause of the accident.
Wednesday, May 18, 2011
Today's oil, gas, gold, zinc prices
North Slope oil: Not yet available
U.S. natural gas (Henry Hub): $4.15 per million BTU, down $0.10
Gold (N.Y. Mercantile): $1,495.60 per ounce, up $15.80 Zinc: $0.9602 per pound, up 0.84 cents
U.S. natural gas (Henry Hub): $4.15 per million BTU, down $0.10
Gold (N.Y. Mercantile): $1,495.60 per ounce, up $15.80 Zinc: $0.9602 per pound, up 0.84 cents
Kelly Cup series at 2-1 as K-Wings down Aces 4-1
KALAMAZOO, MICH.: Kalamazoo scored twice in the third period for a 4-1 win Wednesday.
After one period in game 3 of the ECHL Championship series, the Alaska Aces and Kalamazoo Wings are knotted-up at 1-1.
The K-Wings struck first with a goal from Mitch Versteeg. The Aces' Dan Kissel tied it up with a goal near the end of the first period.
Kalamazoo's Andrew Fournier scored in the second period to give the K-Wings a 2-1 lead. Check back for more score updates.
After one period in game 3 of the ECHL Championship series, the Alaska Aces and Kalamazoo Wings are knotted-up at 1-1.
The K-Wings struck first with a goal from Mitch Versteeg. The Aces' Dan Kissel tied it up with a goal near the end of the first period.
Kalamazoo's Andrew Fournier scored in the second period to give the K-Wings a 2-1 lead. Check back for more score updates.
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- With over 30 years experience as Alaska salmon fishing guides, Ray Blodgett and his Coast Guard licensed crew are privileged to know the Alaska rivers and their hot spots and have the boats and river savvy to get you there. With 3 rivers to choose from, our Alaska salmon fishing guides have over 300 miles of the hottest salmon and trout fishing waters in the world at their disposal giving our clients a great success rate! Give us a call and LET'S GO FISHING!! 907-892-8707