Yukon Fish Swimming Up the Mainstream.
2 08 2009MSNBC has picked up a story by the Associated Press that addresses the failing salmon fishery on the Yukon River. The article cites several possible reasons for the decline in numbers of king salmon, but the major focus is on bycatch. The spotlight on the issues of Western Alaska is getting brighter, and larger, thanks to the efforts of many.
Kudos to the AP and to MSNBC for recognizing the importance of this story and bringing it to the mainstream media. This issue touches not only the lives of rural Alaska residents, and this state, but increases awareness of the critical situation of fisheries across the globe that are in danger of collapse, and the delicate balance that is needed to provide jobs, subsistence food and sustainability.
The lack of salmon last season triggered a crisis of huge proportion in rural Western Alaska. Too few fish meant not enough subsistence food, and not enough commercial income to adequately supplement with other foods, or to purchase fuel (sometimes topping $9/gallon) for the winter. Grassroots efforts from churches, talk radio and the blogosphere managed to keep residents fed, but the prospect of another long winter without an adequate amount of fish looms large.
People living along the Yukon River think they know what is to blame — pollock fishery. The fishery — the nation’s largest — removes about 1 million metric tons of pollock each year from the eastern Bering Sea. Its wholesale value is nearly $1 billion.
King salmon get caught in the huge pollock trawl nets, and the dead kings are counted and most are thrown back into the ocean. Some are donated to the needy.
“We do know for a fact that the pollock fishery is slaughtering wholesale and wiping out the king salmon stocks out there that are coming into all the major tributaries,” said Nick Andrew Jr., executive director of the Ohagamuit Traditional Council. “The pollock fishery is taking away our way of living.”
As many as 120,000 king salmon have been tossed overboard at sea dead, meaning not only a non-existent commercial fishery on the Lower Yukon, but fewer fish harvested for subsistence food, fewer left to spawn and create more fish, and fewer fish reaching Canada.
Treaty agreements between the U.S. and Canada have been a sore point for some native leaders. Alaska must let 45,000 kings escape across US borders to fulfill treaty obligations. High water levels contributed to inaccurate sonar fish counts this year, letting a surplus of fish escape to Canada at the expense of Alaska’s rural residents. For the first time in three years, Canadians are permitted to engage in sport fishing on the Yukon, yet downriver, Alaska Native and rural residents go without subsistence food.
Fisherman on the Alaskan Yukon have even engaged in illegal fishing activities in acts of civil disobedience to protest what they feel are bad policies. Fish taken have been given to elders and the needy. Myron Naneng, President of the Association of Village Council Presidents had this to say to legislators.
It seems our agencies and country are more concerned about providing for foreigners and high sea fisheries. Our people who fished for food ended up becoming criminals in their own country for the benefit of those who live on both side of the fence. On top of this, the unreliable or non-functional operations of the sonar at Pilot Station and lack of confidence we now have with ADF&G. Where is the justice in all of this? We would recommend and request oversight hearings by both the Federal government and State Legislature on the operations and management of fisheries on the Yukon River and for that matter the whole of Western Alaska.
The news is not good…despite what you may have heard just weeks ago.
AKGovSarahPalinJohn also met w/CNN reporter while in Emmonak & shared welcomed GOOD NEWS of region…as a result, highly unlikely interview will air : )
How could we forget ol’ whatsername?
Eyes and ears will be focused on Sean Parnell, and how he handles the situation on the Yukon this winter. Will the people be supported in tangible ways by their state? Will new rural policies be a focus of this administration? Or can we expect more pastors and cookies?
**Don’t forget to tune in to hear the organizer of this winter’s Nunam Iqua food drive tomorrow morning at 9am Alaska time (10am Pacific, 1pm Eastern) on Native America Calling. Live streaming and blogging on the Mudflats beginning 15 minutes before air time.**
August 3rd, 2009 at 7:07 AM
#43 @who me?
Michael Pollan is brilliant. Read (also too) In Defense of Food. He has an article in this week’s Sunday NY Times: Out of the Kitchen, Onto the Couch – How American Cooking Became a Spectator Sport, and What We Lost Along the Way. Fascinating.
I worked for (most of) 40 years (some of those at two jobs) while rearing three children, being voted class mother for three years running, participating in soccer, basketball, ballet, helping with homework, reading to them, keeping my home reasonably hygienic with cats, dogs, birds, hamsters, etc., gardening AND making lunches (until my babes were big enough to do it themselves) AND COOKING a meal nearly every night of those 40 years. We did NOT eat at McDonalds, Burger King or the like – that is not FOOD. It takes no time at all to make a meal. To say it does is just wrong. By the time you’ve driven to a drive-thru, ordered a “meal”, eaten it and driven home, you could have put a perfectly good nutritious meal on the table (having your children help with peeling veggies, or making salad or setting the table – even the littlest tot can put a placemat on the table and fold a napkin).
Rant over.
August 3rd, 2009 at 7:12 AM
Alaska PI: Thanks for the correction – Like many governments, federal and state (province) work together, and it’s an old problem, where lack of good communication between the two, sometimes makes the “left hand not knowing what the right hand is doing.”
Besides the bureaucratic stall by state and federal, am certain that it is a complex issue, and really needs a man on it now. Hope this most recent exposure will push it ahead on the top of the list.
August 3rd, 2009 at 7:34 AM
Yes, EAT WILD SALMON! It’s good for you and it’s good for Western Alaska! I’m just an echo chamber for Victoria and Alaska Pi – if you are going to drop a fish dish then let the pollock take the walk!
August 3rd, 2009 at 7:41 AM
I’m a scientist by nature and I would like this discussed in a non-political way, because it’s not political. The ocean is changing, we cannot deny that.
It is natural for a group suffering from a cultural and economic catastrophes to want to find a culprit. Whatever your feelings are about the pollock fishery, you cannot ignore the hard science available. For example, the North Pacific Oscillation which has been happening for centuries. Every couple of decades, the north Pacific and Bering Sea temperature regime shifts between cold and war phases. We’ve been in a warm phase for decades and now have shifted to cold. Salmon do not thrive in the cool temperatures that are occurring at this time. King Salmon returns are low throughout the state.
Number One, the volume of the fish that is missing much larger than the amount of bycatch. The bycatch is less than 5-10% of the total run estimated by Alaska Department of Fish and Game. That is not enough to explain the whole problem.
Number Two, 80% of the bycatch is observed by National Marine Service trained observers. The quality of bycatch estimates is good to excellent, probably better than the projections or actual subsistence catch numbers.
There are alot of things that we don’t understand. Look at all of the things that are happening in the ocean. If we dismiss the big picture at the expense of blaming bycatch completely than we have missed the point. there is a scientific effort underway in order to better understand salmon biology in the Bering Sea called “BASIS”. Many papers are due out in the next year, stay tuned.
We can and should not jump to conclusions based on the need for a target for our frustration.
August 3rd, 2009 at 7:42 AM
http://www.afsc.noaa.gov/ABL/MESA/archives/mesa_occ_basis.htm
This is about BASIS. Please be well informed and not jump to conclusions.
August 3rd, 2009 at 7:47 AM
This is a way more complicated issue than most of you realize. You aren’t going to solve the problem with simplistic solutions like avoiding pollack or going vegetarian. You could actually be making the problem worse in some ways. More on that later.
First off, I am a salmon fisherman in Alaska, Copper River to be precise. We fish in a very regulated and sustainable fishery as are all Alaskan commercial salmon fisheries. There are escapement goals in the spawning streams that must be met before we are allowed to fish. Part of the escapement is dedicated to subsistence fishermen, part to personal use, part to sport fishing, and part to spawning needs to make the fishery sustainable.
Myron Naneng’s statement that “It seems our agencies and country are more concerned about providing for foreigners and high sea fisheries” is disingenuous at best and short sighted. First and foremost, those fish that make it to Canada are important as spawners for the sustainability of the run. Second, they are every bit as important to the Canadian “First Nations” natives as they are to Alaskan Natives as a traditional food source. http://www.adfg.state.ak.us/news/99-02/4-3gov.php http://www.cbc.ca/news/story/2001/06/27/27salmon.html These are two of the most important reasons The US has treaty obligations to get fish into Canada. The fact that Yukoners get a small sport fishery this year also figures in.
Here is my reasoning. If I want my fishery to be sustainable, I want the people who live and control the spawning grounds of my fishery to care about it every bit as much as I do. If they have no stake in it, it’s pretty much a sure thing they won’t care what happens to the fish or me. They could dam the whole river at the border with no fish ladders, and say, Why do we care if no spawners make it past the dam to continue the run. We don’t get to catch any of them anyway. Or why do we care if we rip up the spawning beds to mine for minerals or to use the gravel for construction?
I want them to be good stewards of the spawning grounds and the best way to accomplish that is to share the bounty. The sport fishery is good too, because it lets other Yukoners feel like they have a stake in what happens to the salmon. It’s why I don’t mind sending extra fish (over spawning needs) up the Copper River for the people who live there and other Alaskans who use the personal use fishery. I want them to all care about the watershed and what happens to it.
A side note, it has been three years since Alaska has met it’s obligation for escapement into Canada. http://newsminer.com/news/2009/jul/05/yukon-river-king-salmon-run-might-fall-short-canad/ While this article was written before it was realized how many fish made it into Canada this year, it points out that getting shorted on fish can go both ways.
Now back to the pollock fishery. I fished pollock for three years in the 90’s. I also worked in a pollock plant in Dutch Harbor one season. There is a problem with the salmon counts as far as observers go. I have no doubt that the actual salmon count (chinook and chum) is higher than reported which would make the problem worse than most believe. The main problem is, only the catcher processor boats have full time observer coverage, at least that was the case when I fished. The smaller boats were only required to have coverage for a quarter to a third of the season or so and the observers were rotated from boat to boat. This leads to highgrading (tossing salmon over the side to keep reported bycatch low. On catcher boats, the nets are unzipped and the fish drain from the net into the fish hold. While it would be next to impossible to sort the whole catch, any salmon that are apparent can be tossed. The actual counts of by-catch from catcher boats are done in the cannery where the fish are delivered. As the fish are pumped from the boat into the cannery, there is a sorting belt where people grab any fish that isn’t a pollock and throw them into a bin to be counted. A plant observer does the counting.
Pollock is a relatively clean fishery as it is done mid-water and not on the bottom. Usually there are a few salmon and maybe a small amount of cod, and maybe some sharks. Squid made up the bulk of the by-catch in some areas we fished. A few other species may be in any given tow but usually in no big numbers. When I say relatively clean, I’m talking volume-wise in any given tow or set. The problem is the size of the fishery. The shear volume of the fishery means that in the long run of a season, significant numbers of by-catch can occur.
The best way to control by-catch in the pollock fishery is to have a hard cap and better observer coverage.
Now, as far as avoiding pollock, if enough people did, you might get the fleets’ attention, but much of it is shipped overseas. In an overpopulated world like ours, pollock is an inexpensive source of protein and there is no reason not to exploit it sustainably. What is needed is to get a reasonable definition of sustainably and work towards that goal, not shut the fishery down completely.
And as for going veg……. that leads to it’s own set of problems, especially if the farming is done on an industrial scale. Ever heard of oceanic dead zones? Fertilizer from industrial farming has a lot to do with them. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dead_zone_(ecology) Read the part about the reversal of dead zones and what happened in the Black Sea.
You could go organic of course, but economically, that isn’t realistic for most folk who are struggling to get by in today’s economy. And our food supply chain isn’t set up to make organic food available to everyone.
One last thought. A lot of people are concerned for the subsistence users and native people in Alaska. That’s a good thing. But many of the same people who want to do the right thing as far as the fisheries go to try to help bush Alaskans make a living and survive are some of the same people who have taken a large part of bush Alaskans’ incomes away by opposing trapping and wearing fur and leather. Fur prices being in the tank are a big part of the problem in rural Alaska. The lack of effort trapping because it’s hard to make money off it now is one reason predator populations have grown to where some people in Alaska don’t have a problem with aerial gunning of wolves and some are advocating gassing pups in their dens. So while you are patting yourselves on the back for slowing trapping, stop to consider the long term consequences.
August 3rd, 2009 at 8:10 AM
This is a sad tale but reflects only the tip of the iceberg. Humans are living an unsustainable lifestyle on many levels.
In general, the ocean is overfished and stocks are collapsing everywhere as documented in this blog, and the movie:
http://climateprogress.org/2009/07/31/for-slimehead-orange-roughy-goosefish-monkfish-toothfish-chilean-sea-bass-overfishing/#comments
http://endoftheline.com/film/
But even beyond overfishing, the oceans are absorbing vast amounts of the CO2 we put into the atmosphere, becoming relatively more acidic, and this is going to eventually basically destroy the ecosystem and life in the sea.
It’s the same on land. We are changing the climate, and this is leading inevitably and inexorably to mass extinction.
August 3rd, 2009 at 8:37 AM
jo in AK – @52 & @53 – I appreciate your valuable information.
Seeing how Sean Parnell has taken Southeast Alaska out of the Palin Dog House, I am hoping he will handle this situation in the same hands on,, calm and communicative manner.
After watchiing Parnell in the legislature for many years, I believe he’ll take all of the information into account and “openly share and communicate the findings” rather than jump to conclusions that may create unnecessary hype and divisiveness like you know who would have done.
“BASIS” will be on my radar and I know if you send this information to Parnell’s email, it’ll get his attention! I am thankfull for the National Marine Service trained observers. If the bycatch isn’t as great as some are leading us to believe, it won’t do Alaskans any good to focus on bycatch as being the main culprit in this mystery. Thanks again.
August 3rd, 2009 at 10:33 AM
I e-mailed the Yahoo link to AKM yesterday afternoon (evening my time), and then posted the same link on the Open Thread from yesterday.
As I wrote on the Open Thread:
41 PepperzMom (GA) Says:
August 2nd, 2009 at 5:23 PM
Bad news on king salmon…yet another LIAR LIAR moment for SP, eh?
King salmon vanishing in Alaska, smokehouses empty
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090803/ap_on_bi_ge/us_vanishing_king_salmon;_ylt=A0wNdPzMPXZKpnkAkCKs0NUE;_ylu=X3oDMTNhM2pmMzU1BGFzc2V0A2FwLzIwMDkwODAzL3VzX3ZhbmlzaGluZ19raW5nX3NhbG1v
August 3rd, 2009 at 11:05 AM
Jo in AK~
Jumping in here really quick this morning b/c I thought your comment needed addressing.
We are NOT jumping to conclusions and looking for a scape goat. I have tons of information from various State and Federal websites that discuss by catch plus many other sources that aren’t gov’t related.
It would take a week of postings on a blog to even touch the surface of this topic let alone understand it or to be able to put it in laymans terms.
I would suggest that you do some research and really look at the numbers. Do you realize that it is NOT just salmon that are by catch?? In the North Pacific the by catch includes everything from fish to crab to ripping up the ocean coral. If you research it you will find that the by catch is measured in pounds and the lowest number I have found for all by catch in the North Pacific is…
two hundred and forty nine MILLION pounds of by catch that is thrown over board as waste! Yes that is 2,490,000 lbs. I am not saying that there aren’t MANY MANY factors that come into this…including climate change. But by-catch is 100% manmade and 100% preventable!
We do not just jump to conclusions here nor on anonymous bloggers. There are many, many, MANY people behind the scenes that do extensive research before we post things on blogs about such serious issues!
Ok, gotta get ready to go on the radio!! Stepping off this soap box for an hour before I go on the air.
JMHO,
Ann Strongheart
August 3rd, 2009 at 11:06 AM
It is of important note that SP had no interest in any hard science. The North Pacific Fisheries Council is the world leader in true fisheries management. They voluntarily drop quota to meet the needs of the fishery and subsistence lifestyle, at times these two are one and the same.
Much more attention needs to be given to hydraulic fracturing and the implications of pollution to the riverhead spawning grounds by gas and oil. Can we even hesitate about the implications of the Pebble Mine? That is nothing short of disaster to the state of Alaska for the pittance of jobs it would create and the horrible environmental impact to the good souls of Bristol Bay. We need to be shouting about the polluting of our state and work towards maintaining sustainable fisheries.
August 3rd, 2009 at 11:15 AM
@ Jo in AK,
I disagree, I do not think that MORE attention needs to be focused on one versus the other. This needs to be addressed as a WHOLE. There needs to be more science on the WHOLE.
We can’t fix this by JUST focusing on one area, if we do that then it will still collapse. Everything needs to be addressed. Right now we are focusing on by-catch because it is a manmade and preventable waste of our ocean resources. And right now it is seriously affecting the lives of the people on the Lower Yukon.
There is NO instant fix for any of these issues. We have to go day by day, issue by issue. It is of the utmost importance to ensure that people in rural Alaska are fed and warm this winter!
We can’t tackle everything at once, so here we plug along addressing by-catch and hopefully someday will be able to take on other factors that play into the sustainability of our ocean resources. I am quite certain that others are tackling the issues you describe but here and now we desperately need to address by-catch before not only the salmon become endangered or extinct along with the rural Alaskans that live along the Yukon River.
JMHO,
Ann Strongheart
August 3rd, 2009 at 11:24 AM
aww crap…am I feeding trolls again?? sorry all!!
August 3rd, 2009 at 11:41 AM
Annstrongheart, I don’t see Jo in AK as a troll, but someone who is trying to point out the wider picture. I sit down here in Washington watching the Puget Sound salmon industry suffer too. We desperately need more people like you, focusing on the narrow picture of the villages. At the same time, we need scientists working on the whole system. The bycatch is a major issue in my opinion. The world’s fisheries are in enough trouble without wasting hundreds of thousands of tons of fish. The villages have to have enough catch to insure a reasonable living for your people. We need people working on all the issues at once.
Annstrongheart, I have great respect and admiration for what you have done in the last year. I think you are incredible! I just pray you have the energy to keep it up.
August 3rd, 2009 at 11:48 AM
Ann, totally agree with you. Even if there are other factors reducing the salmon population, perhaps even because there are other influences, then the by-catch issue becomes more important so as to maximize the number of fish that have a chance of making it upstream to supply subsistence requirements or spawn for future fisheries. As you said, the by-catch issue is man-made and can be prevented. No reason not to address it while studying and understanding the climate change issues. Good on ya.
August 3rd, 2009 at 11:56 AM
Jo, tell me, please:
Who actually sits on the board of the North Pacific Fishery Management Council? Most, if not all, members of that board are commercial fishermen headquartered out of Seattle, Washington. What is the history of the representation on that board? How did all that power to control and determine the fisheries of the Bering Sea, Aleutian Island and the Gulf of Alaska end up in Seattle?
Is anyone on that board an actual Alaskan?
Is any even ONE member on that board who represents the lower Yukon people, or, do all of them represent just the big football-sized, at-sea processors that scrape everything up out of the sea into their nets, process the “legal” catch, and toss overboard the rest, as “bycatch”, all illegally caught fish, crabs, coral, etc.?
“The North Pacific Fisheries Council is the world leader in true fisheries management. They voluntarily drop quota to meet the needs of the fishery and subsistence lifestyle, at times these two are one and the same.”
Perhaps, in a fair world, the world leader in true fishery management would not be the fox guarding the henhouse.
Maybe we can just agree to disagree:
Until the time the pollock fishing conglomerates do not get a pass with wasted, illegally caught “bycatch”, and the lower Yukon people get to fish minimally, according to their family needs each season, then the pollock industry needs to stop wasting salmon (and other bycatch) that is needed by the unrepresented people of western Alaska.
August 3rd, 2009 at 12:01 PM
Jo in AK
It is of important note that SP had no interest in any hard science. The North Pacific Fisheries Council is the world leader in true fisheries management.
The NPFMC is heavily weighted toward commercial fishing. The new rural advisory committee is another little scrap with Rural in its name thrown out to make it looks like it’s doing something. Rural people would have to travel at their own expense to Anchorage to have any input.
It seems if they took some of the money spent on sonar counters, weirs and broken fish counters, on producing salmon (and everything else) safe nets, there wouldn’t be a problem.
August 3rd, 2009 at 1:08 PM
Gosh, I’m all fired up and wanted to jump in here with Jo and everyone, but dang it – Ann and Jane pretty much stated what I also feel. The bycatch is the most immediate issue relating to fewer salmon in the Yukon because it is something we can examine, and affect relatively quickly.
We have all reviewed scientific info coming from around the country regarding environmental and other theories, but there is not enough solid information for us to affect these factors immediately. The bycatch cap doesn’t even go into effect until 2011, so it’s not exactly like that’s any great response to THIS winter’s upcoming shortage, either. Other modifications to bycatch issues will also take time. New scientific data will hopefully be more conclusive as we go along, also – and when it is, and we can act on it, or adjust for it, we will most certainly attempt to!
C’mon Jo – we may be laypeople but we keep well informed and continually discuss these issues on the blog at Anonymous Bloggers as well as behind the scenes.
August 3rd, 2009 at 1:13 PM
@ cuppajava
I just re-read your post – good work! Great questions! It ticks me off to think about this council right now. Didn’t they just have a big meeting in Seattle regarding the pollock industry and we couldn’t find anyone who knew about it?
August 3rd, 2009 at 4:56 PM
50 rebekkah Says:
August 3rd, 2009 at 7:12 AM
Alaska PI: Thanks for the correction – Like many governments, federal and state (province) work together, and it’s an old problem, where lack of good communication between the two, sometimes makes the “left hand not knowing what the right hand is doing.”
… Hope this most recent exposure will push it ahead on the top of the list.
————————————————
oy- it IS the not knowing what each or doing and in this case, to some extent, compartmentalizing within the same place/function and not being aware of what all the fingers on one hand are doing!
I think this is exciting… having so much more talk and news -out in the open…
I’m hoping it all spurs some deep re-thinking across the board… and a consolidated approach to solving problems.
August 3rd, 2009 at 7:52 PM
56 twodux
I want them to be good stewards of the spawning grounds and the best way to accomplish that is to share the bounty.
————————–
There’s a attempt on the Yukon to share the spirit of co-operation…
your comment is a great add here!
hear stories about non-observing obervers but your info makes sense in a an everyday life manner…
Agree- hard cap and MORE oberservers .
http://www.yritwc.org/
August 4th, 2009 at 1:59 AM
@31 EatWildFish Says:
“I also know that whenever someone poses hard questions to the CDQ directors, they are branded as ‘racist.’ So nobody ever pushes it at a political level. And the CDQ books are closed to all who are not ‘insiders.’
“A couple of years ago, the six CDQ groups formed a consortium and hired Wanetta Ayers to be the executive director, based in Anchorage. Maybe she has some answers…”
————–
EatWildFish —
Sounds to me like the answers to these questions have something to do with money ………
Just sayin’ ………
August 4th, 2009 at 2:24 AM
@#56 twodux:
“I fished pollock for three years in the 90’s. I also worked in a pollock plant in Dutch Harbor one season. There is a problem with the salmon counts as far as observers go. I have no doubt that the actual salmon count (chinook and chum) is higher than reported which would make the problem worse than most believe. The main problem is, only the catcher processor boats have full time observer coverage, at least that was the case when I fished. The smaller boats were only required to have coverage for a quarter to a third of the season or so and the observers were rotated from boat to boat. This leads to highgrading (tossing salmon over the side to keep reported bycatch low. On catcher boats, the nets are unzipped and the fish drain from the net into the fish hold. While it would be next to impossible to sort the whole catch, any salmon that are apparent can be tossed. The actual counts of by-catch from catcher boats are done in the cannery where the fish are delivered. As the fish are pumped from the boat into the cannery, there is a sorting belt where people grab any fish that isn’t a pollock and throw them into a bin to be counted. A plant observer does the counting.”
————
Ah — you answered a question I had! …. and that was, who determines what the bycatch numbers are?
What a good answer! Thank you for explaining it from your own personal experience.
Methinks there need to be some ‘impartial’ counters on those boats! Not just sometimes, but all the time! (or at least they can show up unannounced, get on the boat, and say, “I’m counting bycatch!”)
August 4th, 2009 at 11:30 AM
Let it be noted that while I think the pollock by-catch is a problem, and not one to be ignored, I also don’t believe it’s the only problem. And this is coming from someone who usually catches lots of Copper River kings. The last two years have been horrible on the Copper and just about every other system in South Central Alaska and Western Alaska.
I could be wrong, but something else is going on besides by-catch.
August 5th, 2009 at 8:32 AM
Hope this thread isn’t closed; here’s a FEMA update from Monday:
Over $4.7 Million In Federal Assistance Goes To Alaskans Affected By Disaster:
August 10th Deadline for Individual Assistance Fast Approaching
Release Date: August 1, 2009
Release Number: 1843-011
» More Information on Alaska Flooding and Ice Jams
» 2009 Region X News Releases
ANCHORAGE, Alaska — Since President Obama declared the spring flooding and ice jams a federal disaster on June 11, 2009, federal agencies have committed over $4.7 million in disaster-related individual assistance and loans to residents of the Yukon River and Kuskokwim River communities.
Officials of the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) and the Alaska Division of Homeland Security and Emergency Management remind all Alaska residents affected by the disaster in the federally declared areas that the deadline for individual assistance registration is August 10. They can register by calling, toll-free, 1-800-621-3362 (FEMA) (TTY 1-800-462-7585) from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. Alaska Daylight Time, seven days a week, or by registering online at http://www.disasterassistance.gov.
State Coordinating Officer Bob Stewart said, “We don’t want anyone to miss the deadline. People should get appropriate help in these situations.”
Residents of the Alaska Gateway Regional Educational Attendance Area (REAA), Yukon Flats REAA, Yukon-Koyukuk REAA, Lower Yukon REAA, Kuspuk REAA, and Yupiit REAA are eligible to apply for disaster-related individual assistance.
So far, 658 Alaska homeowners and renters have applied for disaster-related individual assistance, and inspectors have visited 636 homes. Funds awarded to date total $4,747,726 which includes:
* $1,999,312 in Housing Assistance to cover temporary rentals, home repairs and replacement;
* $1,795,114 in Other Needs Assistance to cover essential personal property losses, subsistence items, medical, dental, transportation or serious disaster-related expenses not covered by insurance; and
* $953,300 in Small Business Administration loans to pay for the repair or replacement of homes, businesses, or personal property not fully covered by insurance or other compensation.
Federal Coordinating Officer Doug Mayne expects the amount of federal funds invested in the recovery effort to increase. “Because of the climate in the affected areas, we have a limited time during which rebuilding can be accomplished,” observed Mayne. “Right now, there’s a flurry of activity. FEMA will continue to process applications for individual assistance as quickly as possible, to get funds and materials to the people who need them.”
FEMA’s mission is to support our citizens and first responders to ensure that as a nation we work together to build, sustain, and improve our capability to prepare for, protect against, respond to, recover from, and mitigate all hazards.
Last Modified: Monday, 03-Aug-2009 08:31:51
August 5th, 2009 at 9:32 AM
BEFORE reading this article I bought a piece of smoked pollock, at my localMaine market. In looking for recipes online I found this
LIE by a corporate entity, Good Food Channel. Someone needs to educate them ( if they are receptive)
“Not only are Alaskan pollock abundant in numbers, the way that they swim and are therefore caught is also very eco-friendly. They move in large shoals near to the surface of the water and so can be easily caught using mid-water trawling methods which do not disturb the sea bed, and so very few other unwanted fish are caught in the nets at the same time. ”
http://uktv.co.uk/food/stepbystep/aid/589099 …. OH! UKTV! makes it worse!
August 5th, 2009 at 9:33 AM
Obviously the King Salmon have not read the above paragraph!