Category: Alaska News

It’s the time of year to think about growing food. You can get a lot of food out of a small amount of space once you get the hang of it. But this is a learned skill. The worse our economy gets, the more you are going to wish you knew how to grow your own, and the best way to find out how is to get started now if you haven’t already.

Those with no backyard to dig up have options. Haines community garden has plots, or go help at Mosquito Lake, which is bigger and is communal, so you aren’t trying to do it all yourself. You’ll learn a lot and have fun. Both have a playground for children.

Another option is container growing. Old 5-gallon buckets are ideal, but almost anything will do, including cardboard boxes lined with plastic — just make sure your container has holes in the bottom for drainage.  

Fill your container with a mixture of whatever you can find: rotted wood from dead trees, maybe some soil mix from the hardware store, seaweed, rotted sawdust, compost. You can use dirt as part of the mix, but not all; by itself in a container, it will pack down hard.  

Add a couple handfuls of lime or ashes and maybe some dry fertilizer. I fill the bottoms of mine with composted chicken manure.

One of the most reliable crops is potatoes. Get seed potatoes (the hardware store should have them) rather than those from the grocery store, which are often treated with chemicals to prevent sprouting. Set them out for several days or weeks until they begin sprouting, and then set them in their buckets. Be gentle and don’t break off the sprouts. Cover with a couple inches of the dirt mixture, water them and keep them in a reasonably warm place until you see leaves. Then set them out in the sun, keep watering, and add more soil mix as the summer progresses. The bucket should be pretty well filled by the end.

To harvest, dump the bucket into a wheelbarrow. Save the dirt, you’ll want it next year.

Green beans and carrots also grow very well in containers. 

Carrots need to be thinned carefully. They simply won’t grow if overcrowded.  Many other crops do beautifully in containers too. For instance, lettuce and other salad greens and herbs can be particularly successful in pots. And it’s very nice to have them handy.  Locally grown tomatoes are hard to find; you just about have to grow your own.  

Personally, I seem to have lost my green thumb with tomatoes, but that shouldn’t stop you. Cherry tomatoes seem to be the most reliable.  

I always add seeds for nasturtiums, sweet peas or other flowers. You can eat nasturtiums (not sweet peas), but I mostly grow them because I like them.

I’ve never grown zucchinis or other summer squash in containers. They’re quite rampageous, but they do very well in the ground. A summer without them would be sad, even unthinkable.  

My favorites are the beautiful little yellow crooknecks with green ends, but they’re all delicious.  Go with vegetable infanticide here, 6 or 8 inches long or even smaller.  

Like potatoes, you can make a full meal with just zucchinis, a bit of tomato and some cheese, maybe an egg. Unless you are a teenager, in which case it would be just an appetizer before the hamburger and whatnot.

Plant sales should be coming up, which are always worth going to.  You can save yourself a lot of time and trouble buying things like tomato seedlings, and the sales are a lot of fun. 

A great place to buy flower seedlings too, and what’s summer without lots of pansies?

Sally McGuire is a 40-year resident of the Chilkat Valley who raised four healthy children in Fairbanks and Haines on a budget, but always with an eye to real food and producing as much as possible of what the family ate. The column Eating Well in the Chilkat Valley is focused on making affordable meals with what’s local, seasonal and available at the grocery store. 

The post It’s a great time to consider growing your own vegetables appeared first on Chilkat Valley News.

Alaska Department of Fish and Game staff tagged 13 moose in the Chilkat Valley last week.
But those tags are different from the ones they’ve been putting on moose for the last seven years.

During a meeting at the Haines library, area management biologist Hannah Manninen said Fish and Game staff are making the switch from VHF to GPS collars.

This isn’t the first year that staff have used GPS collars, but Manninen said this year has been the “biggest push” to get the collars deployed.

VHF, or very high frequency, collars give off limited data. Generally, researchers on the ground or in the air get a series of “pings” from a transmitter attached to a moose that changes in tone depending on how close the animal is and the direction the signal is coming from.

GPS, a more recent technology, uses satellites to provide positioning and can allow almost real-time tracking.

Manninen said that means they can also track mortality much faster and – if they can get to the site fast enough – determine how a moose died.

The state has surveyed moose in the Chilkat Valley for more than 60 years, but didn’t start collaring moose to help with population estimates until 2019.

Manninen said next week, weather permitting, they’ll fly a few flights to try to get more data on calf survival, and estimate how many yearlings made it through the winter.

One reason for the switch, Manninen said, is to gather more concrete data about local moose.

Manninen said Fish and Game staff will not share real time movement data and location specific information for the moose.

But, she said her office will use the data to help establish the animals’ home ranges and “figure out where they spend their time.”

That, in turn, could inform future land-use decisions in the Chilkat Valley.

The post Upper Lynn Canal collared moose get a tech upgrade appeared first on Chilkat Valley News.

The House State Affairs committee advanced a governor’s appointee for a public seat on the Alaska Police Standards Council with some skepticism on Tuesday.

Gov. Mike Dunleavy appointed Veronica Lambertsen to serve in one of four public seats on the 13-member Alaska Police Standards Council, which oversees law enforcement standards across the state. 

The council is charged with setting and enforcing standards for law enforcement certification, as well as training and retention for all police, probation, parole and correctional officers. Members are also tasked with adopting state regulations and investigating police misconduct, like officer discipline and use-of-force. 

Lambertsen is a small business owner, and since 2001 has operated the Bird Creek Motel in Bird Creek, a small unincorporated area south of Anchorage, according to her resume. She has volunteered on the Turnagain Arm Community Council since 2023, which serves the communities of Bird Creek, Indian and Rainbow. 

Lambertsen’s resume lists no formal educational or professional training experience, and describes her education as “homeschooled.”

Lawmakers seemed skeptical of her qualifications, and asked Lambertsen about her connection with law enforcement or public safety issues at a confirmation hearing on Tuesday.

Rep. Steve St. Clair, R-Wasilla asked if she had law enforcement experience. 

“Not active duty or anything,” said Lambertsen by phone. “But being a small business owner, and in reflection of owning a cafe and a motel, I’ve had a lot of experience with law enforcement, and yes, there’s a lot of incidents that have happened regularly, and there’s been a relationship.”

The council has 11 seats reserved for members in leadership positions with law enforcement or corrections, and four seats for members of the public, including two from communities of 2,500 population or less. 

Rep. Rebecca Himschoot, I-Sitka asked Lambertson what perspective she would bring to the statewide council. “How will you help make this a better council?” she asked.

Lambertsen told lawmakers she would bring a “public perspective” and said she’s interested in working on standards for training. 

Committee members were unsure on Tuesday if police training is required for appointees to the Council. Lambert said it was not, but added that members have the opportunity to take police standards classes.

Officials with the Alaska Department of Public Safety confirmed Wednesday public members of the council do not need to have any law enforcement connection.

Lambertsen serves as the volunteer secretary for the Anchorage chapter of Moms for Liberty, according to her resume, a far-right national group that advocates for parental rights, and is known for its advocacy against school curricula that includes LGBTQ rights. Some chapters advocate for book bans. 

The group has been deemed an “antigovernment” group by the Southern Poverty Law Center, a civil rights organization, and has known ties to other extremist or hate groups. 

Lawmakers did not ask about Lambertsen’s affiliation with the group, or how it would affect her role on the Alaska Police Standards Council. 

Lambertsen responded to questions about her affiliation with the group by email on Wednesday, saying that her position with Moms for Liberty “had nothing to do with anti-student inclusion.” 

“My understanding of Moms for Liberty was asking for curriculum being provided by teachers to educate children to be age appropriate, especially for Early Childhood Learning to 6th Grade Learning, for parents to ask questions about curriculum of the School Districts and not allow “soft porn books” in schools and libraries for children of all ages to have access to,” she said. “Certain books should be available in older age sections with accessibility to that age group.”

Lambertsen did not respond to questions about how her political views would influence her role on the council. 

In an interview Wednesday, Rep. Ashley Carrick, D-Fairbanks, chair of the House State Affairs Committee, said the committee’s review process is “like a job interview” and a procedural step before a full vote before a joint session of the Legislature. But she said she has concerns about partisan conservative nominees appointed by Dunleavy, including Lambertsen, across state boards. 

“It really leads to a lean of our state boards and commissions and those decision making services towards potentially a partisan flavor,” she said. “And I think after eight years of this administration, we are seeing some of the impacts of that.”

Carrick said each lawmaker does their own research on nominees for a final vote in a joint session of the Legislature. She said she prefers to contact nominees privately with concerns, rather in the committee process, and also relies on public input. 

“I think at this point I would really need to hear from folks around the state if they’re also concerned,” she said. “And hopefully the hearing just brought just a little bit of attention to this appointee and what she’s being appointed for.”

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A petition to pause the 2026 seasonal sales tax increase gathered hundreds of signatures over the week that it was out at five local stores.  

Organizer Barb Nettleton delivered the petition, which has more than 500 signatures, to the borough clerk on April 6. The language on the petition asks for a “temporary pause of the seasonal sales tax for the 2026 summer season.” It goes on to detail increasing economic pressure from sharp increases in the cost of fuel, shipping and transportation. “A one-season pause will prevent additional financial strain during a period of unusually high costs, while honoring the intent of the voters,” according to the language. 

Haines’ seasonal sales tax is in its first year of implementation after voters approved it. It took what was a flat 5.5% tax rate in town and shifted it beginning January 1. The in-town sales tax rate dropped to 4.5 percent. Then on April 1 it jumped to 7% where it will remain through September 30. 

Nettleton said her intention was that the sales tax rate would be kept at the lower 4.5%. She said it’s her first time organizing a petition and she got the idea after she shared a social media post from Alaska Marine Lines announcing that it was increasing its fuel surcharge due to increasing fuel costs. 

She said she wanted the assembly to hear what people in the Chilkat Valley have been talking about so they “hear from more than just the handful of voices who are always commenting, always paying attention. Most people are busy with their lives, raising their children, running their businesses and they don’t have time to sit through hours worth of meetings.” 

Nettelton put signature sheets out for a petition for a week at the Alaskan Liquor Store, IGA, Olerud’s, Haines Home Building, and Dandelion. 

Some who signed it, like Taylor Ashton, originally supported the seasonal sales tax proposal but has since changed her mind. 

Ashton, who owns Moose Horn Laundry, moved to the Chilkat Valley from Skagway where she managed the Glacial Coffeehouse. Skagway has had a seasonal sales tax for years.  During an October 2025 interview, Ashton said residents there had adjusted well to the shifting tax burden which sees a 5% summer sales tax drop to 3% or lower in the winter. 

Ultimately, Ashton said she did not vote in favor of Haines’ seasonal sales tax rate, in part because it didn’t seem like it gave residents enough of a break in the winter to make up for the cost of a higher sales tax rate in the summer. 

And, she said, she is frustrated with how the Haines borough is seeking new revenue and specifically pointed to a potential $9 million grant for Letnikof Dock work that the borough missed a deadline to apply for.  

“[Staff] need to prioritize their time and really reach for grants and funding from outside of the community,” she said. “I would be more willing to pay more taxes, bigger taxes, if the borough was more proactive in bringing other streams of income into town as well.” 

Beau and Zane Bradley also signed Nettleton’s petition. 

Zane Bradley said they voted in favor of the seasonal sales tax increase last year because they supported the idea of shifting more of the year’s taxing onto non-locals. But after seeing the new tax law unfold, they said it seemed like residents do not get a significant enough break. 

And, “It’s a big burden on local business owners,” they said. 

That’s a sentiment Beau Bradley agreed with. The Bradleys bought The Bookstore last year and said their margins are slim, so adjustments can come at a big cost, particularly when people buy fewer things in order to save money. 

“We implemented a used book section to help make books more accessible to a wider group of people in town,” he said. “This [seasonal tax] is directly contradicting that.” 

Ashton, the Bradleys and Nettleton all said they were not sure if it was legal or part of an established process for the assembly to do what the petition asks, to pause implementation of something voters approved at the ballot box. 

Borough clerk Mike Denker said he has not researched the issue too heavily yet, but pointed to a section of borough charter which states that “the assembly may not repeal or substantially alter an ordinance enacted by initiative within two years after certification of the election at which the initiative was approved.” 

One question that raises, Denker said, is weighing whether the language in Nettleton’s petition asking for a “pause” counts as “substantially altering” the seasonal sales tax ordinance. 

“The assembly should seek legal guidance on that question,” he said. 

But as the assembly mulls over the petition, Denker said there are alternatives local citizens can pursue that could result in changes to the seasonal sales tax. Right now, his office is working on a guide for a citizen petition, essentially a step-by-step process for getting something onto the ballot either during a special election or the general election. 

Once a petition application is certified with the borough, organizers have 90 days to collect enough signatures to get it onto a ballot and they must collect at least 25% of the number of people who voted in the last election. Right now, he said, that number is 279 people. 

Once 279 signatures are gathered, then the borough has to hold an election between 45 and 75 days later, though there are some overlapping deadlines for special elections he’s trying to get clarity on, in part because of Nettleton’s petition. It’s something that could help answer the question of just how quickly voters could get changes to the seasonal sales tax law on a ballot if they wanted to, and legally could.  

But even though Nettleton’s petition is informal, Denker said he believes it’s important and means something both to the people who signed it and to elected officials. 

“I think it matters and it’s what decision-makers would look at,” he said.

The post Hundreds seek temporary relief from Haines’ summer sales tax appeared first on Chilkat Valley News.

Police patrolman Max Marty joined the Haines police department in September 2025. Both he and police chief Jimmy Yoakum spent 17 weeks attending the state police academy in Fairbanks. The duo completed their training Feb. 1 and have been in Haines since.
Marty sat down with Chilkat Valley News reporter Lizzy Hahn on April 2 to talk about his new role.

Editor’s note: This conversation has been edited for clarity and brevity.

Lizzy Hahn: Where are you from and how long have you been in Haines?

Max Marty: I was born in Montana. I’ve been in Haines for about four years with my wife and two kids, soon to be three kids. I’ve been on with the department since last September.

We saw that you were a harbormaster here.

I was the assistant harbormaster for about two years, and then I was the interim harbormaster when Sean Bell, at the time, went to go have his kid in Juneau. So I was taking over for him for about a month, I believe. That’s where most people know me from, is the harbor.

What made you decide to leave the harbor job and become a police officer?

It’s better paying and it’s one of the jobs that I still am able to spend a lot of time with my kids. I’m working four 10s so I’ll get three days off during the work week with my family and that’s important to me. I like to stay in this town. I want to stay in this town, and this is a good, honorable position to do that.

Is policing what you expected it to be like? Have you done anything like this before?

I have no law enforcement background.

How did you choose to take a position here in Haines? What drew you to Alaska from out of state?

This is one of the jobs that will keep me in Haines. I really like this town, and this is a good job that will be full-time year-round, and I get to work with people that I like: Travis [Russell], my FTO, excellent co-worker, Sergeant [Max] Jusi, excellent co-worker, and the new chief. I spent a little over four months with him [Jimmy Yoakum], rooming together in the University of Fairbanks for the academy. So I got to spend a lot of time with him, and he’s a great guy. I like everybody that I work with a lot and that makes life easy.

How has your experience been thus far in the department? Have there been any highlights that you really enjoyed?

Things that I could talk about. I’ve had a few cases so far, some theft cases but as far as day-to-day action, it’s been fairly busy and I like it. I get to be outside and I get to make contacts with people that I’ve known prior in Haines, so I like it.

Have there been any big challenges since working in Haines, either in this position or just in general, in the past four years?

Honestly, no. No, I think if you just have the right mindset, you can make it work. We spent a little time, I have family, and I spent a little time down in Montana with family recently, and that was good to spend some time with them and get a refresh, and then come back here and stay long term.

Do you have a long-term plan of either moving or staying here? Do you know where you want to be in the future?

I just want to be in Alaska in the future, but as far as my long-term plan, I’m not, will not talk about that.

Going into the summer, as more people come into town, are you going to keep your eye out for anything in particular. Just keep doing general routines?

Exactly, yeah, I’m a patrolman with officer Russell, and that’s pretty much just what we do, is trying to keep everybody safe, keep everybody in line that needs to be in line. When you have a lot of new people coming into town, keeping drunk drivers off the street, keep people from doing things they shouldn’t be doing.

That’s actually very timely, because Brewfest is coming up.

It is coming up, that will be a big day, so I’ll be on patrol for that. I don’t remember the DUI count that they had last year. I think it was roughly four DUIs that they had for Brewfest. I’m sure we’ll be busy.

Is four a high number?

For a day, I would say yes, absolutely yeah for a Brewfest.

We’ve also recently noticed an uptick in traffic stops. What is it like bringing traffic enforcement back to the town that hasn’t had it in a while. The department has grown a lot from the two officers last year. What’s it like having an uptick in enforcement?

I can’t speak to that because I wasn’t the cop last year, but as far as making traffic stops, there’s probably an uptick because we have just more enforcement now, so now we’re just going to be, there’s more eyes on the street.

What’s it like being a public figure now that you have stepped into this role? Have you changed how you go around town or deal with the new title?

No, honestly, not that I thought about it. It is an honorable position, I don’t think I change my ways, as far as off duty, if that’s what you’re referring to.

And no one’s like, stopped you or anything?

Oh, that’s definitely happened a lot of times, you know. But as far as my day-to-day life, no, it’s just a different job that I get to give back to the community a little bit more, but I don’t change how I live my life outside of work.

What do you want people to know about you?

Honestly, as little as possible. I’ve made a lot of friends in this town, and I’ll continue to make new contacts with people that I meet, either on traffic stops or just on the street through the busy summer, and they can get to learn me then as I meet them face to face. I like this town. I’m a family guy, and I like who I work with. That’s about it.

The post Q&A with new policeman Max Marty appeared first on Chilkat Valley News.

Little kids can’t help but play with their food. Gamblers can’t stop playing with a pair of dice or deck of cards. Cats can’t help but play with a ball of yarn. It’s the same with legislators who play around with voter-enticing talk of a fat Permanent Fund dividend.

They just can’t help themselves, particularly in an election year. Like kids, gamblers and cats, it’s in the DNA of too many elected officials.

It’s too much “fun” to talk about a PFD this year of almost four times the size of last year’s dividend.

It’s too much “fun” to recite their pro-dividend pledges and votes when they campaign.

And it’s electioneering “fun” to portray the other political party as anti-PFD, setting them up for blame when the supersize fat dividend goes on a diet during the last weeks of the budget-writing process.

Yet there is nothing funny about being fiscally irresponsible.

Yes, oil prices have climbed far up the price ladder, which means state oil tax and royalty revenues will be much higher than expected. Which means the state can afford more than it could a month ago, before President Donald Trump decided to declare war on Iran, and Iran retaliated by declaring war on the free movement of oil and natural gas out of the Persian Gulf.

There is a long list of needs for those additional oil dollars that will flow into the state treasury, not the least of which is more funding for public schools, housing, public safety — and putting money into savings for the next time oil prices drop and the state is woefully short of cash.

The dividend fixation needs to stop. There’s real work to do if Alaska is going to improve its schools, stop the 13 years of more people leaving the state than moving here, and build a state based on quality of life, education, public services and jobs. Pouring almost every available state dollar into the PFD does nothing to help the collective good.

Legislative votes, such as the one in the House Finance Committee last week, serve little purpose other than to have “fun” with politics. The committee voted 6-5 to include a PFD estimated at $3,800 in the budget. In addition to spending much of this year’s higher oil revenues, the fat dividend would drain half of the state’s budget reserves account.

It’s similar to draining your savings because you’re trying to impress your date. Only for legislators, their dates are the voters later this year.

Better to impress them with responsible behavior than the equivalent of a pair of dice and ball of yarn.

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As Alaska’s race for governor heats up, Democrats and Republicans have increasingly targeted the state’s big trawl fisheries with criticism — and are swearing off campaign money from owners of the factory vessels that unintentionally harvest salmon as “bycatch.”

Now, the industry’s allies are pushing back.

A mysterious, pro-industry group recently launched a new five-figure radio advertising campaign on urban Alaska airwaves — targeting what it describes as “bycatch BS” and politicians telling “trawl tales.”

The group, Alaskans Deserve Better, has not publicly indicated who’s behind the radio blitz.

But legally required disclosures filed with the Federal Communications Commission show that the funders apparently have substantial cash at their disposal, with more than $10,000 in ad time reserved over the first two weeks of the campaign. A veteran Anchorage Republican political consultant, Art Hackney, is working with them, according to the disclosures.

The new radio campaign underscores how the fight over trawling has become one of the central issues animating Alaska politics in recent years.

Trawlers drag open-mouthed nets through the water to harvest whitefish like pollock for both U.S. and foreign consumers. Some of the vessels have onboard factories, which process fish that ultimately is used in fish sticks, fried fillet sandwiches and surimi, the protein paste in imitation crab, among other products.

Many of the largest trawlers are homeported in Seattle, but the industry operates in both the Bering Sea and the Gulf of Alaska. Smaller vessels without onboard factories deliver their catch to processing plants on the Alaska coast, where the industry says it sustains thousands of jobs and pays tens of millions of dollars annually in taxes.

The trawlers, in past years, have unintentionally harvested as many as hundreds of thousands of chum salmon and tens of thousands of king salmon from the Bering Sea.

In 2022, underdog Democrat Mary Peltola won a seat in the U.S. House campaigning, in part, on an anti-bycatch platform.

This year, though, it’s not just Democrats weighing in — especially in this year’s gubernatorial election, in which more than 15 candidates are vying to succeed term-limited GOP Gov. Mike Dunleavy.

Republicans appear to have sensed their own political opening, and are levying unusually strident criticism against one of the natural resource industries that are, typically, closely aligned with the party’s agenda.

Multiple leading GOP candidates — including former state Sen. Shelley Hughes, former attorney general Treg Taylor, former Anchorage mayor Dave Bronson and conservative activist Bernadette Wilson — have pledged not to accept campaign contributions from trawl officials. Many also say they will nominate like-minded representatives to the federal council that manages the Bering Sea trawl fleet.

“I do know there is a leftist element to this,” said Bronson, a conservative Republican who’s been an outspoken trawl critic on the gubernatorial campaign trail. But even leftists, he acknowledged, “might be right once in a while.”

“If we treated our forests the way we treat the bottom of our oceans, everyone would have shut this down decades ago,” he said.

Politicians, conservation groups and tribal leaders have been protesting bycatch in recent years amid sharp declines in the number of salmon returning to spawn in Western Alaska rivers — a crash that, in turn, has devastated the subsistence traditions, culture and economy of many of the region’s Indigenous villages.

In response to the advocacy, federal managers recently passed new limits on chum salmon bycatch in the Bering Sea that trawlers say could cut into their profits.

Industry boosters point to genetic sampling showing that only a fraction of the salmon caught by trawlers as bycatch would otherwise end up spawning in Alaska rivers like the Yukon and Kuskokwim; many enter the ocean from Asian and Canadian river systems. Federal research also indicates that recent chum salmon declines, in particular, appear to be driven by global warming.

Bycatch critics, meanwhile, say it’s unfair for trawlers to take even a small number of Alaska-bound salmon when subsistence harvesters, like those on the Yukon River, are barred from harvesting a single king to feed their families. They also say that the dragging of trawl nets along the ocean floor damages habitat.

Hackney, the political consultant who reserved the pro-trawl advertising time for Alaskans Deserve Better, did not respond to requests for comment.

Andrea Keikkala, head of a trawler trade group called United Catcher Boats, said she did not know who commissioned the advertising campaign. But her group nonetheless posted audio from the ads on social media, saying they address misconceptions amid a “growing push to simplify a complex issue.”

Keikkala pointed to how Taylor, the former attorney general, was attacked on social media after a photo of him talking to a seafood industry executive was posted in an anti-trawl Facebook group.

“It’s highly politicized when a candidate can’t even talk to someone without having their picture taken and being demonized for a conversation,” Keikkala said in a phone interview. “We should not set policy on Facebook. For some of the candidates, it seems like 100% of their knowledge of trawl is coming from there.”

A spokesperson for Taylor said the candidate was unavailable for an interview but pointed to a section of Taylor’s website that includes a pledge not to accept trawl money and a call to “end practices that destroy our ocean seabeds.”

On Facebook, meanwhile, a group called STOP Alaska Trawler Bycatch, is highlighting candidates’ positions for its 55,000 members.

The group’s moderator, David Bayes, said he thinks the new radio ads are a direct result of candidates turning down their money. If industry representatives can’t give money directly to campaigns, Bayes added, they “have to spend it somewhere.”

“Now that that door is closed, we’re going to see radio ads and Facebook ads,” he said.

Bayes said he’s catalogued nine gubernatorial candidates — Democrats, Republicans and independents — who’d expressed at least “something” anti-trawl in writing.

Those include Wilson, the conservative activist, who says she won’t nominaterepresentatives to the federal fishery management council if they have conflicts of interest. Adam Crum, a Republican and a former state revenue commissioner, says policymakers should have a “swift and firm” response when bycatch “threatens the health of our fisheries.”

Democratic former state Rep. Jonathan Kreiss-Tomkins has pledged to “rein in bottom trawl bycatch,” while Democratic former state Sen. Tom Begich has criticized“unsustainable practices” by “Seattle-based corporate fisheries.”

Amid these increasing calls for tighter regulation, the trawl industry has been gearing up not just its advertising but its hiring.

Coastal Villages Region Fund, a nonprofit group that uses its trawl investments to run social welfare programs in Western Alaska, recently brought on two former aides from Alaska’s congressional delegation.

One of them, Rick Whitbeck, is a veteran Republican political operative. Before working as state director for GOP U.S. Rep. Nick Begich, he operated Alaska’s chapter of Power the Future, an advocacy group that pushed oil and mining development — where he labeled critics as “eco-radicals.”

Whitbeck and Adam Trombley, formerly GOP U.S. Sen. Dan Sullivan’s state director, “bring strong statewide relationships and experience in public engagement, and will help ensure that more Alaskans hear directly from the communities and people who depend on these fisheries,” Eric Deakin, the coastal group’s chief executive, said in an emailed statement.

“There’s a lot of information — and, unfortunately, misinformation — circulating about our fisheries,” Deakin said. “Our focus is making sure facts, data, and community voices are part of that conversation.”

While Deakin’s group and other trawl organizations contend with increasing attacks from Republican gubernatorial candidates, the industry does have at least one ally in the field.

Matt Heilala, a podiatrist running for governor as a Republican, recently traveled to the fishing port of Dutch Harbor in the Aleutian Islands to “defend the trawl industry,” according to a story from the local public media station, KUCB.

Heilala, a former commercial salmon fisherman, said he’d dug into the criticism and concluded that anti-trawl sentiment amounts to “social contagion.”

“I don’t think the answer is to scapegoat something,” he said in an interview. “There’s a dire consequence to doing something too radical.”

Nonetheless, Heilala, who with his wife has donated more than $1 million to his own campaign, said he still won’t be accepting contributions from industry representatives.

“I’d be happy if they support me — like, vote for me,” he said. “They’re happy I’m speaking up on behalf of the communities. But they know darn well I’m not taking one dime.”

The U.S. Coast Guard said it has seized 5.4 metric tons of allegedly unreported pollock roe and discovered several significant fishing violations aboard one of the biggest factory trawlers operating in the Bering Sea off Alaska.

The enforcement action, announced by the Coast Guard on Monday, is against the Northern Eagle, a catcher-processor owned and operated by Seattle-based American Seafoods. The company disputes the allegation.

A team from the cutter Waesche boarded the Northern Eagle on March 26 when the trawler was about 15 nautical miles north of Dutch Harbor, the Coast Guard said in a statement. The action followed an alert from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration Fisheries Office of Law Enforcement about discrepancies between the vessel’s production reports and electronic logbook. 

“The integrity of fisheries data is paramount for the sustainability of our nation’s living marine resources,” Captain Tyson Scofield, commanding officer of the Waesche, said in the Coast Guard statement. “This seizure highlights the Coast Guard’s commitment to enforcing federal law with our partner agencies to ensure a level playing field for all fishermen who follow the rules.”

Pollock roe is considered a delicacy in some Asian nations; Japan and Korea are the main markets for it.

The unreported roe aboard the Northern Eagle was worth $65,000, the Coast Guard said. 

The Coast Guard team remained with the Northern Eagle as it sailed to Dutch Harbor, and the team observed and documented the crew offloading 11,524 boxes of pollock roe, the statement said. That was 241 more boxes than what had been declared in the Northern Eagle’s log.

The investigation also uncovered evidence indicating that the Northern Eagle crew, in a previous voyage, had underreported about 12.4 metric tons of pollock roe worth an estimated $150,000, the Coast Guard said.

American Seafoods on Tuesday disputed the Coast Guard’s characterization of events and issued a statement “to correct the public record, address inaccurate narratives, and clarify the nature of this regulatory inquiry.”

The company said the issue is a simple paperwork discrepancy arising from different methodologies rather than deliberate misreporting. The discrepancy was the result of minor and routine differences between estimated daily numbers and final reconciled numbers, the company said in the statement.

“We strongly reject any narrative that portrays a discrepancy in daily estimated production as an intentional breach of conservation measures that protect our fishery,” Inge Andreassen, American Seafoods’ president, said in the statement. “There is no economic motive to report anything other than exactly what we produce.” 

American Seafoods is one of the major harvesters of Bering Sea pollock. The company has a fleet of seven vessels, five of which are engaged in the pollock fishery. The Northern Eagle, at 341 feet and with space for 143 crew members, is American Seafoods’ longest vessel, according to the company’s website.

Roe is collected from Bering Sea pollock in the early part of the year. The annual Bering Sea pollock harvest is divided into two parts. A winter-spring “A Season” is conducted in the first half the year, usually from January to April, and targets fish when they are spawning and the females are carrying eggs. A subsequent “B Season” starts in June and runs through the fall, usually resulting in a total harvest of higher quantity but focused more on fish fillets and products that are made from them.

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