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Wed, 01/06/2021 - 9:03am
This year marks the 30th year that the weekly Fish Factor column has appeared in newspapers across Alaska and nationally. Every year it features “picks and pans” for Alaska’s seafood industry a no-holds-barred look back at some of the year’s best and worst fishing highlights, and my choice for the biggest fish story of the year.
Here are the choices for 2020, in no particular order:
Best little known fish fact: Alaska’s commercial fisheries division also pays for the management of subsistence and personal use fisheries.
Biggest fishing tragedy: The loss of five fishermen aboard the Scandies Rose that sank southwest of Kodiak.
Wed, 12/23/2020 - 9:08am
Anchorage Health Department registered nurse Wendy Williams draws a dose of the Pfizer-BioNtech COVID-19 vaccine during a vaccine clinic on Dec. 17. The state has received more than 60,000 doses of two different vaccines against the COVID-19 virus. (Photo/Loren Holmes/Anchorage Daily News)
Health care has been at the center of the limelight since this past March when the COVID-19 pandemic really began affecting Alaska.
Gov. Mike Dunleavy preemptively issued emergency orders meant to preserve hospital capacity in the event of case surges, shutting down elective surgeries and outside visitors.
For hospitals and health care companies, which often make the bulk of their profit on elective surgeries and outpatient procedures, that was a serious financial hit even as their staffing was slammed with new work and safety protocols.
Wed, 12/23/2020 - 9:08am
High-value halibut is still declining in the North Pacific, but the 2020 surveys revealed just a 1 percent drop in the stock as the International Pacific Halibut Commission prepares to set harvest quotas for 2021 in January at its annual meeting. (Photo/Kelly Jordan Photography/Sitka Salmon Shares)
Going into 2021, salmon fishermen have some unanswered questions and at least a few promising forecasts to look forward to.
Following the trend of the last several years, the salmon forecast for the 2021 salmon season in Bristol Bay looks positive. The Alaska Department of Fish and Game is forecasting a total return of about 51 million sockeye salmon, with an inshore run of about 50 million. That’s about 6 percent better than the average for the last decade and 45 percent greater than the long-term average.
Wed, 12/16/2020 - 9:10am
Downtown Anchorage was quiet as people stayed away hours before a city “hunker down” order took effect on March 22. The beginning of shutdowns across the state in response to the COVID-19 pandemic turned the Alaska economy upside down with negative effects on nearly every sector and sending the state back into a recession. (Photo/Bill Roth/Anchorage Daily News)
There is only one top story for 2020, but the tentacles of the COVID-19 virus have proven so far-reaching that it cannot be summed up with a single headline, despite the countless internet memes attempting to do so. The 2020 Year in Review looks back at the top 10 stories as the pandemic touched every reach of Alaska.