Ed Ronco, KPLU - Seattle
Ed Ronco is a reporter at KCAW in Sitka.
Declining Cruise Traffic Has Sitka Considering A Dock
In Sitka, declining cruise traffic has city leaders considering the possibility of building a downtown dock. Right now, visitors arriving aboard large vessels are ferried to shore on smaller boats.
Sitka Camp Delivers Science To Young Learners
A series of camps are taking place this summer at the Sitka Sound Science Center. They cover water, marine life, the forest and even flight – all parts of daily life in Southeast Alaska.
Baby Found In Sitka Sink Returns As Adult
On a winter night in 1994, a newborn baby was found lying in a sink at Sitka’s Thomsen Harbor. Eighteen years later, that girl is now a young woman named Karissa Amrhein. She graduated from high school this spring and last week, she returned to Sitka.
Coast Guard Prepares For Switch To Pellets
The U.S. Coast Guard air station in Sitka is abandoning oil as a heat source. Work will start in the next week on a new heating system that uses wood pellets instead of oil. It’s part of an effort to make the Coast Guard more energy efficient.
AK: Hunting for Ferns
Researchers from the Smithsonian Institution visited Sitka recently. The group works at the National Museum of the American Indian in Washington DC. The collection includes countless items from Alaska. Staff members at the museum are well acquainted with those items. But they don’t often get to see where the items began. To do that, they turned to Sitka resident and renowned Tlingit weaver Teri Rofkar.
Change Of Command At Air Station Sitka
Cmdr. Ward Sandlin took over as commanding officer of Air Station Sitka on Wednesday. The top job changes over every two years. Sandlin replaces Cmdr. Doug Cameron, who will serve as Chief of Incident Management for a region stretching from New Jersey to North Carolina. Cameron’s time at the 120-person station was marked by a tragedy, but also by a strengthening of ties with the larger community.
After Harvest, Sitka Tribe Renews Herring Concerns
This year’s lower-than-expected herring harvest has renewed calls from the Sitka Tribe of Alaska to change the fishery.
Disaster Drill Held Near Sitka
If you were trying to get to Japonski Island near Sitka on Monday night, you probably found the bridge closed by police. It was part of a community-wide disaster drill. The exercise involved emergency responders, the Coast Guard, and even students from Mt. Edgecumbe High School.
Former Non-Profit Head Sentenced To Probation For Embezzlement
A former Sitka resident will spend three years on probation and pay back money he embezzled from the nonprofit organization he once led.
SEARHC Recovering From $4 Million Loss Last Year
Big changes are in the works at Southeast Alaska’s largest private employer. The Southeast Alaska Regional Health Consortium, or SEARHC, has a hospital in Sitka, doctors in Juneau, a variety of clinics, and roughly 1,000 employees. The organization is working to recover from a $4 million loss in the last year. That has meant changes to benefits, and a hiring slow-down, among other things.
Sitka Herring Fishery Closes
What was poised to be the largest Sitka herring fishery in recent history has closed with less than half the quota caught. Managers made the announcement Thursday morning to shut down the fishery for the year after just three openings.
Scientists Mentor High School Students in Sitka
A program in Sitka allows high school students to work side-by-side with scientists on their research. The Science Mentors Program, run through the Sitka Conservation Society and the Sitka Sound Science Center, puts three...
5,600 Tons in Second Sitka Herring Opening
The Sitka Sound sac roe herring fishery will stand down until Thursday, in order to give processors time to catch up with the incoming catch. The Alaska Department of Fish and Game estimates fishermen...
About 15% of the Quota Taken as the Sitka Sound Sac Roe Herring Fishery Opens
The nets went into the water for the first opening of the Sitka Sound sac roe herring fishery Saturday afternoon for two and a half hours and brought in about 47 hundred tons. ...
Sitka Herring Fishery Goes on 2-hour Notice
Still no herring fishery in Sitka, where the fleet remained on two-hour notice for a fourth day Friday. More samples will be taken Saturday to see if the roe inside the herring is mature...
Protesters On Hand As CG Admiral Arrives In Sitka
The Coast Guard’s commander in Alaska took a side door out of Sitka’s airport on Wednesday, avoiding protestors who oppose his decision about the future of a Sitka-based aviator. Rear Admiral Thomas Ostebo came to Sitka to meet with Coast Guardsmen from around the state about the aftermath of a 2010 helicopter crash. Three people from Air Station Sitka died in that crash.
Sitka Sac Roe Herring Fishery On Two-Hour Notice
The Sitka Sound sac roe herring fishery is on two hour notice. Two-hour notice means when a fishery is called, officials will give the fleet a minimum of two hours to get into position.
Orca Skeleton Scanned, Reassembled In Sitka
The bones of a killer whale recovered from Kruzof Island last year will soon be on display at the Sitka Sound Science Center. Volunteers and scientists spent last week rearticulating the orca skeleton.
Sitka Shifting To More Renewable Resources
Shifting Sitka to more renewable sources of energy will keep millions of dollars from leaving the community over the next 20 years.
USCG Admonishes Sitka Aviator In 2010 Crash
The Coast Guard’s commander in Alaska officially admonished a Sitka-based aviator over the weekend for his actions in a fatal helicopter crash.