Robert Woolsey, KCAW - Sitka

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Robert Woolsey is the news director at KCAW in Sitka.
A giant brown bear paw.

Sitka committee wants to bring back bear task force after deadly season for brown bears

Thirteen brown bears have been killed in Sitka — 12 by wildlife authorities and one by a car.

An invasive parasite is taking over Alaska blue mud shrimp. Researchers want to kill it.

Orthione griffenis, or O. griffenis, eventually kills its host shrimp, and soon the remaining shrimp can’t find each other to reproduce, rendering a blue mud shrimp population extinct.
A white cruise ship on a dock

Arrival of Alaska’s first cruise ship of 2021 coincided with a major coronavirus outbreak in Sitka

Serenade of the Seas’ arrival coincided with a major coronavirus outbreak in Sitka, but that didn’t seem to affect the number of passengers visiting town — all of whom were vaccinated, except for children. There simply weren’t that many of them.
A cruise ship next to a forested hill

Sitka should prepare for a deluge of cruise passengers in 2022, dock owner says

Industry insiders say despite the potential loss of the 2021 season, 2022 could be the biggest cruise season ever.
A school building

Sitka looks to rename Baranof Elementary School after Native educator

The Sitka School Board recently decided to send the question of the name change to the Sitka Tribe, in hopes of identifying a “significant local cultural educator.”
A white coast guard boat with an overlay of some details about its construction

Trump’s defense veto could sink Sitka’s Coast Guard dock

President Trump’s veto of the National Defense Authorization Act has put Sitka’s plans for a new Coast Guard fast-response cutter on the rocks.
A black bear emerges from a clump of alders into a grassy lawn

Search underway for bear following ‘predatory’ attack on a neighborhood dog in Sitka

Although the dog’s body was recovered, officials believe the attack was predatory, and they intend to destroy the bear when it’s found.
In a black and white photo, Richard Bingham walks towards a chair as a woman whose back is turned pulls ist out.

LISTEN: Richard Bingham was acquitted in murder cold case, but accusation clouded his life – until now

Bingham confessed to the crime, despite evidence that he didn't commit the murder of 17-year-old Baggen. But even after he was acquitted, his life wasn't the same.
A white sign on a wall says "Trash isn't traditional/Keep Angoon beautiful)

With six new cases in one day, Angoon goes into lockdown

The new cases take Angoon’s total to eight, prompting Mayor Joshua Bowen to issue an emergency order requiring all travelers to the community to self-isolate for two weeks on arrival.
A white woman with blond hair in a white suit and an arm in a black sling speaks on a podium with the DPS logo and two photos of a teenage girl on an easel on the lefthand side of the image

24 years after her death on a Sitka bike path, genetic evidence leads to Jessica Baggen’s killer

DNA evidence led investigators to a 66-year old man living in Arkansas, who took his own life last week, shortly after Alaska investigators arrived to question him.

Rocket’s red glare injures three in Sitka fireworks mishap

A pyrotechnician said that there was a malfunction during the finale, which “for reasons unknown” launched more quickly than planned.

Federal court opinion a win for Southeast Alaska’s summer king season

An environmental group fought for an injunction that would stop king salmon fishing in Southeast Alaska in order to protect orcas.

Federal judge questions venue for king salmon injunction in orca case

While the Wild Fish Conservancy has asked for an injunction that would stop all chinook salmon fisihing in Alaska, Alaska trollers say that there is more than just fish at stake.

NOAA Fisheries: Alaska chinook harvest not to blame for killer whale decline

A Washington state conservation group is suing to stop the summer troll and sportfishing seasons, which it says will protect the orca populations.
A nurse in a white suit, mask and clothes holds a vial

Nothing ‘false’ about it: Sitka’s first coronavirus remains a positive case

In subsequent tests, the patient, a resident of a long-term care facility who had been in lockdown for six weeks, tested negative in a subsequent test.

Bob Allen, Alaska maritime entrepreneur, boat builder and storyteller, dies at 83

The founder of one of Alaska’s largest homegrown marine tourism companies has died. Bob Allen, of Sitka’s Allen Marine, passed away Monday morning, March 2. He was 83 years old.

Murkowski: Ready to move beyond the ‘ugly’ politics of impeachment

In public remarks during this latest congressional recess, Sen. Murkowski has openly acknowledged that the past few months have not been among her best as a lawmaker.

Sitka Tribe and state exchange legal barbs over management of subsistence herring egg harvest

Commercial harvesters seek herring roe while it’s still inside the fish; subsistence harvesters collect the eggs on hemlock branches (pictured above) after the fish have spawned. This one-after-the-other paradigm is at the heart of the conflict over Sitka herring. “The essence of this claim,” argued Tribal attorney Andy Erickson, “is that (the state) is subjugating the subsistence priority to the needs of the commercial fishery.”

Sitka objects to ‘critical habitat’ designation for humpback whales

Local officials in Sitka are concerned that a critical habitat designation will be another hurdle in the permitting process for work on the city’s waterfront, and become an impediment to the management of the region’s commercial fisheries.