Margaret Bauman

Legislation calling for creation of an Arctic shipping federal advisory committee has been introduced in the U.S. Senate, in an effort to improve the safety and reliability of maritime transportation in Arctic waters.

An exploration licenses process initiated by Cassandra Energy Corp. in April 2015 to explore for oil and gas in the Katalla area of the Gulf of Alaska is now a waiting game.

Ivory Adajar isn’t one to just wish on a star. She wants to name one, along with an exoplanet, a planet that orbits a star outside the solar system.

Preliminary harvest figures compiled by the Alaska Department of Fish and Game put the value of the statewide commercial catch of 206.9 million salmon at $657.6 million, including $114.9 million for the 57.8 million fish caught in Prince William Sound.

Alaska Superior Court Judge Gregory Miller has granted a preliminary injunction to Alaska State Employees Association Local 52 in litigation involving the state’s efforts to require all unionized state employees to tell the state they want to continue to be union members.

State efforts to revise current oil discharge prevention and contingency plan requirements are being challenged by the watchdog entity charged with promoting environmentally safe operations of the Valdez Marine Terminal and oil tankers moving through there.

A legal battle over efforts to recall Gov. Mike Dunleavy is underway in Alaska Superior Court in the wake of Attorney General Kevin Clarkson’s rejection of the recall application.

Legislation introduced by British Columbia’s government in collaboration with the First Nations leaders would bring into provincial law recognized standards of the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples.

“I don’t think the fleet is aware of how severe of a problem this is,” said Jeff Farvour, a commercial harvester from Sitka. “Fishermen usually feel the Coast Guard is on to these things. It doesn’t look like it’s going to be fixed any time soon.”

“Granting exclusive license to Cassandra Energy Corp. for oil and gas exploration within this region is not in the best interest of the state and at minimum not in the best interest of adjacent communities, for which commercial fisheries are a mainstay of their coastal economies,” says Chelsea Haisman, executive director of CDFU.