Blog.HaulingGear.com Archive (8-2008 to 3-2014)

        Editors note: To view or download video or high resolution photos please click on the corresponding image above. All U.S. Coast Guard imagery by Chief Petty Officer Wayne Langley of Air Station Kodiak. KODIAK, Alaska - A Coast Guard MH-60 Jayhawk helicopter crew from Air Station Kodiak with an Alaska Department of Fish and Game wildlife biologist aboard recovered a wayward acoustic mooring from a beach on the north end of Shelikof Strait Thursday. The mooring, valued at about $20,000, was noticed by Kodiak-resident Mark Withrow while he was out on his boat in the strait and he reported his finding to ADF&G. It was located several hundred feet up on a beach in the splash zone just beyond the intertidal zone among a lot of beached logs. "Because of the location we couldn't have done this without the Coast Guard," said Larry Van Daele, the Kodiak-based wildlife biologist who accompanied the aircrew. "Due to the lumber and the steep angle of the beach

Major upgrade today for http://www.kodiakdailymirror.com Nice!

Cover of Deadliest Catch: Desperate Hours Published: April 29th, 2011 09:33 AM Last Modified: April 29th, 2011 09:33 AM At just 36, Faresa "Face" Iaulualo of Eagle River is the elder crewman aboard the  F/V Ramblin' Rose , the newest crab fishing vessel featured in the hugely popular Discovery Channel series  "Deadliest Catch."  The Homer-ported Rose has been nicknamed "Frat House of the Bering Sea" because its crew is so young. But what they lack in age, they may make up for in strength,  reports the Alaska Star . ..  http://www.adn.com/2011/04/29/1836067/eagle-river-fisherman-is-new-face.html

Coming up this week, the spring troll season in Southeast could be a little early this year; a federal judge denies the charter halibut industry on limited entry; and more herring news from around the Gulf. We had help this week from  CoastAlaska's  Ed Schoenfeld in Juneau,  KFSK's  Matt Lichtenstein in Petersburg, Jacob Resneck in Kodiak,  KUCB's Alexandra Gutierrez in Unalaska and  KTOO's  Casey Kelly in Juneau.            Click "Read more" below to see the communities in which NOAA Fisheries will hold meetings regarding new halibut charter and other regulations. Audio >  http://www.kmxt.org/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=2721&Itemid=2

Coast Guard’s New Tsunami Vid Shows Catastrophic Aftermath The Japanese Coast Guard has released a new video showing the extent of the damage from last month’s tsunami. In it, helicopters, cars, and airplanes can be seen bobbing in the destructive water flow.

Few fish for herring at Seymour : "PETERSBURG-AK (04/29/2011) Fishing was good but a poor market outlook prompted just a handful of Southeast gillnetters to show up for the herring sac roe harvest at Seymour Canal off Admiralty Island this week."

PETERSBURG-AK (2011-04-28) The public can now view birds-eye video and still photos of much of Alaska’s coastline on the internet. The Alaska Shorezone Coastal Habitat mapping Program’s website allows users to virtually fly along the coast at low-tide and look up biological, geographic and geological information that accompanies the imagery. The multi-agency effort covers Southeast Alaska and the Gulf as well as Kodiak, and Bristol bay. The project is aimed at supporting a variety of fields, from fishery research and community development to oil spill response and search and rescue. It could also be used by boaters, hunters or anyone else who may use detailed pictures of the Alaska coastline. Audio >> http://krbd.org/modules/local_news/index.php?op=sideBlock&syndicated=true&ID=1781 The website address is www.shorezone.org Note: Alaska ShoreZone Mapper: works only in Internet Explorer http://mapping.fakr.noaa.gov/Website/ShoreZone/viewer.htm ... ugh......

Image via Wikipedia Published: April 28th, 2011 12:57 PM Last Modified: April 28th, 2011 01:04 PM For years, leftovers from the western Kenai Peninsula commercial salmon fishery -- heads, spines and guts -- have been dumped back into Cook Inlet after being ground up. An Anchorage-based company is hoping to put an end to the practice. Its president told The Redoubt Reporter he has contracts with three of the four major local processors to recycle their fish waste.......   http://www.adn.com/2011/04/28/1833860/anchorage-entrepreneur-sees-value.html

by   Tim Mowry / tmowry@newsminer.com More than 200 people turned out for the "Fed Up" rally Wednesday, April 27, 2011, at the civic center. The forum was arranged for the discussion of Federal and State issues concerning the over-reach of government. Sam Harrel/News-Miner U.S. Sen. Lisa Murkowski , left, greets Jim Wilde and his wife Hannelore during the "Fed Up" rally Wednesday, April 27, 2011, at the civic center. Sam Harrel/News-Miner FAIRBANKS — Judging from the turnout at Wednesday night’s “Fed Up with the Fed” rally at the Pioneer Park civic center, there are plenty of Fairbanksans fed up with the federal government. An estimated 300 to 400 people showed up to protest what they feel are intrusions by federal agencies in Alaska. There were miners, hunters, fishermen, boaters, pilots and average Alaskans. Those who arrived early received a National Park Service bumper sticker with two red swastikas on it a man was handing out. Dianne Marshall, 53, di

Deck Watch for April 29, 2011 : "Deck Watch is a five minute radio show featuring Coast Guard news from around Alaska. The feature for April 29, 2011, by Petty Officer 1st Class Sara Francis, is an interview with Chief Petty Officer Tom Wallo and Mike McDonnell, who discuss surfing in Alaskan waters near Kodiak Island ."

THURSDAY, APRIL 28, 2011 Posted by:  PA1 Sara Francis As one of the Coast Guard’s newest assets, the national security cutters bring operational capabilities the fleet needs for mission success. Over the next few weeks, the enlisted crew of the service’s first NSC will share their unique perspective on how the fleet’s newest class of cutters will perform in the world’s most challenging operating environments from the deck plate of the Bertholf. You can also check with  Coast Guard Compass  for the view from the wardroom, focusing on the capabilites of the Bertholf and the crew’s adaptability that make their missions a success.   Written by Petty Officer 2nd Class Joseph Gonzales, a boatswain’s mate and part of the navigation division on the Bertholf. This week the crew successfully completed our first-ever District 17 boarding and I was the coxswain for the evolution. This boarding proved to be a challenge because I had to transfer the boarding team to the vessel in unfavorable weathe

April 28, 2011 Julius Genachowski , FCC Chairman GPS supporters are trying to slow what appears to be  a runaway LightSquared express bearing down on the civil L1 signal frequency  and thwart the would-be 4G/LTE broadband cellular wholesaler’s effort shift the burden of proof and associated costs for mitigating interference onto the GNSS community. A webinar on Wednesday (April 27, 2011), hosted by the  Save Our GPS Coalition , contested claims by LightSquared backers that GPS equipment is vulnerable due to poor designs by receiver manufacturers.  A PDF of the presentation viewgraphs can be found here. (Note:  Inside GNSS  is a member of the coalition.) Webinar speakers led by Jim Kirkland, vice-president and general counsel for Trimble, and Nick Yaksich, vice-president for global public policy at the Association of Equipment Manufacturers, also refuted LightSquared’s suggestions that the GPS industry had agreed to creation of the Ancillary Terrestrial Component (ATC) concept years

Updated 02:46 p.m., Wednesday, April 27, 2011 ANCHORAGE, Alaska (AP) — A federal judge in Washington, D.C., has refused to block new rules aimed at reducing the number of charter boats operating along a long stretch of Alaska coastline. The Charter Operators of Alaska filed a lawsuit seeking to block new  National Marine Fisheries Service  rules that ushered in a limited-entry program in February. The Anchorage Daily News  reported that.....  http://www.westport-news.com/news/article/Judge-won-t-block-halibut-charter-rules-in-Alaska-1354717.php

Note: We at HG love what's going on here. Potentially, all you need to process an order (after an official landing of course) is a smart phone and a cell tower! Leena Rao 1 hour ago There is no doubt that mobile payments company  Square  is on a roll. The company just  landed a lucrative deal  selling its credit card readers in Apple’s retail stores and is  growing  at a fast clip. And now the company has just received a strategic investment from a giant in the credit card industry—Visa. For background, Square offers iPhone, Android and an  iPad app which allows merchants to process and manage credit card transactions with a handy little credit card swiping device that plugs into the headset/microphone jack. The device and service is the brainchild of Twitter co-founder and recently  appointed product lead   Jack Dorsey and Jim McKelvey , and recently raised $27.5 million  in new funding. In Q1, Square did $66 million in payment volume (the company expected $40 million) an

Seymour herring fleet going on notice : "PETERSBURG-AK (04/26/2011) Southeast gillnetters may soon fish for herring at Seymour Canal off Admirality Island. The Alaska Department of Fish and Game is putting the sac roe fishery on two-hour notice as of six Tuesday night (4/26). Any time after that, the opening could happen with a minimum of two-hour notice but uncertain market conditions could mean a lot less participation than usual."

Tuesday, April 26, 2011 Posted by: PA1 Sara Francis Crews aboard the Bertholf are busying themselves with helicopter oeprations and fisheries boardings in the first week of their Alaska patrol. This is the Alameda-based crew’s first trip to Alaska aboard Bertholf, the first of the Coast Guard’s new national security cutters. The patrol will gauge the crew and the ship’s ability to perform Coast Guard missions in Alaska’s challenging environment. GULF OF ALASKA - A landing signal officer guides a Kodiak-based HH-65 Dolphin helicopter to the deck of the Coast Guard Cutter Bertholf in the Gulf of Alaska April 21, 2011. The landing signal officer is in charge of guiding the helicopter to the deck and signaling the deck flight crews when to head out to the helicopter to tie down to or untie it from the deck of the cutter. U.S. Coast Guard photo by Petty Officer 3rd Class Jonathan Lally. GULF OF ALASKA - The Coast Guard Cutter Bertholf crew inspects the flight deck for any debris t

Image via Wikipedia WTF #2 Time to howl: EPA forces Shell to drop drilling plans - again Alaskans should be outraged today. Fox News, in a piece published today, said the Environmental Protection Agency again has forced Shell Oil to scrap its efforts to drill off the northern coast of Alaska this summer for an estimated 27 billion barrels of oil, this time by withholding crucial air permits - not for the drilling but for leaving out an icebreaker when it calculated overall greenhouse gas emissions from the project..... http://www.anchoragedailyplanet.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=1779:edit-42511&catid=35:right .Question by HG. Are the crabbers and draggers and seiners and longliners and the trollers next?

Image via CrunchBase April 25, 2011,   8:25 PM Starting Tuesday, Facebook is releasing Deals as a “test” in five cities: Atlanta , Austin , Dallas , San Diego and San Francisco . The company, which has more than 600 million members, said it hoped that its ability to tap directly into the communications and activities of networks of friends will help it offer a more compelling service than rivals. It will be easy to share deals with friends, see when a friend buys something and find offers that your friends are interested in, said Emily White, Facebook’s director for local. Facebook will focus on.......... http://bits.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/04/25/facebook-is-latest-rival-to-groupon-livingsocial-facebook/ More >  http://searchengineland.com/no-teeth-whitening-facebook-launches-social-deals-to-bring-social-experiences-offline-74658 Direct link >  https://www.facebook.com/deals

Image via Wikipedia KODIAK, Alaska – Coast Guard aircrews from Air Station Kodiak shifted assets to Cordova Monday in response to the upcoming spring and summer fishing seasons in Prince William Sound and the Gulf of Alaska . Coast Guard aviators moved one MH-60 Jayhawk helicopter from Kodiak to the forward operating base in Cordova to reduce the search and rescue response time to incidents in the Prince William Sound and Gulf of Alaska areas during a known period of increased maritime activity. Air station personnel typically maintain a crew ready for immediate response in Cordova from May through September. The Jayhawk helicopter crews from Kodiak consist of about 10 personnel and will rotate about every two weeks over the 22-week period. They also assist other Coast Guard units in the region. This week, the Cordova-based helicopter crew will support Aids to Navigation Team Kodiak and the Cordova-based 225-foot Coast Guard buoy tender Sycamore in maintaining navigational aids in

MONDAY, APRIL 25, 2011 Posted by: LTJG Stephanie Young As one of the Coast Guard’s newest assets, the national security cutters bring operational capabilities  the fleet needs for mission success. Over the next few weeks, the wardroom of the service’s first NSC will share their unique perspective on how the fleet’s newest class of cutters will perform in the world’s most challenging operating environments from the bridge of the Bertholf. You can also check with  Coast Guard Alaska  later in the week for the view from the deck plate, focusing on Bertholf’s day to day operations that make their missions a success. Coast Guard Cutter Bertholf moored in Women's Bay, Alaska, before departing on their first Alaska Patrol. This patrol will test the crew and the ship at being able to accomplish the fishery mission while in rough weather. Patrolling during the spring, when the weather is not as significant in the winter, will establish a good baseline on how effective national security cutt

http://www.alaskadispatch.com/article/fish-fraud-asian-catfish-labeled-alaska-pollock

http://www.therealalaska.com/2011/04/videos-herring-season-2011-recap/

Image via Wikipedia By CRAIG GIAMMONA (04/25/11 11:15:18)   A land conveyance that would transfer control of public land near Redoubt Lake to the Sealaska Corporation is scheduled to take a step forward this summer. Survey crews with the Bureau of Land Management are scheduled to visit the Redoubt area this summer with an eye toward creating a formal plat that would pave the way for 11 acres to be transferred to Sealaska, said Tom Jennings, a spokesman for BLM's Alaska office in Anchorage. The prospect of transferring Redoubt Falls, where dozens of Sitkans fish for sockeye each summer, to private hands has raised strong concerns among some locals. "This is an absolute tragedy that this is happening," said Andrew Thoms, director of the Sitka Conservation Society. "It's absolutely unethical that that land could be transferred from public hands to a..... http://www.adn.com/2011/04/25/v-printer/1827068/sealaska-land-transfer-to-go-forward.ht

Two aqaculture technology developments: Peril and Promise : " We highlight two aquaculture developments today -the Norwegian's fear of transgenic salmon and the possible first commercial use of open ocean drifting cage aquaculture by Kona blue.

Image via Wikipedia By Dan Springer Published April 25, 2011 FoxNews.com Shell Oil Company has announced it must scrap efforts to drill for oil this summer in the Arctic Ocean off the northern coast of Alaska. The decision comes following a ruling by the EPA’s Environmental Appeals Board to withhold critical air permits. The move has angered some in Congress and triggered a flurry of legislation aimed at stripping the EPA of its oil drilling oversight. Shell has spent five years and nearly $4 billion dollars on plans to explore for oil in the Beaufort and Chukchi Seas. The leases alone cost $2.2 billion. Shell Vice President Pete Slaiby says obtaining similar air permits for a......... ...........The EPA’s appeals board ruled that Shell had not taken into consideration emissions from an ice-breaking vessel when calculating overall greenhouse gas emissions from the project. Environmental groups were thrilled by the ruling.......... http://www.foxnews.com/us/2011/04/25/energy-

Fish Factor By LAINE WELCH   April 23, 2011 Saturday After a six year delay due to bureaucratic hold ups, a federal loan program is finally taking applications from crew members wanting to buy into the Bering Sea crab fisheries.  “We want to have crew invested in the fishery,” said Edward Poulsen, director of the Alaska Bering Sea crabbers (ABSC), a harvester group. The group is hosting a May 3rd workshop at Leif Erickson Hall in Seattle designed to help crews work through the loan process.   Roughly $8 million will be available for low interest loans, similar to the loan program for halibut and sablefish.  Crabbers will be eligible for 80% of the purchase price of crab shares, which can be repaid over 25 years.  “We’ve seen how the model has worked in halibut where guys working on deck buy a little bit of quota and then buy more   eventually they’ve got a.........  http://www.sitnews.us/LaineWelch/042311_fish_factor.html