April 18, 2013 by Charles Bingham

• Alaskans Own™ community supported fisheries program announces season subscription packages for Sitka, Juneau and Anchorage

Sitka-based Alaskans Own seafood recently announced its subscription prices for its 2013 Community Supported Fisheries (CSF) program in Sitka and Juneau, and this year the program will start delivery to Anchorage.

Alaskans Own was the first CSF program in the state, modeling its program after the successful Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) programs that let customers deal directly with harvesters so they can buy subscription shares to the year’s crop/catch.

This is the fourth year of the Alaskans Own CSF program, and this year there are four-month and six-month subscriptions. The six-month subscriptions allow people to keep receiving freshly caught seafood through October instead of August, when the traditional four-month subscriptions end. Half-subscriptions also are available. Subscriptions include a mix of locally caught black cod (sablefish), halibut, king salmon, coho salmon, lingcod and miscellaneous rockfish, depending on the commercial fishing season. This year there also will be a bonus box of tanner crab from the partner Alaska Marine Conservation Council program in Kodiak.

The Alaskans Own expansion into Anchorage recently was featured on the Alaska Dispatch website. The Alaskans Own program is associated with the Alaska Sustainable Fisheries Trust. The Alaska Sustainable Fisheries Trust’s mission is to strengthen Alaskan fishing communities and marine resources through scientific research, education, and economic opportunity.

Here is Alaskans Own CSF program information provided in a recent e-mail sent to the program’s past subscribers and other interested folk:

Subscription shares are offered again as both a full or half share, 4 month or 6 month option. Subscriptions include a mix of black cod, halibut, king and coho salmon, lingcod and rockfish. Our approximately 1-lb. portions are flash-frozen and vacuum packed—enjoy now or keep frozen for your winter home pack. Pick-ups will take place once per month at the Mill Building/Sitka Sound Science Center in Sitka, at Reliable Transfer near the Nugget Mall in Juneau, and a location TBA in Anchorage.



Find all the details about our 4-month and 6-month subscriptions below.

2013 PRICES AND SPECIES MIX*

4-Month Summer Subscriptions (May, June, July, August)

4-MONTH FULL SHARE: $535 total for 40 pounds of seafood:

Lingcod 10 lbs.          (May)

Halibut                   4 lbs.          (May)

Black cod               2 lbs.           (June)

Misc. rockfish 8 lbs.          (June)

King salmon             6 lbs.          (July)

Coho salmon           10 lbs.         (August)

4-MONTH HALF SHARE: $290 for 20 pounds of seafood:

Lingcod 5 lbs.          (May)

Halibut                   2 lbs.          (May)

Black cod               1 lbs.          (June)

Misc. rockfish 4 lbs.          (June)

King salmon             3 lbs.          (July)

Coho salmon            5 lbs.         (August)

6-Month Summer-Fall Subscriptions (May, June, July, August, September, October)

6-MONTH FULL SHARE: $795 for 60 pounds of seafood:

Lingcod                 15 lbs.          (8 lbs. May + 4 lbs. September)

Halibut                   6 lbs.          (4 lbs. May + 2 lbs. October)

Black cod               3 lbs.          (2 lbs. June + 1 lb. September)

Misc. rockfish         12 lbs.         (10 lbs. June + 5 lbs. September)

King salmon             9 lbs.          (6 lbs. July + 3 lbs. October)

Coho salmon        15 lbs.          (10 lbs. August + 5 lbs. October)

6-MONTH HALF SHARE: $415 for 30 pounds of seafood:

Lingcod 8 lbs.          (4 lbs. May + 2 lbs. September)

Halibut                   3 lbs.          (2 lbs. May + 1 lbs. October)

Black cod                2 lbs.          (1 lb. June + 1 lb. September)

Misc. rockfish 6 lbs.         (5 lbs. June + 3 lbs. September)

King salmon             4 lbs.          (3 lbs. July + 1 lb. October)

Coho salmon            7 lbs.          (5 lbs. August + 2 lbs. October)

*The species mix outlined above is subject to change, as we are basing costs on estimated dock prices, which fluctuate throughout the season. For example, if in July king prices are higher than expected, we’ll provide a little less of that species and increase the pounds of coho you receive. Bottom line: we will ensure you get the best mix of seafood for the subscription price. Due to increased costs to shipping, labor, and other logistics, we have had to increase our subscriptions costs minimally this year.

How do you sign up for the 2013 season? Just reply to this email with your name, address, phone number and the subscription package you’d like. We’ll put you on the list and send a confirmation email along with instructions for payment. This year we will offer two different payment options: either send in a check to Alaskans Own or use PayPal on our new Alaska Sustainable Fisheries Trust website. Please do not pay for a share until you receive confirmation for your subscription.

Our first pick will be in late May, date to be announced. However, we expect our subscription slots to fill up soon–so, please don’t delay in getting your name on the list.

We appreciate your continued support of Alaskans Own.

For more information about subscribing, contact Alaskans Own at info@alaskansown.com. For information about the Alaska Sustainable Fisheries Trust, call 907-747-3477 or send e-mail to info@thealaskatrust.org.

March 26, 2013 by Charles Bingham

• Sitka Community Food Assessment project launches community survey to look at food security and resiliency in Sitka

The Sitka Community Food Assessment work group is encouraging Sitkans to complete a 36-question survey that explores questions about local, wild food, seafood, game and plants (i.e., how do you fish, hunt, gather and/or grow). It also explores issues of food security, as well as where folks shop and how much food they store.

The data collected will augment data coming from our secondary data collection efforts, which focuses on sport and subsistence harvest data for fish and game, as well as data on food assistance programs, food producers and food costs. It also will include focus group data that we will be gathering over the next 4-6 weeks.

Collectively, the work group hopes to present the findings at a Sitka Food Summit that will take place in November 2013. Then the group will begin strategic planning to address our issues and improve food access for all Sitkans.

A link to the survey can be found on the Sitka Community Food Assessment page on Facebook (https://www.facebook.com/SitkaCommunityFoodAssessment), or by going directly to the survey at https://www.surveymonkey.com/s/MQTF22Q.

Paper copies of the survey are available at the Kettleson Memorial Library. The survey is open through the end of April. For more information, email sitkafoodassessment@gmail.com. This is one of three community wellness projects voted on for this year by Sitka residents attending the 2012 Sitka Health Summit.

• Sitka Community Food Assessment one-page fact sheet

• Sitka Community Food Assessment food security definitions

February 17, 2013 by Charles Bingham

• Sitka Conservation Society, other groups to host Sitka Food Film Festival on Feb. 22-24

The Sitka Conservation Society and several other partners will host the Sitka Food Film Festival on Friday through Sunday, Feb. 22-24, at Harrigan Centennial Hall and the Larkspur Cafe. The films are free, but donations will be accepted to help cover costs.

In addition to the dozen films, the festival will feature an appearance by Tlingít chef Robert Kinneen about the Store Outside Your Door (a project with the Alaska Native Tribal Health Consortium (ANTHC) promoting healthy traditional foods). There also will be a roundtable discussion about Sitka’s food resiliency (food security).

The festival opens with a feature film TBA at 8:30 p.m. on Friday night at the Larkspur Cafe.

On Saturday at Harrigan Centennial Hall, the schedule includes Ratatouille (a family friendly movie) at 10 a.m., Ingredients at 12:30 p.m., End of the Line at 2:30 p.m., Two Angry Moms at 3:45 p.m., followed by a roundtable discussion about Sitka’s food resiliency from 5:30-6:30 p.m. Saturday’s schedule concludes with another feature film TBA at 8:30 p.m. at the Larkspur Cafe.

Sunday’s schedule at Harrigan Centennial Hall opens with A Feast At Midnight (a family friendly movie) at 10 a.m., Food Fight at 12:30 p.m., Bitter Seeds at 2:30 p.m., and Food Stamped at 4 p.m. Robert Kinneen is the keynote speaker at 6 p.m., discussing the Store Outside Your Door and showing film shorts from the project. The festival concludes at 7 p.m. with The Economics of Happiness.

Besides the Sitka Conservation Society, the film festival is sponsored by the Alaska Sustainable Fisheries Trust, SEARHC, Sitka Food Co-op, ArtChange Inc., Sitka Film Society, Alaska Pure Sea Salt Co., and the Larkspur Cafe. On Tuesday, Feb. 19, Tracy Gagnon with the Sitka Conservation Society and Andrianna Natsoulas with the Alaska Sustainable Fisheries Trust were interviewed on KCAW-Raven Radio’s Morning Edition program about the film festival, and you can click here to listen to the interview.

February 13, 2013 by Charles Bingham

• Sitka residents say ‘No’ to genetically modified salmon during Feb. 9 rally

Size comparison of an AquAdvantage® Salmon (background) vs. a non-transgenic Atlantic salmon sibling (foreground) of the same age. (CREDIT AquaBounty)

Between 100 and 150 Sitka residents braved the wind and rain on Saturday, Feb. 9, at the Crescent Harbor Shelter to protest the possible U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approval of genetically modified salmon (aka, GMO or GE salmon, or Frankenfish).

The rally (click here to listen to rally coverage from KCAW-Raven Radio) was in protest of a genetically engineered salmon from the Massachusetts company AquaBounty Technologies, called the AquAdvantage® Salmon. The GMO salmon starts with an Atlantic salmon commonly used in fish farms, but adds genes from a Pacific king (chinook) salmon to promote growth and genes from an eel-like fish called an ocean pout that grows all year round instead of seasonally. According to AquaBounty, all of the commercialized fish will be female and sterile, and the fish are designed to be raised in fresh-water pens or tanks on land instead of the usual salt-water pens where most farmed Atlantic salmon are raised. AquaBounty promotes the fish as a faster-growing farmed salmon that takes half the time to reach maturity and be sent to market. To learn more about GMO salmon, read our post from 2010.

Paul Rioux — the Sitka resident who organized the rally with the help of local fishing groups, the Sitka Conservation Society, and others — said fishermen are concerned about what happens if these GMO salmon escape from pens. He noted that while AquaBounty said the fish will be sterile, other scientists said as many as 5 percent could be fertile, and that’s enough so that the GMO salmon as an invasive species could replace wild Pacific salmon within 40 salmon generations. David Wilcox, a 14-year-old Sitka resident who plans to run across the country to protest GMO foods, spoke for the other residents who said they were concerned with genetically engineered fish in general, and they worried this fish might go to market without being labeled as GMO salmon. (Click here to listen to Rioux, Wilcox and Ray Friedlander of the Sitka Conservation Society discuss why they held the rally during a Feb. 8 Morning Edition interview on KCAW-Raven Radio.)

The FDA, which has been looking at GMO salmon for more than a decade (AquaBounty started work on the fish in 1989), announced in December it planned to approve the genetically engineered fish, just in time for the holidays. At the same time, the FDA finally released environmental impact research papers it was supposed to have released in May. The FDA announcement also started a 60-day public comment period that was supposed to end on Feb. 25. On Feb. 13, the FDA extended the comment period until April 26. Sitka residents are encouraged to go to Regulations.gov and search for “GE salmon” (not “GMO”) to comment on the regulations before the April 26 deadline.

Alaska’s Congressional delegation agrees on few items, but Sen. Mark Begich, Sen. Lisa Murkowski and Rep. Don Young have been united for a couple of years in their efforts to stop Frankenfish. Sen. Begich this week introduced two bills banning GMO salmon. Last May, Sen. Murkowski introduced an amendment (that failed 50-46) requiring more study of GMO salmon by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Agency (NOAA). In the House, Rep. Young has been one of the most vocal opponents of Frankenfish and in February he introduced a bill requiring GMO salmon be labeled. In the Alaska House of Representatives, Rep. Geran Tarr (D-Anchorage) and Rep. Scott Kawasaki (D-Fairbanks) introduced an anti-Frankenfish bill that passed out of the House Fisheries Committee this week.

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November 15, 2012 by Charles Bingham

• Help wanted: Sitka Community Food Assessment seeks project coordinator

The Sitka Community Food Assessment project is looking to hire a quarter-time project coordinator to oversee the collection of and analysis of data about Sitka’s food supply and demand.

The Sitka Community Food Assessment project is one of this year’s three Sitka Health Summit community wellness projects, which were decided by local residents back in October. The project already has applied for and received a sub-award grant from the SEARHC Community Transformation Grant program to help facilitate the gathering of data about where Sitkans get their food and how much they need.

The project coordinator will work about 10 hours a week at $23 an hour for one year. Depending on other funding and job requirements, there is a possibility the job may expand from quarter-time to half-time.

This new and exciting position will create and support the Community Food Assessment for a Food Resilient Sitka. In order to understand Sitka’s food security, we need to first conduct an assessment. The assessment will be used to develop a Strategic Action Plan to ensure the resiliency of Sitka’s food future. The successful candidate will report to the Sitka Community Food Assessment committee co-chairs.

A copy of the job description is linked below. To apply, please submit a resumé and cover letter. Applications are due by Friday, Nov. 30, and the job starts on Jan. 7. To learn more or to submit your application, please contact Kerry MacLane at maclanekerry@yahoo.com or Andrianna Natsoulas at anatsoulas@thealaskatrust.org.

• Sitka Community Food Assessment project coodinator job description

October 25, 2012 by Charles Bingham

• Pacific High School’s local food meal featured on KCAW-Raven Radio

Photo courtesy of KCAW-Raven Radio

A special local food meal cooked and eaten by students at Pacific High School in Sitka was featured in a story by reporter Anne Brice on the Wednesday, Oct. 24, morning and evening newscasts on KCAW-Raven Radio.

October is National Farm To School Month, and Oct. 24 was Food Day, so the students cooked up a meal featuring coho salmon with a lemon swirl and dill pesto served on a bed of kale. The fish was provided as part of the Sitka Conservation Society’s Fish-to-Schools program (a 2010 Sitka Health Summit project), and the veggies and herbs came from Lori Adams’ Down-To-Earth U-Pick Garden.

September 27, 2012 by Charles Bingham

• Sitka Local Foods Network to host planning meeting on Friday, Sept. 28, for Food Day events in October

The Sitka Local Foods Network will host a planning meeting from 5-6:30 p.m. on Friday, Sept. 28, at the See House behind St. Peter’s By the Sea Episcopal Church (enter by the statue of St. Francis) to discuss plans for this year’s Food Day in October.

Food Day is a national celebration on Oct. 24 each year about healthy, affordable and sustainable food. Food Day highlights issues such as health and nutrition, hunger, agricultural policy, animal welfare and farm worker justice. The main goal of Food Day is to transform the American diet so it includes more healthy and real food. All Americans — regardless of their age, race, income or geographic locations — should be able to select healthy diets and avoid obesity, diabetes, heart disease and other diet-related conditions.

Food Day events are held in thousands of communities in the United States, including several in Alaska. Click here to learn more about Food Day. There also are several resources available for people outside Sitka who want to plan Food Day activities in their communities. Click the link below for a one-page informational flier about Food Day (opens as a PDF file). For more information, contact Lisa Sadleir-Hart at sitkalocalfoodsnetwork@gmail.com.

• One-page informational flier about Food Day

September 10, 2012 by Charles Bingham

• Sitka Food Co-op to host first annual membership meeting on Sept. 24

The Sitka Food Co-op will host its first annual membership meeting at 5:30 p.m. on Monday, Sept. 24, at the Rasmuson Center on the Sitka Fines Arts Camp/Sheldon Jackson Campus.

This membership meeting is an important part of the co-op’s development. The co-op incorporated one year ago and now it has to file official by-laws with the Alaska Department of Commerce and Economic Development. The Sitka Food Co-op is a community-based, member-owned buying service dedicated to making wholesome foods and products available to its members as inexpensively as possible.

During this meeting we will establish co-op membership, discuss and vote on the co-op bylaws and elect board members for the next year.

This will affect the bulk ordering aspect of the co-op, so please come and share your opinions and your vote.

“Thanks to you all for making this such a successful operation thus far,” co-op organizer Ann Jenny said. “I look forward to the next phase of our development and, as always, am open to all of your ideas.”

For more information, send an e-mail to Ann at sitkafoodcoop@gmail.com or contact Keith Nyitray at 752-2335. Any person, organization or business interested in becoming a member or just interested in learning about the benefits of becoming a member of the largest local cooperative buying service in Sitka is welcome to attend.

• Sitka Food Co-op annual meeting flier to print out and post around town (PDF file)

July 9, 2012 by Charles Bingham

• Sitka Conservation Society presents another year of Sitka Salmon Tours

Sitka Salmon Tours, presented by the Sitka Conservation Society, returns this summer for its second year, guiding visitors through the journey salmon take from forest to plate. The two-hour tour begins at 1 p.m. on Mondays through Saturdays outside the Sitka Sound Science Center and progresses through Sitka National Historical Park, Sheldon Jackson Hatchery, and ends at Crescent Harbor. Tickets cost $20 per person.

The tours mainly draw from tourists visiting Sitka, but also found interest last summer from local residents with family in town, as something fun and unique to do for an afternoon. Personalized and private tours are available upon request.

“People really respond to how we bring the salmon in nature together with the science of the hatchery and the economic and cultural roles salmon play here,” Helen Schnoes, Salmon Tours staff says. “It helps them understand the significance of salmon — and the need to protect, restore, and enhance their habitat — in a new way.”

Tour guests this year and last immensely enjoy this unique perspective on salmon and life in Sitka, as demonstrated by these Trip Advisor reviews — “Great tour: got to see the real life Alaska … really informative and fun,” “Beautiful, Informative, and Entertaining,” and “The most delightful, interesting walking tour … a breath of fresh air.”

In addition to the daily walking tour, Sitka Salmon Tours also organizes events throughout the summer tailored to Sitkans, such as occasional tours of the Seafood Producers Cooperative, specialty community tours, and a salmon bake fundraiser.

We will be sending more details as the summer progresses, but here’s a heads up, too, about some future events:

July 15, “The Rise and Fall of Canned Salmon,” Talk by Nic Mink, 5-6 p.m. at Kettleson Memorial Library. Free and open to the public.
July 19, Community Salmon Bake Fundraiser, $20 per person ($15 for children age 12-younger), 6=8 p.m. at Harrigan Centennial Hall.
Aug. 5, “Fishing for Change,” Talk by Elizabeth Cockrell, 5-6 p.m. at Kettleson Memorial Library. Free and open to the public.
Aug. 7, Seafood Trivia at the Bayview Pub. Sitka Salmon Tours takes over this weekly trivia night with questions about seafood, salmon, and everything fishy. Teams must be entered by 8:45 p.m., trivia begins 9 p.m.
Aug. 9-13, Sitka Seafood Festival walks, including regular Salmon Tour, local seafood tour (includes tastings at some of Sitka’s best restaurants), and SPC processor tour; Events include a processor tour (11 a.m. on Aug. 9, $35 with light meal included, meet at location TBA), at least two Sitka Salmon Tours (one at 1 p.m. on Aug. 10, a second at 9 a.m. on Aug. 11, $20, meet at Sitka Sound Science Center), and a Seafood Walk (11 a.m. on Aug. 12, $45, includes processor tour and tastings at local restaurants)

Contact Helen Schnoes for questions, reservations, or for further information about events planned in Sitka this summer. Helen can be reached at the Sitka Conservation Society office at 747-7509, or by cell at (612) 741-1591 or e-mail at helen@sitkawild.org.

June 22, 2012 by Charles Bingham

• Alaska Department of Health issues PSP warning for Southeast Alaska shellfish

The butter clam has one set of rings that go one direction only, around the same center point (Photo courtesy of Alaska Department of Environmental Conservation)

On Friday, June 22, the Alaska Department of Health and Social Services issued a paralytic shellfish poisoning (PSP) warning for Southeast Alaska shellfish. Please be aware that there have been several PSP blooms in recent years, and the PSP toxin has sent several people to the hospital and even resulted in a couple of deaths.

The state in general does not recommend the recreational or subsistence harvest of shellfish (in particular filter-feeding bi-valves such as clams, cockles, oysters, mussels and others) from Alaska beaches because they are not checked for the PSP toxin. Commercial shellfish is tested for PSP and safe to eat. In addition to the links in the press release below, here is a link to more information about PSP from the SouthEast Alaska Regional Health Consortium (SEARHC), http://searhc.org/publications/featured_stories/2011_06_psp.php. Now here is the text of the release:

Scientists advise against harvesting shellfish due to large “red tide” in Southeast Alaska

State health officials remind public about risks

ANCHORAGE — Warm weather combined with an increasingly large algae bloom in Southeast Alaska has scientists advising extra caution to would-be recreational shellfish harvesters. Water samples taken from around Etolin Island show increasing levels of Alexandrium algae, which produces paralytic shellfish poisoning (PSP) in shellfish. Tests have also shown a slight increase in Alexandrium levels on the west coast of Prince of Wales Island as well as extremely high levels around Juneau.

The littleneck clam has two sets of rings that cross each other at 90 degree angles (Photo courtesy of Alaska Department of Environmental Conservation)

Scientists have also identified unsafe levels of three different species of Dinophysis algae, which produces diarrhetic shellfish poisoning (DSP), in samples from around Ketchikan. DSP can cause diarrhea, PSP can cause paralysis.

“These Alexandrium levels are similar to what we saw last year when we had such high levels of PSP toxins in shellfish,” said Kate Sullivan, with the University of Alaska Southeast and co-founder of the Alaska Harmful Algal Bloom Partnership (AHAB). “Last summer we had a number of cases, including four people who needed to be hospitalized. We want people to be extra cautious and remember that the only safe shellfish is the kind you buy at the store.”

A cockle has deep ridges similar to a Ruffles potato chip (Photo courtesy of Alaska Department of Environmental Conservation)

Early signs of paralytic shellfish poisoning often include tingling of the lips and tongue. Symptoms may progress to tingling of fingers and toes, then loss of control of arms and legs, followed by difficulty breathing. Death can result in as little as two hours.

All locally harvested shellfish — including clams, mussels, oysters, geoducks and scallops — can contain paralytic shellfish poison. Crabmeat is not known to contain the PSP toxin, but crab guts can contain unsafe levels of toxin and should be discarded. There is no way to tell if a beach is safe for harvesting by looking at it. Toxins can be present in large amounts even if the water looks clear. Also, the toxin can remain in shellfish long after the algae bloom is over. PSP cannot be cooked, cleaned or frozen out of shellfish. Commercially grown shellfish is tested and considered safe.

Paralytic shellfish poisoning is considered a public health emergency. Suspected cases must be reported immediately to the Section of Epidemiology by health care providers at 907-269-8000 during work hours or 800-478-0084 after hours.

For more information on PSP go to:

http://www.cdc.gov/nczved/divisions/dfbmd/diseases/marine_toxins/, or

http://www.epi.alaska.gov/id/dod/psp/ParalyticShellfishPoisoningFactSheet.pdf