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CLARION
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P E N I N S U L A
Friday-Saturday, July 18-19 Soldotna-Kenai, Alaska
Vol. 44, Issue 248
Question Should the City of Kenai regulate electronic cigarettes in restaurants and healthcare facilities the same as smoking tobacco? n Yes, they release toxins in the air; n No, the vapor is less harmful than smoke; n The city should wait until more conclusive studies are complete. To place your vote and comment, visit our Web site at www. peninsulaclarion. com. Results and selected comments will be posted each Tuesday in the Clarion, and a new question will be asked. Suggested questions may be submitted online or e-mailed to news@peninsulaclarion.com. C
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50 cents newsstands daily/$1.00 Sunday
2 injured in ATV accident
Midnight ‘netters
By DAN BALMER Peninsula Clarion
Two people were injured in an all-terrain vehicle accident shortly after midnight Thursday in Kenai. A man and woman riding an ATV crashed into a large rock on the south beach toward Rocky Point, which caused the ATV to flip and throw both riders off, said Kenai Police Lt. David Ross. The two suffered serious but not life-threatening injuries and were transported to Central Peninsula Hospital for treatment, Ross said. Their names were not available as of Thursday night. Alcohol is believed to be a factor in the crash. Ross said people on the beach need to be cautious of their surroundings and should not operate an ATV while intoxicated.
Photos by Rashah McChesney/Peninsula Clarion
Above: Karl Kircher and Steven Bishop pitch setnet caught fish from a skiff near the mouth of the Kasilof River at 1 a.m. Thursday morning during an overnight commercial fishing period in Kasilof, Alaska. Right: A commercial drift gillnetting boat leaves the mouth of the Kasilof River. Below: A commercial set gillnetting skiff runs out of the mouth of the Kasilof River as a crewmember lights the way with a flashlight
Reach Dan Balmer at daniel. balmer@peninsulaclarion.com
Boat accident kills dog
In the news Sterling fire kills 2 cats, 11 puppies ANCHORAGE, Alaska (AP) — Fire officials say 11 boxer puppies and two cats were killed in a residential fire in Sterling that apparently started while the owners were away. The fire was discovered by neighbors Wednesday morning, about 2 ½ hours after the owners had departed. Firefighters responded in about five minutes and found smoke rising from the home. The fire was extinguished within 30 minutes. The dead pets were found during a sweep of the building. Central Emergency Services Brad Nelson says the deaths of the animals, particularly the puppies, hit firefighters hard. He says firefighters unsuccessfully tried to resuscitate one of the puppies. The fire caused an estimated $60,000 in damages. Nelson says the homeowners’ insurers are planning an investigation after responders said the blaze started in the kitchen.
By DAN BALMER Peninsula Clarion
Soldotna to overhaul city website By KELLY SULLIVAN Peninsula Clarion
Soldotna is in the process of re-designing it’s city website, slated to launch this fall. The overhaul will result in a more
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want information to be current and to make navigation easier and more intuitive.” The company Vision Internet Providers, Inc., was contracted last fall to develop the new site, Dukowitz said. Governmental
departments are currently in the process of determining final content, she said. Vision Internet was selected for their experience building government websites, Dukowitz said. See WEB, page A-5
Catch-and-release for Kenai kings Managers say they may close the river if numbers don’t improve By RASHAH McCHESNEY Peninsula Clarion
Index
dynamic, interactive online database. “The current website has been a static placeholder that hasn’t changed much since the beginning,” said Project Manager Heather Dukowitz. “We
After a slow start and declining return projections, the Kenai River king salmon fishery will move to catch-and-release fishing beginning Saturday through the season’s July 31 ending. For the first time in Alaska’s history, the catch-and-release fishery will be accompanied by a restriction to using barbless hooks. Starting Saturday, king salmon caught in the Kenai River cannot be retained or in possession and cannot be removed from the water — they must be released immediately, according to a Thursday emergency order. The Alaska Department of Fish and Game defines a barbless hook as one that is either manufactured without a barb or has a barb that has been completely removed or compressed so the barb is in complete con-
tact with the shaft of the hook. While there have been studies showing that barbless hooks reduce the efficiency of anglers, there have yet to be conclusive results showing that a barbless hook reduces the chance that a fish will die after it has been caught, said Fish and Game area management biologist Robert Begich. “We will still be using an 8.25 percent mortality rate in our calculations,” he said. During the 2013 fishing season when Fish and Game moved to catch-and-release fishing on the early run of king salmon, fewer than 80 fish were caught and Fish and Game managers estimated that of those, five fish died, according to data Begich presented to Alaska’s Board of Fisheries in February. Though catch-and-release fishing sharply reduces the number of king salmon killed in the sport fishery, Begich said the restriction alone would
not be enough to help managers make the fish’s escapement goal. “This is a step down measure that’s going to give us some time … to see if the fish are going to come in,” Begich said.
A boat capsized on the Kenai River sending three people and a dog overboard Wednesday night. Nearby boats pulled all three people out of the water but the dog didn’t survive, said Kenai Police Lt. David Ross. The incident occurred at about 9:46 p.m. when a wave went over the bow of the boat, causing it to flip over. Police did not release the names of the boaters, but all three were wearing life jackets, Ross said. While all boats in the water may have contributed to the waves that caused the boat to flip, having so many boats close by made for a quick recovery, he said. “It’s a lot easier to rescue people that are floating,” he said. The Kenai rescue boat arrived shortly afterward and transported two people back to land while the other person received a ride from a fellow boater. The three people did not suffer any injuries. The capsized boat was recovered from the river, Ross said.
If the king salmon passage rate, or number of fish that make it upriver past the sonar, does not improve managers will further restrict the fishery. Reach Dan Balmer at daniel. “Then the next step is to balmer@peninsulaclarion.com close,” he said. See KINGS, page A-12
King restrictions impact sockeye By RASHAH McCHESNEY Peninsula Clarion
The announcement of a catch-and-release fishery for Kenai River king salmon, a severe reduction in harvest opportunity for sport anglers — triggered an equally severe restriction on hours in the East Side Setnet Fishery, one of the two commercial fishing groups in the Cook Inlet tasked with harvesting sockeye, or red salmon. Alaska Department of Fish and Game managers said the proscriptive measures reducing the time and area available to commercial fishers in the Cook Inlet would make it difficult, C
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if not impossible, to meet sockeye salmon escapement goals on the Kenai and Kasilof Rivers. Sockeye salmon are returning to the Kasilof River in record numbers while the Kenai River’s sockeye run is building. Typically, the set and drift gillnetters would be reaching the peak of their fishing time and area during the third week of July — but the setnetters will now be operating within the confines of a 12-hourper week cap on their fishing time while the drift fleet is regulated by a new management plan that restricts them to three corridors on the east side of the Cook Inlet. See REDS, page A-12