FISH TO SCHOOLS - Jerick Keith, 13, carries his rockfish taco lunch to a table at Blatchley Middle School Wednesday. The lunch was part of the Fish To Schools program, which is marking its fourteenth year of incorporating wild, local seafoods into Sitka’s school lunches. In an email, the Sitka Conservation Society, which manages the program, thanked Sitka’s fishermen as well as processors, Sitka Sound Seafoods and Seafood Producers Cooperative, for donating to the program and the Sitka School District food services team for cooking the seafood. The next Fish To Schools day for Keet Gooshí Héen Elementary, Xóots Elementary, Blatchley Middle School and Sitka High School will be January 22. (Sentinel Photo)
By GARLAND KENNEDY
Sentinel Staff Writer
A draft inventory of greenhouse gas emissions in Sitka [ ... ]
By SHANNON HAUGLAND
Sentinel Staff Writer
A city ordinance on permits for commercial recreation [ ... ]
By ANDREW KITCHENMAN
Alaska Beacon
A recount of last month’s election concluded Wednesday wit [ ... ]
Sitka Police received the following calls as of midnight last night.
December 11
A caller said he’d [ ... ]
STA to Host
Solstice Event
Sitka Tribe of Alaska invites Tribal households and community friends to we [ ... ]
By SHANNON HAUGLAND
Sentinel Staff Writer
A chance airport meeting led to two Sitkans talking a [ ... ]
By GARLAND KENNEDY
Sentinel Staff Writer
A holiday concert in which two musicians play Christma [ ... ]
By Sentinel Staff
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By YERETH ROSEN
Alaska Beacon
For millennia, the tundra regions of the Arctic drew in carbon fr [ ... ]
Police Blotter
Sitka Police received the following calls as of midnight last night.
December 10
At 8:32 [ ... ]
Sitka Silversmiths
Presentation Held
At National Park
Zach Jones, art historian and the chief of natura [ ... ]
By SHANNON HAUGLAND
Sentinel Staff Writer
Two bodies were recovered from a beach near Hoonah Mo [ ... ]
By SHANNON HAUGLAND
Sentinel Staff
Work is on schedule for the new Mt. Edgecumbe Medical Center [ ... ]
By SHANNON HAUGLAND
Sentinel Staff Writer
The audience at Sitka High School’s winter music co [ ... ]
By SHANNON HAUGLAND
Sentinel Staff Writer
With the sign-up deadline Friday, the Sitka Wearable [ ... ]
By GARLAND KENNEDY
Sentinel Sports Editor
With only a week to go before the Region V tournament [ ... ]
Blatchley Plans
Winter Concert
Blatchley Middle School’s Winter Concert is to be staged 7 p.m. Tuesd [ ... ]
Sitka Police received the following calls as of midnight last night.
December 9
At 12:32 a.m. a caller [ ... ]
By GARLAND KENNEDY
Sentinel Staff Writer
Large linocut prints of working boats plying the water [ ... ]
By YERETH ROSEN
Alaska Beacon
The company that operated the sprawling but shuttered fish proces [ ... ]
By MAX GRAHAM
Northern Journal
For years, one of Alaska’s largest mines has steadily depleted [ ... ]
By MAX GRAHAM
Northern Journal
A western Alaska tribal consortium has appealed a key permit fo [ ... ]
Sitka Police received the following calls as of midnight last night.
December 6
At 6:11 a.m. a caller [ ... ]
School District
Policy Panel Meets
The Sitka School District Policy Committee will meet 5 p.m. Wednesd [ ... ]
Daily Sitka Sentinel
Record-Sized Rockfish May Also be the Oldest
By TOM HESSE
Sentinel Staff Writer
A record-breaking rockfish was hauled in near Sitka last week.
Henry Liebman reeled in the 39.08-pound shortraker late last week, breaking the old record of 38.69 pounds for a shortraker caught on sportfishing gear.
The age of the fish hasn’t yet been determined, but that too might be a record, a fishery expert said.
Liebman, an insurance adjustor who works in Seattle, said he frequently visits Sitka to charter fish, so he knew that he had a large fish on when the shortraker struck.
“I knew it was abnormally big (but I) didn’t know it was a record until on the way back we looked in the Alaska guide book that was on the boat,” Liebman said.
A fishery biologist said this shortraker may have been patrolling Sitka’s coast since the time of Alexander Baranov.
Troy Tidingco, Sitka area manager for the state Department of Fish and Game, certified Liebman’s catch, and said this fish might be in the neighborhood of 200 years old.
“The rougheye is the oldest-aged fish at 205,” Tydingco said. He said the longevity record for shortrakers, which are often confused with rougheyes, is 175 years. But that record fish, he said “was quite a bit smaller than the one Henry caught.”
“That fish was 32 and a half inches long, where Henry’s was almost 41 inches, so his could be substantially older.”
Samples of the fish have been sent to a lab in Juneau where the actual age of Liebman’s fish will be determined.
Rockfish live at depths that range between 84 feet all the way down to almost 4,000 feet. Liebman said he was fishing at a depth of around 900 feet, 10 miles out when his giant shortraker took his bait.
The fish went back to Washington with Liebman, who plans to have it mounted.
He also took home a big fish story that he said he’s already been “getting a lot of mileage” out of.
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20 YEARS AGO
December 2004
Photo caption: Dave Dapcevich receives the Girl Scouts Business Donor of the Year plaque from Tongass Alaska Girl Scouts members April Jensen and Kay McCarty. Dapcevich Accounting donates money collected in a client project to youth programs.
50 YEARS AGO
December 1974
Sitka High School has announced the names of students who made 4.00 grade point averages for the quarter: seniors Mary Christoffel, Louise Dennard, Roger Hames, Helen Hannigan, Roxanne McGraw, Peter Munro, Teresa Redston, Christy Roth, Pam Stromme, Gayle Swain and Jack Turner.
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