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CLASSIFIEDS ...... B-6, 7 KETCHIKAN OPINION ...... B-2, 3 DAILY NEWS BFeb. 9-10, 2013 WATERFRONT SCIENCE ...... B-8 Matriarch orca found deceased near Ketchikan ‘Yakat’ one of the first killer whales to be photo-identified by researchers in early 1970s By SCOTT BOWLEN The research group that gathered in Daily News Staff Writer Ketchikan for the work included Dr. A wellknown found de - Steven Raverty, a veterinary patholo - ceased near Ketchikan in January gist with the Canadian Ministry of could add to the science of the mas - Agriculture and Lands’ Animal Health sive marine mammals that are found Center; Raverty’s assistant, Chelsea along the northwest coast of North Himsworth; and Dr. Russel Andrews America. of the University of Alaska Fairbanks Her name was Yakat. Born around Institute of Marine Science/Alaska 1958, she was the matriarch of a pod Sealife Center. Nonresident workforce within the northern resident commu - On Jan. 13, Coast Guard Station KODIAK (AP) — Three out of nity of killer whales that resides be - Ketchikan transported the group to four Alaska seafood processing tween the north end of Vancouver Carroll Inlet, where they conducted workers are nonresidents, accord - Island and Southeast Alaska. the necropsy of the approximately 27- ing to the state Department of Yakat was among the first killer foot-long animal on a steep section of Labor’s annual “Residency of whales identified in 1972 by Dr. shoreline near where it had been Alaska Workers” report. , the late Canadian ma - found by a recreational boater. The number of out-of-staters has rine biologist who developed the sys - They collected a wide range of tis - increased every year since 2007 tem for identifying orcas by the sue and organ samples, including the and reached 76.6 percent last year, markings on their saddle patches and heart, liver, dorsal fin and stomach. according to the report released last dorsal fins. Although it’s not possible to know month. That was the highest rate She made news in 2002 when her precisely when the animal died, its re - since 1995, when 77.9 percent of pod accepted a young orphan orca mains were described as moderately seafood workers were nonresidents. named Springer that had been rescued decomposed at the time of the Tourism also had high numbers in and released back into necropsy. of nonresidents. Both industries are the wild in , British “(There was) moderate to marked heavily seasonal, and most nonres - Columbia (Springer is a grandniece of autolysis,” wrote Raverty in an email ident workers stay for only one or Yakat). response to the Daily News. “The liver two quarters of the year. Yakat’s remains were reported by a was largely gas inflated and there was The authors used Alaska Perma - recreational boater Jan. 10 in Carroll little structural integrity of the lungs. nent Fund dividend records and Inlet, about 8 miles east of Ketchikan. They were liquefied and the kidneys unemployment insurance data to The cause of death has not been deter - were mushy.” reach their conclusions. mined. The samples collected during the The Aleutians East Borough had U.S. Coast Guard Station Ketchikan necropsy were distributed to several the most seafood processing work - transported Gary Freitag of the Alaska institutions, according to Freitag. Sci - ers, and 90.2 percent were from Sea Grant Marine Advisory Program entists and veterinarians are analyzing out of state. and Mike Walsh of National Marine the samples for contaminants, dis - Within the Ketchikan Gateway Fisheries Service enforcement to the eases, pathogens and diet information. Borough, about 84 percent of the site, where they collected skin and Freitag is particularly interested in blubber samples and took photos. the analysis of Yakat’s stomach. Above, Gary Freitag of the Alaska Sea Grant Marine Advisory Program leans from a U.S. Coast Guard 1,152 seafood processing workers Station Ketchikan 25-foot rescue boat to take a sample from the carcass of an approximately 27-foot- in 2011 were nonresidents. After returning to Ketchikan, Freitag At present, the diet of animals in the The study noted that many non - sent images of the animal to a variety northern resident community of killer long killer whale Jan. 10 in Carroll Inlet. The orca later was identified as Yakat, the approximately 54- resident workers stay for only a of interested parties. whales is believed to consist mostly of year-old matriarch of the A11 group of northern resident orcas that range from the season or two, and their wages do The response was “amazing,” Freitag salmon, especially chinook salmon. coast to Southeast Alaska. Photo courtesy of Gary Freitag. not keep pace with locals who stick said. “As soon as I sent that picture in, The analysis of an orca’s stomach in everybody got excited up and down winter, when there are fewer salmon with the jobs. Nonresident workers much of its time in British Columbia’s Meghan McKillop, coordinator of 2010, according to the adoption pro - make up 49.6 percent of the Ko - the coast.” about, might shed light on other food Within an hour, the National Ma - sources. Johnstone Strait. the Vancouver Aquarium Wild Killer gram. diak seafood workforce but earn “It’s not known where these whales Whale Adoption Program, said the When a female dies, her adult son 29.9 percent of the wages. rine Mammal Laboratory in Seattle “I'm really anxious to see that,” Fre - and the Vancouver Aquarium (British itag said. go in the winter months, a mystery most recent sighting of Yakat by typically joins the family group of a The report draws few conclu - that researchers are anxious to solve,” Canada’s Department of Fisheries and sister, or is seen swimming on his own sions about the effect of nonresi - Columbia) research group responded Yakat’s appearance near Ketchikan with a positive identification of the already has contributed one piece of according to the program’s biography Oceans occurred on Aug. 16 along the for a period of years before faltering dent labor. of Yakat. Central Coast of British Columbia. and dying, according to McKillop. “There is no question that the non - killer whale, according to Freitag. data. The interest in Yakat was high According to the Vancouver Aquar - Freitag said someone recently told Among the whales sighted with As noted above, Yakat was one of resident workforce has a significant him about seeing a pod of killer Yakat in August was Springer, the or - orcas in the core group first identified effect on Alaska’s economy, but de - enough that biologists from California ium Wild Killer Whale Adoption Pro - to the University of Alaska Fairbanks gram, Yakat’s matrilineal family and whales coming out of Carroll Inlet. phan orca who joined Yakat’s group in in 1972 when Dr. Micheal Biggs began termining the extent to which it is “I’m wondering if it’s her pod, prob - 2002. developing the photo-identification negative or positive is a complicated requested a full necropsy of the ani - two related groups of killer whales are mal, according to Freitag. part of the larger “A4” pod that spends ably still wandering around,” he said. “We're assuming that (Springer) will technique for killer whales. economic question the available still be traveling with (Yakat’s) daugh - Now, identifying killer whales is rel - data can’t answer,” the study said. ter, Nahwitti,” McKillop said. atively simple. A variety of entities The biggest driver of nonresident She said Nahwitti also has a young and individuals keep track of killer employment is seasonality, the re - calf. whale sightings, charting the locations port said. Many year-round resi - “So we're hoping that ... the three of animals and pods. dents are unwilling to take seasonal of them will continue to do well to - One of those entities is the Vancou - jobs, the authors said. gether, and they will continue to travel ver Aquarium’s Wild Killer Whale with A35 (Yakat’s other surviving Adoption Program, in which members Rockfish area closure daughter),” McKillop said. “But for can symbolically “adopt” individual KETCHIKAN (KDN) — The state them, I'm sure it will be quite a loss, killer whales. closed the directed fishery for dem - losing (Yakat).” The program provides updates ersal shelf rockfish in the Central Pods are based on matrilineal lines, about individual whales to their adop - Southeast Outside Section at 11:59 with the eldest female traveling with tors. Funds raised by the adoption pro - p.m. Thursday, estimating that har - her offspring. gram goes to research on wild killer vesters would have landed the Yakat had two surviving daughters, whale populations and other area’s 86,877-pound allocation by the above-mentioned Skagit (A35), and cetaceans on the coast, according to the closure time. Nahwitti (A56). McKillop. The directed fishery remains Skagit, which has four surviving off - Ten people had adopted Yakat, ac - open in the East Yakutat, Southern spring and two surviving grand-off - cording to McKillop. One of the 10 Southeast Outside sections, in ad - spring of her own, had been seen had been adopting Yakat for 17 years. dition to the Northern Southeast In - traveling with her matriline apart “We've had other people that have side and Southern Southeast from Yakat, although the groups still adopted her for five or six years,” she Inside subdistricts, according to the appear to spend most of their time to - said. “People really do follow their in - Alaska Department of Fish and gether. dividual animals.” Game. When a matriarch whale dies, her Yakat’s death is a loss for the killer These areas will remain open adult daughters usually carry on with whale community in general, she said. until allocations are taken or until 4 their families and continue to do quite Following the necropsy on Jan. 13, p.m. on March 22, whichever oc - well, said McKillop. Freitag anticipated that the killer curs first, according to Fish and The situation with male offspring whale’s remains would have sunk to Game. can be different. the sea floor, where the decomposi - “Catch and effort will be closely Male orcas have a life expectancy of tion process would continue. monitored and area closures may 30 years, compared to a life ex - Federal law governs the possession occur on short notice,” states a de - pectancy of 50 years for a female an - of marine mammal bones and other partment announcement. Dr. Stephen Raverty, a veterinary pathologist with the British Columbia Ministry of Agriculture and imal, and there are strong connections parts. Members of the public who find Restrictions apply. For further in - Lands Animal Health Center in Abbotsford, British Columbia, works during the necropsy of the de - between a female killer whale and her a carcass or parts of a deceased killer formation, contact Fish and Game. creased killer whale Yakat that occurred Jan. 13 on a shoreside ledge at Carroll Inlet. male offspring. whale or other marine mammals can Photo courtesy of Gary Freitag Yakat’s only male offspring died in See ‘Killer whale,’ Page B-8 Trident plant safety KETCHIKAN (KDN) — Trident Seafoods’ shore plant in Akutan has been approved for renewal in Fairbanks sport guide the Alaska Occupational Safety Mountain Pt. on Advisory Board agenda and Health Achievement Recogni - tion Program. By SCOTT BOWLEN He said the goal is to use the $300,000 as the local The Trident plant’s renewal with gets Fish board’s nod Daily News Staff Writer match for an 80-20 grant of federal funding through the the program was approved by Should the City of Ketchikan assume ownership of Alaska Department of Fish and Game. Alaska Labor and Workforce De - KETCHIKAN (KDN) — Fairbanks sportfishing guide Reed Morisky has been the Mountain Point boat launch? Using that funding mechanism, “it doesn’t cost us velopment Commissioner Dianne appointed to the Alaska Board of Fisheries. That question will be considered by the Ketchikan anything to replace the Mountain Point boat launch and Blumer, based on the plant’s “out - Morisky replaces Bill Brown of Juneau, who resigned from the board in Jan - Port and Harbors Advisory Board when it meets at 7 floats,” Corporon said. standing employee safety and uary with more than one year remaining on his three-year term. p.m. Tuesday at the City of Ketchikan Harbormaster Similar grants have been used to pay for renovation health programs,” according to the Morisky’s appointment was announced Wednesday by Gov. Sean Parnell’s of - building at Bar Harbor. work at Knudson Cove and Bar Harbor, according to Department of Labor and Work - fice. Parnell did not comment on appointment in the prepared announcement. Located at about mile 5.5 South Tongass Highway, the Corporon. force Development. In addition to owning and operating the Wilderness Fishing sportfishing guide Mountain Point facility includes dual launch ramps and He said the Mountain Point renovations will need to The federal recognition program service, Morisky works for the University of Alaska Fairbanks Division of De - a float in calm water protected by a rubble-mound break - be done in about five years. is administered by the depart - sign and Construction as a project manager, according to the governor’s office. water. “The intent would be to replace the whole thing, ment’s Alaska Occupational Safety He is a previous member of the stater’s Sport Fishing Guide Services Task Mountain Point is the only local harbor facility still probably as soon as we got the grant,” Corporon said. and Health Section. Force and the Steese Area Volunteer Fire Department Board of Directors. owned by the State of Alaska. Over time, the city has “I'm thinking we could probably get one within the next “Participating employers are ex - Morisky is a member of the Fairbanks Convention and Visitors Bureau, Trout accepted ownership of the other, now-former state har - five years.” cused from programmed AKOSH Unlimited, Alaska Outdoor Council and the National Rifle Association. bors, including Bar Harbor and Knudson Cove. The resolution to be considered by the Port and Har - enforcement inspections during the Morisky’s appointment was effective immediately and is subject to confirma - In each case, the state provided some funding to help bors Advisory Board on Tuesday would urge the recognition period,” according to tion by Alaska’s Legislature, according to the governor’s office. If confirmed, his renovate the aging facilities that suffered from a lack of Ketchikan City Council to accept a transfer of owner - the department. “However, em - term will expire on June 30, 2014. major renovation and maintenence during the state’s ship of the Mountain Point facility and $300,000 in de - ployee complaints, accident investi - As the appointment was to take effect immediately. Morisky is expected to ownership. ferred maintenence funds. gations or other significant participate in the Board of Fisheries meeting scheduled for Feb. 26-March 4 in Gov. Sean Parnell has requested a $300,000 appropri - The State of Alaska would continue to own the up - incidents will result in enforcement Anchorage. The board will consider Alaska Peninsula/Aleutian Islands finfish ation from the Legislature to facilitate a transfer of own - land parking lot and the adjacent South Tongass High - action.” issues during that meeting. ership of Mountain Point from the state to the city. way right-of-way, according to the resolution text. Companies that achieve SHARP The seven-member Board of Fisheries is a key component of fishery manage - Steve Corporon, director of the city Port and Harbors The Ketchikan City Council will have the final say in status likely will experience fewer ment for the State of Alaska. The board establishes management policy for state Department, said the current estimate for renovating the matter. Corporon said the Council will consider a workplace accidents and have re - fish resources, setting fishing seasons, methods and bag limits for the state-man - Mountain Point with new ramp planking, floats and similar resolution at its next regular meeting, which is duced costs for workers’ compen - aged commercial, sport, guided-sport, personal-use and subsistence fisheries. some dredging is about $1.3 million. scheduled for Feb. 21. sation insurance. See ‘Fish board,’ Page B-8 Saturday/Sunday, Feb. 9-10, 2013 B-8 SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY KETCHIKAN DAILY NEWS Experts ID remains of England’s King Richard III By JILL LAWLESS Henry Tudor, who took the throne as gust 1485 at the Battle of Bosworth Field contemporary accounts of Richard’s ap - Far left, the long-lost remains of Associated Press King Henry VII and ended the Planta - in the English Midlands, and records say pearance. England's King Richard III. LEICESTER, England — He was king genet line. Brita in’s current monarch, he was buried by the Franciscan monks Archaeological bone specialist Jo Ap - AP Photo/ University of Leicester of England, but for centuries he lay Queen Elizabeth II, is distantly related of Grey Friars at their church in Leices - pleby said study of the bones provided Middle, the facial reconstruction without shroud or coffin in an unknown to Richard, but is not a descendant. ter, 100 miles north of London. “a highly convincing case for identifica - of Richard III. grave, and his name became a byword After his death, historians writing The church was closed and disman - tion of Richard III.” AP Photo/PA, Gareth Fuller for villainy. under the victorious Tudors compre - tled after King Henry VIII dissolved the Far right, the skull of England's On Monday, scientists announced hensively trashed Richard’s reputa - monasteries in 1538, and its location King Richard III. they had rescued the remains of Richard tion, accusing him of myriad crimes — eventually was forgotten by most local III from anonymity — and the most famously, the murder of his two residents. AP Photo/ University of Leicester monarch’s fans hope a revival of his rep - nephews, the “Princes in the Tower.” There were tales that the king’s bones utation will soon follow. William Shakespeare indelibly de - had been dug up and thrown in a In a dramatically orchestrated news picted Richard as a hunchbacked nearby river in the 16th century. conference, a team of archaeologists, ge - usurper who left a trail of bodies on his Then last year a team led by Univer - neticists, genealogists and other scien - way to the throne before dying in bat - sity of Leicester archaeologist Richard tists from the University of Leicester tle, shouting “My kingdom for a horse.” Buckley identified a possible location of announced that tests had proven what That view was repeated by many the grave through map regression analy - they scarcely dared to hope — a scarred historians, and Richard remains a vil - sis, starting with a current map of the and broken skeleton unearthed under a lain in the popular imagination. But general area of the former church and drab municipal parking lot was that of others say Richard’s reputation was analyzing earlier maps to discover what the 15th-century king, the last English unjustly smeared by his Tudor succes - had changed and not changed. Ground- monarch to die in battle. sors. penetrating radar was used to find the Lead archaeologist Richard Buckley Philippa Langley of the Richard III best places to start digging. said that a battery of tests proved “be - Society — which seeks to restore the The team began excavating in a park - yond reasonable doubt” that the remains late king’s reputation and backed the ing lot last August. Within a week they were the king’s. search for his grave— said that for cen - had located thick walls and the remains Lin Foxhall, head of the university’s turies Richard’s story has been told by of tiled floors. Soon after, they found school of archaeology, said the discovery others, many of them hostile. human remains — the skeleton of an “could end up rewriting a little bit of his - She hopes a new surge of interest, adult male who appeared to have died tory in a big way.” along with evidence from the skeleton in battle. Few monarchs have seen their repu - about how the king lived and died — He had been buried unceremoni - tations decline as much after death as and how he was mistreated after death ously, with no coffin or shroud — plau - Richard III. He ruled England between — will help restore his reputation. sible for a despised and defeated enemy. 1483 and 1485, during the decades-long “A wind of change is blowing, one Increasingly excited, the researchers battle over the throne known as the that will seek out the truth about the set out to conduct a battery of scientific Wars of the Roses, which pitted two real Richard III,” she said. tests, including radiocarbon dating to de - wings of the ruling Plantagenet dynasty Langley, who helped launch the termine the skeleton’s age, to see — York and Lancaster — against one an - search for the king, said she could whether, against the odds, they really other. scarcely believe her quest had paid off. had found the king. His brief reign saw liberal reforms, in - “Everyone thought that I was mad,” They found the skeleton belonged to cluding the introduction of the right to she said. “It’s not the easiest pitch in a man in his late 20s to late 30s who bail and the lifting of restrictions on the world, to look for a king under a died between 1455 and 1540. Richard books and printing presses. council car park.” was 32 when he died in 1485. The re - But his rule was challenged, and he The location of Richard’s body was mains also displayed signs of scoliosis, a was defeated and killed by the army of unknown for centuries. He died in Au - form of spinal curvature, consistent with Scientists: We came from ‘squirrels’ strengthens the case for the space crash as the “straw are a product of that opportunity.” Researchers discuss that broke the camel’s back” and killed off the di - O’Leary’s team looked at 4,541 different character - nosaurs, said Renne. istics of mammals still around and extinct and traced mammal takeover He said other environmental factors, such as a their DNA and their physical features back until it changing climate from volcanic eruptions, also had seemed there was a common — and hypothetical — By SETH BORENSTEIN made life harder for the dinosaurs, but that the big final ancestor. AP Science Writer dagger was the giant collision that caused a now-filled “This isn’t something that is just a guess; this is — New research pinpoints how the crater more than 100 miles wide at Chicxulub, on the something that is a result of the analysis,” O’Leary said. torch passed from one dominant creature on Earth to coast of the Yucatan peninsula. “This thing had a long furry tail. It had a white under - another, from the brutish dinosaur to the crafty mam - “The asteroid really rang the bell of the planet,” said belly and it had brown eyes.” mal. Two studies published Thursday in the journal Smithsonian Natural History Museum Director Kirk It was smaller than a rat, but bigger than a mouse Science better explain the Earth-shaking consequences Johnson, who wasn’t part of either study, but praised and likely ate insects. That first mammal evolved over of a catastrophic cosmic collision 66 million years ago them both. Together they showed how that one event the years into all sorts of different types, eventually in - when a comet or asteroid smashed into the Gulf of “had a profound impact on the nature of organisms cluding bats, whales, elephants and primates like us. Mexico. that live on this planet.” The crash seemed to end the reign of the dinosaurs. Dinosaurs are a distinct grouping of species, some of And it gave way to the age of mammals that probably which evolved into birds. Scientists don’t know how started with a cute squirrel-like critter and eventually long it took for the large non-avian kinds like Tyran - led to us, the researchers report. nosaurus Rex to die off. “I think it’s fair to say, without the dinosaurs having The second study painstakingly details the family gone extinct, we would not be here,” said Paul Renne, tree of the most predominant type of mammal, those director of the Berkeley Geochronology Center, who that give birth after a long gestation period. The re - led the research on the dinosaurs and cosmic crash. The dinosaurs’ disappearance “essentially releases the A hypothetical placental mammal ancestor little timid mammals to become the big guys.” that eats insects. Renne demonstrated how the timing of the cosmic AP Photo/American Museum of Natural History, Carl Buell crash exquisitely matches the disappearance of the slow-footed dinosaurs of Jurassic Park fame. His find - searchers propose that the first such mammal was a ings provide more evidence for the theory that an ex - shrewish critter slightly bigger than a mouse with a traterrestrial crash was most responsible for the nasty set of teeth. And it first popped in the world a extinction of dinosaurs. little more than 65 million years ago — just after that Scientists have long thought that there were 200,000 cosmic crash. years between the big crash and the end of the di - When an asteroid or comet hits Earth and kills off nosaurs, but Renne’s more detailed examination of fos - the dinosaurs, it’s both a tragedy and an opportunity, sils and soil at Hell Creek in northeast Montana puts said Maureen O’Leary of Stony Brook University and the two events within 32,000 years of each other. That lead author of the mammal study: “In some sense, we Adopt A Pet Killer whale Continued from page B-1 Fish board Continued from page B-1 contact the Alaska Marine Mammal tion and safety assistance during the The board typically comprises members from around Alaska who have expe - Stranding Network to report the ani - initial response and necropsy regard - rience in one or more of the state’s fisheries. mal and obtain further information ing Yakat. Brown, the now former Board of Fisheries member who resigned in January about the rules regarding possession “They really did a great job on during the middle of his second term, is an economist and university instructor of marine mammal parts. that,” Freitag said. who owns a reel repair business in Juneau. The Alaska Marine Mammal Coast Guard Station Ketchikan His departure leaves one member from Southeast Alaska on the board, com - Stranding Network website is avail - Chief Kevinn Smith said responding mercial fisherman John Jensen of Petersburg. Other board members are from able at: www.fakr.noaa.gov/protecte - to marine mammal incidents is one Anchorage, Talkeetna, Huslia, Kodiak, King Salmon. dresources/strandings.htm. of the missions of the Coast Guard. Freitag, who has participated with “We work petty closely with the Alaska Marine Mammal Strand - NOAA and (National Marine Fish - ing Network since 1993, was appre - eries Service), Smith said. “We're ciative for the Coast Guard Station willing to assist and help when they Ketchikan’s provision of transporta - need help.”

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