Juneau, A-^aaK:a
Is The Russian Crab Fleet Gone?
Yes. No, Maybe; Take Your Choice
Is the Russian crab fleet really
gone?
Seems like a simple enough
question to find the answer to
doesn’t it?
But at the moment the Kodiak
Mirror has received conflicting re
ports or in some instances evasive
answers which tell you nothing.
Last week reports came out of
Seattle quoting a Seattle newsman
in the Kodiak area to the effect
that the Russian fleet had vanished
from the king crab grounds at the
.south end of the island. Though
some fishermen challenge this we
find generally that it is true.
However, it does not necessarily
follow that they have quit the Ko
diak crab effort.
Skipper Oscar Dyson of the ves
sel Robbie and himself a member
of the ADF&G Board reports that
the Russians are or were located
about seven miles off Sitkalidak
Island in the Two-Headed Island
king crab fishery .
“They are about 7 to 8 miles off
Black Cape,” Dyson said on Wed
nesday afternoon.
The Coast Guard here at Kodiak
apparently is unaware of where
the Russians might be at present
and referred us to the Juneau C.
G. headquarters.
The Navy’s District public in
formation office advised they have
had no reports since last Thursday
and Friday at which time the Rus
sians were pulling out of the Cher
ikof area.
The local ADF&G advised that
the Russians were definitely in the
USSR May Lose
Japan Salmon Egg
Market To Kodiak
Can Kodiak successfully com
pete with the Soviet Union in sup
plying the Japanese domestic mar
ket with processed sea food pro
ducts?
This is a question the answer to
which may largely rest with the
shipment of salmon eggs directly
to Japan aboard the Japanese
freighter Benshu Maru which will
put into port here to pick up a ship
ment of salmon eggs for market
ing on the domestic Japanese mar
ket. The Banshu Maru is expected
to moor at City Dock on August
4th or 5th to load the completely
finished salmon egg product from
Alaska Ice & Storage.
The salmon eggs nave own com
pletely processed here by local la
bor to the specifications of the
Japanese who consider the eggs a
desirable food item.
Up until the past year the Japan
ese have been obtaining their sal
mon egg product from the Soviet
Union but have indicated a desire
to obtain this item from Alaskan
sources. This first shipment could
be a forerunner of much larger
and more fre-uent shipments of
such items to Japan. They have
agreed that such items as they
would desire would be completely
processed here by local labor.
Semidi-Cherikof area on the 16th
which was the last date they
checked that area having been un
der heavy pressure in the salmon
fishery and unable to keep track
of Russian fleet movements.
From the reports we have recei
ved it would appear the Seattle re
-porter was correct in stating the
Russians had left the Cherikof
area fishery and we would offhand
make the educated guess they
moved into the Two Headed Is
land area.
New State Trooper
Church “Only Law
West Of Kodiak”
Trooper Don Church
The man who inherited the
longest police beat in the world.”
when Officer C. E. Hussey left
Kodiak July 1st to report to his
new assignment at Fairbanks is
State Trooper Don Church.
Trooper Church was previously
stationed for a year in the Anchor
age area and has been with the
State Patrol for two years now.
The 33-year old trooper is no
newcomer to Alaska. He accom
panied his parents back in the
1930’s when they were amongst
the first Matanuska Valley settlers.
In fact, the Church family is one cf
the very few of the original Mata
nuska Valley settlers who still re
tain their original homestead there.
Officer Church a bachelor, owns a
farm in the valley himself as well.
He attended school at Palmer
and after working construction for
a time became a construction con
tractor himself.
Trooper Church has already got
ten “a pretty good idea” of what
is meant by the phase “the longest
police beat in the world.” Since
taking over the Kodiak post (which
he describes as being ‘-one of the
best in the western district”), he
has traveled out the Aleutian Is
land Chain twice and logged more
than 3,000 miles travel since the
first of the month!”
Officer Church, like his prede
cessor before him, is the only state
police officer assigned to cover a
beat comprised of hundreds of i n
lands stretched out over two
thousand miles in length with a
(Continued on Page 4)
Lall Optimistic
On Salmon Outlook
Although the total salmon can
nery pack amounted to only 45,
886 V2 cases as compared with 80,
000 cases in the parent year of 196J
by this same period of time, the
picture is not as black as it first
appears according to ADF&G’s
Dexter Lall.
During the same period of tide
in 1961 there were 34,000 cases of
pink salmon reported and this year
there is 30,860 cases. “It is the
pinks which make the Kodiak sea
son and so the picture is not at all
too poor.” Lall said. He pointed out
that in 1961 the difference was
made up largely by the pack of red
salmon and early chums.
In this week’s salmon repoit
tnere were 9,176 cases of Chums.
5,556 Reds, and 294 Cohos.
Lall said he was still “generally
optimistic that there would be a
bout an average year for this sea
son.”
Boy In Cardboard
Box On Street
Injured By Auto
A little boy, a cardboard box, a
street with a slope, and an auto
mobile combined together Wednes
day afternoon and nearly added up
to becoming Kodiak’s first traffic
fatality for 1963. As it was, the lit
tle seven year old boy ended up in
Griffin Memorial Hospital with
serious head injuries as well as
painful bruises and abrasions and
is reported by the hospital to be
“doing well.”
The little boy, Robert Small Jr.,
7-year old son of Mr. and Mrs. Bob
Small, had climbed inside a card
board box and had been tumbling
it around. In this not-too-unusual
pastime of little boys he had been
joined by another youngster.
In his play he had tumbled the
box with himself inside onto
Spruce street not far from the
junction of Mission Road with
Spruce, An automobile driven by
Mrs. Eugenia Strigga turned the
corner off Mission road onto
Sprue street and headed down the
slope. Due to the slope conditions
at that point she was unable to see
that there was a cardboard box on
the road and the wheels of her car
rolled over it and the boy inside.
Police received a call on the ac
cident at 4:15 P.M.
City Police Chief Jack Rhines
advised that police officers have
traveled the same route and de
termined that there is definitely a
blind spot at that point which
makes it impossible for a driver to
see what is directly ahead anu
which accounts for the fact that
Mrs. Strigga was unaware of the
box on the roadway.
Chief Rhines also said two re
liable witnesses to the accident
who were working on a rooftop
just above the scene of the acci
dent verified the fact that Mrs.
Strigga was traveling a slow speed
at the time.
Chief Rhines strongly urged that
parents and all adults cooperate
with the police in seeing to that
children do not play on streets.
Karluk Fisherman
Drowns As Skiff
Swamps And Sinks
Tim Sneak, 50 year old well
known Karluk f'sherman and fa
ther of five children, drowned
early this week when the seine
skiff he was operating swamped
and ink during a salmon sein
ing set being made off Cape Uyak
by the fishing vessel Song.
According to reports from the
scene of the accident, the Sprig,
under command of Skipper Charley
Christensen of Karluk and Kodiak,
was engaged in making a haul un
der fair weather and ideal condi
tions.
In the course of the operation
Sugak, the skiffman made a turn
to the left and the skiff tipped up
on it’s side and began shipping wa
ter. Sugak ran for the bow of the
skiff and the Sprig cut loose from
her net line and raced to assist
Sugak. By the time they reached
the area of the skiff, both it and
Sugak had completely disappeared.
Sugak’ body has not yet been re
covered.
Milton M. Souter
Makes Honor Roll
Milton Souter, son of Milton and
Ann Souther of Kodiak, was in
cluded on the honor roll for last
semester at Washington State Uni
versity.
To be eligible for the honor rob.
a student must have earned 5.)
grade points (using a scale of 4
for A grades, down through 1 for
D grades).
FRENCHY DOING FINE
Frenchy Richardson, who was
flown to Seattle last Sunday fol
lowing a heart attack, is reported
to be doing fine. It is expected he
will be gone for another two weeks.
Deveau Challenges
C of C To Produce
Is'ew c.lainbar 01 Commerce Pre
z.ue:d Nick Rauch presided over
his first chamber meeting Thurs
day noon and promptly wa; faced
with a challenge from Pete Deveau
to p’o uce results o nthe matter of
gettirg Kodiak to participate in Te
Alaska Centennial.
Deveau cited the fact that in
past years the chamber had not
..cted vigorously or quickly enough
in such matters as the Kodiak-Aleu
tian Island vocational school bond
issue promotion and also on the
Century 21 exhibit.
“Unless the chamber indicates
positively that it intends to really
do something about getting Kodiak
to participate in the Alaska Cen
tennial celebration I intend to
form an independent organization
called Greater Kodiak Incorporated
to raise the money to make sure
Kodiak gets the promotional work
necessary to attract a large pei -
oentage of the tourists that will be
coming to Alaska for this event,
Deveau told the chamber.
Deveau advised the chamber
that he had been appointed to the
16-man Alaska Centennial Com
mission and would go to Anchor -
ag? on Tuesday to attend the first
meeting. The chamber upheld it’s
new president in telling Deveau to
first find out the co ts involved in
the matter of a Kodiak display at
any state central exhibit building.
RAUCH ENDS EGG DIET
Wearing a happier smile this
week is Nick Rauch whose wife’s
9-week vacation trip to Texas nad
California made him a do-it-your
self expert in feeding himself
which resulted in making him an
expert on how to boil eggs. ‘ 1
fried them at first but this proved
to make too much of a mess to
clean up,” Nick said.
Receives Naval Commission
RECEIVES NAVY COMMISSION — Dr. Lee L. McKinley, DDS
(right), is sworn into the U.S. Naval Reserve, as a lieutenant, by
Cmdr. C. F. Barron, USN, Ass’t Chief of Staff for Personnel, at 17th
Naval District Ildqtrs., Kodiak, July 12. Dr. McKinley is the son of
Dr. and Mrs. Lee L. McKinley, Star Rte., Palmer, Alaska. He former
ly attended ’•Vest Anchor tge high school and is a 1962 graduate of
the Univ. oi Kansas City, Kansas City, Mo., where he received his
degree in dentistry. Before establishing an office in Kodiak in March
1963, he practced dentistry with his father in Anchorage. The senior
Dr. McKinley has three brothers, two of whom are dentists also, and
one a physician. Another of their sons, Blake, is a sophomore at the
Univ. of Missouri at Kansas City and you guessed »t, is studying
dentistry. Blake holds a lieutenant's commission in the U.S. Army
Reserve. (Official USN Photo)