Nonresident workforceKODIAK (AP) — Three out of
four Alaska seafood processingworkers are nonresidents, accord-ing to the state Department ofLabor’s annual “Residency ofAlaska Workers” report.
The number of out-of-staters hasincreased every year since 2007and reached 76.6 percent last year,according to the report released lastmonth. That was the highest ratesince 1995, when 77.9 percent ofseafood workers were nonresidents.
Tourism also had high numbersof nonresidents. Both industries areheavily seasonal, and most nonres-ident workers stay for only one ortwo quarters of the year.
The authors used Alaska Perma-nent Fund dividend records andunemployment insurance data toreach their conclusions.
The Aleutians East Borough hadthe most seafood processing work-ers, and 90.2 percent were fromout of state.
Within the Ketchikan GatewayBorough, about 84 percent of the1,152 seafood processing workersin 2011 were nonresidents.
The study noted that many non-resident workers stay for only aseason or two, and their wages donot keep pace with locals who stickwith the jobs. Nonresident workersmake up 49.6 percent of the Ko-diak seafood workforce but earn29.9 percent of the wages.
The report draws few conclu-sions about the effect of nonresi-dent labor.
“There is no question that the non-resident workforce has a significanteffect on Alaska’s economy, but de-termining the extent to which it isnegative or positive is a complicatedeconomic question the availabledata can’t answer,” the study said.
The biggest driver of nonresidentemployment is seasonality, the re-port said. Many year-round resi-dents are unwilling to take seasonaljobs, the authors said.
Rockfish area closureKETCHIKAN (KDN) — The state
closed the directed fishery for dem-ersal shelf rockfish in the CentralSoutheast Outside Section at 11:59p.m. Thursday, estimating that har-vesters would have landed thearea’s 86,877-pound allocation bythe closure time.
The directed fishery remainsopen in the East Yakutat, SouthernSoutheast Outside sections, in ad-dition to the Northern Southeast In-side and Southern SoutheastInside subdistricts, according to theAlaska Department of Fish andGame.
These areas will remain openuntil allocations are taken or until 4p.m. on March 22, whichever oc-curs first, according to Fish andGame.
“Catch and effort will be closelymonitored and area closures mayoccur on short notice,” states a de-partment announcement.
Restrictions apply. For further in-formation, contact Fish and Game.
Trident plant safetyKETCHIKAN (KDN) — Trident
Seafoods’ shore plant in Akutanhas been approved for renewal inthe Alaska Occupational Safetyand Health Achievement Recogni-tion Program.
The Trident plant’s renewal withthe program was approved byAlaska Labor and Workforce De-velopment Commissioner DianneBlumer, based on the plant’s “out-standing employee safety andhealth programs,” according to theDepartment of Labor and Work-force Development.
The federal recognition programis administered by the depart-ment’s Alaska Occupational Safetyand Health Section.
“Participating employers are ex-cused from programmed AKOSHenforcement inspections during therecognition period,” according tothe department. “However, em-ployee complaints, accident investi-gations or other significantincidents will result in enforcementaction.”
Companies that achieve SHARPstatus likely will experience fewerworkplace accidents and have re-duced costs for workers’ compen-sation insurance.
WATERFRONT
SECTION
BFeb. 9-10, 2013
KETCHIKAN
DAILY NEWS
CLASSIFIEDS ..................B-6, 7
OPINION .........................B-2, 3
SCIENCE ..............................B-8
INSIDE
Above, Gary Freitag of the Alaska Sea Grant Marine Advisory Program leans from a U.S. Coast GuardStation Ketchikan 25-foot rescue boat to take a sample from the carcass of an approximately 27-foot-long killer whale Jan. 10 in Carroll Inlet. The orca later was identified as Yakat, the approximately 54-year-old matriarch of the A11 group of northern resident orcas that range from the British Columbiacoast to Southeast Alaska. Photo courtesy of Gary Freitag.
Matriarch orca found deceased near Ketchikan
Dr. Stephen Raverty, a veterinary pathologist with the British Columbia Ministry of Agriculture andLands Animal Health Center in Abbotsford, British Columbia, works during the necropsy of the de-creased killer whale Yakat that occurred Jan. 13 on a shoreside ledge at Carroll Inlet.
Photo courtesy of Gary Freitag
By SCOTT BOWLENDaily News Staff Writer
A wellknown killer whale found de-ceased near Ketchikan in Januarycould add to the science of the mas-sive marine mammals that are foundalong the northwest coast of NorthAmerica.Her name was Yakat. Born around
1958, she was the matriarch of a podwithin the northern resident commu-nity of killer whales that resides be-tween the north end of VancouverIsland and Southeast Alaska.Yakat was among the first killer
whales identified in 1972 by Dr.Michael Bigg, the late Canadian ma-rine biologist who developed the sys-tem for identifying orcas by themarkings on their saddle patches anddorsal fins.She made news in 2002 when her
pod accepted a young orphan orcanamed Springer that had been rescuedin Puget Sound and released back intothe wild in Johnstone Strait, BritishColumbia (Springer is a grandniece ofYakat).Yakat’s remains were reported by a
recreational boater Jan. 10 in CarrollInlet, about 8 miles east of Ketchikan.The cause of death has not been deter-mined.U.S. Coast Guard Station Ketchikan
transported Gary Freitag of the AlaskaSea Grant Marine Advisory Programand Mike Walsh of National MarineFisheries Service enforcement to thesite, where they collected skin andblubber samples and took photos.After returning to Ketchikan, Freitag
sent images of the animal to a varietyof interested parties. The response was “amazing,” Freitag
said. “As soon as I sent that picture in,everybody got excited up and downthe coast.”Within an hour, the National Ma-
rine Mammal Laboratory in Seattleand the Vancouver Aquarium (BritishColumbia) research group respondedwith a positive identification of thekiller whale, according to Freitag.The interest in Yakat was high
enough that biologists from Californiato the University of Alaska Fairbanksrequested a full necropsy of the ani-mal, according to Freitag.
The research group that gathered inKetchikan for the work included Dr.Steven Raverty, a veterinary patholo-gist with the Canadian Ministry ofAgriculture and Lands’ Animal HealthCenter; Raverty’s assistant, ChelseaHimsworth; and Dr. Russel Andrewsof the University of Alaska FairbanksInstitute of Marine Science/AlaskaSealife Center. On Jan. 13, Coast Guard Station
Ketchikan transported the group toCarroll Inlet, where they conductedthe necropsy of the approximately 27-foot-long animal on a steep section ofshoreline near where it had beenfound by a recreational boater.They collected a wide range of tis-
sue and organ samples, including theheart, liver, dorsal fin and stomach.Although it’s not possible to know
precisely when the animal died, its re-mains were described as moderatelydecomposed at the time of thenecropsy.“(There was) moderate to marked
autolysis,” wrote Raverty in an emailresponse to the Daily News. “The liverwas largely gas inflated and there waslittle structural integrity of the lungs.They were liquefied and the kidneyswere mushy.”The samples collected during the
necropsy were distributed to severalinstitutions, according to Freitag. Sci-entists and veterinarians are analyzingthe samples for contaminants, dis-eases, pathogens and diet information.Freitag is particularly interested in
the analysis of Yakat’s stomach. At present, the diet of animals in the
northern resident community of killerwhales is believed to consist mostly ofsalmon, especially chinook salmon.The analysis of an orca’s stomach inwinter, when there are fewer salmonabout, might shed light on other foodsources.“I'm really anxious to see that,” Fre-
itag said.Yakat’s appearance near Ketchikan
already has contributed one piece ofdata.According to the Vancouver Aquar-
ium Wild Killer Whale Adoption Pro-gram, Yakat’s matrilineal family andtwo related groups of killer whales arepart of the larger “A4” pod that spends
much of its time in British Columbia’sJohnstone Strait.“It’s not known where these whales
go in the winter months, a mysterythat researchers are anxious to solve,”according to the program’s biographyof Yakat.Freitag said someone recently told
him about seeing a pod of killerwhales coming out of Carroll Inlet.“I’m wondering if it’s her pod, prob-
ably still wandering around,” he said.
Meghan McKillop, coordinator ofthe Vancouver Aquarium Wild KillerWhale Adoption Program, said themost recent sighting of Yakat byCanada’s Department of Fisheries andOceans occurred on Aug. 16 along theCentral Coast of British Columbia.Among the whales sighted with
Yakat in August was Springer, the or-phan orca who joined Yakat’s group in2002.“We're assuming that (Springer) will
still be traveling with (Yakat’s) daugh-ter, Nahwitti,” McKillop said.She said Nahwitti also has a young
calf.“So we're hoping that ... the three
of them will continue to do well to-gether, and they will continue to travelwith A35 (Yakat’s other survivingdaughter),” McKillop said. “But forthem, I'm sure it will be quite a loss,losing (Yakat).”Pods are based on matrilineal lines,
with the eldest female traveling withher offspring.Yakat had two surviving daughters,
the above-mentioned Skagit (A35), andNahwitti (A56).Skagit, which has four surviving off-
spring and two surviving grand-off-spring of her own, had been seentraveling with her matriline apartfrom Yakat, although the groups stillappear to spend most of their time to-gether.When a matriarch whale dies, her
adult daughters usually carry on withtheir families and continue to do quitewell, said McKillop. The situation with male offspring
can be different. Male orcas have a life expectancy of
30 years, compared to a life ex-pectancy of 50 years for a female an-imal, and there are strong connectionsbetween a female killer whale and hermale offspring. Yakat’s only male offspring died in
2010, according to the adoption pro-gram.When a female dies, her adult son
typically joins the family group of asister, or is seen swimming on his ownfor a period of years before falteringand dying, according to McKillop.As noted above, Yakat was one of
orcas in the core group first identifiedin 1972 when Dr. Micheal Biggs begandeveloping the photo-identificationtechnique for killer whales.Now, identifying killer whales is rel-
atively simple. A variety of entitiesand individuals keep track of killerwhale sightings, charting the locationsof animals and pods.One of those entities is the Vancou-
ver Aquarium’s Wild Killer WhaleAdoption Program, in which memberscan symbolically “adopt” individualkiller whales. The program provides updates
about individual whales to their adop-tors. Funds raised by the adoption pro-gram goes to research on wild killerwhale populations and othercetaceans on the coast, according toMcKillop.Ten people had adopted Yakat, ac-
cording to McKillop. One of the 10had been adopting Yakat for 17 years.“We've had other people that have
adopted her for five or six years,” shesaid. “People really do follow their in-dividual animals.”Yakat’s death is a loss for the killer
whale community in general, she said.Following the necropsy on Jan. 13,
Freitag anticipated that the killerwhale’s remains would have sunk tothe sea floor, where the decomposi-tion process would continue.Federal law governs the possession
of marine mammal bones and otherparts. Members of the public who finda carcass or parts of a deceased killerwhale or other marine mammals can
Fairbanks sport guidegets Fish board’s nodKETCHIKAN (KDN) — Fairbanks sportfishing guide Reed Morisky has been
appointed to the Alaska Board of Fisheries.Morisky replaces Bill Brown of Juneau, who resigned from the board in Jan-
uary with more than one year remaining on his three-year term.Morisky’s appointment was announced Wednesday by Gov. Sean Parnell’s of-
fice. Parnell did not comment on appointment in the prepared announcement.In addition to owning and operating the Wilderness Fishing sportfishing guide
service, Morisky works for the University of Alaska Fairbanks Division of De-sign and Construction as a project manager, according to the governor’s office.He is a previous member of the stater’s Sport Fishing Guide Services Task
Force and the Steese Area Volunteer Fire Department Board of Directors.Morisky is a member of the Fairbanks Convention and Visitors Bureau, TroutUnlimited, Alaska Outdoor Council and the National Rifle Association. Morisky’s appointment was effective immediately and is subject to confirma-
tion by Alaska’s Legislature, according to the governor’s office. If confirmed, histerm will expire on June 30, 2014.As the appointment was to take effect immediately. Morisky is expected to
participate in the Board of Fisheries meeting scheduled for Feb. 26-March 4 inAnchorage. The board will consider Alaska Peninsula/Aleutian Islands finfishissues during that meeting.The seven-member Board of Fisheries is a key component of fishery manage-
ment for the State of Alaska. The board establishes management policy for statefish resources, setting fishing seasons, methods and bag limits for the state-man-aged commercial, sport, guided-sport, personal-use and subsistence fisheries.
By SCOTT BOWLENDaily News Staff Writer
Should the City of Ketchikan assume ownership ofthe Mountain Point boat launch?That question will be considered by the Ketchikan
Port and Harbors Advisory Board when it meets at 7p.m. Tuesday at the City of Ketchikan Harbormasterbuilding at Bar Harbor.Located at about mile 5.5 South Tongass Highway, the
Mountain Point facility includes dual launch ramps anda float in calm water protected by a rubble-mound break-water.Mountain Point is the only local harbor facility still
owned by the State of Alaska. Over time, the city hasaccepted ownership of the other, now-former state har-bors, including Bar Harbor and Knudson Cove.In each case, the state provided some funding to help
renovate the aging facilities that suffered from a lack ofmajor renovation and maintenence during the state’sownership.Gov. Sean Parnell has requested a $300,000 appropri-
ation from the Legislature to facilitate a transfer of own-ership of Mountain Point from the state to the city.Steve Corporon, director of the city Port and Harbors
Department, said the current estimate for renovatingMountain Point with new ramp planking, floats andsome dredging is about $1.3 million.
He said the goal is to use the $300,000 as the localmatch for an 80-20 grant of federal funding through theAlaska Department of Fish and Game. Using that funding mechanism, “it doesn’t cost us
anything to replace the Mountain Point boat launch andfloats,” Corporon said.Similar grants have been used to pay for renovation
work at Knudson Cove and Bar Harbor, according toCorporon.He said the Mountain Point renovations will need to
be done in about five years.“The intent would be to replace the whole thing,
probably as soon as we got the grant,” Corporon said.“I'm thinking we could probably get one within the nextfive years.”The resolution to be considered by the Port and Har-
bors Advisory Board on Tuesday would urge theKetchikan City Council to accept a transfer of owner-ship of the Mountain Point facility and $300,000 in de-ferred maintenence funds.The State of Alaska would continue to own the up-
land parking lot and the adjacent South Tongass High-way right-of-way, according to the resolution text.The Ketchikan City Council will have the final say in
the matter. Corporon said the Council will consider asimilar resolution at its next regular meeting, which isscheduled for Feb. 21.
Mountain Pt. on Advisory Board agenda
‘Yakat’ one of the first killer whales to be photo-identified by researchers in early 1970s
See ‘Killer whale,’ Page B-8
See ‘Fish board,’ Page B-8
By JILL LAWLESSAssociated Press
LEICESTER, England — He was kingof England, but for centuries he laywithout shroud or coffin in an unknowngrave, and his name became a bywordfor villainy.On Monday, scientists announced
they had rescued the remains of RichardIII from anonymity — and themonarch’s fans hope a revival of his rep-utation will soon follow.In a dramatically orchestrated news
conference, a team of archaeologists, ge-neticists, genealogists and other scien-tists from the University of Leicesterannounced that tests had proven whatthey scarcely dared to hope — a scarredand broken skeleton unearthed under adrab municipal parking lot was that ofthe 15th-century king, the last Englishmonarch to die in battle.Lead archaeologist Richard Buckley
said that a battery of tests proved “be-yond reasonable doubt” that the remainswere the king’s.Lin Foxhall, head of the university’s
school of archaeology, said the discovery“could end up rewriting a little bit of his-tory in a big way.”Few monarchs have seen their repu-
tations decline as much after death asRichard III. He ruled England between1483 and 1485, during the decades-longbattle over the throne known as theWars of the Roses, which pitted twowings of the ruling Plantagenet dynasty— York and Lancaster — against one an-other.His brief reign saw liberal reforms, in-
cluding the introduction of the right tobail and the lifting of restrictions onbooks and printing presses.But his rule was challenged, and he
was defeated and killed by the army of
Henry Tudor, who took the throne asKing Henry VII and ended the Planta-genet line. Britain’s current monarch,Queen Elizabeth II, is distantly relatedto Richard, but is not a descendant.After his death, historians writing
under the victorious Tudors compre-hensively trashed Richard’s reputa-tion, accusing him of myriad crimes —most famously, the murder of his twonephews, the “Princes in the Tower.”William Shakespeare indelibly de-
picted Richard as a hunchbackedusurper who left a trail of bodies on hisway to the throne before dying in bat-tle, shouting “My kingdom for a horse.”That view was repeated by many
historians, and Richard remains a vil-lain in the popular imagination. Butothers say Richard’s reputation wasunjustly smeared by his Tudor succes-sors.Philippa Langley of the Richard III
Society — which seeks to restore thelate king’s reputation and backed thesearch for his grave— said that for cen-turies Richard’s story has been told byothers, many of them hostile.She hopes a new surge of interest,
along with evidence from the skeletonabout how the king lived and died —and how he was mistreated after death— will help restore his reputation.“A wind of change is blowing, one
that will seek out the truth about thereal Richard III,” she said.Langley, who helped launch the
search for the king, said she couldscarcely believe her quest had paid off.“Everyone thought that I was mad,”
she said. “It’s not the easiest pitch inthe world, to look for a king under acouncil car park.”The location of Richard’s body was
unknown for centuries. He died in Au-
gust 1485 at the Battle of Bosworth Fieldin the English Midlands, and records sayhe was buried by the Franciscan monksof Grey Friars at their church in Leices-ter, 100 miles north of London.The church was closed and disman-
tled after King Henry VIII dissolved themonasteries in 1538, and its locationeventually was forgotten by most localresidents.There were tales that the king’s bones
had been dug up and thrown in anearby river in the 16th century.Then last year a team led by Univer-
sity of Leicester archaeologist RichardBuckley identified a possible location ofthe grave through map regression analy-sis, starting with a current map of thegeneral area of the former church andanalyzing earlier maps to discover whathad changed and not changed. Ground-penetrating radar was used to find thebest places to start digging.The team began excavating in a park-
ing lot last August. Within a week theyhad located thick walls and the remainsof tiled floors. Soon after, they foundhuman remains — the skeleton of anadult male who appeared to have diedin battle.He had been buried unceremoni-
ously, with no coffin or shroud — plau-sible for a despised and defeated enemy.Increasingly excited, the researchers
set out to conduct a battery of scientifictests, including radiocarbon dating to de-termine the skeleton’s age, to seewhether, against the odds, they reallyhad found the king.They found the skeleton belonged to
a man in his late 20s to late 30s whodied between 1455 and 1540. Richardwas 32 when he died in 1485. The re-mains also displayed signs of scoliosis, aform of spinal curvature, consistent with
contemporary accounts of Richard’s ap-pearance.Archaeological bone specialist Jo Ap-
pleby said study of the bones provided“a highly convincing case for identifica-tion of Richard III.”
S C I E N C E & T E C H N O LO G YB-8 Saturday/Sunday, Feb. 9-10, 2013KETCHIKAN DAILY NEWS
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contact the Alaska Marine MammalStranding Network to report the ani-mal and obtain further informationabout the rules regarding possessionof marine mammal parts.The Alaska Marine Mammal
Stranding Network website is avail-able at: www.fakr.noaa.gov/protecte-dresources/strandings.htm.Freitag, who has participated with
the Alaska Marine Mammal Strand-ing Network since 1993, was appre-ciative for the Coast Guard StationKetchikan’s provision of transporta-
tion and safety assistance during theinitial response and necropsy regard-ing Yakat.“They really did a great job on
that,” Freitag said. Coast Guard Station Ketchikan
Chief Kevinn Smith said respondingto marine mammal incidents is oneof the missions of the Coast Guard.“We work petty closely with
NOAA and (National Marine Fish-eries Service), Smith said. “We'rewilling to assist and help when theyneed help.”
The board typically comprises members from around Alaska who have expe-rience in one or more of the state’s fisheries.Brown, the now former Board of Fisheries member who resigned in January
during the middle of his second term, is an economist and university instructorwho owns a reel repair business in Juneau.His departure leaves one member from Southeast Alaska on the board, com-
mercial fisherman John Jensen of Petersburg. Other board members are fromAnchorage, Talkeetna, Huslia, Kodiak, King Salmon.
Killer whale Continued from page B-1 Fish board Continued from page B-1
Experts ID remains of England’s King Richard IIIFar left, the long-lost remains ofEngland's King Richard III.
AP Photo/ University of LeicesterMiddle, the facial reconstructionof Richard III.
AP Photo/PA, Gareth Fuller Far right, the skull of England'sKing Richard III.
AP Photo/ University of Leicester
By SETH BORENSTEINAP Science Writer
WASHINGTON — New research pinpoints how thetorch passed from one dominant creature on Earth toanother, from the brutish dinosaur to the crafty mam-mal. Two studies published Thursday in the journalScience better explain the Earth-shaking consequencesof a catastrophic cosmic collision 66 million years agowhen a comet or asteroid smashed into the Gulf ofMexico.The crash seemed to end the reign of the dinosaurs.
And it gave way to the age of mammals that probablystarted with a cute squirrel-like critter and eventuallyled to us, the researchers report.“I think it’s fair to say, without the dinosaurs having
gone extinct, we would not be here,” said Paul Renne,director of the Berkeley Geochronology Center, wholed the research on the dinosaurs and cosmic crash.The dinosaurs’ disappearance “essentially releases thelittle timid mammals to become the big guys.”Renne demonstrated how the timing of the cosmic
crash exquisitely matches the disappearance of theslow-footed dinosaurs of Jurassic Park fame. His find-ings provide more evidence for the theory that an ex-traterrestrial crash was most responsible for theextinction of dinosaurs.Scientists have long thought that there were 200,000
years between the big crash and the end of the di-nosaurs, but Renne’s more detailed examination of fos-sils and soil at Hell Creek in northeast Montana putsthe two events within 32,000 years of each other. That
strengthens the case for the space crash as the “strawthat broke the camel’s back” and killed off the di-nosaurs, said Renne.He said other environmental factors, such as a
changing climate from volcanic eruptions, also hadmade life harder for the dinosaurs, but that the big finaldagger was the giant collision that caused a now-filledcrater more than 100 miles wide at Chicxulub, on thecoast of the Yucatan peninsula.“The asteroid really rang the bell of the planet,” said
Smithsonian Natural History Museum Director KirkJohnson, who wasn’t part of either study, but praisedthem both. Together they showed how that one event“had a profound impact on the nature of organismsthat live on this planet.”Dinosaurs are a distinct grouping of species, some of
which evolved into birds. Scientists don’t know howlong it took for the large non-avian kinds like Tyran-nosaurus Rex to die off.The second study painstakingly details the family
tree of the most predominant type of mammal, thosethat give birth after a long gestation period. The re-
searchers propose that the first such mammal was ashrewish critter slightly bigger than a mouse with anasty set of teeth. And it first popped in the world alittle more than 65 million years ago — just after thatcosmic crash.When an asteroid or comet hits Earth and kills off
the dinosaurs, it’s both a tragedy and an opportunity,said Maureen O’Leary of Stony Brook University andlead author of the mammal study: “In some sense, we
are a product of that opportunity.”O’Leary’s team looked at 4,541 different character-
istics of mammals still around and extinct and tracedtheir DNA and their physical features back until itseemed there was a common — and hypothetical —ancestor.“This isn’t something that is just a guess; this is
something that is a result of the analysis,” O’Leary said.“This thing had a long furry tail. It had a white under-belly and it had brown eyes.”It was smaller than a rat, but bigger than a mouse
and likely ate insects. That first mammal evolved overthe years into all sorts of different types, eventually in-cluding bats, whales, elephants and primates like us.
Scientists: We came from ‘squirrels’Researchers discussmammal takeover
A hypothetical placental mammal ancestorthat eats insects.
AP Photo/American Museum of Natural History, Carl Buell
