The Observer, March 2005
Community Corner: Scientific gatherings offer a wide range of subjects
By Linda Robinson
Two large environmental conferences were held recently. The Marine Science in Alaska Symposium took place January 24-26 in Anchorage. Sponsored by the Exxon Valdez Oil Spill Trustee Council, NOAA Alaska Fisheries Science Center, the Prince William Sound Science Center and a number of related organizations, the symposium covered topics such as Ocean Observing Systems and Climate Change; Physical and Biological Oceanography; Fisheries Oceanography; Benthic Habitat and Nearshore Ecology; Contaminants; Harmful Algal Blooms and Invasive Species; Oil Impacts; Seabirds; Marine Mammals; and Fisheries Science and Management.
The second conference was the annual Alaska Forum on the Environment, held February 6-9. The council reserved two booths and project managers created posters describing various projects the council has undertaken. This conference hosts a wide range of sessions on topics ranging from solid waste, infectious disease, fish and wildlife, and water quality to subsistence and economic development.
The Alaska Wilderness, Recreation and Tourism Association, which is a member of the council, hosted its 12th annual Ecotourism Conference February 23-24 in Girdwood. Topics included Spotlight on Denali, Publishing and Promotion on the Web, and Guiding Alaska Tourism.
The council will participate in Kodiak Comfish, March 17-19, and the Alaska Section of the American Water Resources Association meeting, April 4-8, in Cordova. We will sponsor a coloring contest with prizes awarded during the Kodiak Whalefest, April 22, and will set up children’s tables during the Cordova and Homer Shorebird Festivals in May.
Member community profile: Seldovia
Seldovia, located across from Homer on the south shore of Kachemak Bay, is a member organization of the citizens’ council.
As this photo of the Seldovia small boat harbor suggests, the community’s economy depends heavily on commercial fishing. Photo by Linda Robinson.
It was settled by the Russians around 1844. However, Pacific Eskimos, Aleuts and the Dena’ina Indians were living there before the beginning of the Russian trade.
An 1880 census lists a population of 74, consisting of 36 Eskimos and 38 Creoles (people of mixed Russian and Native descent.) In 1884, an influenza epidemic killed nearly all children under three years of age in Seldovia, English Bay, Kenai and Ninilchik.
Accessible only by air or sea, Seldovia (formerly “Seldevoy,” a Russian word meaning “herring bay”) currently boasts a population of 263. It encompasses about 250 acres of land and 130 acres of water. Seldovia is a commercial fishing center, and shellfish farming also occurs. There are several oyster farms in Kachemak Bay, including one in the Jakalof Bay Area, east of Seldovia. You can find oysters for sale in Seldovia in the summer as well as off of the Jakalof dock. Most farms in Kachemak Bay belong to a co-op that sells oysters and mussels in Homer as well as around the state and country.
Immediately after the Exxon Valdez oil spill, in anticipation of oil fouling local waters, the community set up its own command post. When it learned that no boom was available they made their own from materials at hand. This event was the force behind the community’s creation of the Seldovia Oil Spill Team, or SOS. Its vision is “that an effective and efficient network of community-based response teams exist along the Alaska coast to protect the sensitive resources of the coastline and to aid each other, the State, the U.S. Coast Guard and other local, regional and industry oil spill cooperatives in times of need.”
The Seldovia Native Association is hoping to build a local service ferry with $8 million in federal funds. Lockheed Martin, the nation’s largest defense contractor, hopes to get the design contract for the ferry. The Native Association is planning to supervise a feasibility study.
•Linda Robinson is Community Liaison for Prince William Sound Regional Citizens' Advisory Council.