Alaska News Daily Brief, Saturday, October 10

This is Alaska News, with your brief for Saturday, October tenth.

0:05FCC clears SpaceX to send satellite service straight to phones in Alaska and the rest of the U.S.

It's a lighter news day, and the biggest stories are about who gets to use the sky and the sea around Alaska. SpaceX now has federal permission to send service from its satellites straight to ordinary cell phones in Alaska, with no wireless carrier in the middle. Two bureaus of the Federal Communications Commission signed off on Tuesday. The plan is a network of 15,000 satellites orbiting close to Earth. The commission calls it coverage from space, meaning satellites filling in where cell towers don't reach. For rural Alaskans, that's service that wouldn't depend on anyone building new towers on the ground. Normally a satellite company has to rent airwaves from a phone carrier. SpaceX is buying its own licenses from a company called EchoStar instead. So regulators let SpaceX skip that rule, and nobody who commented objected to that request. Without a carrier in the middle, the commission added a 9-1-1 condition. SpaceX has to route emergency calls and texts to the right dispatch center. The company also has to tell customers how far its 9-1-1 service actually reaches. None of this switches on yet. SpaceX can't use those airwaves until the second and final step of the EchoStar purchase closes. Half the satellites have to be up by October twenty thirty-two, and all of them by twenty thirty-five.

1:24Feds shift 1,000 tons of Pacific cod from trawlers to small boats and pot fleets

Out in the Western Gulf of Alaska and the Bering Sea, the National Marine Fisheries Service is moving 1,000 metric tons of Pacific cod from the trawl fleets to smaller boats. Trawlers drag nets. The smaller boats use traps, called pots, and hooks on lines. The change takes effect at noon this coming Tuesday. The reason is simple. Federal managers expect the trawlers to leave that cod in the water, while some of the small fleets are almost out of fish to catch. As of October 3rd, Bering Sea boats under 60 feet had caught 99 percent of their share, with just 29 tons left. Western Gulf pot boats had landed about 96 percent of theirs. The total catch limit doesn't change. In the Western Gulf, where these boats work largely out of Sand Point and King Cove, 650 tons move over. Pot boats gain 400 tons, and hook-and-line boats gain 250. In the Bering Sea, 350 tons go to the under-60-foot fleet, raising its share to 4,557 tons. It's the third boost for those small boats this year. The agency skipped the usual public comment period. It said the latest catch numbers only came in October 5th and 7th, and waiting would keep the fleets that can still fish from catching all the cod. The transfer runs through December 31st.

2:46FAA proposes redrawing Anchorage basin airspace and flight paths for JBER's extended runway

Over Anchorage, the Federal Aviation Administration wants to redraw the airspace and flight paths across the whole basin. The goal is to let Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson use an instrument landing system on its newly extended runway. That's a system that guides planes in when visibility is bad. The Air Force has been stretching that runway north to 10,000 feet. The longer runway is for its F-22 fighter jets. But the airspace the base controls ends less than a nautical mile past the end of the runway. That means planes guided in by that system would run into traffic headed for Merrill Field airport and Ted Stevens airport. The redesign touches Ted Stevens airport, Merrill Field airport, Lake Hood and Bryant Army Airfield. Some of the basin's special airspace would be removed or redefined. Visual routes that small plane pilots fly would shift too. The agency says the plan adds no flights and requires no construction. On noise, the draft projects increases for 364 residents by twenty thirty-two. Those residents live south of the Anchorage airport and in and southwest of Tyonek. 93 of them would see increases of 5 decibels or more. Still, the draft finds no noise problem the FAA says it has to fix. Public comments are open through November 9th, with virtual workshops on October 27th and 28th. Consultation with tribes, including the Native Village of Tyonek, is still pending, and no final decision has been made.

4:14Ketchikan planners may redo approval for KIC shelter after some neighbors weren't notified

The rest of the state, a little quicker. In Ketchikan, the planned permanent shelter won its parking variance in September. The borough may now have to redo that vote, because some nearby condo owners were never notified.

4:28Feds propose second Cook Inlet oil lease sale on the same terms after first drew no bids

In Cook Inlet, the federal government's first oil lease sale this year drew zero bids. Congress won't let federal officials change the terms. So they're offering the same million acres again on the same terms.

4:42North Pacific council raises Tanner and Bristol Bay red king crab limits, keeps snow crab in rebuilding

The North Pacific Fishery Management Council raised harvest limits for Tanner crab and Bristol Bay red king crab for the twenty twenty-six to twenty twenty-seven season. Snow crab stays in its rebuilding plan, because its population is only about three quarters of its target.

4:58Wasilla airport commission backs buying at least 11 parcels for longer runway

Wasilla's Airport Advisory Commission backed buying at least 11 parcels of land to stretch the runway to 5,100 feet. The longer-term goal is 6,000 feet.

5:09Kodiak Assembly member asks for monthly short-term rental counts, citing Coast Guard housing crunch

Kodiak's borough counts about 165 short-term rentals, roughly the same as last year. One Assembly member wants that count every month, because a growing Coast Guard presence is making housing harder to find in town. If you live south of the Anchorage airport or near Tyonek, that airspace plan is still yours to weigh in on. Comments run through November 9th, with virtual workshops October 27th and 28th. Also today: Kawerak's board backs a seabed mining moratorium off Alaska ahead of the AFN vote. And in Kodiak, full property tax payments are due Thursday. Full stories are at Alaska News dot com.