KCAW

Wielding a pair of large scissors, Sitka High School biology teacher Stacy Golden, encouraged by University of Alaska Southeast mascot Spike the Whale, cuts a ribbon made of paper circles. 

Over 100 attendees file into the atrium of UAS’ Sitka campus and crane their necks to look up at its newest permanent resident. Suspended from the ceiling is a skeleton of a baby humpback whale (sorry, Spike).

Golden co-led the process of rearticulating the whale’s skeleton alongside marine biologist Lauren Wild, an Assistant Professor of Applied Fisheries at UAS Sitka. The project began in the spring of 2023, when Wild told Golden about a dead humpback whale that washed ashore on Brent’s Beach.

“I just happened to mention if anybody was ever going to re-articulate a humpback whale, this would be a good one to do, because it was a small whale, and her eyes got really big. And I was like, oh no, that’s a lot of work,” says Wild. “And then standing next to her, Alex McCarrel, who was at the time at the Sitka Sound Science Center, her eyes also got really big, and she was like, ‘Oh, let’s do it!'”

Over the next few years, more than 700 volunteers, from whale experts to Golden’s own high school students and even tourists from the lower 48, assisted in assembling the whale’s skeleton. Experts helped guide the bone placement process, but first, the volunteers had to brave the whale’s “pungent marine oil smell” as they cut out the baby’s fragile bones and boiled the oil out of them.

“And we went through, let me look at my number here, 124 gallons of propane that we used to get all of the boiling done on the bones. Several different boilathons,” says Golden.

The baby won’t be alone in the atrium. Its skeleton is suspended in front of a mural of a mother humpback whale, swimming alongside a school of herring and giant kelp under the ocean waves. The mural was completed by Traz Hill, who was approached by Golden to take on the project. It was the first mural for the painter and tattoo artist. But, with the encouragement of his former teacher, Hill was eager to take on the challenge.

“It was a little scary. Honestly, it was definitely different. I’m used to just sitting in a chair with my easel in front of me painting, so getting up in a scissor lift, I think at the tallest point, I was about 36 to 37 [feet] in the air, which was a little nerve wracking the first few times,” says Hill. “But after that, it would just become a lot of fun, honestly.”

While the project is a huge accomplishment, there is one piece of the puzzle that’s left to be done. In a nearby empty classroom, the bones of the whale’s flipper are spread out on a piece of cardboard, with smaller pieces inside a neighboring cardboard box, waiting to be assembled. At least, most of them are bones.

“All the 3D-printed bones are just almost exact replicas of the other bones, and a lot of the other bones sitting here are damaged and couldn’t be put up.”

That’s Sitka High School senior Calder Prussian. After learning how to 3D print from a class at Sitka High, Prussian was game to contribute his skills to the project.

“And so I use this program called Polycam to scan the bone and then the small ones,” says Prussian. “I used the 3D printers at Sitka High School, and the big ones are too big to print here, so we used a company online that prints them, and then they shipped here.”

Prussian says that he has recently printed about 10 bones at Sitka High School, and only has five more bones to print. 

Surrounded by enthusiastic community members and former volunteers, Golden is optimistic about what’s in store for the project. 

“It’s super exciting, because in some ways I struggle with the fact that it’s not totally done, or that it’s not totally all there, but in other ways, I’m excited because this is the first massive part, and we have ideas for other bones and other projects,” says Golden. “We’re going to do a display at Sitka High. I’d like to get some art done on some of the things. So it’s fun to think about what can come next, and how we can continue to use the bones from the whale to educate in other ways.”

While it’s not alive anymore, the project leaders hope that the whale skeleton inspires a spirit of awe and curiosity as the latest ambassador for our underwater neighbors. 

Sitka Studio of Dance will saturate the stage with color at its showcase this weekend at the Sitka Performing Arts Center. Studio owner Melinda McAdams, tap instructor and studio assistant Kincaid Parsons, and dancer Viola Schoenfelder joined KCAW for the Morning Interview to discuss their upcoming show “Dancing the Rainbow” Saturday, May 9 at 7 p.m. Listen to their conversation here:

Yesterday (4-30-26), Sitka High School had the opening performance of their production of David Lindsay-Abaire’s comedic play Wonder of the World. Director Christian Litten and actors Lazaria Kubacki and Reagean Wingard join KCAW for the Morning Interview to discuss how they brought the show to life and what audiences can expect from the final two shows tonight and tomorrow.

More than 100 Sitkans turned up at a community listening session earlier this week (4-27-26) to give input on the Tongass National Forest land management plan. For the first time in around 3 decades, the United States Forest Service is in the midst of revising the plan that shapes how the agency makes decisions on the forest. Some pushed back on the methodology and speed, as well as the proposed maps, which include designating parts of nearby Kruzof Island as “high commercial use.”

The room was so packed in Sitka’s Harrigan Centennial Hall, that some community members asked organizers to remove a temporary wall on one side to make more space. Folks squeezed in to share their thoughts on the land management planning process for the Tongass National Forest. 

The draft plan is not out yet- that will be released later this year. But the Forest Service is looking for feedback on some preliminary content. Here’s Deputy Forest Supervisor Barb Miranda:

“I fully expect that our forest plan will end up not looking anything like the maps up there,” Miranda said. “We want to hear what you think about these ideas, and we want your reaction to them.”

Miranda noted posters lining the walls around the room that illustrate a potential “rezoning” of Tongass into fewer management areas. Some of the same designations like “old growth habitat” are still in use, along with  some new ones, like “community use” and “high” and “low” commercial recreation. 

“So how did we come about drawing these lines on a map? It was a geospatial exercise. Commercial recreation was only drawn for towns with large cruise ship docks, and the thought was that maybe we should, maybe, and these are all just conversation starters, maybe we should have some places where you can expect there to be high amounts of commercial recreation,” Miranda said.

There wasn’t an opportunity to provide public testimony at the event. Instead the audience was asked to share feedback through various surveys and activities set up around the room. Still, during a quick question and answer session after Miranda’s presentation, several community members raised concerns about the content that was shared. Some flagged the map designating parts of nearby Kruzof Island, the location of Mt. Edgecumbe volcano, as “high commercial recreation.”

Charlie Skultka Jr. wanted to know who made that proposal.

“My question, who did that? How do we find out who suggested that internally?” asked Charlie Skultka Jr.

Caroline Hodur reiterated his concerns. 

“The reason why it’s so important is that we want to be comfortable with these decisions and who is driving them, because if there are groups who are driving them, that we all kind of know, then we also know that our opinions don’t matter,” Hodur said.

“And there’s groups that are even higher than the city and the state that are driving this deregulation,” Skultka said.

“So that’s that’s why we’re animated, because this is very, very important to us,” Hodur said.

Miranda said there was no outside influence on how the map lines were drawn. 

“That was just like, ‘What can we put out there so that you guys can react to something?’ We got you here,” Miranda said. “If there is a place where…you want protected, then please. That’s what, exactly what we want to hear.”

Concerns were also raised about how Alaska fisheries were prioritized in the plan material – and about the speed and methods of the process itself. Tory O’Connell Curran said the maps should be born out of the community first. 

“Could we just make a gray map for each of these communities, redo these community groups, and ask people, like Charlie, to draw the map that he would like?” Curran suggested. “And sure you’re going to have disagreements, but the final product of that map will reflect the actual community use and their concerns about fisheries, their concerns about surfing, their concerns about how we’re trying to get by in this changing climate.”

Miranda said they wished that was an option, but they’re on a tight timeline. Linda Behnken pushed back. 

“Is it true, though, that you are moving this at a faster timeline than you’re required to by law? I mean, this is a rush job, right?” Behnken said. “And I think that’s what you’re hearing from communities. You’re pushing this through too fast, and these are huge changes being proposed, and our communities don’t want it changes way, and we certainly don’t want to be rushed through a process that has this big impact on our livelihood.”

Miranda said, “There are some things that are in our control and some things that are not.” But they want the public involved.

“I want you to continue to look over our shoulder, and we’re going to be as transparent as possible,” Miranda said.

The Forest Service will take comments on the draft plan’s initial content until May 6. The draft plan will be released in November, which will be followed by a 90 day comment window. The final plan will be released next summer. 

View the draft plan content here

Comment on the plan materials here

The City of Sitka is still on the hunt for a new fire chief, following the retirement of Craig Warren; Sitka’s spring cleanup is ongoing. The event allows residents to dispose of household trash, scrap metal, appliances, and hazardous materials for free; and there will be a community workshop on May 11 to discuss how to make Sitka’s energy future affordable, reliable, self-sufficient and innovative. Municipal Administrator John Leach joined KCAW on the Morning Interview to discuss the latest updates. Listen to their conversation here:

Claire Weber (After School Prevention Specialist at SAFV), Desmond Murphy (runner), and Bryce Walsh (coach) joined KCAW for the Morning Interview to discuss the program. Listen to the conversation here:

Mt. Edgecumbe High School is cutting staff for the second year in a row amid ongoing budget and enrollment issues. While last year’s position cuts were mostly refilled at the end of the summer, administrators say they’ll only re-hire for the cut positions this year if more students enroll. 

The state-run boarding school in Sitka serves students from across the state — the majority of whom are Alaska Native from rural communities without local high schools.

News of deteriorating facilities and an exodus of roughly a quarter of its students over the past year prompted state legislators to visit the campus in February and hold hearings to question school leadership.

In an alumni advisory board meeting on April 23, Superintendent David Langford, who was hired last summer, said that new student applications have slowed to a trickle. 

“Right now, we’re at 37% below where we are normally at this time for new applications coming in,” Langford said. “So yeah, that’s lower than what it has been before, and that’s what’s driving us to look at alternative budget projections.”

The administration has drafted two budget scenarios for the upcoming school year. One is based on near-full enrollment at 375 students. The other is a more conservative estimate at 275 students.

In response to dwindling enrollment, Langford said the school has cut several positions, and he’s not sure how many they’ll be able to refill. 

Langford said as of now, six teachers won’t be returning: two are retiring, one is moving, and three non-tenured teachers were given the option to either resign or be “non-retained” — which means they’re not being offered a contract for next year. Non-retention can often be seen as a mark on a teacher’s record. If a teacher gets a non-retention letter, they have to disclose that when applying for future teaching positions.

“It’s important to note that nobody’s getting fired,” Langford said. “That’s a whole different category, which means we don’t want you to ever teach anywhere again, basically. And we’re not doing that to anybody.”

In an interview with KCAW, Langford said if enrollment exceeds their projections, they may look at hiring all six positions back. 

“We live off of enrollment, and that’s how we get funding,” he said. “So if we don’t have students coming in, we can’t fund teachers.”

Matt Hunter, president of the union representing teachers (Teacher’s Education Association – Mt. Edgecumbe), said a non-retention can happen for any non-tenured teacher for any reason. He said the cuts that happened last spring and the upcoming cuts for next school year are strictly budgetary. 

“This year’s reductions came from some budget issues that we ran into last year,” Hunter said. “We had some overspending, and were relying on COVID funds that had expired and weren’t there any longer. That’s why we had such big cuts between last year and this year. And looking forward, in order to budget wisely, you have to look at how many applications you have and how many kids you’re likely to have, or you’ll promise a job to someone, and then find out in August you can’t afford it, which would be terrible.”

Hunter said when families hear bad news about the school, enrollment goes down, but recent news coverage of Mt. Edgecumbe’s challenges only tells part of the story.  

“We have students who are some of the most genuine, kind people I’ve ever met, and we have good stuff happening in our classrooms. We offer some really neat classes,” he said. “I think it’s going to be a good school next year. We’re still going to have good teachers. We’re going to have wonderful students. We just need people to come.”

Langford said the biggest priority moving forward is rebuilding enrollment by showcasing how special Mt. Edgecumbe is.

“Yes, we might have fewer students next year than normal, and that would be a rebuilding year to build back culture and pride and all the kinds of things that maybe we’re lacking this year,” he said.  

Mt. Edgecumbe lets out on May 8 for the summer break, and reconvenes in late August. Langford said despite current enrollment numbers, he’s optimistic about the year to come. 

After three years, the newly assembled juvenile humpback whale skeleton and accompanied mural will be unveiled at its new home at the University of Alaska – Sitka campus this Thursday (4-30-26). Dr. Lauren Wild and Stacy Golden join KCAW for the Morning Interview to discuss the journey of assembling the skeleton, as well as what attendees can expect from the event.

Remember that mysterious “golden orb” government scientists found at the bottom of the Gulf of Alaska in 2023? Was it an egg? A sponge? Remnants of a space alien? 

Scientists were baffled. Two-and-a-half years later, they say they’ve figured it out.

So picture this. Some scientists aboard the research vessel called the Okeanos Explorer are huddled around a screen that shows a remote underwater vehicle prodding at a shiny, golden mass. 

“I just hope when we poke it something doesn’t decide to come out. It’s like the beginning of a horror movie,” one scientist says. “I’m pretty sure this is how the first episode of the X-files started,” another responds.

The “golden orb” was discovered two miles deep by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration research ship while mapping the ocean floor in the summer of 2023.  

“There were jokes about it being a mermaid’s egg or things that also don’t make biological sense, like a dolphin egg or stuff like that. “I think there were some alien hypotheses too,” said Dr. Allen Collins, the director of the NOAA Fisheries Lab at the Smithsonian museum in Washington D.C.

He’s nibbled away at the mystery for two-and-a-half years. 

“It just spawned all these kind of crazy ideas, and then media interest,” Collins said. “I was shocked, but it’s always nice when people are interested in the deep sea.” 

Collins said the team on the Okeanos Explorer, as well as scientists all over, were baffled when they first spotted the four-inch-wide golden lump stuck to a rock. But they collected it for further investigation. 

“That’s not the first time that people have been looking in the deep sea and said, ‘What’s that? I have no idea what that is,’” he said.

But, Collins said, it was a bit unusual how long it took to identify. It required what he calls “morphological, genetic, deep-sea and bioinformatics expertise” to solve. Eventually, his team was able to compare it to two other specimens collected by deep sea biologists in other parts of the world. 

The conclusion? The “golden orb” is the base of a giant sea anemone called relicanthus daphneae. The anemones have a deep-colored trunk about a foot wide and pale pink and purple tentacles that can stretch up to six-and-a-half feet. Collins said scientists have documented about 30 sightings in the deep sea, from the Antarctic Ocean to the Aleutian Islands to the Central Pacific. 

“If you look under the base of the anemones, and right on the side, often, you can see this golden colored cuticle sticking out from the bottom,” he said. “We were like, ‘It was right in front of us, kind of like the whole time. [We] never even noticed.’”

He was happy to finally solve the mystery, but also a bit disappointed. 

“I was sort of like, ‘Oh, man, now no one’s going to care,’ because it’s not as interesting as a mystery,” he said. “Now, it’s an anemone.” 

Collins said the discovery has opened up other questions about the species, like whether the golden base is related to reproduction, and whether the anemone died or let go and reattached itself somewhere else. 

He said they’ve submitted a paper on the “golden orb” to a scientific journal for review. But the relicanthus daphneae is just one specimen out of hundreds he works to identify. 

“What we want to do is contribute this and say, ‘Hey, let’s collect more of these weird things and see what they tell us about the deep sea.’”

Next on his plate? The formal scientific identification, naming, and documenting of a carnivorous sponge species and a new jellyfish species, also found in Alaska waters. 

Neish Ken Hoyt guides over 200 attendees in blessing the newly-completed medical center on Japonski Island. Elders and speakers are seated in rolling chairs stationed in front of the building’s entrance — the rest of the attendees are packed like sardines behind them in the cool shade. A white ribbon with green and blue designs blocks the glass entrance, alongside the podium where Neish speaks from. 

For Southeast Alaska Regional Health Consortium CEO, Charles Clement, the completed hospital is deeply meaningful. 

“My board knows that I was reflecting this morning… and I actually got a little teary eyed,” says Clement. “This is a pretty emotional thing for me. This has been a 10 year endeavor.”

What’s most exciting for many of the speakers and attendees about the new hospital is the ability for Sitkans and residents of surrounding villages to access necessary medical care closer to home. Amidst concerns over limited transportation between villages, Sitka Mayor Steven Eisenbeisz addresses how the city plans to work with the hospital to resolve that. 

“We know that the ferry service is diminishing. We all see the effects on that,” says Eisenbeisz. “But on the plus side, the community of Sitka is investing heavily in their airport. So those citizens that need to get to health care from the larger planes can. And we’re investing in a float plane base as well. So those from the smaller towns that don’t have large plane access, they can fly in basically at the doorstep [of the hospital].”

SEARHC took over the World War II-era Mt. Edgecumbe Hospital in 1986, and has been the only hospital in Sitka since it purchased Sitka Community Hospital in 2019. The new facility was built with support from the Indian Health Service, a federal agency within the department of health that supports Native American and Alaska Native patients. The organization’s deputy director, Ben Smith, says he’s thrilled with the finished product. 

“The Mt. Edgecumbe Medical Center stands as a powerful example of self determination and action, where partnership empowers local leadership to design and deliver care that is responsive, culturally grounded and centered on patient families,” says Smith.

After the ribbon is cut, the wide-eyed attendees enter the new building for the first time, following the Sheet’ka Kwaan Dance Group and Gajaa Heen dancers, documenting every moment while they perform an entrance song.

Bill Spivey is the administrator for the Mt. Edgecumbe Medical Center. He stands proudly as he looks up at the hospital’s tall ceiling as visitors wander around the facility and photograph Mt. Edgecumbe volcano seen through the glass walls. He says there are already set plans to bring in patients and medical staff. 

“It’s very [exciting] that we’re going to be bringing two pieces of the medical center here,” says Spivey. “We’re going to bring our behavioral health team and our physical rehab team here to start on May 4, so that will for us be the first patient day.”

Spivey says that the rest of the facility will open on June 27th.