port of dutch harbor

Dutch Harbor’s U.S. Coast Guard Marine Safety Detachment is now a Marine Safety Unit. At a June 24 ceremony, the station welcomed a new crew and was formally redesignated.

Unalaska is preparing to start monitoring for European Green Crab. That's after the invasive species was first found in Alaska last July. The crab could cause a big problem. They destroy habitat and outcompete native species.

The union representing longshore workers in Dutch Harbor — as well as the rest of the state — reached a tentative bargaining agreement Friday evening, following nearly 18 months of negotiations.

The City of Unalaska held a community ceremony at Memorial Park during the Japanese Maritime Self-Defense Force visit to the Aleutian Island. Many spoke at the ceremony, like Unalaska’s Mayor Vince Tutiakoff. He said this recent visit is a historic moment for everyone.

Scheduled to arrive May 10, the Viking Orion is slated to be Unalaska’s first cruise ship of the year. The island's cruise season will run through October 17, with September set to be the busiest month.

The United States Army is scheduled to visit Unalaska in April, following up on a trip they made in 2020 to assess the community’s infrastructure needs, as well as Unalaska’s ability to host a larger military presence. It’s part of a Department of Defense program called Innovative Readiness Training, or IRT, and is designed to train civil affairs soldiers while also providing service or aid to local communities.

The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers said Tuesday it had received funding approval for the Unalaska Bay dredging project, which aims to clear a channel through an underwater shoal at the entrance to Iliuliuk Bay, just outside Dutch Harbor and the Unalaska Spit.

The North Pacific Fishery Management Council last Sunday approved a total allowable catch for the 2023-24 Eastern Bering Sea pollock fishery of 1.3 million metric tons. That's up about 17% from 2022, when it was set at 1.11 million, but it's lower than other recent years.

The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers is moving forward with dredging the entrance to Iliuliuk Bay, a project that has been in the works for years. Once finished, the project would create a channel to pass through a large shoal of glacial moraine that runs across the bay. Currently, those compressed glacial boulders and rocks make the water much shallower than the surrounding areas.

The U.S. Coast Guard Cutter Kimball calls Honolulu home, but recently it’s seen a lot of action in the Aleutians. Just last month while on a routine patrol, the vessel encountered a group of Russian and Chinese warships traveling together through the Bering Sea. The Kimball’s commander, Capt. Thomas D’Arcy, recalled the encounter during a port call in Unalaska last weekend.D’Arcy didn’t comment on the strategic implications of the foreign warships the Kimball encountered last month. But he said the cutter is staged for just about anything and will continue monitoring the area for foreign military activity.