UNISEA

Finding community in a new place can be hard for anyone, anywhere. It can be especially tough when that new place is remote, isolated and features a revolving cast of seasonal workers. But there’s a place in Unalaska for Muslims new to town to gather and pray once a week.

The Bristol Bay red king crab fishery has been closed for two years, and along with it, Bering Sea snow crab have abruptly disappeared, causing another complete closure. Together, the fisheries generally bring in millions of dollars to the fleet and the coastal Alaska communities that rely on them. Since 2021, when king crab closed and snow crab saw a huge decline in harvest numbers, fishermen have taken an estimated $287.7 million hit. Without those fisheries and without that revenue, more and more boats are relying on other work like fishing for cod and small amounts of bairdi crab or summer tendering gigs just to make ends meet. So when a group of Bering Sea fishermen recently heard they’d be getting paid less than they hoped for cod this winter season, they figured they couldn’t afford to just sit by. But that’s exactly what they did. When the season opened, they didn’t go out to fish…and it worked.

Unalaska is in the midst of its largest surge of COVID-19 cases since the start of the pandemic. As of Wednesday, there were 214 active cases on the island, according to the city’s COVID-19 dashboard. One hundred and thirty five are considered community-acquired and 79 are industry-quarantined. Previously, the city had reported its highest number of community cases at 30, during the height of the delta surge this summer.

The Alaska Department of Fish and Game announced earlier this month that all major crab stocks are down. And for the first time in over 25 years, the Bristol Bay red king crab fishery will be closed.

Last Wednesday, school board president Fernando Barrera resigned from Unalaska's school board, leaving a vacancy on the five-person board that some fear…

The city warned Unalaskans Thursday of possible transmission of the coronavirus between seafood industry workers and the larger Unalaska community. "The…

Unalaska's largest fish processing plant reopened Monday after a COVID-19 outbreak forced it to shut down for almost a month. UniSea closed its doors Jan.…

COVID-19 has hit another processing plant operated by fishing giant Trident Seafoods — this time aboard one of the corporation's massive factory trawlers,…

As January comes to a close, Unalaska is rounding up the start of its busy winter fishing season. That's usually a bustling time for local bars and…

A third seafood processing plant has shut down in the Aleutian Islands amid a COVID-19 outbreak, threatening to further derail lucrative winter fisheries…