Local News

Scientists have downgraded the alert level for an Aleutian volcano that began showing an increase in signs of eruption and emitting harmful ash late last week. 

According to Dave Schneider, a geophysicist with the Alaska Volcano Observatory, over the last several weeks, satellites and pressure sensor data revealed ramped up activity at Semisopochnoi Volcano, which is located on an uninhabited island in the Rat Islands about 600 miles southwest of Unalaska. 

State health officials have asked Alaska vaccine providers to follow federal recommendations to pause use of the Johnson & Johnson COVID-19 vaccines due to a clotting risk. More than 7 million doses of the Johnson & Johnson vaccine have been administered across the U.S., but a handful of women have gotten a blood clot afterward, prompting the pause.

A fuel ration on the Pribilof Island of St. Paul ended Tuesday after more than a month and a half of limiting fuel for both residents and fishermen.

The Bering Sea community announced the ration in late February after bad weather repeatedly canceled the arrival of a fuel barge. 

The North Pacific Fuel barge finally arrived at the dock on Tuesday, according to City Manager Phil Zavadil. The city had been waiting on its arrival since November of last year. 

A Seattle seafood company has issued an apology to Unalaska, after a number of their crew from one of its vessels currently at port in the island community breached isolation protocols to visit a crowded local bar last weekend. 

Unalaska's City Council voted at a Tuesday meeting not to implement any new health restrictions, despite a recent incident of potential widespread COVID-19 exposure at a local bar.