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    A second conspirator in the Trident Seafoods embezzlement case has been sentenced to prison. Thirty-one-year-old Anne Wilson of Kent, Washington, was sentenced yesterday (Thursday) by Chief District Court Judge Ralph Beistline to 16-months in prison. According the U.S. Attorney’s office, Wilson helped embezzle $289,660 from Trident.
    Co-defendant Jamie Fathke was sentenced in January to four months in jail for her role in embezzling $30,000 from the seafood company.
    Three others await sentencing, including ringleader Isairis Wolfe. She was a bookkeeper for Trident Seafoods in Kodiak, and from January 2008 to August 2010 she wrote a half-million dollars in checks to four friends and one minor. After cashing them, they would split the proceeds with Wolfe.
    Wolfe is schedule for sentencing on May 22nd, while Valerie Olivares and Jeremy Smith are schedule for sentencing on June 4th.

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    After a few days of failed attempts to scare the animal out of public areas, the Kodiak lone bear roaming around town was deemed a public safety threat and euthanized Thursday morning. Larry Van Daele is a wildlife biologist for the Alaska Department of Fish and Game and said the decision to euthanize came from the Kodiak Police Department, Alaska Wildlife Troopers and Fish and Game after days of monitoring the bear’s activity.
    Starting at 7:50 a.m., Police Chief T.C. Kamai said reports of the bear came flooding in as the bear moved about areas of town.
    At one point this morning the bear was lingering on Main Elementary School’s playground, forcing indoor morning recess for students. While walking to school, another student encountered the bear in the wooded area near the Baranof Park ice rink. Kamai said no one was hurt by the bear, but the animal kept showing up in busy areas and was surprisingly difficult to track. He said the bears are definitely starting to wake up, but hopefully this will be the first and only time a bear has to be killed.
    In general, Van Daele said the times when a bear must be killed are fairly rare, and is only used as a last resort when a bear can't be trained to leave an area.
    Kamai said part of ensuring this doesn’t happen again is making sure the community is being bear aware. He said now is the time to start being extra careful with garbage and waste, and really keeping in mind that even within city limits residents are still in bear country.

Coming up this week: the final Halibut GHL is still a little up in the air even as fishermen prepare for the season opening, a floating processor’s crew is stranded and homeless in Kodiak after their ship runs aground, and a smart phone tour of Alaska’s busiest fishing port. We had help this week from KCAW’s Ed Ronco in Sitka, This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it Brianna Gibbs in Kodiak, KDLG’s Mike Mason in Dillingham and KFSK’s Matt Lichtenstein in Petersburg.

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    The 2013 halibut season begins at noon on Saturday, about a week later than usual. NOAA Fisheries announced this week that it is putting into place the recommendations of the International Pacific Halibut Commission for the season. Julie Speegle is the NOAA Fisheries spokeswoman for Alaska. She said in Area 2C is in Southeast Alaska, a “reverse slot-limit” will be implemented there, which means that guided fishermen can keep halibut 45-inches and smaller or 68-inches or longer. Unguided fishermen can keep two fish of any size per day.
    Speegle says the commercial guideline harvest level as described in NOAA’s Final Rule for 2013 is being recalculated. The initial GHL for Southeast Area 2C was up 13-percent over last year to 2.97-million pounds, while the Gulf of Alaska Area 3A was to have seen a seven-and-a-half-percent decrease to 11-million pounds. Speegle says the recalculation will change those figures.
    The NOAA Fisheries announcement noted the catch-sharing plan for Areas 2C and 3A is still being developed and will not go into effect this year. It is expected to be in place for 2014, however.
    Speegle added that the initial season of observer coverage in the fishery, paid for by NOAA, will not be affected by the cuts brought on by the federal budget sequester.