This week, we go down to the bottom. We’ll dive to some sunken ships in Southeast, check out the controversy at the bottom of an open-pit mine and meet a woman whose homemade hula hoops make for one heck of a booty bump. Plus, who owns the bottom of the ocean — do you know? And rescuing horses in the Mat-Su valley — before they bottom out.
All that and more on AK, from APRN stations statewide, starting today.
Diving to the Bottom
The Juneau Artificial Reef Society started Alaska’s first planned artificial reef in 2003. Four years later, AK’s Scott Burton tagged along when Dave Streeter and Annette Smith dove down to check it out.
Golfing in the Bering Sea
In this poem, Mike Burwell recalls a diving expedition on “The Big Valley” with Gary Edwards. The ship later sank on January 15, 2005 and Edwards was never found.
Chronicling Wrecks
Mike Burwell works for the Minerals Management Service, and maintains a database of more than 4,000 records of shipwrecks off the Alaska coast. He speaks with host Rebecca Sheir.
- Break: “Bell Bottom Blues” performed by Pickin’ On Series from Pickin’ On Eric Clapton, Vol. 2: Pick Yourself Up from the Ground – A Bluegrass Tribute
Pebble Mine
Northern Dynasty and Anglo American’s proposed Pebble Mine would be the world’s second-largest open-pit mine. As Anne Hillman tells us, at the bottom of the mine is gold, copper, molybdenum… and a heap of controversy.
300 Villages
Diomede
Aniak
Top of the Food Chain
Across Alaska, hunters are stocking their freezers for winter. In this essay, Anchorage writer Adrienne Lindholm talks about her first time hunting.
- Music Button: “The Hunt” by Louis XIV from Louis XIV
Bottom of the Barrel
The spike in horse-cruelty cases in the Matanuska Valley has caused many equines to hit the bottom of the barrel. Lucky for them, the Mat-Su Borough Animal Shelter and Alaska Equine Rescue are here to help. AK’s Ellen Lockyer has the story.
- Break: “Wild Horses” performed by Pickin’ On Series from Pickin’ On the Rolling Stones
Bottom of a Mystery
For decades, scientists have struggled to get to the bottom of a mystery on St. Paul Island. Starting in the 1950s, the fur seal population began a slow decline — one that continued even after commercial seal harvesting was banned in the 1980s. APRN’s Annie Feidt visited the island to find out more.
- Music Button: “We’re Gonna Make It” by Devotchka from Little Miss Sunshine Original Soundtrack
Cave Man
For some, climbing to the bottom of a cave is an out-of-this-world – or, under-this-world? – experience. In Alaska, just one natural cavern is regularly open to the public: El Capitan Cave, in northern Prince of Wales Island. CoastAlaska’s Ed Schoenfeld climbed down to bring us this story.
- Calendar of Events (“Fat Bottomed Girls” from A Guitar Tribute to Queen)
Around the Bottom in Homer
Though the hula hoopla subsided in the 1960s, 40 years later “hooping” is hot again. A pioneer of the Alaska hooping movement is Kammi Matson. Rebecca Sheir went to Homer to check out Cosmic Hoops, Mattson’s hoop-making and hoop-teaching business.
- Closing: “You Sexy Thing” from Karaoke Ladies Only – The R&B Collection, Part 2
