<figure class="wp-block-image aligncenter size-full"><figcaption class="wp-element-caption">The Cable Innovator in Salisbury Sound in September, 2024. Tracking the ship’s progress from Victoria, B.C., to Sitka was a favorite pastime for those who found a way to get online during Sitka’s 16-day internet outage in August-September. (USFS/Joe Serio)</figcaption></figure>

2024 was an especially challenging year for Sitka. The community coped with tragedies, school layoffs, a low salmon harvest, and no internet for 16 days. But somehow Sitka came together and pulled through. Call it resiliency – or muscle memory – but when things are difficult, Sitkans manage to find their way home.

Here’s a look back at 2024 from the KCAW news team. Listen here:

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Look back at some of the stories featured in our year-ender conversation:

A major headache for some, Sitka’s internet outage is a ‘snow day’ for the overconnected

<figure class="wp-block-image aligncenter size-full is-resized"><figcaption class="wp-element-caption">Mental health counselor Melissa Marconi-Wentzel expected most Sitkans to be stressed by the prolonged internet outage. That wasn’t the case, however. Many, she found, were relieved — like a “snow day” in school. </figcaption></figure>

Students stage walkout, call for more school funding

<figure class="wp-block-image aligncenter size-full is-resized"><figcaption class="wp-element-caption">Students around the state walked out of class in April, calling for the legislature to take action on a proposal to increase school funding. In Sitka, students at Mt. Edgecumbe High School and Sitka High School took to the parking lots to protest the governor’s veto of a bill that would have boosted state funding for public schools for the first time in eight years.
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Teachers reflect on layoffs and landscape of uncertainty

<figure class="wp-block-image aligncenter size-full is-resized"><figcaption class="wp-element-caption">Sitka teachers are used to the cycle of worry that comes with budget season but when the district had to cut 16 positions this spring, the stakes felt different. </figcaption></figure>

Xóots Elementary tops list of choices for Baranof school name change

<figure class="wp-block-image aligncenter size-full is-resized"><figcaption class="wp-element-caption">The road to renaming the formerly named Baranof Elementary School has been rough in places, but this year the community finally landed on a name– Xóots, the Lingít word for “brown bear.”

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Wild Fish Conservancy seeks endangered species protection for Alaskan king salmon
New study of salmon abundance prompts a rethink of endangered killer whale decline

<figure class="wp-block-image aligncenter size-full is-resized"><figcaption class="wp-element-caption">In January A Washington state-based conservation organization asked the federal government to list king salmon in Southeast and Southcentral Alaska under the protection of the ESA, which would effectively shut down the troll fishery. It’s part of a larger legal effort the organization is taking to protect an endangered population of killer whales in Puget Sound.  But recent research has shown that the killer whales may have abundant food in summertime, and something else could be responsible for their decline.</figcaption></figure>

Phantom Fish: The return of Japan’s vanished herring industry

<figure class="wp-block-image aligncenter size-full is-resized"><figcaption class="wp-element-caption">Japan has long been the primary market for Sitka’s commercial herring fishery. But that market is changing. New regulations and evolving tastes have led to a