Theo's Southeast Quiz!

That's right, folks! Just for kicks, let's see how much you know about Southeast Alaska, the Pacific fishing industry, temperate rainforests, Panhandle wildlife and anything else that tickles my fancy! (Sorry, no prizes beyond the feeling of a job well done, and the quiz is about as interactive as a practice SAT -- I don't understand forms and CGI scripts that well yet!)

Answers

1. Petersburg gets an average of 106 inches of rain a year. A lot, but still less than Ketchikan's 120+. And, guidebooks to the contrary, I never heard anyone call it "liquid sunshine." (And though some wear them to the near exclusion of other footwear, locals only call their rain boots "Southeast sneakers" to tease outsiders.)
2. Southeast's five species of salmon are:
   • Chinook, or kings
   • Coho, or silvers
   • Sockeye, or reds
   • Chum, or dogs
   • Pinks, or humpies

   And, for the 500 bonus points (imagine there's a link to a drumroll audio file here): None of them are threatened or endangered in Alaska, last I heard. That's right, none. Canada, now -- that's another story. Various stocks on the Fraser River are in troubly, as are Chinook salmon in Oregon and Washington and coho in parts of the Pacific Northwest. But a 1995 Scientific American article on the world's fishereies noted Alaskan fisheries as some of the few around the world that are in good shape.

Theo Francis
theo@theowire.com