Success on a weight-loss diet can be predicted by measuring a persons blood sugar and fasting insulin levels, according to a study presented at the American Diabetes Association meeting in San Diego.

Moreover, effective weight loss and control in some can be achieved without restricting calories, as long as the diet is rich in fiber.

The international study examined data from six studies of different diets designed to improve nutrition. It found that those biomarkers consistently predicted losing weight and keeping it off.

The kinds of diets that work depend on whether a patients blood sugar level is higher than normal as in prediabetes, or high enough to indicate diabetes. Results were presented at the American Diabetes diseaseAssociation 77th Scientific Sessions.

Those with type 2 diabetes can lose weight on a diet rich in plant fats, such as those from olive and avocado oil.

A fiber-rich diet without calorie restrictions is successful for many with prediabetes, the study found. Carbohydrate and fat intake should be adjusted according to fasting insulin levels.

Remarkably, for many patients, use of these biomarkers can lead to a six- to seven-fold greater weight loss, study leader Arne Astrup said in a statement. He is head of the Department of Nutrition, Exercise and Sports at the University of Copenhagen, Denmark.

Going forward, we can educate patients when a diet they planned to follow would actually make them gain weight, and redirect them to a strategy that we know will work for them.

The study also included researchers from the University of Colorado, Tufts University, Centro de Investigacion Biomedica en Red de Fisiopatologia de la Obesidad y Nutricion and Gelesis Inc.

The study fits in with other research indicating that weight loss diets need to be matched to an individuals own metabolic profile.

And for the diets to really stick, they cant be temporary, but part of a changed lifestyle that people can embrace without feeling deprived.

Read more here:
For successful weight loss dieting, check blood sugar and insulin - Journal Times

Billy Crook's commercial crabbing boat, Pilot's Bride. He says it's looking like it's going to be a good year for crabbing on the Chesapeake Bay. Selena Simmons-Duffin/NPR hide caption

Billy Crook's commercial crabbing boat, Pilot's Bride. He says it's looking like it's going to be a good year for crabbing on the Chesapeake Bay.

Drive east from Washington and eventually you run smack into the middle of the Chesapeake Bay, the massive estuary that stretches from the mouth of the Susquehanna River at Maryland's northern tip and empties into the Atlantic 200 miles away near Norfolk, Va.

The Chesapeake is home to oysters, clams, and famous Maryland blue crab.

It's the largest estuary in the United States.

And for a long time, it was one of the most polluted.

Decades of runoff from grassy suburban yards and farm fields as far north as New York state, plus sewage and other waste dumped by the hundreds of gallons, made the Chesapeake so dirty that by 1983, the crab population had plummeted to just 2 percent of what Capt. John Smith saw when he explored the bay in the 1600s.

For years, people tried to clean it up. States and the federal government spent millions of dollars. The first effort began in 1983 officially launched by President Ronald Reagan in his 1984 State of the Union Address.

And each time, the cleanup efforts failed. The bay's health wasn't getting much better.

By 2009, when the Chesapeake Bay Foundation sued the Environmental Protection Agency in an attempt to get the EPA to do more to clean up the bay, the Chesapeake's dead zone was so big it often covered a cubic mile in the summer.

Dead zones form when the water becomes too concentrated with nitrogen and phosphorus allowing algal blooms to grow and block out sunlight from reaching beneath the water and causing populations of fish and crabs to plummet.

Then, last summer, scientists recorded no dead zone in the Chesapeake Bay. And wildlife was returning, too. The EPA's new plan seemed to be working.

"When I first heard that spawning sturgeon were back in the bay, my reaction was, 'Yes! We can get this done,'" says Will Baker, the nonprofit Chesapeake Bay Foundation's president. "It's really exciting. You give nature half a chance and she will produce every single time."

Scientists and advocates for the bay say that success is fragile. And it may be even more so now. The Trump administration's budget proposal calls for eliminating the program's $73 million in funding.

"I think if we saw the federal government withdraw, you would see the Chesapeake Bay revert to a national disgrace right as it's becoming a great national source of pride," Baker says. "Things are going in the right direction, but nature can turn on a dime and I don't think it's a scare tactic to say within the next eight years, we could see the last 35 years of effort go down the tubes and start to change direction."

And that could have implications not only for the future of the bay cleanup, but for any other states hoping to clean up some of the country's other most polluted waters from Lake Erie to the Gulf of Mexico.

Eric Young, Matthew Gaskins, and Steve Hinks went out crabbing for fun, and caught five blue crabs on their first run of the day. Gaskins says so far it's shaping up to be a good year for crabbing on the Chesapeake. Selena Simmons-Duffin/NPR hide caption

Eric Young, Matthew Gaskins, and Steve Hinks went out crabbing for fun, and caught five blue crabs on their first run of the day. Gaskins says so far it's shaping up to be a good year for crabbing on the Chesapeake.

Locals like 22-year-old Matt Gaskins say the difference in the bay's health is noticeable.

He's on a boat with two of his friends. A handful of blue crabs click in a bucket resting in the middle of his small boat. Gaskins says he can tell how the bay's doing by how many crabs he's catching. He was out on the South River the day before.

"Everyone pretty much around the whole river has been doing really well," he says. "The rockfish are doing really well this year, and also the crabs are doing really well."

Scientists from the Chesapeake Bay Foundation say that's proof the cleanup efforts are making a difference.

"The trend is for a smaller volume of the dead zone over time, which is really encouraging. For the last two years, they never measured water that had zero oxygen, which is the first time that it had ever happened in the history of collecting data," says Beth McGee, a scientist with the foundation.

Beth McGee, director of science and agricultural policy at the Chesapeake Bay Foundation, rides on a boat in the Chesapeake Bay. The foundation conducts regular tests on the water. Selena Simmons-Duffin/NPR hide caption

Beth McGee, director of science and agricultural policy at the Chesapeake Bay Foundation, rides on a boat in the Chesapeake Bay. The foundation conducts regular tests on the water.

But why is the cleanup finally working now, after all those years of trying?

In 2009, the Chesapeake Bay Foundation sued the EPA, trying to compel the agency to enact a tougher cleanup plan. In the past, a group of six states that make up the Chesapeake Bay watershed Maryland, Virginia, Pennsylvania, West Virginia, Delaware and New York, plus the District of Columbia, had put in place various pollution control plans to limit the fertilizer and sewage they released into the bay.

But without sufficient funding or any real consequences for states that didn't meet benchmarks, things didn't really improve.

The Obama administration needed to change that. To do it, the administration came up with a novel interpretation of the Clean Water Act of 1972, which gives the federal government the power to require that states write a "pollution diet" for any body of water the feds declare polluted. States have to calculate how much of each pollutant a body of water can take on, and then figure out how to hit those numbers.

But actually making the reductions had always been voluntary. Only one in five of these pollution diets had actually been implemented, and the Chesapeake Bay Foundation wanted to ensure states followed through. The Obama administration would use its powers under the Clean Water Act to compel states to take action by withholding funding from states that didn't follow through on implementing their cleanup plans.

Baker says that's part of the challenge cleaning up the Chesapeake requires cooperation not just from the places that have the bay in their backyards but also from states in the whole watershed whose rivers and streams feed into the bay.

"The critical role of the EPA has been to be the glue that holds the six states and the District of Columbia together working in concert to save the Chesapeake Bay system," Baker says.

How do you convince states without that tangible tie to make sacrifices for a bay they don't even border?

"The Chesapeake Bay is a system of six states, 64,000 square miles," Baker says. "And when you work in Pennsylvania for clean water in the Chesapeake Bay, you're really working for clean water in Pennsylvania."

The EPA's plan was controversial from the start. The American Farm Bureau Federation sued over it. As attorney general of Oklahoma, Scott Pruitt signed an amicus brief supporting the Farm Bureau's position. He's now running the EPA the agency that is tasked with administering it.

The Supreme Court declined to take up the case letting a lower court's ruling stand that upheld the program.

Chip Bowling's farm sits on banks of the Wicomico River in southern Maryland. The Wicomico flows into the Potomac River, which flows into the Chesapeake Bay.

He farms 1,600 acres of corn, soybeans and wheat on land that's been in his family for seven generations.

Chip Bowling is a Maryland farmer and chairman of the National Corn Growers Association. He farms on land that's been in his family for seven generations. Selena Simmons-Duffin/NPR hide caption

Chip Bowling is a Maryland farmer and chairman of the National Corn Growers Association. He farms on land that's been in his family for seven generations.

"When we got our work done, we literally would jump out of our work clothes and put a pair of shorts on and T-shirt, and run down here, and either swim, fish, get on the boat," he says.

He's been doing that more than 50 years.

"If you walked at the end of this pier when I was a kid, you'd see aquatic grass growing," Bowling says. "You actually had a hard time walking through it because the grass was so lush underwater."

That lush grass provided a habitat for crabs and fish. Now, it's beginning to return.

Agriculture was a big focus of the cleanup plan. As chairman of the National Corn Growers Association, Bowling and his organization joined the lawsuit. In Maryland, for example, the state imposed regulations as part of the cleanup that required farmers to write pollution diets for their farms.

Bowling's farm in Southern Maryland is on the banks of the Wicomico River, which eventually flows in to the Chesapeake Bay. Sam Gringlas/NPR hide caption

Bowling's farm in Southern Maryland is on the banks of the Wicomico River, which eventually flows in to the Chesapeake Bay.

The federal government provided money to help, like funds for planting buffer strips between cropland and waterways that feed into the bay. States wrote their own plans to meet federal benchmarks and the federal government could withhold funding from states that didn't comply.

That upset farmers, who felt the EPA was going too far.

But Bowling has come around.

"Nobody likes rules," he says. "Nobody really likes regulations. But you also know that you have to have both."

What changed? The plan appeared to be working.

Bowling, who once joined a lawsuit to rule the program unconstitutional, is fighting for the program's survival.

"It was a struggle to get there," he says. "I was critical in the beginning. What we do know now is that working together, we have figured out a way with funding to get those programs in place and to get the bay on track."

But the big part of that, at least for Bowling, is funding. And the Trump administration has proposed cutting it entirely from the federal budget from $73 million to zero.

Billy Crook has crabbing been on the Chesapeake Bay for 41 years. He says a healthy bay can have a positive impact on his family's finances. Selena Simmons-Duffin/NPR hide caption

Billy Crook has crabbing been on the Chesapeake Bay for 41 years. He says a healthy bay can have a positive impact on his family's finances.

For Billy Crook, a commercial crabber who makes runs on the Chesapeake, a healthy bay can have a big impact on his family.

"I got a bunch of little kids. I had a good year last year, so they got a trip to Disney World," he says.

But that doesn't mean he gives the EPA credit.

"The EPA they do some good, but mostly, they do a lot of talk," he says, leaning over the side of his boat. "They always talk about putting money in the bay. We never see the physical evidence of them doing much."

Bowling may support the Chesapeake Bay's cleanup program, but that doesn't mean he's clamoring for a similar program elsewhere such as in the Mississippi River watershed. Runoff into the rivers and streams there feed the Gulf of Mexico's dead zone predicted this year to cover an area the size of New Jersey.

"I can guarantee you, they're not going to ask for one like the Chesapeake Bay," Bowling says. "Hopefully we won't have a mandate nationwide. In my opinion, knowing what we're doing, I think that voluntary is a great way to start. The mandate made us do it, but I can guarantee you we would still change the way we farm."

Lauren Lurkins, director of natural and environmental resources for the Illinois Farm Bureau, says farmers in her state have increasingly prioritized water cleanup over the last few years, but that a Chesapeake-like program would be a step too far for states bordering the Mississippi River.

"It's a huge land mass that is covered and it gets really complicated and it makes for a bigger effort that is pushed down from the federal government," Lurkins says. "(Illinois farmers) don't have the ability to help shape or start to engage in a plan that covers 31 states or even half of that. It's just something that's brought down on top of them."

Even EPA officials under the Obama administration and the Chesapeake Bay Foundation have refrained from touting the bay cleanup as a program ready for adoption elsewhere.

The beach at the Chesapeake Bay Foundation headquarters in Annapolis, Md. "You give nature half a chance and she will produce every single time," says Will Baker, the nonprofit's president. Selena Simmons-Duffin/NPR hide caption

The beach at the Chesapeake Bay Foundation headquarters in Annapolis, Md. "You give nature half a chance and she will produce every single time," says Will Baker, the nonprofit's president.

"We're not talking about cleaning up the waters of the world. We're talking about one iconic national treasure. If others can use the protocols that have been put in place here so successfully, go for it," Baker says.

Sen. Ben Cardin, a Maryland Democrat who's been advocating for the Chesapeake cleanup for decades, is more confident the plan can be employed in other places. Even so, he acknowledges adopting the plan elsewhere won't likely happen in the near future.

"I think this model will expand and be used in other parts of the country," he told NPR. "There's no question that if we had a different administration that put a higher priority on the environment, that it would be more aggressive in using this type of model in other places in the country."

During his confirmation hearing, Pruitt told Cardin he promised to preserve the program. The EPA did not respond to a request from NPR for an interview.

But Cardin says he's optimistic about the Chesapeake cleanup's future. White House budgets are just proposals and almost every federal program has an advocate somewhere in Congress.

"I've talked to my Democratic and Republican colleagues and they're very supportive of the federal role in the Chesapeake Bay program," he says. "It's in everyone's interest to preserve this unique body of water. It's not of one state or one region, but a national treasure."

Bowling is also confident the funding won't disappear.

"We think that when the new administration figures out what they're going to cut and how they're going to cut it, that there's still going to be funding left for programs like environmental cleanup," Bowing says. "I can guarantee you we're doing something in D.C. today to make sure that we pass on to the administration and Administrator Pruitt what we're doing works and we need funding to get there. I don't think they're going to allow something that's come so far to go away."

But funding for new programs? That will be a tough sell.

A couple of years ago, environmentalists outside the watershed may have looked eagerly to the Chesapeake Bay as a model cleanup they could adopt in their own backyards.

But now there's an even more basic worry whether the model plan itself will continue.

Selena Simmons-Duffin produced and Jolie Myers edited this radio story.

See the original post here:
Chesapeake Bay Dead Zones Are Fading, But Proposed EPA Cuts Threaten Success - NPR

June 28, 2017 Credit: Martha Sexton/public domain

Mildly stressing muscle metabolism boosts levels of a beneficial hormone that prevents obesity and diabetes in mice, according to a new study by researchers at the University of Iowa.

The new findings, published in the EMBO Journal, show that triggering a certain type of metabolic stress in mouse muscle cells causes them to produce and secrete significant amounts of the anti-diabetic hormone called fibroblast growth factor-21 (FGF21), which then has widespread beneficial effects on whole-body metabolism. The mice in the experiments were completely protected from obesity and diabetes that normally develop due to aging or eating a high-fat diet. Moreover, triggering the FGF21 production after the mice had become obese and diabetic reversed these conditions and returned the mice to normal weight and blood sugar levels.

"There is a biological phenomenon known as hormesis where a little bit of stress a can be a good thing," says E. Dale Abel, MD, PhD, professor and DEO of internal medicine at the UI Carver College of Medicine and director of the Fraternal Order of Eagles Diabetes Research Center at the UI. "The general conclusion from our study is there is probably a sweet spot 'hormetically,' where creating a little bit of muscle stress could be of metabolic benefit."

Abel and his colleagues used genetic engineering to reduce levels of a mitochondrial protein called OPA1 in the muscles of mice. Mitochondria are tiny organelles that produce a cell's energy. This OPA1 deficiency disrupted muscle metabolism and caused a small amount of muscle loss in the mice.

Despite the mild muscle atrophy, which did decrease grip strength, the older mice with OPA1 deficiency had greater endurance on the treadmill than older control mice. In addition, activity levels and energy expenditure that normally decline in mice as they age were preserved in OPA1 deficient mice.

Interestingly, the altered mice also were completely protected from the weight gain and glucose intolerance that normally develop in mice as they age or when they eat a high-fat diet. Moreover, the research team showed that reducing OPA1 levels in muscle, after mice had become obese and diabetic, reversed these problems - normalizing body weight and reversing glucose intolerance even though the high fat diet continued.

The team showed that these metabolic improvements correlated with increased levels of circulating FGF21, a hormone that has been shown to increase energy expenditure and insulin sensitivity. Abel and his team were able to prove that muscle was the source of the FGF21 by creating a mouse that had the OPA1 deficiency and also was missing the FGF21 gene in muscle. These mice were no longer able to produce FGF21 in muscle in response to OPA1 deficiency, and, just like control mice, they became obese and developed diabetes.

"These experiments prove that muscle is the source of circulating FGF21 in the OPA1 deficient mice, and that muscle-derived FGF21 prevents diet-induced obesity and insulin resistance in these mice," Abel says. "If there is a way that muscle could be reprogrammed to make this hormone, then that could be of therapeutic benefit."

Further investigation demonstrated that the small degree of mitochondrial stress induced in muscle by the reduction of OPA1 is sufficient to activate another cellular stress response pathway called endoplasmic reticulum (ER) stress, which then dramatically increases FGF21 levels.

"The follow up work on this will be understanding how a little bit of mitochondrial stress can actually increase the ER stress response and if we can mimic that safely," Abel says. "There are agents that have been used to activate ER stress pathways. So, I think the opportunity here would be to find ways to turn on this pathway in a very controlled way to get enough of this subsequent FGF21 response in muscle to be of benefit."

Returning to the idea of a "sweet spot" for this stress-induced production of FGF21, Abel notes that other researchers have shown that complete loss of OPA1 pushed the pathway too far and resulted in fatal muscle atrophy in mice.

"Like everything else, this effect can be a two-edged sword, and too much of a good thing can be bad," he says "For this to be therapeutically useful, we want to be able to create the effect to the point where we get the benefit but not to overdo it."

Explore further: Life-extending hormone bolsters the body's immune function

More information: Renata Oliveira Pereira et al, OPA1 deficiency promotes secretion of FGF21 from muscle that prevents obesity and insulin resistance, The EMBO Journal (2017). DOI: 10.15252/embj.201696179

Journal reference: EMBO Journal

Provided by: University of Iowa

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Tweaking muscle metabolism prevents obesity and diabetes in mice - Medical Xpress

Highs and lows, he had them like a barometer.

One of the more adrenaline-charged experiences for Karl Kruger on his two-week, 750-mile stand-up paddleboard journey from Washington to Alaska, which ended Sunday, came on Johnstone Strait, on the inside of Vancouver Island, when an almost-unheard-of-in-those-parts windstorm from the south propelled him like a northward-spit olive pit.

He didnt want to spend many hours paddling up the long strait against the typical northwest headwinds, so he risked the forecast storm on his 19-foot, custom-built carbon-fiber board, estimating his tailwind at 50 knots at the storms peak. Saltwater spray hurled through the air around him.

I went out in a gale warning and cleared 50 miles I surfed Johnstone Strait! says Kruger, of Orcas Island, the first SUPer to complete the Race to Alaska, now in its third year pitting non-motorized craft in a race from Port Townsend to Ketchikan, Alaska.

Some of his best moments came during a peaceful and magical passage the previous night through Seymour Narrows, an often-busy, current-blasted shipping lane.

I went through at night and it was just beautiful. It was the most soulful experience. To get to be there alone was a miracle. I timed it perfectly and went through at slack water. It was very calm, not a breath of wind, I could hear the birds in the trees, and the bioluminescence was just streaming off my paddles it was like riding a comet through the sky, recalls Kruger.

He trained for his journey like an Olympian. He camped at rest stops in modern, ultralight gear; kept to a highly disciplined, scientific diet heavy with gels and protein shakes from one of his sponsors, Hammer Nutrition, a supplier of energy foods for extreme athletes. He plotted his route using navigation maps on an iPad stored safely in a dry bag and a watch with barometer and compass functions, finding his way around landmarks with names such as Cape Caution.

On his longest day Kruger paddled 72 miles. He routinely paddled 10-to-16-hour days, averaging 50 miles per day.

Ive been training like a mad dog for the last couple years prepping for this race, and he followed his personal trainers strict warm-up and cool-down routine so physical exhaustion wasnt a big challenge, he says, though there were several days it was a real boxing match against strong currents.

One day, he recalls, the wind and current around Dundas Island, B.C., required him to paddle on his right side for hours on end. The seascape was stacked up and lumpy and I had knots and cramps around my right shoulder that were just brutal it was a street fight.

Still, This race is more a mental challenge than a physical challenge, Kruger said Wednesday, his first day home, in a phone conversation from his liveaboard sailboat at Deer Harbor, where he and his wife, Jessica, run a sailing charter business.

Its like youre running a marathon every day for two weeks. There were days when every single stroke was a barrier. Everything in my body said no, no, no; stop, stop stop.

By the rules of the race, Kruger had no chase boat and no support crew, nor could food caches be placed along the route. Except for a few brief forays into towns along the way including a couple hamburger stops he was alone most of the trip, and sometimes cold. I never built a fire at my shore camps; everything around this race was built around shortening up the time of my busy work at night. I wanted to maximize my time on the water. I didnt have a lot of time.

He was alone, that is, except for an amazing variety of wildlife.

Once I passed Seymour Narrows, I saw whales every single day. I paddled along with a humpback whale for maybe 10 miles through Johnstone Strait, maybe 30 or 40 feet away at times; we just happened to be going the same way. Other wildlife included sea otters, seals, sea lions, bears, orca whales and tons of eagles.

Before the race, he had predicted his paddling time at two weeks. It ended up two weeks, six hours and 17 minutes before he stepped on to the dock at Ketchikan, rang the finish-line bell and greeted Jessica and their 9-year-old daughter, Dagney.

There was no prize for him. The $10,000 first-place winners, three brothers from Massachusetts on a 27-foot sailing trimaran, had arrived June 15, 10 days ahead of Kruger, out of 57 vessels that started the race. Kruger didnt even get the pretty good set of steak knives that are second prize.

But he says he didnt do it for money. His sponsorships only helped defray his gear costs, and he knew he wouldnt win.

The reason I did it: Ive always been most attracted to outdoors activities, Ive never been into ball sports played by teams, says Kruger, who turned 45 during his paddle. All my life Ive been into skiing and paddling and climbing. Ive always been after the rawest and most unfiltered form of those activities, and doing this by SUP is about the most unfiltered way of traveling this coast I can think of.

Back on his sailboat, he was nursing a problem with his lower legs. The first day out, which was bright and sunny, he got a bad sunburn on his calves, exposed by his 3/4-length compression tights. I was so focused on the race, the first day or two I roasted them in the sun, which caused blistering, later rubbed raw by longer tights he wore as the weather got colder.

I think I got a little infection, Kruger says. I probably need to see the doctor in the next day or two.

Originally posted here:
SUPer-man: Orcas Island's Karl Kruger talks about his amazing stand-up paddle race to Alaska - Seattle Times

The new lighthouse keepers at Five Finger Light keep watch over Frederick Sound. Photo Nora Saks.

For the last twenty years, the non-profit Juneau Lighthouse Association has worked hard to preserve one of Alaskas first lighthouses, Five Finger Light. With a tighter budget and cutbacks this year, the organization needed a special kind of family to look after this remote landmark. And they found them.

KFSK reporter Nora Saks visited the lighthouse in mid-June and got to spend some time exploring with the new lighthouse keepers.

Thats John Gans on the radio checking in from his post at the lighthouse.

Hes helping the captain of The Pelican land safely on the island after a choppy two hour ride over from Petersburg. The boat has precious cargo a months worth of groceries, and a close family friend.

It was calmer when you called, and then it got windier and now its come down some. Its weather, what can I tell you, said Gans.

Luckily for The Pelican, hes a pro. Really. A former ships pilot, he has years of practice guiding huge vessels into crowded ports.

The boat idles up to a jumble of slippery rocks and a skinny ladder and everyone jumps ashore, clutching boxes of Diet Coke, new brooms, suitcases, anything within reach. The supplies and visitors are a welcome delivery for John and his family, who have been there since mid-may.

Were just volunteers, the three of us my wife Pat, Ismael, and myself, Gans said.

While lots of lighthouses are isolated this one is truly remote, even by Alaskan standards. To get a sense of just what that means, Pat Gans leads us up several stories of spiral stairs to the top of the art deco light tower.

Ok, here we are, she said. So this is the heart of the light, and this is the light.

Pat Gans stands next to the automated, solar powered beacon at Five Finger Light. Photo Nora Saks.

The beacon, now solar powered, gently hums and spins inside the cupola as she explains how the spot got its name.

Its called Five Finger Islands because the sailors said that from the water, a hand with five fingers would reach up and grab the ships and pull them under. So it has this history of being a treacherous area, said Gans.

This section of the Inside Passage became a graveyard of maritime disasters for those chasing their fortune in gold and fish in the late 1890s. A navigational aid in Frederick Sound was badly needed.

These are the four fingers, these little islands that we see dotting off to the north, and we are the thumb, said Gans. So we are the only island that is really high enough and accessible enough to put a lighthouse on.

This one was built in 1902 one of the first manned stations in the state, and the last to be unmanned in 1984.

Accessible is a subjective term. This tiny island is 65 miles from Juneau and 40 miles north of Petersburg. And they dont have a boat. Spending five months straight here would be an intimidating gig for a lot of folks.

But Gans and her family seem right at home here on this shaggy outcropping. Its more space than theyre used to.

Its not hard for us because we actually still live part of our year on a sailboat down in the South Pacific, said Gans. So were used to being completely self-sufficient, where theres nobody to come rescue us.

With her husbands background in the maritime industry, and hers as a medical doctor, they know how to stay safe while living on natures edge.

That kind of do-it-yourself attitude is crucial this season. The Juneau Lighthouse Association, the non-profit that owns and preserves the historic landmark, is not running its own resupply vessel due to financial constraints.

They keepers have had challenges getting restocked, but Gans doesnt dwell. She says the generosity of passing tour operators, helpers in town, and the Coast Guard has been heart warming.

Everybody checks in with us on the radio, they come by just to say hi, they ask if we need supplies, people have brought out groceries for us. We really are living in great style out here, Gans said.

And, they know how to stay busy. Keeping up an 82 year old lighthouse ends up being a lot of work if you let it.

The rock foundation under Five Finger Light, with old Coast Guard crew graffiti. Photo Nora Saks.

Inside the cement lighthouse station, rebuilt after the original wood structure burned down in the 1930s, its cozy and clean. John Gans says the fresh walls and refinished bathroom are just routine maintenance but they look suspiciously like improvements.

We do chipping and painting and picking up old and rusty things and organizing them. And trying to make the lighthouse look the best we can make it look with what we have to work with, he said.

Their son, 18 year-old Ismael Castillejos Velasquez, is an important member of their team. Velasquez is deaf, and originally from a rural village in Mexico.

The couple met him on a sailing trip down south, and hes been living with them on and off for the last three years. One of his jobs is to take daily measurements of their rain-fed water tanks to make sure they dont run out, part of his homeschooling on the island.

Velasquez is fluent in sign language now, and plans to go to college. Pat Gans says that after growing up with virtually no language, hes gradually learning to hear.

The thing we hear the most from Ismael is first time! First time! First time to see this. First time to be here. First time to experience this! said Gans. That brings the freshness back to us as well.

And when its time to take a break from their Sisyphean tasks, there is a remarkable amount to wonder at.

The keepers explores the island and its miniature rainforest as a living classroom identifying all the edible berries, checking in on the bald eagle nest, and, hanging out with whales of course.

Hundreds of humpbacks visit here each summer, and for decades, the lighthouse has been a major platform for whale research.

This is my favorite place to be with the whales, said Pat Gans.

Her preferred perch is the ugliest spot on the island an old rusty crane dock made of broken concrete very close to the water.

I can sit right here, said Gans. I can lean back against this and its deep right there. So the whales come like right there. It drops off and they come right there.

It was a whale researcher who was here two years ago that mentioned this opportunity to the Gans family. She thought they might need Five Finger, and that it definitely needed them.

They plan on staying into October. Long enough to really see the light change, and long enough to welcome more visitors to this far-off place.

Pat and John Gans (l and r), with their son Ismael Velasquez (c), send off The Pelican. Photo Nora Saks.

Original post:
Family relies on volunteers and survival skills at remote lighthouse watch - KFSK