It was less than 17 hours until the start of Alaska’s lucrative Bering Sea crab season, and Oystein Lone was standing on a dock in the city of Unalaska, preparing to embark in rough conditions.
asserted
Lone → stand → conditions
The problem wasn’t the next day’s forecast of 60mph gusts, which would kick up white-capped swells and make crabbing, already one of the most dangerous jobs in the United States, even more hazardous.
asserted
crabbing → kick → States
Nor was it the question of whether there’d be enough red king, tanner and snow crabs to go around – state regulators had, in fact, announced higher quotas for the season.
asserted
regulators → go → season
What was bothering Lone, as the sun sank lower in the sky that Wednesday evening, was the question of how to make the numbers work when diesel cost more than ever, thanks to the war with Iran.
asserted
diesel → bother → Iran
“This is the most challenging time I’ve seen,” said Lone, who has been fishing since 1989.
asserted
who → see → 1989
He had already spent $86,000 to put 12,000 gallons of the fuel in one of his two boats, but the price had climbed higher since then, and if he wanted to fill up again, he expected to spend $100,000.
asserted
he → spend → 100,000
Located further west than the Hawaiian islands, Unalaska is closer to Beijing, Tokyo and Seoul than Washington DC.
asserted
Unalaska → locate → DC
Most visitors arrive on flights from Anchorage, which cost at least $1,600 round trip and are prone to cancellation, due to the region’s unpredictable storms and fog.
asserted
which → arrive → storms
It has been the country’s most productive seafood port by volume for more than two and a half decades, and when its crab and pollock seasons are open, thousands of deckhands and processors arrive from elsewhere to work tough but well-paying jobs on boats offshore and in seafood plants crowded in the city.
asserted
thousands → arrive → city
Even here, the impacts of Donald Trump’s efforts to remake the US government in his image can be felt.
asserted
impacts → remake → image
Since Trump returned to the White House, the library, museum, public radio station and local government have had funding they relied on disrupted or canceled altogether.
asserted
they → return → House
Longshoremen have been tasked with loading empty containers on to ships to avoid tariffs.
asserted
Longshoremen → task → tariffs
And the soaring price for diesel has squeezed not just the seafood industry, but all of the nearly 4,300 residents of the city, who rely on the fuel for electricity.
asserted
who → soar → electricity
“This whole town runs on diesel,” said Daneen Looby, a longtime Unalaska resident who sits on the city council and owns the Norwegian Rat Saloon.
asserted
who → run → Saloon
With distributors upping the fuel surcharges she pays for food and alcohol shipments, Looby is thinking of raising her menu prices.
asserted
Looby → up → prices
“I didn’t want to, but I kind of have to, otherwise I’m going to become a charity.”
asserted
I → want → ?
The midterm elections are on Tuesday, and Alaska is set to play a major role in determining if the president’s Democratic foes regain control of Congress.
asserted
foes → set → Congress
Alaska resoundingly backed Trump in the 2024 election, as did a majority of Unalaska voters, but Democrats believe the president’s plunging public approval ratings together with rising fuel prices have put its two-term Republican senator, Dan Sullivan, at risk of losing re-election to their nominee Mary Peltola, even as scandals rock her campaign.
asserted
scandals → back → campaign
Candidates only occasionally make the trip to Unalaska, and there are just a handful of campaign signs up around town, but outrage over the direction the country has taken since Trump returned to office is prevalent.
asserted
Trump → make → office
“I feel like we have a rogue government right now, and I don’t feel like the Republicans are doing their job,” Looby said.
asserted
Looby → feel → job
“I don’t understand why Congress isn’t getting more involved.”
asserted
Congress → understand → ?
‘In furtherance of the president’s agenda’
The name Unalaska derives from a word in the language of the Unangax̂ people who have lived on the island for thousands of years, and roughly translates to “near the mainland” for its proximity to Alaska’s southwestern peninsula.
asserted
who → derive → peninsula
Russian fur traders arrived in the middle of the 18th century, and eventually established a colony that came under American control when Washington purchased the Alaska territory in 1867.
asserted
Washington → arrive → 1867
As the second world war approached, the US military built bases on the large, mountainous island of Unalaska and the smaller Amaknak island next to it, which were connected by a single bridge in the 1970s.
asserted
which → approach → 1970s
In June 1942, Japan staged back-to-back air raids that killed dozens, and there are still concrete pillboxes and bunkers strewn all over town and on the tops of its treeless, windswept hills.
asserted
that → stag → hills
In 2023, the most recent year for which data is available, more than 780m pounds of catch valued at nearly $225m came through its port, Dutch Harbor, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.
uncertain
pounds → value → Oceanic
and if you’ve eaten fish sticks, imitation crab or a Filet-O-Fish sandwich at a McDonald’s in Asia or the United States, its ingredients may well have been processed on Unalaska.
uncertain
ingredients → eat → Unalaska
The different species of crab found in the Bering Sea are also offloaded here, and the travails of that work are documented every year by camera crews who embark from Dutch Harbor to film the reality series Deadliest Catch.
asserted
who → find → series
As soon as he took office in 2025, Trump began signing executive orders billed as rooting out waste from the federal government, together with the efforts of Elon Musk’s now-shuttered “department of government efficiency”.
asserted
Trump → take → efficiency
Democrats and good governance groups said the campaign undermined important functions of government, and were of dubious legality.
asserted
campaign → say → legality
One of Trump’s orders, signed in March 2025, attempted to dismantle a slew of federal agencies, including the Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS).
asserted
One → sign → Museum
The little known office is the source of a yearly grant that Unalaska’s public library receives to buy books, and librarian Karen Kresh expected $6,000 last year, only to be told the money would not be coming.
asserted
money → know → 6,000
“It had been stable and been reliable for years and years, and that was sort of a surprise to see that instability come up with that grant,” she said.
asserted
she → see → grant
When Trump arrived in office, its staff was at work cataloging a large collection of artifacts dating back to the Russians’ first contact with the Unangax̂, funded by more than $347,000 in grant money from the National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH).
asserted
staff → arrive → Humanities
At the beginning of April, the museum’s executive director, Virginia Hatfield, received a message saying the grant was being canceled because it “no longer effectuates the agency’s needs and priorities”, and that the funds would be reallocated “in a new direction in furtherance of the president’s agenda”.
asserted
funds → receive → agenda
The cut put the project on hold, and Hatfield was forced to lay off six people.
asserted
Hatfield → put → people
“It’s very heartbreaking, and it kind of truncated important work,” she said.
asserted
she → ’ → work
Weeks later, Republicans in Congress approved legislation ending funding for public media outlets, which they have long accused of broadcasting news with a liberal bias.
asserted
they → approve → bias
The decision had significant implications for Alaska, the largest state in the country which is full of small, remote communities – like Unalaska – unreachable by road, and where cellphone service can be unreliable.
asserted
service → have → road
That makes radio the best way to get word out when an emergency strikes, and the same day the Senate began debating whether to cut funding, the island’s public broadcaster KUCB was putting out warning of a potential tsunami.
asserted
broadcaster → make → tsunami
…and 54 more, not listed.
The Aporia
