SITKA — A number of Japanese- manufactured buoys turned up on Sitka’s beaches last weekend, sparking speculation that they might have been washed to sea by the tsunami in Japan one year ago.

But experts tracking beach debris in Alaska say it’s too early to say whether they originated with the tsunami, or are sea-bound flotsam of the kind that regularly ends up on Alaskan beaches.

“It’s impossible to tell,” said Dave Gaudet, the marine debris program coordinator for the Marine Conservation Alliance Foundation.

SITKA — More than 60 years after helping rescue a shipwreck survivor in stormy seas, a Sitka woman was honored this month by the U.S. Coast Guard and Alaska State Troopers.

Marie Laws received the commendations in a Sept. 9 ceremony at Coast Guard Air Station Sitka. The two other participants in the 1950 rescue, Laws’ sister Betty Mork and rescue boat skipper Thomas Allain, were honored posthumously.

SITKA — They may come from a sunny country, but the six Jamaican university students say in some ways they’ve found more warmth in Sitka.

“People are so friendly,” said Mardio Grandston, a 22-year-old student from the University of the West Indies.

“You guys are very warm and welcoming,” agreed Shawn Hutchinson, 23, a culinary arts major at the University of Technology.

The two men are among six Jamaicans working at the Sitka Hotel during their summer school break, through a cultural, work and travel program.