By Jessica Edwards
If you picked up a tide book in Haines
this year, the company that published it recommends you recycle it or throw it away.
Formatting errors misidentified some
morning tides as occurring in the afternoon, according to publisher Pioneer Publishing of
Soldotna. Corrected books should be out in about a month.
“We’ve probably given out a
box,” said Eric Ferrin, manager at the Outfitter Sporting Goods. “That’s
250 to 300 tide books.”
Alaska Tide Books publisher and owner
Jerry Thompson last week contacted customers in Haines that distribute the books, and
requested they destroy their current stocks as well as recalling any books people had
already picked up.
Incorrect tide books were also
available at Delta Western and at the Alaska Sports Shop prior to the recall. The tide
books are usually available at the Haines branch of the First National Bank, but a
representative said none had been distributed yet this year.
Misprints in the Alaska Tide Books
occur days on which there are three tides. In Haines, this occurs between two and five
times monthly.
According to the book’s key, all
a.m. tides should appear in light type, and all p.m. tides should appear in bold type.
However, in the 2008 books, the second
a.m. tide on three-tide days often appears in bold type, incorrectly indicating that the
tide occurs after noon.
Thompson said the subtlety of the
errors was problematic, as inexperienced users or visitors to the area were unlikely to
catch them.
Reprinted tide books will be easily
identified by users as the corrected edition, he said.
Thompson said he had initially hoped to
provide corrective inserts instead of reprinting the books. Shortly after the errors were
reported Jan. 5 by Sitka residents, Thompson said most of his customers had been
supportive of the corrective inserts, especially because nearly all of the 2008 books were
still in storage. “Ninety-five percent or better would have gone out with an insert,”
Thompson said.
But when one business objected and
called for a reprint, Thompson said he decided to reissue all three editions of the tide
book for consistency’s sake. “We didn’t want multiple solutions.”
Reprinting the books was a major hit to
the small, family-owned company, which has printed the tide books for over 20 years. Free
to the public, the publisher makes money selling custom covers for the businesses that
distribute the books, as well as selling advertising space on the inside covers and
centerfold.
“We’ve worked real hard to
keep costs low,” said Thompson. He said profit margins on the books were slim. But
Thompson said the reprinting, although a major undertaking, was “an effort to satisfy
customers and be uniform.
Reprinting would help restore
confidence in the publication, he said.
Ferrin said the reprint was a better
solution than a corrective insert because people picking up the books in Haines often used
the tidal charts in other locations. “A lot of fishermen rely on them, and they may
be traveling to many places in Southeast,” he said.
Pioneer Press Alaska Tide Books for all
three regions – Southeastern, South Central, and Western – contain errors. Tide
charts for Dutch Harbor, where there is often only one high and one low per day, contain
the greatest number of inaccuracies. Thompson said the errors were a result of a software
upgrade this year. The new software was intended to more uniformly format raw tide data
for printing, but didn’t perform a basic function the old software had –
automatically reformatting the typeset on three-tide days to show the two a.m. tides in
light type.
Until the new editions arrive, correct
tidal information can be printed at www.tidebooks.com by clicking
on “Important Notice Regarding 2008 Tide Books” and selecting the Southeastern
region.
