Alaska’s mariculture industry is continuing to grow, even though it is in its infancy compared to that in other states.
Alaska’s shellfish farms reported just under $1.5 million in sales of oysters and mussels in 2024 and $48,713 in aquatic plant sales, according figures collected by Emily Gettis, a the state Department of Natural Resources.
In comparison, Washington state in 2022 sold $166.4 million worth of farmed mollusks, according to the McKinley Research Group. Washington is the top U.S. state in production of farmed shellfish; Alaska is not even in the top 10 on that list, according to the McKinley Research Group.
Also dwarfing Alaska’s output is Maine’s booming seaweed-harvesting industry, which generated $1.6 million in sales in 2020, according to reports from that state. Maine supplies about 60% of the edible seaweed that is farmed in the United States, according to industry reports.
Still, Alaska’s industry is expanding, thanks to research, strategic investment and a desire to bolster coastal communities’ economies.
Michelle Morris, permit coordinator for the Alaska Department of Fish and Game, described some of that growth in a presentation at the annual Mariculture Conference of Alaska, organized by the Alaska Sea Grant program and held March 9 to 12 in Anchorage.
The number of aquatic farm applications received by the department over the last 10 years is about triple that received over the previous 10-year period, rising to more than 150 from the 46 received between 2006 and 2015. “So that’s pretty crazy,” she said.
There are potentially more sites that could spur permit applications.
The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration has published a new atlas identifying 77 areas in the Gulf of Alaska that are suitable for shellfish or seaweed farming. NOAA researchers analyzed over 4 million acres across those 10 study areas and identified 77 locations totaling 13,000 acres, said Alicia Bishop of NOAA Fisheries’ Alaska regional office.
The atlas is part of a wider multiyear program to establish sites formally designated as Aquaculture Opportunity Areas, Bishop said.
“The whole goal of this planning process is to find locations that may be environmentally, socially and economically suitable for aquaculture,” she said.
There are also environmental considerations: effects on mariculture and effects created by mariculture, both positive and negative.
Higher water temperatures, a problem increasing with climate change, are tied to increased risks of harmful algal blooms and parasites that can cause shellfish eaters to become ill. Fending off those risks requires regular monitoring of water temperatures and diligence about keeping farmed oysters chilled, issues that were detailed at a special food-safety workshop that was part of the conference.
Shellfish farms can also attract otters and other wild marine mammals seeking easy meals, though there are ways to fend off such raids, experts said at the conference.
Ocean acidification, the result of atmospheric carbon dioxide being absorbed in the water, inhibits shellfish growth and can affect all sectors of the seafood industry.
At the same time, shellfish and kelp farms can, if properly managed, enhance marine ecosystems in localized areas and help native species there develop resilience to environmental changes, said Ester Kennedy of the University of Alaska Southeast.
Activities like kelp farming, however, cannot be seen as panaceas to environmental degradation, Kennedy cautioned. “Kelp is great, but it’s not going to fix the water chemistry problem,” she said.
There are also important social issues affected by mariculture, conference participants said.
A key issue is the protection of Indigenous rights as the industry grows, said Keolani Booth of the Native Conservancy, a Native-led organization based in Cordova.
“The waters off the coast of Southeast Alaska, the Gulf, the Aleutians, these are not empty waters. These are ancestral places,” he said in his presentation at the conference. “They carry Indigenous knowledge accumulated over thousands of years, and right now those waters are being permitted, farmed and profited, often by people with no connection to land or the communities nearby. It’s an injustice we feel, and we’re here to change that.”
The Native Conservancy, through partnerships with other organizations, is conducting research and providing technical assistance to support community-based mariculture.
Alaska’s mariculture industry has benefited from big infusions of grant money, including $49 million awarded by the Biden administration in 2022. The funds are being administered by an organization called the Alaska Mariculture Cluster, a coalition led by Southeast Conference, an economic development organization in Southeast Alaska. The Alaska Mariculture Cluster is engaged in projects spanning several years, and it shares a goal with state officials of creating an industry in Alaska worth $100 million a year.
The Exxon Valdez Oil Spill Trustee Council, which administers settlement funds that Exxon paid to the state and federal governments to settle claims for the 1989 disaster, is another source of funding. The trustee council has distributed grants for local research and development projects.
Research has included investigation of ways to expand shellfish farming to other types of bivalves, some of which have diminished native populations.
The Seward-based Alutiiq Pride Marine Institute has engaged in experimental projects to enhance natural clam beds in the Cook Inlet region, where stocks have been depleted, and in Southeast Alaska, where a partnership is ongoing with the Organized Village of Kake.
And University of Alaska Fairbanks researchers have teamed with the Metlakatla Indian Community on a project investigating the possibility of farming pinto abalones. The species is listed as endangered in Washington and British Columbia, and numbers in Alaska have declined enough to justify a “species of concern” classification in the state.
For seaweed, potential markets go beyond people who eat kelp and kelp-containing food like seasoning. Alaska companies are exploring opportunities in fertilizer, cosmetics and health products. Some of those new products were available for sale at the conference.
The small size of Alaska’s mariculture industry notwithstanding, it has some special advantages, said one expert who spoke at the conference.
Julie Qiu, a New York-based shellfish connoisseur who founded an educational and training organization called the Oyster Master Guild, said Alaska’s farmed bivalves are of high quality.
“They are really remarkable oysters,” Qiu said during a keynote address at the conference.
She praised Alaska oysters’ texture, delicacy and flavor developed over the extra-long growing period in the state’s cold waters.
“I think fresh and clean come to mind immediately,” she said.
But there is a shortcoming, she added: “They’re just a little bit hard to get in New York City.”
