Saving Seafood

Alaska Fisheries Development Foundation Aims To Expand Mariculture In The Aleutians

July 27, 2021 — Representatives from the Alaska Fisheries Development Foundation visited Unalaska last week as part of its push to expand the state’s mariculture industry.

Gov. Bill Walker created the Alaska Mariculture Task Force in 2016. Since then, the organization has been focused on developing the state’s mariculture industry to meet its long-term goal of $100 million by 2038.

Mariculture refers specifically to farming and enhancing shellfish and seaweeds, and does not include farming finfish like salmon, which is illegal in Alaska. The state’s mariculture industry was valued at approximately $1 million in 2018.

Julie Decker, executive director of the Alaska Fisheries Development Foundation, sees opportunities in the shorelines and beaches of the Aleutian coast.

“You have lots of water, so you have lots of space. Relatively little population which means relatively little conflict,” Decker said. “The people that do live here are used to working on the water. There’s North America’s largest processing port. These are some pretty significant assets.”

Read the full story at KUCB

Alaska Mariculture Task Force transitioning to nonprofit organization

June 8, 2021 — The Alaska Mariculture Task Force has announced the formation of a new private nonprofit organization to help bolster and centralize the state’s growing mariculture industry. The membership-based nonprofit – called the Alaska Mariculture Alliance (AMA) – will launch this summer with a mission to “develop and support a robust and sustainable mariculture industry, producing shellfish and aquatic plants for the long-term benefit of Alaska’s economy, environment and communities,” according to a press release from the Alaska Fisheries Development Fund (AFDF), which has helped shepherd the task force through its foundation and early efforts to boost Alaska’s mariculture efforts.

The AMA is designed to take over the work that the Alaska Mariculture Task Force has been doing since 2016, when it was formally created then-governor Bill Walker. The task force was reauthorized in 2018 by current Alaska Governor Mike Dunleavy, but will be replaced by the AMA on 30 June, 2021.

Read the full story at Seafood Source

Invitation to join the Alaska Mariculture Alliance

June 8, 2021 — The following was released by the Alaska Mariculture Task Force:

The Alaska Mariculture Task Force (Task Force) is inviting all those engaged in mariculture in Alaska to join the newly-formed Alaska Mariculture Alliance (AMA). The AMA is a private non-profit organization to be initiated in June 2021 with a mission to “develop and support a robust and sustainable mariculture industry, producing shellfish and aquatic plants for the long-term benefit of Alaska’s economy, environment and communities.”

The AMA is the successor organization to the Task Force and will help shape and coordinate the bourgeoning mariculture industry in Alaska. The Task Force, formed in 2016 by Governor Walker and re-authorized in 2018 with support by Governor Dunleavy, will sunset June 30, 2021. Work completed by the Task Force was guided by the Alaska Mariculture Development Plan (brief version here) and the Five-Year Action Plan. The Alaska Fisheries Development Foundation (AFDF) facilitated the administrative role for the Task Force, and will continue to do so for the AMA.

“On behalf of the Task Force, we want to invite all those who are involved in or want to develop mariculture to consider being a Founding Member of the AMA, and to help shape the future of mariculture in Alaska,” Heather McCarty, Chair, Task Force. The application for Founding Membership should be returned by June 23, 2021. The Task Force will meet June 25 to accept applications for AMA membership and stand up the new organization.

Read the full release here

ALASKA: Investors are backing Southeast’s largest oyster farms

February 12, 2019 — The largest ever oyster farms in Southeast Alaska could be coming soon. That’s in line with the state’s Mariculture Task Force that sees the potential for a $100 million industry in Alaska.

Silver Bay Seafoods has been buying and processing salmon and herring at its plant in Sitka for the past decade.

The company says it wants to do something new.

“Alaska waters produce the highest quality seafood products in the country, if not the world,” said Tommy Sheridan, a former state fisheries biologist who now works as a company representative. “There is significant demand for Alaska oysters.”

Silver Bay recently chartered a boat to take a group of local business people, academics and seafood industry boosters to see the site of its oyster venture about 13 miles from Sitka’s harbor.

It’s in a cove near rocky shoreline. Not much to see – yet.

“If this were to go through, what you’d see here would be a series of rafts that we’d use to suspend oysters from,” Sheridan tells the group.

Read the full story at KTOO