Saving Seafood

Seeds planted: Alaska kelp nursery tests farms for fishermen

January 25, 2022 — Kelp mariculture is expanding in Alaska and around the world. Kelp farms have been established in Kodiak and Southeast Alaska for a few years, but it’s a brand new industry to Prince William Sound and Kachemak Bay.

The crew at the Alutiiq Pride Marine Institute in Seward has hatched a kelp nursery to support local farmers plant seeds in the sea.

Kelp is extremely versatile and used in a variety of products, including food, pharmaceuticals, cosmetics and biofuel, according to the institute’s Science Director Maile Branson.

“Kelp is also highly productive and sequesters large concentrations of carbon, counteracting localized ocean acidification,” she added. “Therefore, in a regenerative ocean farming system, kelp can benefit both the farmer and numerous marine species.”

Read the full story at National Fisherman

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

Kelp at the Crossroads: Should Seaweed Farming Be Better Regulated?

July 20, 2021 — On Vancouver Island, seaweed is abundant, diverse, useful, and symbolic. Indigenous peoples have used it for centuries for food preparation, fishing, and as a cultural and spiritual touchstone. On the island’s southwest coast, Dr. Louis Druehl started farming and researching kelp in the late 1970s and says he has dedicated his life to it “and loved every minute.” He mentored seaweed farmer Kristina Long, who now grows bull kelp over about 40 acres, and harvester Amanda Swinimer, who wades out into waist-deep water at low tide to carefully hand-cut blades of winged kelp in just the right spot to ensure regrowth.

These tiny operations barely create ripples within the vast coastal landscape, but kelp—here and elsewhere in North America—is at a crossroads.

In recent years, seaweed has been promoted around the globe as an overlooked, multifaceted climate solution: a sustainable food and biofuel source, a feed that reduces methane emissions from cattle, and a tool with the potential to absorb massive quantities of carbon from the atmosphere (although much more research is needed to determine how farms might actually contribute to sequestration). As a result, companies looking to capitalize on those promises are turning up in far-flung coastal communities with big plans.

Take Cascadia Seaweed. The company arrived on Vancouver Island soon after it was founded in 2019, and set a goal to farm 1,200 acres of the ocean there by 2025; its larger “stretch goal” is over 6,000 acre. In Alaska, Seagrove Kelp Co. has 127 acres in operation and 700 in the permitting phase. And in Maine, the continent’s seaweed-farming hub, Running Tide’s vision involves millions of biodegradable buoys attached to lines of kelp offshore.

Read the full story at Civil Eats

Shellfish and seaweed mariculture is focus of new Alaska industry alliance

June 15, 2021 — Alaskans who are engaged in or interested in mariculture are invited to become founding members in a group that will advance the growing industry across the state.

The newly formed Alaska Mariculture Alliance (AMA) is a private, nonprofit successor to a five-year task force formed in 2016 by Gov. Bill Walker and re-authorized in 2018 by Gov. Mike Dunleavy. The task force will sunset on June 30.

“One of the priority recommendations was to create a long-term entity that would coordinate and support development of a robust and sustainable mariculture industry to produce shellfish and aquatic plants for the long-term benefit of Alaska’s economy, environment and communities,” said Julie Decker, executive director of the Alaska Fisheries Development Foundation, which administrated the task force and will do so for the AMA.

Decker clarified that Alaska mariculture encompasses farming of shellfish and aquatic plants and also includes enhancement and restoration projects.

There are 76 active aquatic farm and nursery permits in Alaska that when combined with 35 pending new applications, comprise 1,631 acres, according to the Alaska Department of Fish and Game. Some growers also are interested in sea cucumbers, geoduck clams and abalone.

Read the full story at the Anchorage Daily News

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

Picks and pans for 2020 in Alaska’s seafood industry

January 5, 2021 — This year marks the 30th year that the weekly Fish Factor column has appeared in newspapers across Alaska and nationally. Every year it features “picks and pans” for Alaska’s seafood industry – a no-holds-barred look back at some of the year’s best and worst fishing highlights, and my choice for the biggest fish story of the year. Here are the choices for 2020, in no particular order:

Best little known fish fact: Alaska’s commercial fisheries division also pays for the management of subsistence and personal use fisheries.

Biggest fishing tragedy: The loss of five fishermen aboard the Scandies Rose that sank southwest of Kodiak.

Biggest new business potential: Mariculture of seaweeds and shellfish.

Most daring fish move: Fishermen in Quinhagak formed a cooperative of 70 harvesters to revitalize commercial salmon fishing in Kuskokwim Bay, including members from Goodnews Bay, Platinum and Eek. It’s the first fishery since 2016 when the region’s “economic development” group abruptly pulled the plug on buying local fish.

Biggest fish challenge: Getting whaled. Many fishermen say they can lose up to 75% of their pricey sablefish catches when whales strip their lines.

Read the full story at the Anchorage Daily News

The future of food from the sea, explained

September 15, 2020 — In the year 2050, Earth will have almost 10 billion humans who will eat over 500 billion kilograms of meat. That is 2 billion more people and 177 billion more kilograms of meat than Earth currently has. With land-based meat fraught with climate and environmental impacts, how much animal protein can be sustainably supplied by the ocean? A new (open access) paper in Nature titled, The Future of Food from the Sea, answered that question and provided an economic roadmap for sustainable ocean food production.

The authors conclude that by 2050, the ocean could sustainably provide 80-103 billion kilograms of food, a 36-74% increase compared to the current yield of 59 billion kilograms. Crucially, the 2050 numbers were not a simple calculation of the carrying capacity of food production, but instead reflected the economic realities of growing and harvesting food in the ocean. The authors identified four key steps towards a more bountiful ocean:

  1. Improve fishery management
  2. Implement policy reforms to address mariculture
  3. Advance feed technologies for fed mariculture
  4. Shift consumer demand

In this post, I explain the numbers behind potential food production in the ocean and what the policy and governance process might look like going forward.

Read the full story at Sustainable Fisheries UW

NOAA investing in Alaska’s mariculture development

February 27, 2020 — The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) is investing resources in Alaska, a move seen helping move the state’s mariculture development forward.

The agency has appointed a Regional Office Mariculture Coordinator for the Alaska region for the first time.

Alaska’s Mariculture Initiative has a goal of building a $100-million industry in 20 years. Among Alicia Bishop’s many tasks as regional coordinator is to bring together stakeholders that will help lay the foundation for achieving that goal.

The head of the Task Force that developed the Initiative said the creation of the coordinator position for Alaska signals NOAA’s commitment to the state.

Read the full story at Aquaculture North America

Alaska’s fledgling mariculture industry expands its reach; former Dunleavy staffer named to fish board

June 6, 2019 — More Alaskans are turning to seaweed farming as the state’s fledgling mariculture industry expands to more regions. Shellfish growers also are finding that an oyster/aquatic plant combo boosts their bottom line.

Sixteen applications were filed for new or expanding aquatic farms from January through April, of which 56% were for growing various kelp, 31% for a combination of Pacific oysters and kelp, and 13% for oysters only.

While 2019 saw the same number of applications as 2018, the underwater acreage increased considerably, said Cynthia Pring-Ham, aquatic farming coordinator at the Alaska Department of Fish and Game, which issues the farm permits.

“There were about 616 acres that were applied for in 2019 compared to 462 acres in 2018. That’s about a 33% increase,” she said, adding that Fish and Game partners with the state Department of Natural Resources, which leases the tidal and submerged lands where aquatic farming takes place.

Read the full story at the Anchorage Daily News