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Weekly UpdatesInside the Alutiiq Pride Shellfish Hatchery in downtown Seward, seawater made green by billions of microscopic algae gently swirls through 5-foot-tall blue plastic tanks. Hatchery Director Jeff Hetrick dips a cupped hand into one of the tanks and scoops out a handful of oysters, each no bigger than a pencil eraser.
"We grow mostly oysters here, but also razor clams, scallops and geoducks," says Hetrick. "We are the state's only hatchery, and we are critical to the success of the state's shellfish-growing industry."
Within weeks, these baby bivalves, some 4 million in all, will be sent to floating shellfish nurseries along the coast, where they'll continue to grow to about an inch in diameter. From there, growers will "plant" the oyster "seeds" into specially designed cages lowered into the ocean at farms across Southeast and Southcentral Alaska.
After two years of eating a steady diet of oceanic plankton, fully-grown oysters will be shipped to grocery stores in Alaska and high-end restaurants in New York, Seattle, Los Angeles and elsewhere.
There are 58 licensed shellfish farms in Alaska, but only 29 reported production in 2003. Together they sent more than 1 million shellfish, mostly oysters, but also mussels, clams and scallops, to markets in Alaska, the Lower 48 and even overseas. The sales netted growers a modest $625,000.
But many industry-watchers believe the industry is poised for rapid growth. They say Alaska's shellfish farms, most of them small-scale operations tucked away in remote bays in inlets, could easily double or even triple production. Ray RaLonde, an aquaculture specialist with the Alaska Sea Grant Program, a marine science, education and advisory service of the University of Alaska Fairbanks, says that while the state produced about 1 million oysters last year, it imported another million oysters, as well as about 2 million clams.
"The industry is ready to grow," says RaLonde. "Right now growers are getting far more orders than they can fill. The time to expand is now."
Because of the unmet demand, industry experts say Alaska's shellfish industry is likely to expand with new farms, and increased production on existing farms. But others are more cautious in their predictions. They say what makes Alaska attractive also can be a significant disadvantage.
"Alaska certainly has more potential locations for shellfish farms, and much less polluted waters," says Howard Johnson, an industry consultant. "Alaska also has a mystique that plays well for consumers. But the farms are far from markets, and there is little infrastructure to get product delivered from remote farms."
HIGH PRICE DOESN'T DAMPEN DEMAND
Largely because of high production costs, Alaska's shellfish are marketed as a premium product. Growers emphasize the positive attributes of the state's clean, cold waters, and instill a sense of luxury and romance in having a natural product from the wilds of Alaska. The strategy is working. Many people consider Alaska oysters to be among the very best in size, color and quality. That appreciation is reflected in the marketplace. Alaska oysters sell for about 65 cents apiece off the farm, primarily due to the lucrative half-shell market. By contrast, oysters from Seattle's Puget Sound or the Gulf of Mexico sell for half that. The high price hasn't dampened demand, however. The state's growers are overwhelmed with customers.
"At our current production, we cannot meet demand," says George Overpeck of the Kachemak Bay Shellfish Growers Cooperative in Homer.
LOOKING BACK, LOOKING AHEAD
Just a few years ago, many industry watchers were not optimistic about the state's fledgling shellfish industry. Most of that gloom stemmed from the bureaucratic pitfalls growers had to negotiate to establish a viable farm. Numerous permits, a daunting review process, and environmental assessments from a variety of state and sometimes federal agencies were required.
Then, beginning in 2002, under Gov. Frank Murkowski and a Legislature interested in helping communities struggling with lost fishing and timber jobs, agencies began streamlining the regulatory process.
"It's much better now than it has been," says Roger Painter, vice president of the Alaskan Shellfish Growers Association, and owner of Tenass Pass Oyster Company outside Juneau. "It used to be that individual growers had to get all the permits and pay for all of the environmental studies. Now the state has a process to certify tracts of tidelands for shellfish farming, and that's saved growers a lot of time and expense."
One of the places where it's gotten better is Prince of Wales Island in Southeast. It is here that some 428 acres of tidelands near Naukati, Thorne Bay and Kassan have been pre-approved for use by shellfish farms. That's enough acreage to support 43 new oyster farms, with a production potential of $8.5 million a year in product, according to Sea Grant's RaLonde.
"We were just loggers here, and we recognized that we needed to change our economy," says Art King, who represents Naukati West Inc., a homeowners' association of 137 mostly unemployed people who live in the small former logging camp on the island. "Shellfish farming has been a way for us to continue living here and earn a decent living."
Throughout Southeast Alaska, some 988 acres of new tidelands are available for aquaculture operations under the new permit process. Another 150 acres are available in Southcentral.
GROWING PAINS
Even as Alaska shellfish growers bask in the glow of excellent sales figures and a promising future, problems lay ahead as the industry seeks to expand.
One obstacle to growth is the lack of transportation infrastructure in much of rural, coastal Alaska. Juneau-area oyster grower Roger Painter thought he had transportation problems solved when he located his shellfish farm beneath the flight path of the local commuter air service. But Southeast's foggy, rainy weather often means planes can't land.
"Getting product from the farm to a place with jet service is certainly one of the biggest problems we face. We have the product, we have markets, but we cannot reliably get it delivered," says Painter.
On Prince of Wales Island, planned ferry service, along with new roads, promise to help the island's upstart farms. If farmers can get their product to Anchorage or Seattle, there are numerous flights to just about every oyster-loving city on the planet.
Growers also are wrestling with issues such as an antiquated state shellfish testing and certification system, maintaining product quality, the inability to deliver product year-round, and public opposition to the industry's expansion.
By law, Alaska shellfish must be tested for naturally occurring marine toxins, such as paralytic shellfish poisoning, before they can be sold. But the state's only testing facility is located in Palmer, hundreds of miles from the closest shellfish farm.
"As a result, oysters are typically not released for shipment until three days after their harvest date, which means that three days of product shelf-life have been expended before the product enters the distribution chain," says Erin Harrington in a master's degree thesis she authored as a graduate student at the University of Alaska Fairbanks. She is now an analyst with the Juneau-based McDowell Group.
As the state's shellfish industry expands, some worry that attention to product quality will suffer.
"Alaska oysters have a superior taste and a higher quality that puts us in a higher price range," says Overpeck of the Kachemak Bay Cooperative. "But as we grow, these have to stay high if we are to keep these markets and remain competitive."
Overpeck and others believe standardized quality and grading standards are necessary to keep growers in check. Right now, no statewide standards exist on just what constitutes an acceptable oyster, clam or mussel.
Also dogging the industry is the inability to deliver product year-round. Like commercial salmon fishing, oyster harvesting takes place mostly in summer, when oysters grow quickly on plankton blooms. Oysters and clams don't grow much during the state's long, dark winter, when there's little plankton for the shellfish to eat.
Competition from shellfish farms in nearby British Columbia also pose a problem for plans to grow the shellfish industry.
"British Columbia is likely to grow faster than Alaska because it has a better developed transportation infrastructure, lower costs and is closer to major U.S. markets," says Bill Taylor, president of Taylor Fisheries, a 110-yearold family run seafood business based in Washington state.
But ultimately what might limit the growth of Alaska's shellfish industry is opposition from the public. As more and more homes, many of them expensive vacation homes, pop up along Alaska's coast, shellfish farmers will increasingly find themselves at odds with nearby landowners.
"Some people don't want to look at buoys and rafts associated with shellfish farms," says RaLonde. "Viewscape conflicts are likely to be a problem for shellfish farms in areas where there is development."
That may cause farms to locate further and further from the transportation centers they need to reliably get their product to market.
CO-OPS KEY TO SUSTAINED GROWTH
While difficulties persist, most watchers believe the industry will grow steadily during the coming years. Key to that growth will be producing more products, reducing production costs while maintaining quality, and improving rural air transportation. Some say achieving sustained growth will require growers to work more closely than ever before to produce, market and deliver high-quality product.
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