"These town-hall meetings are being held to give the state of Alaska an opportunity to hear from Alaskans their ideas on how to best protect the long-term economic prosperity of coastal Alaska given the continual growth of finfish aquaculture worldwide," said David Bedford, deputy commissioner of the Alaska Department of Fish and Game. "We hope that Alaskans will engage in this critical policy discussion so important to the viability of our wild seafood fishing industry."
State officials, including Gov. Frank Murkowski, have expressed concern about NOAA's far-reaching, fast-tracked plans for opening up vast stretches of coastal waters to offshore aquaculture. The state has asked NOAA to institute a five-year moratorium on permitting, leasing or development of aquaculture in federal waters until environmental concerns of marine aquaculture are addressed and related socio-economic impacts to fisheries-dependent communities are researched. State officials have also requested that states be given a substantial role in deciding what types of aquaculture activities take place off their shores and that regional fishery management councils be tasked with evaluating information gathered and research conducted in order to assess the potential impacts and benefits of fish farms in federal waters under their jurisdictions. The North Pacific Fishery Management Council would have that role in Alaska. The Alaska seafood industry's total economic output is estimated to be approximately $4.6 billion annually, with $2.3 billion in direct economic output, and $2.3 billion in secondary economic output with goods, services and labor. Finfish farming is illegal in state waters.
The impetus for NOAA's actions is recommendations made in the U.S. Commission on Ocean Policy report which came out last year. The commission noted that the United States has massive untapped potential for offshore aquaculture and suggested establishing nationwide standards for regulating the industry. There is considerable pressure from Outside industry to open up more waters to fish farming to help the U.S. compete with other countries such as Chile, Norway, China and Japan who have made aquaculture a national priority with substantial public investments in research and development. Cultivated seafood from foreign nations is capturing a growing share of the U.S. seafood market. There is growing concern from stakeholders that competitiveness of the U.S. aquaculture industry is adversely affected by the current federal regulatory framework and lack of support for programs, which are provided to other sectors of agriculture and commerce.
The first of the town-hall meetings took place this week in Juneau, and two more are scheduled in March. The next one is at 8:30 a.m. March 1 in Anchorage, at the Hilton Hotel, followed by a meeting at 10 a.m. March 17 in Kodiak at the high school. Both meetings will include a presentation from the state entitled "Alaska at the Crossroads: A Town-hall Meeting to Identify Options for Addressing the Growth of Finfish Farming" and an independent presentation from NOAA entitled "Aquaculture: Potential for the Future."
Interested parties that cannot attend the meetings can submit comments to the Alaska Department of Fish and Game between March 15 and April 15. Send comments to: Craig Farrington, Fishery Biologist, Alaska Department of Fish and Game, P.O. Box 25526, Juneau, AK 99802-5526. Comments also can be submitted via e-mail to: craig_farrington@fishgame.state.ak.us. More information can be found at http://www.adfg.state.ak. us/special/ fishfarming.php.
Cristy Fry has commercial fished in Homer since 1978, and has also designed and built gear for the industry. She currently longlines for halibut and sablefish, and gillnets salmon in Upper Cook Inlet aboard the F/V Realist.
