The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, a wing of the Commerce Department, is drafting legislation called the National Offshore Aquaculture Act to help foster ocean fish farming. The act is expected to be unveiled within the next couple of months, said Timothy Keeney, NOAA's deputy assistant secretary for oceans and atmosphere.
The intent of the act is not to force fish farms on states that don't want them, Keeney said. Rather, it will create a regulatory framework for those areas of the country that do, he said, citing Hawaii as one candidate.
"One of NOAA's goals is to increase seafood production," Keeney said during a recent visit to Anchorage. The government views fish farming as a way to supplement wild catches and meet growing seafood demand, he said.
But the idea of floating fish corrals ringing the Alaska coast alarms many in the state's fishing industry. And state lawmakers have long viewed fish farming as political poison, even as fast-rising fish farms in countries such as Chile and Norway have conquered lucrative salmon markets and crashed Alaska salmon prices.
Other voices, however, say the state might be missing the boat by not using its vast coastline to raise halibut and cod if not salmon, or at least to allow fish farming in land-based tanks. The only legal aquaculture is oyster and other shellfish culturing.
The debate is expected to play out in a series of town hall meetings the state is planning for coming weeks. The first meeting is scheduled for Feb. 23 in Juneau, following by a March 1 meeting in Anchorage and a March 17 meeting in Kodiak.
NOAA officials plan to attend all three meetings to talk about ocean aquaculture, while state officials will address a theme of Alaska at an aquaculture "crossroads."
Paula Terrel, a Juneau commercial salmon troller and activist with the nonprofit Alaska Marine Conservation Council, said she hopes all roads lead to no fish farms off Alaska, even ones far out to sea. She said she worries about reports of pollution and disease outbreaks from salmon farms, plus escaped fish that could mingle and compete with wild stocks.
"If you talk to fishermen in this state, they are opposed to offshore aquaculture," she said. "They're concerned about what it will do to the wild stocks, to the economy of their communities and to their ability to make a living."
Fish farming advocates say pollution and disease threats from fish farming are overblown, and they tout an improved record of preventing escapees from their growing pens.
Even the most ardent aquaculture opponents admit global fish farming is here to stay, that it's likely to grow and that the state's fishermen must learn to compete with it even if it never reaches waters off Alaska.
Federal officials say people from New England to the Gulf of Mexico to the West Coast and even in Alaska stand ready with aquaculture proposals.
They also note a wave of innovation to figure out ways to raise fish in rugged ocean waters far from shore. A leading effort is the University of New Hampshire's Open Ocean Aquaculture project, begun in 1997 in response to declining wild fisheries. The project is developing tough, deep-submerged cages where fish including halibut, haddock and cod are fed by remote control.
But Alaska politicians seem united against fish farming. Last fall, Gov. Frank Murkowski urged the Commerce Department to impose a five-year ban on new U.S. fish farms and to give state governors a say in aquaculture activity in federal waters.
In Juneau, state Rep. Bill Thomas, R-Haines and commercial fisherman, soon plans to introduce a resolution "to make it clear to members of Congress that we want to be heard on this issue," legislative aide Ian Fisk said.
A spokesman for U.S. Sen. Ted Stevens, R-Alaska, said Stevens wouldn't comment on NOAA's draft aquaculture bill until it's introduced. Stevens authored some of the nation's main ocean management and fishing laws and chairs the Senate Commerce Committee.
Alaska has a potential means of fending off fish farming by objecting under the Coastal Zone Management Act, which coordinates federal and state objectives on coastal and ocean development, NOAA's Keeney said.
Rodger Painter, a Juneau resident who raises oysters and clams on Prince of Wales Island, led the fight against the Alaska Legislature's ban on finfish farming in 1990. He said he's no longer interested in raising fish and he believes the state probably missed its chance to create the kind of advanced aquaculture industry that now exists in other countries and states.
Painter also questions whether equipment for raising fish in the open ocean could withstand Alaska storms.
But he sees no reason the state needs a blanket ban on all types of fish farming, even to the extent that someone can't raise popular species such as tilapia in tanks or open a "you-catch-'em" fishing pond for tourists.
"The whole thing has progressed to a stage where people can hardly look at the issue objectively," he said.
