Gov. Mike Dunleavy has introduced a bill that would partially reverse Alaska’s 35-year-old ban on fish farms.
If it makes it into law, the bill would not allow salmon farming but would allow farming of “any bony fish belonging to the osteichthyes class.” That includes species like tilapia, catfish or carp — the world’s most widely farmed fish.
The chair of the House Fisheries Committee, Kodiak Rep. Louise Stutes, disagrees with the governor’s proposal.
“Alaska’s commercial fishing industry, our coastal communities and fishing families across the state are suffering through historically poor market conditions, inconsistent returns and unfair trade practices,” she said in a prepared joint statement with House Speaker Bryce Edgmon, of Dillingham.
“Make no mistake, the industry will recover,” the Feb. 24 statement said. “However, lifting a ban on freshwater finfish farming sends the wrong signal, at the wrong time. It also erodes the spirit of the current ban and provides a foot in the door for possible salmon farming in Alaska.”
Under the governor’s bill, any farmed fish would have to be sterile, unable to reproduce if they escape into the wild. They would also have to be contained by an escape-proof barrier.
Fish farms would be subject to regulation by the Alaska Department of Fish and Game and subject to oversight by the Alaska Department of Environmental Conservation.
Alaska already has a significant and growing number of shellfish farms.
In a letter accompanying the bill’s introduction on Feb. 21, the governor said that “authorizing finfish farming would introduce a new industry to Alaska, creating jobs, creating food security for residents, and contributing to economic growth.”
House Bill 111 was referred to the House Fisheries Committee for consideration.
Fish farming has been outlawed in Alaska since 1990, when lawmakers enacted a law that permanently extended a previous temporary ban.
Since then, global farmed salmon production has grown more than sixfold, with key producers in Norway, Scotland, Chile, China and Canada.
The Alaska law in 1990 followed a legislative investigation that concluded that fish farms posed environmental, social and economic risks to the state’s commercial seafood industry.
The investigation stated in part that the state’s reputation for wild Alaska seafood could be endangered if Alaska were to allow fish farming, and lawmakers concluded that few jobs would be created by a farmed fish industry.
“Avoiding harm to the state’s wild finfish, land, and water resources must take precedence over the development of a new speculative and potentially harmful commercial finfish farming industry,” the Legislature concluded at the time, stating, “the best interests of the state are served by prohibiting commercial finfish farming.”
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