Finfish farming was one of the hot topics the Commissioner of the Alaska Department of Fish and Game, Doug Vincent-Lang, discussed during the annual commercial fisheries trade show in Kodiak last week on April 16.
Vincent-Lang told attendees of ComFish that he supports a bill to lift the state’s decades-old ban on finfish farming. He said if this presented a direct threat to commercial fishermen and wild stock fisheries, then he wouldn’t support it.
“This is really to provide an opportunity for Alaskans who want to basically produce char and trout and those kinds of species in enclosed fish farms onshore, not offshore, and have that business opportunity," Vincent-Lang explained.
Governor Mike Dunleavy introduced the bill earlier this legislative session, HB 111 on Feb. 21, to reverse Alaska’s ban on finfish farming. The policy would apply to species like trout or arctic charr and salmon farming would remain illegal. But the legislation has been widely opposed by the state’s commercial fishing industry.
Alaska’s Speaker of the House, Rep. Bryce Edgmon of Dillingham, voiced his concerns directly to Vincent-Lang during a House Fisheries Committee hearing on April 10.
“My district is unequivocally opposed to this and views this as really shockingly bad judgment by the administration at a time of a seafood industry that’s really struggling to make ends meet, a seafood industry that’s adjusting to the worldwide competition with a lot of unfair trade practices, a lot of cheating going on, a lot of misusing of the Alaska wild brand," Edgmon said.
All those who submitted written comments and public testimony during the hearing were opposed to the finfish farming bill. Those opposed included the Central Council of the Tlingit and Haida Indian Tribes of Alaska, the Aleutians East Borough Assembly and multiple Alaska fishermen. Rep. Louise Stutes of Kodiak, who also is opposed to fish farms, said during the hearing that she received more emails about this bill than she did about the education bill.
Some Kodiak fishermen at ComFish on April 16 also seemed to share Edgmon’s stance on farmed fish. They told Vincent-Lang they were concerned about competition with wild stocks and that if the ban was lifted on farmed fish in Alaska, it could open the door to allow farmed salmon in the future.
Nonetheless, Vincent-Lang highlighted the benefits farmed fish could provide to small businesses in Alaska; a justification cited by Dunleavy. The Fish & Game Commissioner said farmed trout is already sold in certain grocery stores around the state and those fish are coming from somewhere outside of Alaska.
“Why not produce some of those fish in Alaska and give that…see if there’s an opportunity to grow that," Vincent-Lang suggested.
As an example of a potential business model, he cited a fish farm called Icy Waters in Whitehorse, Yukon, that is producing arctic charr and commercially selling them in local restaurants and stores. Commissioner Vincent-Lang said he encourages Alaskans to share their concerns with the department and continue the conversation around fish farming in the state.
The governor’s bill was referred to the House Fisheries committee two months ago on Feb. 21. It had its first hearing earlier this month on April 10, which was more of a courtesy, according to Rep. Louise Stutes of Kodiak, the committee chair. She told ComFish attendees that the bill was essentially dead in the water.
