NOAA Fisheries Releases 2025 Alaska Aquaculture Accomplishments Report

The NOAA Fisheries Alaska Regional Office has released the 2025 Aquaculture Accomplishments Report . It highlights the growth of the aquaculture industry in Alaska and provides details about local, state, and federal efforts aimed at supporting this important maritime industry.

NOAA's Aquaculture Program supports cutting-edge science and policies to foster sustainable domestic aquaculture growth. Currently, at least 70 percent of the seafood Americans eat comes from other countries, and over half of that is farm-raised. Produced responsibly, as it is here in the United States, aquaculture is one of the most resource-efficient ways of making healthy food, and it can help reduce reliance on imports, providing a more stable and secure seafood supply. By expanding domestic aquaculture in harmony with wild-capture fisheries, NOAA helps create jobs, support coastal communities, and ensure healthy, home-grown seafood for American families.

Alaska's aquaculture industry consists of seaweed and shellfish farming. Oysters, mussels, sugar kelp, ribbon kelp, and bull kelp are the primary species grown in the state. The NOAA Fisheries Alaska Aquaculture Program has strategically aligned our annual activities to support the Executive Order on Promoting American Seafood Competitiveness and Economic Growth , and NOAA's 2023-2028 Aquaculture Strategic Plan . The plan lays out a framework to support a thriving, resilient, and robust U.S. aquaculture industry as part of a resilient seafood sector. This effort also supports the Executive Order on Restoring American Seafood Competitiveness .

We translated these directives into annual accomplishments through four goals:

1. Manage sustainably and efficiently
2. Lead science for sustainability
3. Educate and exchange information
4. Support economic viability and growth

Implementing the Alaska Aquaculture Opportunity Area Process

We reached a significant milestone in the Alaska Aquaculture Opportunity Area identification process this year. We released the preliminary results of the marine spatial planning study in April 2025. This new step in the process, used first in Alaska, significantly increased public and tribal input through sharing draft spatial modeling results and 97 draft AOA options.

We received 39 comments (four oral, and 35 written), which enabled us to gather new information and make improvements before finalizing the results and developing the Alaska Atlas. We expect to publish the Atlas in the coming months.

This collaborative effort between NOAA and the State of Alaska, is a major step in our effort to advance aquaculture by identifying AOAs.

Developing Improved Pacific Oyster Seed

Alaska's waters are colder than in other regions, so there's a demand for oyster strains optimized for Alaskan waters. Hatcheries in Alaska struggle to spawn Pacific oysters successfully, consistently, and cost effectively. This creates a reliance on larvae supplied from outside the state. The goal of this project is to produce larvae and seed that are optimized for growth, but not reproduction, in Alaska waters.

Researchers at the Alaska Fisheries Science Center acquired oysters from the U.S. Department of Agriculture's Pacific Shellfish Research Unit. We also acquired oysters from private industry partners, such as Pacific Hybreed, which specialize in the selective breeding of oysters. The development of improved seed includes:

• Producing genetically distinct lines at partnering research hatcheries and field testing
• Developing technology and techniques to produce seed at the NOAA Alaska Fisheries Science Center Mariculture Research Hatchery using Alaskan broodstock

So far, researchers have developed systems and techniques for housing, conditioning, and spawning broodstock and subsequent generations at the hatchery.

Mapping Wild Seaweed Beds for Spatial Analysis

To support farmers in meeting the Alaska Department of Fish & Game's " 50-50 Rule " guidelines, the Alaska Regional Office led the seaweed source inventory. This project updated data on the location of wild seaweed beds within AOA study areas to aid in the AOA spatial and National Environmental Policy Act analyses. This effort involved two components:

• Participatory mapping process using SeaSketch, in which active seaweed farmers, hatchery workers, and others with local knowledge were interviewed and asked to map known wild kelp beds
• Compiling best available existing seaweed data sources.

Together, these approaches developed updated maps for wild seaweed beds.

Eleven participants contributed to the mapping process. We mapped 140 beds, covering approximately 60 square kilometers.

In general, bull kelp, sugar kelp, and ribbon kelp appear to be broadly distributed across all the AOA study regions. These are the primary species cultivated by the farmers who participated in the mapping effort and are also the three main species currently grown in Alaska.