The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration announced last week that it has selected Alaska as a state where it will work to identify areas suitable for seaweed and shellfish farming.

There are currently 92 active aquatic farm and hatchery permits in Alaska, including the largest kelp farm in the United States. One local entrepreneur, Alain d’Epresmesnil, sought a permit several years ago for a kelp farm in a cove near Battery Point, but the project has since fizzled. It’s unclear if Lynn Canal has the right water conditions to support a profitable kelp farm, he said.

In 2016, there were less than 350 permitted acres of aquatic farms in the state. By 2022 that number reached 1,300 permitted acres, a 271% increase in six years. The industry generated $1.9 million in sales in 2022. NOAA says there’s still room to grow, and the Alaska Mariculture Development Plan set a goal to grow a $100 million mariculture industry in 20 years.

NOAA will work with stakeholders to create Aquaculture Opportunity Areas. NOAA fisheries regional aquaculture coordinator Alicia Bishop said this announcement is the beginning of a multi-year planning process. NOAA will provide spatial analysis, environmental reviews and leverage investments being made in Alaska.

“A lot of this process is public engagement, reaching out to stakeholders, gathering available spatial data, (asking) where are folks fishing, where is subsistence harvest occurring. We can help gather that data and look at those spatial layers collectively,” Bishop said. “There will be great opportunities for stakeholders to let us know where you want us to go and where you don’t want us to go.”

d’Epresmesnil went through the permitting process for a 3-acre kelp farm in 2019. He said the process went smoothly until Alaska State Parks weighed in on his permit location, saying it had the potential to obstruct views for tourists and hikers visiting Battery Point and could cut off access to area beaches by moose hunters and other recreationists. His permit was eventually denied for those reasons, he said.

d’Epresmesnil said there aren’t many locations in Lynn Canal ideal for kelp farming. Kelp grows during the winter, and the growing conditions are such that waters must be protected from the north wind and must be high in salinity.

“Taiyasanka is such a closed area, but it’s fed by glaciers,” he said. “It’s probably too silty. The next good spot would be behind Sullivan Island. There’s some protected waters, but you need to be able to access it in February to deal with gear getting tangled up or unmoored. It would take a burlier boat, a lot more infrastructure than I was ready to lay out. If somebody had a solid plan and a lot of backing, they could get a go at it.”

He worked at the Seagrove Kelp Co, a 100-acre farm on Prince of Wales Island, the largest in the state and said his original 3-acre plan likely wouldn’t be cost effective. Generally, kelp farmers can expect to earn $5,000 per acre, he said.

“One hundred acres gives you a cushion. If you have three acres, you’re doing all that work for $15,000, maybe,” he said. “I realized I was planning too small to have a decent operation.”

A statewide coalition of fisheries and economic development organizations, led by the Southeast Conference, won a $49 million federal grant in September to help build up Alaska’s mariculture industry. Stakeholder organizers are creating programs to start using the federal grant and $15 million in matching funds to grow Alaska’s shellfish and seaweed farming industry.

The money will fund several new programs, including a revolving loan fund, equipment for hatcheries and nurseries, marketing assistance and research and development of new products to boost sales.

Kelp goes into foods, including salsas and dried snacks, and skin care products. Demand for seaweed and kelp has grown over the past five decades, and “mariculture produces more than 96 percent of the world’s supply of seaweed products, currently valued at $4-5 billion,” according to a 2017 report from Alaska Sea Grant, a research and education program at the College of Fisheries and Ocean Science at the University of Alaska Fairbanks.

The first kelp farm in Southeast started operations in 2017. The 2022 harvest totaled almost 300 tons, reported Markos Scheer, the Southeast Conference seafood committee chair and founder of Seagrove Kelp.

The federal grant is from the Build Back Better Regional Challenge, run by the Economic Development Administration at the U.S. Department of Commerce.

The Alaska application was selected from among 529 nationwide to develop and promote emerging industries.