Alaska Shellfish Festival.

• Author: Anderson, Tasha
• Position: ENTERTAINMENT

The evening of October 28 is a fantastic opportunity to gain deeper insight into the amazing and varied shellfish industry in Alaska's Southeast waters. Sponsored by the Southeast Alaska Regional Dive Fisheries Association (SARDFA), the goal of the festival is to raise awareness of the shellfish dive and mariculture industries in the best way possible: having dinner.

This is the fourth year that the festival has taken place according to SARDFA Executive Director Phil Doherty. "The event has been really well received," Doherty says. "Usually, after tickets go on sale, we're sold out in a few days."

The festival consists mainly of a dinner located at the Ted Ferry Civic Center in Ketchikan. "We get a bunch of geoduck clams, sea cucumbers, locally grown oysters, and locally harvested shrimp and Dungeness crab," Doherty says. "We also work with the Alaska Scallop Association that catches scallops, so there are fresh scallops there."

Three or four local restaurants receive the shellfish the day before the festival and cook it the way they like. "Some of the [shellfish] they're...