Cultivating Alaska's shellfish industry.

• Author: Kleeschulte, Chuck

FOR ALASKANS WITH MONEY shell out, this may be the year to consider entering a new business-raising oysters. This past fall, after a year' effort at writing regulations, the state's Department of Natural Resources implemented a 1988 law designed to speed the flow of permits to Alaskans seeking to lease tidelands as sites for shellfish farms.

The industry largely has been treading water the past few years. But although the application process to let newcomers enter one part of the state's potential mariculture industry is closed again until this coming fall, the fact that there now is a set procedure people can follow to enter shellfish mariculture should get development of the industry floating again.

It is an industry everyone agrees has high promise, but which so far hasn't made many waves in Alaska's economy. Supporters of shellfish farming agree that the state may need to do more probably at the least making state loans available to help farmers with their startup costs-before things begin going swimmingly for the industry.

This fall the state began implementing the legislature's 1988 shellfish bill, which removed a moratorium on development of new shellfish operations: raising oysters, mussels, shrimp or scallops or growing seaweed-kelp.

Gary Gustafson, director of the state's Division of Land & Water Management, says under terms of the new law, the 18 existing farms in Alaska, plus all newcomers, had to apply during the 60-day period this past fall to gain a new temporary 3-year permit to operate farms. If operations prove or continue to prove successful during the next three years, the farmers will be granted 10-year leases on their tidelands - a period that should be long enough to permit amortization of any loans the farms may need.

Alaska's shellfish farms currently are producing about 10,000 oysters a week. Although farms yield predominantly oysters, some blue mussels are being produced at Halibut Cove and kelp at a site near Kodiak. Oysters are being marketed to restaurants in Anchorage and Juneau primarily and also through seafood wholesalers in Seattle, Portland and Los Angeles.

While the majority of farms are located in Southeast - many around Wrangell-Alaska's largest farm is found in Southcentral's Prince William Sound. Farming efforts also are increasing in Kachemak Bay.

With its 34,000 miles of coastline, the 49th state has hundreds of coves that could support shellfish production, including shrimp and abalone, and allow Alaska to break into the aquatic farming industry in a big way. "There is certainly a great deal of potential for mariculture," says Gustafson.

In 1987 - the latest year for which data is available - Washington produced $10.4 million worth of oysters and $3.5 million worth of clams. California was expected to net between $20 million and $30 million from mariculture in 1989, and British Columbia expects to net $15 million from oyster production in 1990.

The largest oyster farm in the state, located outside Cordova, now has two million oysters in the water. Don Nicholson of Wrangell owns what is probably the second largest farm. He has been working his farm, located toward the north end of Clarence Strait on Etolin Island, for the past eight years.

Nicholson says he has about...