Top Alaska House legislators reject plan to allow fish farms
Rep. Louise Stutes, R-Kodiak, and House Speaker Bryce Edgmon, I-Dillingham, listen to information on Jan. 9, 2025, at an Anchorage hearing of the Joint Legislative Task Force Evaluating Alaska's Seafood Industry. Stutes and Edgmon are two of the task force's eight members. (Photo by Yereth Rosen/Alaska Beacon)
Two leading members of the Alaska House of Representatives on Monday announced their opposition to a proposal from Gov. Mike Dunleavy to lift the state's 35-year-old ban on fish farms.
In a written statement, Speaker of the House Bryce Edgmon, I-Dillingham, and House Rules Committee Chair Louise Stutes, R-Kodiak, said the bill will not aid the state's commercial fishing industry.
Stutes also chairs the House Fisheries Committee, and Edgmon is the committee's vice chair; without their support, House Bill 111 is unlikely to advance.
Dunleavy has proposed keeping a ban on salmon farming but is seeking permission for farming other types of fish. Alaska has banned all types of fish farming for decades under the belief that allowing farming poses social and environmental risks to the state's wild fish.
'Alaska's commercial fishing industry, our coastal communities, and fishing families across the state are suffering through historically poor market conditions, inconsistent returns, and unfair trade practices,' Stutes and Edgmon wrote.
'Make no mistake, the industry will recover; however, lifting a ban on freshwater finfish farming sends the wrong signal, at the wrong time. It also erodes the spirit of the current ban and provides a foot in the door for possible salmon farming in Alaska,' they said. 'We need to be focusing on solutions for our fisheries that positively impact our industry, market conditions, and the bottom line for our fishermen, not legislation that distracts from that.'
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