By Sentinel Staff
The Alaska authority in charge of leasing state lands for hatcheries and aquatic farming has granted preliminary approval for the lease of 182 acres of submerged and tidelands in Krestof Sound to Silver Bay Seafoods LLC for an aquaculture farm growing oysters.
If it receives final approval after a public comment period that closes March 1, the aquaculture project, about 11 miles north of downtown Sitka, will be the largest in Alaska, where the average aquaculture site is five acres or less.
In a public presentation last March, Silver Bay Seafoods announced that its project was out for agency review, and said its oyster farm would create 86 year-round jobs at the site, and management and sales positions that would bring total employment to 100 within five years.
Clark Cox, regional manager of the Southcentral Regional Land Office (SCRO), a subdivision of the Division of Mining, Land and Water under the Alaska Department of Natural Resources, signed the preliminary approval on January 18 and notified “interested parties,” including the City and Borough of Sitka, on Jan. 25.
Notice to the general public was a line on the state’s Online Public Notice System, https://aws.state.ak.us/OnlinePublicNotices/Notices/View.aspx?id=192829, and “the post offices at Sitka, Angoon and Kake.” The 31-page preliminary decision document is available through a link at the online site.
The preliminary approval is for a 10-year lease of the Krestof property to Silver Bay Seafoods LLC at $14,690 per year, with a number of conditions, including protection against invasive species, proper disposal of waste, minimizing impacts on marine mammals and other wildlife, and “minimal impact on existing uses.”
The Silver Bay Seafoods announcement of its aquaculture venture at Krestoff Sound last March was part of a presentation sponsored by the Alaska Fisheries Development Foundation, a private fishing industry organization.
A map of Krestof Sound shows the area of a proposed oyster farm. (Graphic reference from Google Map)
Foundation director Julie Decker is a member of the Alaska Maritime Task Force created in 2016 by Gov. Bill Walker, and which developed the “Alaska Mariculture Development Plan.”
Decker said guiding principles of the state mariculture development plan include “coordination and commitment of time and resources from local, state, federal and tribal governments, industry, communities, the University (of Alaska) and other interested stakeholders.”
Another, she noted, is “to protect existing marine uses such as subsistence, commercial fishing and recreation . . .”
The 19 “agencies” that are listed in the preliminary approval document as being “included in the review” of the Silver Bay application include the City and Borough of Sitka, the U.S. Coast Guard, the U.S. Forest Service, NOAA, DEC Shellfish, the U.S. EPA, ADF&G Aquatic Farm Coordinator, and various divisions of the Alaska Department of Natural Resources.
Comments from those agencies and the Southcentral Regional Land Office response to each of the comments, including 14 from the City and Borough of Sitka, are included in the preliminary approval document. The SCRO response to one of the city’s concerns, about “elimination of, or impacts on, alternate uses of the site and surrounding areas, including recreation, tourism commercial uses and subsistence,” include three mentions of “The Public Trust Doctrine,” which guarantees public rights to existing uses of public lands and waters around private holdings granted by the government.
No educational, tribal or environmental organization is in the list of 19 agencies that SCRO says were invited to comment on the aquaculture proposal, and the preliminary approval document has no comments from those sources.
The preliminary decision document says the Silver Bay lease application is “for the purpose of an aquatic farm consisting of one parcel to be used for the installation of 22 convoy systems of grow-out rafts and trays to cultivate Pacific oysters.”
The discussion section of the document says “the rafts will be tended regularly using a shellfish tender designed for oyster farming using rafts and cages. The shellfish tender will operate out of Sitka daily and there will not be a need for an overnight facility at the leasehold.”
The document states that only agency and public comment received at the Anchorage SCRO office by 5 p.m. March 1 will be considered in the final decision on approval.
“The proposed aquatic farmsite operation must be in the overall best interest of the state before an authorization may be issued,” the preliminary decision document states in the “Lease Discussion” section.
It says the final decision to execute the lease will be made by SCRO regional manager Clark Cox, and that “only those who comment and the applicant have the right to appeal the Final Finding and Decision.”
The address for comments is Department of Natural Resources, Southcentral Region Office, attn: Karen Cougan 5550 West 7th Ave., Suite 900C, Anchorage AK 99501-3577, or email: karen.cougan@alaska.gov.
