New video showcases how cooperatives support Alaska’s oyster industry

The newest installment of Alaska Sea Grant’s Meet Your Alaskan Farmer video series documents an exciting development in Alaska mariculture—the expansion of oyster cooperatives—with a spotlight on Alaska Oyster Cooperative on Prince of Wales Island. The video, filmed and edited by FeelReal Films, is now available online as a resource to illustrate the possible benefits of cooperatives for ocean farmers throughout the state.

“Cooperatives have potential to support growth of the oyster industry in Alaska, and the video helps tell the story of how they work,” explained Alaska Sea Grant shellfish mariculture specialist James Crimp. “We are happy to support the co-op model and to work with others in the industry interested in starting a co-op.”

Cooperatives are businesses that are jointly owned by individuals that use a product or service offered by that business. This model has a long history in Alaska, especially in rural areas, where community members have created cooperatives to access products and services that might not be offered otherwise. In the seafood sector, groups such as Seafood Producers Co-op in Sitka provide local processing for fishermen-owners while also ensuring transparency in the price they receive for their catch.

Getting oysters to market from remote parts of Alaska is a challenge to growth of the industry. Several groups of farmers have turned to cooperatives as a way to address this challenge. Kachemak Shellfish Grower’s Cooperative in Homer, founded in the early 1990s, is Alaska’s oldest oyster cooperative. Over the years, the co-op has grown and now provides its twelve owners access to an oyster nursery, wet storage, and collective marketing under the co-op’s “Kachemaks” brand.

Alaska Oyster Cooperative was established in 2009 and provides services to five farmer-owners in the Sea Otter Sound area of Prince of Wales Island. Together, these farmers share a dock in Naukati Bay and are in the process of leasing an adjacent plot of land. With funding from the USDA Southeast Alaska Sustainability Strategy, the Resilient Food Systems Infrastructure Program, and the Alaska Mariculture Cluster, the co-op is building infrastructure for oyster processing, cold storage, and packaging before their oysters are sent to market.

“Right now we ship one day a week. This increase in capacity will allow us to ship multiple days a week,” said co-op member James Greeley. “We will be able to hold oysters in cold storage, increasing the efficiency of my farm and all of the fellow co-op farms.”

The co-op believes this expansion will be key to growing oyster farming in the region, creating jobs while increasing food security for the island. Said co-op member Eric Wyatt, “This project here in Naukati is really a keystone of the Prince of Wales oyster economy.” Watch the video on Alaska Sea Grant’s YouTube channel. For more information, contact James Crimp.