Return to Moss Island
Roxy Reynolds’ Alaska Sea Grant Mariculture Summer Apprenticeship was a homecoming in the most literal sense.
Reynolds apprenticed at the Moss Island Oyster Farm, a Kachemak Bay enterprise founded by her grandparents. Growing up in Anchorage, she had spent parts of her summers at the farm, helping with chores like sorting oysters and lacing nets. It fostered a lifelong fascination with both the outdoor lifestyle and the oysters themselves.
“It’s just intriguing as a young kid to see the whole process, to see the oysters as little tiny babies and then see them as they grow,” she said. “It’s mind-boggling to look at that and say, wow, this is something that we grew, and it took three years to get this one oyster that I’m going to eat.”
Reynolds’ grandparents eventually sold the farm to one of their workers, Sean Crosby. Meanwhile, Reynolds left the state to earn a bachelor’s in environmental studies from Cal Poly-Humboldt, then spent three years as a scuba instructor and marine educator on Catalina Island. But her mind never strayed far from Kachemak Bay, and when she learned about the Alaska Sea Grant mariculture apprenticeships (see sidebar, below) she jumped at the unique opportunity.
“A lot of these oyster farms, it’s one person or a couple that are running them, and a lot of times they don’t hire outside help,” she said. “So to find a job on some of these farms is kind of a difficult thing.”
Reynolds actually spent her 10-week internship splitting time between Moss Island, now owned by Crosby, and nearby Otter Rock Farm, owned by Curtis and Sirpa Merz. She performed a variety of tasks at the farms, including sorting, washing and cleaning oysters, lacing nets, and conducting water and plankton sampling, and also spent one day a week manning the Kachemak Shellfish Growers Co-op retail shop on the Homer Spit. She called the summer a phenomenal learning experience.
“I don’t even know if I could put into words how much this has meant to me and how much I’ve learned,” she said. “I went into it thinking that I knew quite a bit—I’ve done reports on mariculture for school, and grew up hearing about it from my grandparents. But I had no idea how much work actually went into it.”
She said a number of aspects of the apprenticeship surprised her. For one, the work proved more physically demanding than she expected, often leaving her wiped out at the end of the day. She also didn’t anticipate the two farms to be particularly distinct from one another, but she found they differed in many respects, like their sorting and cleaning methods and their use of cages versus lantern nets. Most significantly, she was surprised by how intricate and rigorous a pursuit mariculture is.
“You’re not just throwing oysters in a net, closing it and saying, okay, I’ll see you in a year,” she said. “They do water testing. They do plankton monitoring to see if there are any harmful algal blooms. They send off samples to get tested to make sure that the oysters are at a safe temperature. There are all of these little things that I had no idea that they do.”
The apprenticeship came at a significant time for Reynolds, who finds herself at a career crossroads. The 26-year-old aspires to attend graduate school to further her study of marine science, but she wants to make mariculture a part of her long-term plans as well.
“I could for sure see myself studying mariculture or doing more research projects, or helping out with oyster farming and mariculture in the future,” she said. “I do really care about it and I do have a passion for it, and this summer has definitely helped me figure that out.”
Mariculture apprentices learn on the job
Mariculture is growing in Alaska, and the workforce needs to grow with it.
That’s the motivation behind Alaska Sea Grant’s Mariculture Summer Apprenticeships. The program matches aspiring mariculturalists with kelp and oyster businesses across the state, enabling the apprentices to gain job skills and experience in the industry.
“There’s definitely a workforce shortage in mariculture operations in the state,” said Alaska Sea Grant Shellfish Mariculture Specialist James Crimp, who is in charge of the program. “We have heard repeatedly from mariculture operators that they need help finding skilled, motivated workers to fill positions at the farms, and especially to take up more leadership positions.”
Crimp said the effort is modeled on a successful apprenticeship program in Maine. Alaska Sea Grant solicits applications from both prospective apprenticeship hosts and prospective apprentices. The organization vets both and provides the apprenticeship applicants’ details to the hosts, who then contact and hire apprentices for a four-to-10 week stint.
“Mariculture is one of those industries where it’s really hard work… you have to get up early, often go out in inclement weather, work your butt off all day long,” Crimp noted. “But at the same time, the people that end up doing it can just really love it. One of the cool things about apprenticeships is they really help connect applicants with farms.”
The apprenticeships offered this summer drew immediate interest, drawing applications from 15 prospective hosts and more than 30 prospective apprentices for a total of nine slots. The selected apprentices hailed from coastal communities across Alaska as well as from out of state, while hosts included oyster and kelp farms in locations around Cordova, Homer, Prince of Wales Island and Juneau.
The apprenticeships were supported by the Alaska Mariculture Cluster, which is funded by a $49 million grant from the U.S. Economic Development Administration’s Build Back Better Regional Challenge. Crimp said he hopes to continue the program in 2027 pending funding, and that prospective applicants should keep an eye out for more information toward the end of 2026.
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