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Protect Alaska's Wild Waters Before It's Too Late

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Sponsor: Free The Ocean

NOAA wants to open Alaska's waters to industrial fish farming — before finishing a single ecosystem review.

A humpback whale breaches the turquoise waters of a glacial fjord surrounded by snow-capped mountains.

The federal government is moving to open large stretches of Alaska's coastal and offshore waters to industrial-scale fish and shellfish farming. In early 2026, NOAA released a geographic atlas identifying potential aquaculture sites in the Gulf of Alaska,6 then launched a formal process to designate official Aquaculture Opportunity Areas for commercial development.5 The scale of what's proposed goes well beyond Alaska's existing mariculture sector — which, while growing, remains modest compared to other coastal states.4 This is a push toward industrial open-ocean farming, and it is happening faster than the science can keep up.

The Ecosystem Is Already Under Stress

Alaska's waters are warming, and the effects are measurable and growing. Harmful algal toxins — the kind that accumulate in shellfish — are appearing in parts of Alaska where they were once rare, driven by rising ocean temperatures.2 Those toxins are also moving into unexpected species throughout the food web, beyond the shellfish that are typically monitored.3 By September 2026, shellfish poisoning had spread to waters where coastal communities and Indigenous peoples have harvested for generations without that risk.1 This is the baseline condition into which NOAA now proposes to introduce large-scale aquaculture.

Industrial Farming Brings Its Own Risks

Open-water fish farming operations concentrate waste, degrade water quality, and can alter the seafloor habitat that marine life depends on. Disease and parasites from farmed fish can reach wild populations. Escaped farmed fish can compete with or interbreed with wild salmon — a species at the center of Alaska's ecology, economy, and food culture. Marine mammals and seabirds are drawn to aquaculture sites, and interactions there are often fatal for the animals. These are not theoretical concerns. They are documented outcomes from industrial aquaculture operations in other parts of the world and in other U.S. coastal regions.

The Review Hasn't Happened Yet

NOAA has not completed a full ecosystem impact review before moving forward with designations. There is no published demonstration that proposed Aquaculture Opportunity Areas will avoid harm to wild salmon, marine mammals, benthic habitat, or water quality. The agency has framed this process as a way to grow domestic seafood production — a reasonable goal. But the path forward matters. Fishing families, Indigenous communities, and the marine systems they depend on all carry the risk if this process moves too fast and gets it wrong. Once industrial operations are established and ecosystems are disrupted, recovery is slow and sometimes impossible.

What We're Asking

NOAA's Assistant Administrator for Fisheries has the authority to require that a comprehensive ecosystem review be completed and published before any Aquaculture Opportunity Area is officially designated in Alaska — and that no commercial development be authorized until that review confirms no significant harm to the species and habitats at stake.

Sign the petition now to demand NOAA put science first and protect Alaska's wild waters before opening them to industrial aquaculture.

More on this issue:

  1. Chris Bentley, WBUR Here & Now (24 September 2026), "As Alaska's climate warms, shellfish poisoning spreads to unfamiliar waters."
  2. Yereth Rosen, Alaska Beacon (26 March 2026), "Warming conditions in Alaska waters present a new food-safety challenge."
  3. Yereth Rosen, Alaska Beacon (26 March 2026), "As waters around Alaska warm, algal toxins are turning up in new places in the food web."
  4. Yereth Rosen, Alaska Beacon (24 March 2026), "Alaska mariculture industry, though dwarfed by those in other states, continues to grow."
  5. NOAA Fisheries, NOAA Fisheries (13 April 2026), "Identifying Aquaculture Opportunity Areas in Alaska."
  6. NOAA Office of Communications, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (19 February 2026), "New atlas identifies potential opportunities for aquaculture in Gulf of Alaska."

The Petition

To the Assistant Administrator for Fisheries, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA Fisheries / National Marine Fisheries Service), United States Department of Commerce,

We are writing to urge you to require a full ecosystem review before designating any Aquaculture Opportunity Areas in Alaska's coastal and offshore waters.

Alaska's marine environment is not a blank slate waiting for development. It is a living, interconnected system that is already under measurable stress. Ocean warming is driving harmful algal toxins into waters and species where they were rarely seen before, threatening both commercial shellfish operations and the subsistence practices that Indigenous communities have relied on for generations. Introducing industrial-scale aquaculture into this environment — before we understand the cumulative effects — is a risk we cannot afford to take lightly.

The ecological concerns are real and well-documented. Large-scale open-water fish farming produces concentrated waste that degrades water quality and disrupts seafloor habitat. Disease and parasites from farmed populations can spread to wild fish. Escaped farmed fish can compete with or interbreed with wild salmon, a species central to Alaska's ecology and economy. Marine mammals and seabirds are drawn to these operations, often with fatal outcomes. These are not speculative warnings — they reflect outcomes observed in industrial aquaculture operations across the world.

NOAA has framed the Aquaculture Opportunity Area process as a path toward greater domestic seafood production. That goal is understandable. But designating zones for commercial development without first demonstrating that those zones will not harm wild salmon, marine mammals, benthic habitat, or water quality is moving in the wrong direction. Once large-scale operations are established and ecosystems are disrupted, recovery is slow, costly, and sometimes impossible.

The people most affected by these decisions — fishing families, coastal communities, Indigenous peoples who depend on the sea for food and cultural continuity — deserve the protection of rigorous science before industrial interests are granted access to their waters. Compassion for those communities, and for the marine life that sustains them, demands a process that puts evidence first.

We ask that you require NOAA to complete and publish a comprehensive ecosystem impact review before any Aquaculture Opportunity Area is officially designated in Alaska, and that no commercial development be authorized until that review demonstrates no significant harm to the species and habitats at stake.

Taking this step will help ensure a healthier ocean, thriving wild fisheries, and a more secure future for every community and creature that depends on Alaska's waters.

Sincerely,

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