Culture in the Far North

The first question is always the same: Isn't it too cold in Alaska to grow oysters? No, the truth is, oysters thrive in the nutrient-rich waters of Alaska's pristine coastline. However, Alaska waters are too cold for the bivalves to reproduce in the marine environment.

Alaska oyster farmers purchase seed oysters or "spat" produced by hatcheries and raised in nursery operations. Alaska's first shellfish hatchery opened in Seward during 1994 in experimental quarters and moved into a new state-of-the-art facility in 1998. Now there are shellfish nursery systems producing larger spat for growers throughout each of the state’s major growing regions.

Oysters have been farmed in Alaska since the early 1900s. Pioneering farmers planted beaches with seed oysters imported from Japan, but these operations were unable to produce many shellfish and died out by the 1950s.

The growing demand for high quality half-shell oysters resulted in the emergence of a new breed of farmer in the 1980s. Only four years after a new permitting system opened, the State of Alaska had authorized about 70 oyster farming operations by 1992. The new millennium found roughly 30 active operations producing and selling oysters.

At a time when the family farm has virtually disappeared from the American landscape, it is enjoying a resurgence in the remote bays of Alaska's long coastline. Most Alaska oyster farmers take an almost perverse pride in working hard to produce the finest oyster available on the half shell.