March 22, 2007

 

Alaska-based Icicle Seafoods draws flak for buying fish farm

 

 

Icicle Seafoods, a seafood company in Alaska surprised the fishing industry in the state by announcing it has bought fish farms in Chile.

 

While the move would not have raised eyebrows in other states, Alaska has spent millions promoting its wild caught salmon in recent years and Icicle was a homegrown company that has so far sold only wild caught salmon.

 

Don Giles, president and CEO of Icicle Seafoods said he is not trying to sell fish farming to Alaska fishermen. However, he reminded them that the farmed industry here to stay.

 

To be involved in both makes the state a better, more diversified supplier, Giles said.

 

Fish farming is not new to the company. It had a partnership in the '90s with another Chilean company to market farmed salmon.

 

The company's ownership of the fish farm is sparking worries in the state that fishermen would become redundant as more companies shift into fish farming.

 

Others see it as a wake-up call. Bobby Thorstenson Jr. president of the fishermen's advocacy group United Fishermen of Alaska said the only way to handle the situation is for the industry to become more competitive and more efficient

 

Alaska's share of the world's salmon market plummeted from 95 percent twenty years ago to roughly 12 percent currently as salmon farms sprouted all over the world.

 

Farmed fish production overtook wild Alaska salmon production in 1991, according to a recent report on changes in the industry.

 

The report found that the rapid growth in farmed salmon has dramatically changed the industry, which has, in turn, raised several questions about how wild salmon can stay competitive.

 

The seafood market, like the beef industry, is diverging. Alaska's more expensive wild fish appeals to the upscale market and it would be what fishermen are hoping to cash in on.

 

The timing of the Icicle announcement coincided with a proposal by the Bush administration to help expand fish farming.

 

The federal government plans to make it easier for companies to start fish farming plants in federal waters, a move strongly opposed by Alaskan fishermen.