At the Alaska Mariculture Cluster (AMC) Governance Body meeting in January 2026, Alaska Sea Grant at the University of Alaska Fairbanks (UAF) presented on their recent contributions to AMC’s Workforce Development efforts. Their work has been instrumental in training Alaska seaweed and shellfish farmers, processors, and nursery/hatchery technicians through workshops, knowledge exchange programming, publications, and other educational activities.

UAF and Alaska Sea Grant’s approach to workforce development is highly targeted towards industry professionals, going beyond the typical university system that aims to introduce a younger student body to the industry. Their efforts also target the full range of the mariculture value chain from seed production at hatcheries to farming, processing, and business development. With support from AMC, UAF and Alaska Sea Grant are building Alaska’s much-needed mariculture workforce and encouraging cross-sector collaboration and innovation to accelerate industry growth.

As outlined in the slides below, 2025 was a productive year for the AMC partner:

These activities are funded through a subaward under the AMC Workforce Development component project. The funding (totaling $5.9 million) goes to UAF faculty members and staff based in Kodiak, Juneau, and Fairbanks and supports workshop and training costs, student internships, and purchases of mariculture equipment and supplies, among other items.

In addition to its workforce development subaward, UAF professors have applied to various AMC Request for Proposals (RFPs) and been awarded eight AMC projects, such as researching new methods for farming new mariculture species like dulse, abalone, and urchins. Read more information on these projects using the Airtable below, and find available interim and final reports on each project’s page.

 About the Alaska Mariculture Cluster

In September 2022, Southeast Conference was awarded a $49 million U.S. Economic Development Administration (EDA) grant to stimulate private investment and grow Alaska’s mariculture industry to $100 million in sales in 10 years.  The Alaska Mariculture Cluster grant involves a large coalition of state agencies, Tribes, non-profits, and others working together over a five year period ending May 2027.