Sea Grant-NCCOS Alaska Mariculture Siting and Development Workshop

Date: February 19, 2025 (in person)

Location: Sitka, Alaska (Harrigan Centennial Hall)

Sponsored by National Sea Grant Office, NOAA National Centers for Coastal Ocean Science (NCCOS), Maryland Sea Grant, and Alaska Sea Grant.

Brief Workshop Summary

Mariculture impacts numerous groups, resulting in different perspectives on the growth of the industry, including the use of digital tools created to aid with the siting and expansion of mariculture operations. It is important to provide opportunities to deliberately connect and build capacity amongst different community members and groups and gather associated input and feedback to ensure these mariculture tools help improve sustainable mariculture growth in ways that meet different goals and needs. 

To achieve this, a two-hour interactive workshop was held during the Alaska Mariculture Conference and was facilitated by Maryland Sea Grant in partnership with Alaska Sea Grant and the National Centers for Coastal Ocean Sciences (NCCOS). During the workshop, participants voiced their opinions and provided feedback on mariculture siting tools and data, as well as defined how they want to be included in future tool improvements and developments. Specifically, participants explored potential opportunities to showcase the data gathered during the Aquaculture Opportunity Areas process beyond the site suitability maps for Alaska and learned about a potential collaboration with Alaska’s Mariculture Map tool. Afterwards, participants engaged in a series of small-group discussions to understand preferences for tool function, delivery, and assistance. Participants answered the following questions throughout the workshop:

• What are your initial impressions of the presented tool examples today? Discuss possible modifications, like additional data layers or other online mapping tools you would like to have?
• How do you see using the tools and data shared today in your day-to-day work?
• How would you like assistance with using these maps, data, and tools (e.g., manuals, video tutorial, one-on-one technical assistance, etc.)?
• Which user and/or community groups are not usually represented in tool development and why?

Workshop Materials

All participants were provided with a briefing book of workshop materials.

Post-Workshop Materials

A workshop summary will be posted in the near future.

For further questions, contact:

Maryland Sea Grant Aquaculture
mdsg-aquaculture@umd.edu