By TOM MILLER
Daily News Staff Writer
A $300,000 grant for mariculture research, training and development of the
OceansAlaska facility received unanimous approval at the Ketchikan Gateway
Borough Assembly’s regular meeting Monday night.
The money comes from a FY2012 state capital budget appropriation. It is to
be passed from the borough to OceansAlaska, formerly known as Tongass Coast
Aquarium, to help the now-19-year-old nonprofit corporation purchase and install
equipment in its first building.
OceansAlaska has a site about 8.5 miles south of Ketchikan and a building
on a barge, ready to fit out with scientific equipment. The grant is to be used
to provide geoduck and oyster nurseries, trays, hoists, sorters, research tanks
and other lab equipment, according to borough information.
The borough has been seeking effective ways to support economic development
in Ketchikan.
Shellfish mariculture in Southeast Alaska has the potential to support 200 to
300 new year-round jobs, and could expand to a $31-million-a-year industry in
two decades, according to OceansAlaska.