February 25, 2025 — A bill by Gov. Mike Dunleavy allowing fish farms in Alaska, which has banned them for the past 35 years, is getting a little bit of misunderstanding and a whole lot of opposition from legislators and interest groups, including some of his closest political allies.
House Bill 111 would allow inland farms for species such as tilapia, catfish and carp — but not for salmon, although some opponents of the bill are focusing on that species in their comments. In response, Dunleavy released a six-minute video on his YouTube channel Monday night defending his proposal.
“This bill does not allow the farming of salmon,” he said at the start of the video. “That is an iconic Alaskan species of fish, the five species of salmon. It also won’t allow Atlantic salmon to be grown in Alaska.”
“It allows mom-and-pop operations, families — whether you’re you’re in a city, you’re in a you’re in on the Kenai Fairbanks Matsu, or remotely — it allows you to legally be able to grow, for example, rainbow trout or Dolly Varden which, right now, there is no commercial fishery on that. There is no competition in terms of competing with our wild-caught salmon. But it will allow people to grow these, these, these fish in livestock tanks in their garage or livestock tanks out back.”