Brian Herman, owner of Canoe Lagoon Oysters, didn’t attend last month’s Mariculture Conference of Alaska in Anchorage. He was busy at work.

Last year, he shipped out about 110,000 oysters raised at his farm 30 miles south of Wrangell on the Blashke Islands. This year he expects to more than double that volume.

“There is a ton of growth potential,” Herman said. While the in-state market “is fairly well tapped … shipping to the Lower 48 is a completely untapped market.”

And that’s where he focuses his efforts. “I have inquiries every month about our oysters.”

Anchorage restaurants and retail shops are served by oyster farms in Homer and Kodiak, he said. Prince of Wales Island oyster farms sell to Ketchikan and Sitka.

Salty Lady Seafood operates an oyster farm about 35 road miles north of downtown Juneau, covering that market.

Herman sees his market in the Lower 48. The cost of shipping oysters south by air freight is about the same as shipping within Alaska, he said.

He uses shipping boxes, lined in insulating foil, a little smaller than a standard fish box, and can average about 20 dozen oysters in a box, allowing room for gel packs to keep the live seafood cold.

He sends out everything aboard Alaska Airlines, either in the cargo hold of the afternoon southbound passenger flight or the weekly freighter.

“They got to go fresh,” and reach the restaurant within three days of harvest, Herman said.

Canoe Lagoon sold 110,000 oysters in 2025 and is looking to sell 250,000 to 300,000 this year.

“We are on track right now to do 240,000 to 250,000,” he said, expecting to ramp up the harvest mid-simmer.

Demand far exceeds his production capacity, Herman said. He has been building up production since buying the operation in 2020.

One limiting factor is weather. Not so much on the oysters, which grow in submerged "float bags" in the lagoon, feeding on the environment's micronutrients, but on Herman’s ability to safely run his boat to Blashke to pick up a load for sorting, packing and shipping back at his downtown Wrangell shop.

He sorts the oysters by size, using the conveyor-belt contraption that’s visible through an interior window of the Canoe Lagoon retail store.

Herman said he expects to miss about four weeks of harvest runs every year due to weather, but this year he already has missed eight or nine weeks due to lousy boating weather.