Alaska seafood processing company Silver Bay Seafoods has been buying and processing salmon and herring at its plant in Sitka for the past decade, but is now considering a site 13 miles from Sitka’s harbor for a massive oyster farm.

Silver Bay has been working on securing a 10-year lease from the state’s Department of Natural Resources since 2017, and has created a proposal for what could be the state's largest oyster farm, Alaska Public Radio reports.

A public document shows the Southcentral Regional Land Office (SCRO) has made a Preliminary Decision (PD) to offer a 10-year lease to Silver Bay Seafoods, LLC for a 182-acre, more or less, site for the operation of an aquatic farmsite for the purpose of the culture and harvest of Pacific oysters.

The public has been invited to comment on and review the plan through March 1.