Alaska officials most likely could block the development of fish farms in federally managed waters far off the state's shores, a U.S. Commerce Department representative said Tuesday.

But the federal official said it was premature to say that Alaska definitely will have the power to prevent the farms. She said it depends on the final wording of legislation the Commerce Department expects to roll out in coming weeks setting up a "regulatory framework" for aquaculture development in the federal waters, which extend from three to 200 miles offshore.

"I don't know what's going to be in the legislation at the end of the day," said Linda Chaves, a senior seafood industry adviser in the National Marine Fisheries Service, a Commerce Department agency.

Under Alaska law, fish farming is banned in state waters, which extend from the beach to three miles out.

Many Alaska commercial fishermen and politicians including Gov. Frank Murkowski oppose placing fish farms in the more remote federal waters. Fish farming is legal there now, but federal officials say it's unlikely to develop without a law to smooth out how operators can obtain permits.

Noting that Alaska has the most coastline and the biggest commercial fisheries of any state, Murkowski has called for a five-year ban on new aquaculture sites in federal waters pending studies of possible harm to the environment and the state's wild fish harvests.

At a public meeting Tuesday at the Hilton Anchorage, federal and state officials outlined the explosive global growth of fish and shellfish aquaculture, and how the U.S. government hopes to regulate development of ocean aquaculture.

About 30 people attended the meeting, and nearly all who spoke took a dim view of fish farming, at least here. Some said farmed fish could escape from their cages during stormy weather and displace wild fish from spawning streams. Others contended that aquaculture could sink the economics of traditional fishing with boats and nets.

William Evans, a Copper River commercial salmon fisherman who came to the meeting wearing his rubber deck boots, summed up general sentiment in the room.

"I'm not particularly against fish farms," he said, "except in the state of Alaska."

But Chaves and other officials said aquaculture has great potential, if not in Alaska, then in other states. Domestic seafood demand far outstrips the supply from U.S. fishermen, and the difference comes from imports -- increasingly farmed imports, whether shrimp from Southeast Asia or salmon from Chile and Norway.

"One of the things aquaculture can do is reduce our reliance on imports," Chaves said.

Gunnar Knapp, a University of Alaska Anchorage economist and an authority on world salmon markets, said aquaculture is underpinning a healthy-diet protein revolution that could someday match the huge growth in chicken consumption since the late 1930s.

Regardless of whether Alaska leaps into the fish farming industry, the state's fishermen are going to feel heavy competition from farmers elsewhere, Knapp said. Already, salmon fishermen have seen the value of their catches plunge in recent years because of the huge output of salmon farmers.

But Knapp also noted that, despite its vast ocean exposure, Alaska might not be the best state for ocean fish farming. The state lacks roads, labor costs are high and Alaska is very far from markets, he said.

Alaska already is a major aquaculture player, producing millions of baby salmon in hatcheries. The fish then are released and grow into adults in the wild rather than in a cage.

Some people were skeptical Tuesday that Alaska officials will be able to block fish farms in federal waters.

"I don't see the feds giving the state of Alaska veto power," said Chuck McCallum, a Chignik salmon seiner and fisheries consultant for the Lake and Peninsula Borough.

Chaves said federal officials wouldn't permit fish farms in waters off Alaska if the state opposed them under the Coastal Zone Management Act, which coordinates federal and state objectives on coastal and ocean development.

Alaska's participation in the coastal zone management program, however, is in doubt. Last month, Murkowski threatened to pull out unless the Commerce Department drops new requirements that amount to "excessive federal intervention" in state management of coastal resources.

Another federal-state hearing is scheduled for Kodiak on March 17.

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Alaska considers extending aquaculture ban