Fishery Industrial Technology Center
The Fishery Industrial Technology Center (FITC), located in Kodiak, is part of the School of Fisheries and Ocean Sciences. FITC is dedicated to contributing scientific and technical expertise to harvesting and processing efforts of the Alaska seafood industry and to fostering the prudent utilization of our marine resources. The center's activities include the education program, with courses offered at the graduate level; the service program, working with those in the Alaska seafood industry, and research. The sustainable harvesting program is research based on analysis of issues pertinent to the harvesting sector of the seafood industry such as Steller sea lions and essential fish habitat. The seafood processing program at FITC focuses on issues such as greater utilization of Alaska's seafood harvest, as well as issues of food safety and quality. FITC's faculty have expertise in the areas of fisheries, oceanography, physiology and nutrition, food chemistry, food microbiology, seafood processing, seafood resource economics and seafood engineering. In order to tap these resources for graduate students within the university system, the School of Fisheries and Ocean Sciences offers graduate courses in seafood science and nutrition as well as interdisciplinary graduate degrees.