Juneau firm testing fishing boats as tidal platforms wins patent for anchoring system

Sitkana, Inc., the Juneau company testing idle Alaska fishing vessels as tidal platforms, won a patent Tuesday, Aug. 18, targeting cable twisting, a hurdle the company says has hindered tidal generators in deep fjords.

Patent 12,709,853 names Sitkana founder and chief executive Lance D. McMullan of Seattle as inventor. It describes a buoy carrying a swivel joint, a rigid arm and a slip ring, a rotating electrical contact that keeps current flowing while the hardware turns. The submerged generator pivots as the tide reverses without twisting the line to shore.

The patent's background claims at least 21 U.S. sites, mostly fjords from Washington to Southeast Alaska, hold 270 terawatt-hours a year, worth roughly $26 billion, none of it harvested. A patent certifies novelty, not market size.

Sitkana, founded in 2021, holds a DOE grant with Sandia National Laboratories as partner. The DOE says tidal technologies remain early-stage, facing high costs and harsh conditions.

The Alaska Longline Fishermen's Association warns devices could displace fishing grounds; the patent names no deployment site. Neither speaks in the record reviewed here.