OceansAlaska
Nonprofit profile at a glance
- EIN
- 943194998
- IRS 990 coverage
- 2015–2024
- Official website data refreshed
- Sep 2026
- Forms available
- Form 990 2024
- Location
- Ketchikan, AK, USA
- Phone
- 9072259688
- Rating
- 77
- Verdict
- SUPPORTED
- Rating confidence
- Moderate
- Sector
- Zoo, Zoological Society
Reported finances
- Revenue
- $307,584
- Expenses
- $421,290
- Assets
- $2,932,702
- Liabilities
- $957,733
Source: IRS Form 990. Selected filing: tax year 2024. Amounts in USD.
Leadership & pay
5 people listed
Executive titles in this filing
- Hitomi Marsh (President/Director)
- Quentin Fong (Vice President/Director)
People named in this filing
- Hitomi Marsh (President/Director)
- Eric Wyatt (Treasurer/Director)
- Quentin Fong (Vice President/Director)
Selected names, not a complete roster or a statement of current roles. Open leadership details for the complete filed list.
Source: IRS Form 990. Selected filing: tax year 2024. Names and roles reflect this filing, not necessarily current officeholders.
Overview
Mission
OceansAlaska is dedicated to advancing sustainable mariculture in Alaska through shellfish hatchery operations, hands-on training workshops, and community-driven seaweed demonstration projects.
What it reported doing in 2024
Maintainence of a mariculture research and facility float.
Operating model
- Revenue model
- Grant-funded. 88% of the money available for current operations came from government grants.
- Distribution model
- Direct operator. The filing allocates 100% of reported program-service expenses outside its grant, affiliate-payment, and member-benefit lines. This expense classification does not rule out separately announced grant awards.
The verdict
SUPPORTED - A large share of available resources goes toward mission work and the filed numbers largely add up. Some filing-based governance responses are negative or unanswered and expenses are high relative to revenue.
Rating breakdown
- Financial Efficiency: 76
- Transparency & Controls: 90
- Accountability: 76
- Sustainability: 39
- Growth: 40
Detailed rating inputs
Financial Efficiency
- Mission deployment rate: 95%; rating input score 95
- Program expense ratio: 69.4%; rating input score 69
- Fundraising efficiency: Limited
Transparency & Controls
- Consistency checks: 100%; rating input score 100; 64th percentile among comparable filings
- Pay-setting controls: Limited
- Foreign activity oversight: Limited
- Grant itemization coverage: Limited
- Major donor itemization: Limited
- Related-party transparency: Limited
Accountability
- Independent voting board: 100%; rating input score 100; 63rd percentile among comparable filings
- Governance controls: 3 of 7 controls in place; rating input score 43
- Conflict-of-interest policy: Pass
- Whistleblower policy: Fail
- Document-retention policy: Fail
- CEO compensation review process: NotApplicable
- Other executive compensation review process: NotApplicable
- Form 990 shared with the board: Pass
- Board meeting minutes documented: Pass
- Audit committee oversight: Missing
- Independent financial-statement audit: Fail
Sustainability
- Operating margin: -37%; rating input score 8; 8th percentile among comparable filings
- Total-asset coverage ratio: 6.96; rating input score 85; 85th percentile among comparable filings
- Liabilities to assets ratio: 0.33; rating input score 15; 15th percentile among comparable filings
- Officer compensation ratio: 0%; rating input score 69; 69th percentile among comparable filings
Growth
- Program expense growth: -4.6% per year; rating input score 0; 18th percentile among comparable filings
- Revenue growth: 15.2% per year; rating input score 100; 82nd percentile among comparable filings
- Asset growth: -3.2% per year; rating input score 0; 14th percentile among comparable filings
Details
- What they do: 2 programs and campaigns described on the official site · 2 operating locations identified
- Where the money goes: 95% of revenue deployed · 69.4% of spending went to programs
- Governance: 5 of 5 board members independent · 3 of 7 filing controls reported
- Programs: 2 filed program accomplishments · $292K in reported program spending
- Leadership: top reported pay $0 · 5 people listed
- Consistency: 19 of 19 current checks pass
- Schedules: 3 filed schedules
- Filing history: 9 filing years from 2015 to 2024
- Contacts: How to reach this organization
- Grant readiness: Federal tax and exclusion status, award history, and grant-maker relationships.
- People: Everyone the filings name, and which of them the filings identify by more than a name.
Key Signals
Signals prioritize questions for review. They are not findings of misconduct.
- Moderate — Accountability: Governance controls: 3 of 6 not reported.
- High — Sustainability: Operating margin scored 8/100.
- High — Growth: Program expense growth scored 0/100.
- High — Growth: Asset growth scored 0/100.
- High — Sustainability: Liabilities to assets ratio scored 15/100.