Week 1: How to Start a Kelp Farm: Guided Course & Community
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Join this discussion if you are part of the How to Start a Kelp Farm Guided Course and Community. (To learn with us, register here.)
In response to this week’s live speaker session, we’d love to know more about you:- Why are you drawn to ocean farming?
- What lessons did you take away from the farmer stories you heard?
Feel free to share any other thoughts about this week’s course. (See the full course program.)
Be in touch!
-Lindsay
@lindsay_olsen
I'm excited about the course. I'll admit that this is very much an exploratory course for me, I am engaged and interested to learn more and to get a more informed understanding of whether kelp farming could be a viable career option for me.
I'm currently based in the very SW corner of British Columbia.
@ivar_vasara Nice to meet you Ivar, I hope the course gets you closer to the answer!
I'm an ecologist who wants to do applied work that helps to solve the big environmental challenges we face. I'm also concerned with human health and nutrition and want to help work towards solutions. Aspects of ocean farming address both of these desires and would be a great application of my skills!
Lesson take-aways I learned from the farmers:
@kristen_demoranville Interesting points, Kristen! I would say yes, definitely to entrance into the industry being very localized based on local markets and permitting sphere. And interesting you brought up wind. I was just talking to Bren this morning about how the kelp industry moved very slowly like solar, whereas wind came up to speed exceptionally fast. We were ruminating on how kelp could take lessons from that space.
@lindsay_olsen
I have grown up with most of my life either in or near the ocean. I currently work in the sustainability space and have worked on commercial carbon capture investments through kelp and wanted to see more about kelp farming. I also read Bren's book and wanted to learn more about kelp farming as I explore job opportunities.
Lessons:
@julia_jaynes Thanks for joining, Julia! Curious to hear if there were any successful outcomes from your projects on commercial carbon capture. I know this is a space that a lot of farmers are interested in exploring, but to date hasn't really come to fruition.
@lindsay_olsen Why am I drawn to kelp farming - I currently work in corporate sustainability, but I have a background in biochemistry research (some experience in carbon capture research) and exploring opportunities for a career change into something more purposeful. I'm a lifelong New Englander (NH and CT), I love the ocean, I just find regenerative ocean farming so promising and fascinating. I first heard Bren on a podcast and was blown away by the speed of kelp growth and potential for carbon capture, food, materials, etc.
Key takeaway - I think realistically my skills and knowledge are better aligned to hatcheries so looking forward to that course. Thanks so much!
@stacey_gifford Hi Stacey! Yes! We need more hatchery operators, especially in Southern New England! This is crucial for the development of the industry, and such an important skill. Please join us on February 1st for a Farmer Forum call on how GreenWave has improved on our kelp hatchery system -- hopefully you can meet some other hatchery techs from the region. (You can register on the events page accessed on the sidebar to the left.)
@lindsay_olsen I've spent my life in the restaurant industry, running my father-in-law's seafood restaurant on Long Island (the Lobster Inn) and then moving back to Oregon to open our own place in 2012. I'm also an avid fisherman, worked as a mate on a charter boat, and have some experience oyster farming. We sold our restaurant last year, and I'm eager to do something that allows me to be on the water while doing something tangible to help offset the damage we've done to this planet. Also the idea of using the ocean more efficiently and responsibly to help feed our population is extremely appealing to me.
@jonathan_berube Nice to meet you Jonathan! Are you looking to farm in Oregon? I know there's a growing amount of interest in the state. Hopefully the session on leasing & permitting when we hear from @mike_spranger in Washington can provide some neighboring insight into getting the regulatory ball rolling.
@lindsay_olsen
need to develop sustainable method of cleaning our waters via a workable model of kelp farming. Once implemented, a true win/win.
Certainly developed an enhanced understanding of the amount of work and effort involved in kelp farming. Need a deeper understanding to determine where and how I can get involved in a meaningful way.
Thanks for a great presentation
@brian_baldauf57 Thanks, Brian! Glad you're here.
@lindsay_olsen
drawn to ocean farming as a professional sailor, where some skills are translatable and some new skills need developing. Take always. Permits matter and take time to be done right with buyers lined up being necessary for a solid start. Scale matters. Value added approach may be necessary from the beginning, but engaging with other entrepreneurs in the local community might solve this. Thanks for the course. Look forward to the rest. Justin in Nova Scotia
@justin_davey Thanks for tuning in, Justin! Exciting to see more interest burgeoning in Nova Scotia, I'm aware of a few farms in your region. It looks like conditions are pretty well suited to good growth!
I'm drawn to ocean farming because it is the future of our existence, now supplementing and possibly in the future replacing forms of major land-based agriculture. There's no greater urgency for ocean farming than now. I liked learning about how today's ocean farmers come from various trades, and how their operations are leading to new marketing opportunities for them, even beyond seaweed-as-food.
@chris_dobmeier Hi Chris, yes, definitely. We see the development of non-food applications for seaweed as a critical part in building the industry and having a place to offload big quantities of kelp coming off ocean farms. Bio-materials or non-food use can also be more forgiving of bio-fouling or other aspects that may lower the quality of the harvest, giving the farmer an opportunity to salvage value from a subpar harvest.
@lindsay_olsen 1) Because I think I would be good at it. I love being outside. I love being on the ocean, I have no problems dealing with cold. 2) My takeaway that this is mostly for people who were already past the barriers to entry. Have docks, boats, lines etc. Appreciate the honest expectations, but not sure how relevant or... applicable some of the advice will be as its from someone who I could not follow as Im starting from a very different place.
@e_v Hi EV, thanks for your feedback. I realize that both Dave and Adelia come from marine backgrounds, but that definitely isn't the case for all the speakers in this course. Next week both farmers Sean and Tela started without a lot of ocean-experience. It is definitely a steeper learning curve and more expensive investment, but doable if you're dedicated! I encourage you to ask some of the other speakers for advice on coming from a non-marine background. I'd also reiterate Dave and Adelia's advice to try and job shadow or get a job working on a kelp or an oyster farm in your region to validate you enjoy the work before investing too much in your start-up costs. By no means is the industry limited to just folks who grew up on boats.
@lindsay_olsen great questions
I'm drawn to kelp farming because I am done dealing with humans (lol)
But really, I am looking for a new business that is far, far away from running a restaurant, which I currently do. I want to do something that actively helps the environment and that can be a calming, lonely place of work. I live in Texas on the coast (will have to build new methods for local species of algae, no cold water kelps), where much of the oil production in this country is done, and I want to be a part of the transition away from that kind of industry. I can see buyers for fertilizer and animal feed in my dealings with local farms in the area, and if the oil companies want to make bioplastics (as they currently profess) then they'll need to have some feedstock and I aim to be there when they need it.
I take away from the stories I heard today that my expectations should be lowered (check), that I shouldn't count on carbon credits (check), and that there is a wealth of people who want to get into this industry from across the world.
@sean_carroll Hi Sean, nice to meet you! Sounds like a laudable goal you have to make an impact on the Texas coast. You might track some of the action that's happening over in Florida. Florida Sea Grant hosted a webinar recently for shellfish farmers looking to diversify into algae farming, and there might be some relevant lessons to be learned there. You can also check out some of these old community threads for others interested in warm water species. Another cool organization in your region is Oyster South. They might be worth checking out for like-minded folks looking to revitalize the aquaculture industry in your region.
@lindsay_olsen I've been interested in this field since reading Bren's book Eat Like a Fish, I work in conservation now but it feels like a losing battle to climate change, whereas this is something that actually can move the needle the right direction. I was incredibly inspired and have been looking at it ever since.
From Adelia and Dave, I learned that there's a lot of factors that aren't easy when starting a farm, and having some fishing or prior shellfish farming experience is pretty essential to becoming an actual farmer. The good news is that there's a lot of need for other help in the industry at the moment particularly market development and other ways to grow the industry other than direct farming. Right now the main challenge seems to be getting the word out to the general public and different industries that may have interest in the product so that we can start integrating it into everyday life, as food on our table or as a feedstock for agriculture use, or in cosmetics and plastics. The more the better!
@devin_lee Hi Devin! Love your takeaways. Yes 100%. In fact, GreenWave has started really investing in the Market Development wing of our programming trying to do just that -- build the market for kelp by connecting buyers and farmers and educating buyers on the specifics of kelp. You'll hear more from that team and their work on the January 31st call!
@lindsay_olsen Hi! First I would like to give my compliments in the organisation of the first seminar, really well done, thanks.
I am drawn to ocean farming because of the need to find food alternatives/safe our climate. I also have an agricultural background and researched the growing and use of Algae for biofuel in 2007/2008. I am currently a teacher and would love to get my students enthousiastic about alternative farming methods.
The lessons I take away....there is no money in it...yet. Infrastucture is vital and authorities are not over eager to hand out permission. Also, experience is very important. I hope my agricultural background and being a sailor helps
I also used to work in the tobacco industry and I am curius if the drying processes of kelp are similar to tobacco?
Last question, is there a way to find out if there are any other participants from the netherlands? Would like to build a local community to do research to start farming here.
Thanks and kind regards, Bengt Liberg
@bengt_liberg Hi Bengt! Nice to hear from you and thanks for the great questions. I would qualify your statement to say there is some money in kelp -- enough to make it worthwhile for farmers who do it year over year like Dave and Adelia-- but you're probably not going to get rich doing this. You'll hear from a few larger scale farmers towards the end of the course too who run bigger operations. In some ways, scale is a solution to profit if you have a market to support!
Tagging my colleague @sam_gar here who actually did several drying trials drying kelp in unused tobacco barns in Connecticut! Definitely some parallels there. Regarding your request to find folks in the NL, you can try searching users by location in the community. On the right hand bar where is says "find people in the community" try typing in a country name to filter.
We are developing permanent liveaboard floating structures for open ocean use. Aquaculture is a top potential source of income for living on the ocean. Polyculture is a favorite for crop diversity and adding biodiversity in the ocean deserts, and regenerating dead zones.
Some idea of market conditions for kelp, a need for more uses for the product, and matching availability to demand.
@lindsay_olsen
Really enjoyed the first lesson session just now. This answer is a trick one for me as I do not live near the ocean and I fully realize the reality of not being an actual regenerative ocean farmer, having a boat, and leasing public coastal waters. I and my family are not in a position to move or relocate, however, we just bought some land and are looking at ways we can do ranching/farming in a different way. I am very new at the farming process so no lie there. I happened to come upon GreenWave through extensive searching online for unique, alternative, and/or sustainable farming methods and products. Seaweed immediately caught my attention. I have had it before and am aware of its immense nutritional value. I am older (related to what Dave said toward the end) and although I am pretty darn strong for my age, I know that both geographically and physically the reality is not there for being on the ocean all the time. That being said, I am very interested in starting a 'hobby' tank and attempting to grow kelp and maybe a few other normally sea-native vegetables in a large tank on our land. In addition to seaweed farming, I am very interested in rainwater harvesting so have been following and learning more about that in tandem with this course. I live in Texas, and as probably everyone has experienced or heard.....our last summer was extremely brutally hot. This is happening everywhere and Texas is not alone. I want to grow crops and transition from my previous career into farming. I am a retired IT geek that has taught both at college level as well as worked (or teched if you will) in the field for over 30 years. My hope is to learn, do, and maybe even make a little money in whatever endeavors we travail over the next few years. But more importantly, I see this kelp community quickly building and bonding and maybe hope to become a part of it. I am taking this course to learn and then decide the next steps. Thank you and look forward to continued conversations and progress.
@patricia_nolan Nice to meet you, Patricia! I appreciate your frank take on your situation. Perhaps you could look to incorporating a seaweed based soil amendment into your on-land regenerative farming practices? There is a lot of promising research at the benefits to soil by adding seaweeds! Just a thought. Glad you're here.
@lindsay_olsen
I am drawn to kelp farming because of my personal interests and the legislative pressure happening here in New Zealand. I have a BSc in Natural Resource and Environmental Management from the University of Hawii at Manoa, Postgraduate Diploma in Wildlife Management form the University of Otago, and pursued my MSc in Zoology at the University of Otago. I currently live in a rural village on the South Eastern coast of New Zealand.
We are seeing changes like the Emissions Reduction Plan which insist on meeting zero carbon by 2050 and a 41% reduction in the transport sector by 2030. Because we are a part of the Paris Agreement and Jacinda has declared a Climate Emergency, there is a level of accountability with this new legislative change. Waka Kotahi is pushing for a major shift in infrastructure to electric vehicles which in a rural environment is unrealistic. This may reduce emissions directly in an urban area, but as an island nation we are geographically isolated. We would be required to import new electric vehicles (at carbon cost) and export waste (at carbon cost) which are not inclusive of the emissions reporting system. Our current grid system is also not capable of supplying energy at the necessary requirements. Evs also do not supply any real support to the agricultural sector which is the number one supplier of greenhouse gas emissions in NZ. Emissions are also only one part of the problem when considering climate change and environmental health.
I would like to grow kelp to produce biobutanol for use in light vehicles and also to supply to Greenfuels in Christchurch for their use in creating biodiesel. People could continue using their own vehicles with little to no modification, reducing considerable waste. A big discussion in NZ right now is green hydrogen. Meridian and Ngāi Tahu have finally selected Woodside Energy to begin developing the Southern Green Hydrogen plant. NZ has the potential to be the hydrogen capital of the world considering most of our energy is renewable and not nuclear. There are a number of contracting companies already beginning to convert their fleet to hydrogen, like South Roads. I can see biofuels as being a transitional source of energy for locals in NZ until a more realistic energy option is solidified.
I understand there will be considerable differences in priority, legislation, and the market when comparing NZ and the USA. However, I appreciate that this course is offered and the speakers are willing to share their honesty. A takeway from today's lesson has actually just been getting to better know who all of you are! Looking forward to the next session.
Thank you!
@jocelyn_lindner Nice to meet you Jocelyn. Exciting goals you have. It's been a pleasure to watch the industry start to take off in New Zealand. I hope you find some other dedicated and inspired Kiwis on the community.
@lindsay_olsen thanks for setting up the sessions! So what draws me to ocean farming, and what were my key takeaways? I'm not expecting anyone else to read this, but I look forward to reflecting on this myself in future
11/1/23 - North Devon, England.
I stumbled across seaweed after getting into a heated chat about carbon sequestration and rewilding with my girlfriend's dad, a dairy farmer. We agreed, after some back-and-forth, that planting forests on agricultural land isn't as sustainable or economically viable as most environmentalists say, so wondered where else this could be done. Could all that space in the ocean be a sustainable answer? Being a surfer, my thoughts turned to seaweed but we didn't know anything about it, or whether just "rewilding" the sea would help solve the problem.
Over the next week or so I couldn't get the idea of seaweed as a solution out my head. It might have just been the seaweed wrapped around my wetsuit all the time that forced me to look closer, but I'm glad it did. On researching "seaweed" at a high level, there was lots of hype and noise. It seemed, as with everything else, that it was the next craze, but that no-one knew what to do next. Moreover, it felt that you needed to be a scientist to have any real input, so I felt a bit stuck. In the end, after almost being done with the idea, Bren's book "Eat like a fish" came to my rescue. It completely transformed my attitudes, and I became hooked.
After spending most of my career producing international conferences, I'd become used to thinking that the world's most critical challenges needed equally complex and expensive solutions. Especially on climate change, it was easy to feel daunted and unable to make an impact, but here it was. Was seaweed was a grassroots solution that I could potentially be a part of? A chance to take my skills and appreciation for the water and have a real impact?
Since then, I've spent much of my free time trying to work out whether seaweed farming is viable for me where I live, in North Devon, England. The swell from Atlantic storms charges up the Bristol Channel here, creating a real hotspot local surfers who love a safer beach break. Its beautiful here, and looks perfect on its best day, but can also turn violent on a dime. All the energy from the ocean, the tidal range and extreme weather churns the bay into a frothing mess through the winter, which means that my first focus has been trying to work out if kelp even grows here and to what extent its viable to farm here. As luck would have it, clambering over the rocks, cliffs and tidal ledges led me to find some of the elusive sugar kelp I was looking for. Jackpot! But what next? That's why I couldn't believe my luck when GreenWave launched the hub last spring... time to learn!
Since then, I've been speaking to, pestering, charming and cajoling as many local stakeholders as I can to try and build a better picture of the existing ecosystem and to see what scope there really is to deliver seaweed farming here. The ecological to economic potential of North Devon, as one of the few areas in England that borders the Atlantic ocean, is huge, but its simply not matched by investment, interest or jobs opportunities here. With that in mind, my pitch has been simple. Is seaweed, the critical resource and unlock for the transformation and growth of the blue economy we're looking for?
For that reason, I really appreciated the candor of Adelia and Dave on the session. Seaweed farming will be hard, and that the cool-aid of passion and excitement I have must be laced with a shot of hard reality. Working in the sea through tourism and education, I feel I've a good basic skillset, but found it useful to hear some new ideas on how I might add to, and consolidate the skills needed. I found it useful to hear about how I could volunteer my time, gain experience locally and see where that takes me.
Finally, I also found it valuable to see Bren, Lindsay, Adelia and Dave reinforce the value of building a fully integrated business plan, one that looks to include hatchery (where possible), but also prioritizes processing dockside or as soon as possible, to ensure that the commercial value of the crop isn't just passed on to someone else. I'm under no illusions that seaweed won't make me rich, but its a useful point to consider just how looking to build a more integrated business might help support skills opportunities for others nearby too. If I can kick off the farm, and develop a market, there's so much more social, environmental and economic value that can be unlocked... fingers crossed.
So next step? Keep pestering people, and tune in next week to go through arguably my biggest question mark, site selection. Will the stormy mess near my house work? who are the key stakeholders I need to work with on developing social license? And how can I best even engage them?
Lots to do, but it sure is exciting isn't it? Kerr
@kerr_jeferies54 Really nice to read your thoughts, Kerr, and inspiring to see that you've been at this idea for a while and are undeterred. I applaud your efforts this far - starting something from scratch is no easy task. I'm sure you've come across them, but Car-y-mor, in your region, are a group of helpful and great folks. I hope that you can continue to draw inspiration from the course.
@lindsay_olsen thanks Lindsay, good shout, I'll check them out now! An excuse for a trip over the water to Wales as well
@lindsay_olsen Could you share the link to the replay of the first session? I found the first segment of the course material really well organized, engaging and mind-opening. For the live session, the frank insights and experiences shared from Adelia in Alaska and Dave in Rhode Island, as well as Bren's perspective on the promise and challenges of this frontier, equally pragmatic and inspiring.
So much of this whole space is surprising, from the basic logistics of growing kelp to the need to grow the entire value chain beyond just the ocean farmers to hatcheries, processing, distribution, marketing and industry support services.
More than anything, I sense that the interest and energy of the 1300 people who joined from all over the world augers well for the prospects of this becoming a catalytic community.
@jack_mason Thanks for joining, Jack! You can find the recordings of all the sessions at the course landing page here.
@lindsay_olsen
Greenwave inspired me originally. I stumbled across the name years ago and loved the idea of 3D farming for a more sustainable future. I suppose my love of the ocean and the idea of doing something profoundly different and environmentally ethical appealed to me too. It still feels strange to be so sure of this endeavour when I don't have any farming or aquaculture experience and hadn't until recently eaten much seaweed, I just had this overwhelming urge to pursue this as a career option and felt compelled to give it a go. I'm excited to see what the future holds for me in this new industry that, from the little I've seen, is already building and developing at a fast pace.
My thoughts on how to move forward in the industry were reinforced by Dave and Adelia's honest opinions of starting out. I recently came to the conclusion that I will need some hands on experience on a boat in the mussel or oyster industry, in the country and ideally region that I want to set up in. I expect this will take the best part of a year but also give me time to pursue permitting options, licences, boat handling experience, site locations and financing options. The biggest lesson I think I took away was, start small, take time to find my path in the industry and be prepared to do a bit of everything to further my own journey. e.g. be a farmer, hatchery tech, marketer, cook, packager, innovator and entrepreneur. Also, make friends and work together with like minded people to make the ride that much smoother.
@colin_wadeson Really nice to hear your thoughts Colin. Couldn't agree more with getting hands-on experience in the region you want to farm. That's the best way to build community and a network of farmers to support you on your own journey too! And yes, starting small is key, I think. Bren always says "you'll learn as much with 2 lines of kelp as you will with 20." Nice to have you in the course!
@ivar_vasara Nice to meet you Ivar, I hope the course gets you closer to the answer!
@kristen_demoranville Interesting points, Kristen! I would say yes, definitely to entrance into the industry being very localized based on local markets and permitting sphere. And interesting you brought up wind. I was just talking to Bren this morning about how the kelp industry moved very slowly like solar, whereas wind came up to speed exceptionally fast. We were ruminating on how kelp could take lessons from that space.
@julia_jaynes Thanks for joining, Julia! Curious to hear if there were any successful outcomes from your projects on commercial carbon capture. I know this is a space that a lot of farmers are interested in exploring, but to date hasn't really come to fruition.
@stacey_gifford Hi Stacey! Yes! We need more hatchery operators, especially in Southern New England! This is crucial for the development of the industry, and such an important skill. Please join us on February 1st for a Farmer Forum call on how GreenWave has improved on our kelp hatchery system -- hopefully you can meet some other hatchery techs from the region. (You can register on the events page accessed on the sidebar to the left.)
@jonathan_berube Nice to meet you Jonathan! Are you looking to farm in Oregon? I know there's a growing amount of interest in the state. Hopefully the session on leasing & permitting when we hear from @mike_spranger in Washington can provide some neighboring insight into getting the regulatory ball rolling.
@brian_baldauf57 Thanks, Brian! Glad you're here.
@justin_davey Thanks for tuning in, Justin! Exciting to see more interest burgeoning in Nova Scotia, I'm aware of a few farms in your region. It looks like conditions are pretty well suited to good growth!
@chris_dobmeier Hi Chris, yes, definitely. We see the development of non-food applications for seaweed as a critical part in building the industry and having a place to offload big quantities of kelp coming off ocean farms. Bio-materials or non-food use can also be more forgiving of bio-fouling or other aspects that may lower the quality of the harvest, giving the farmer an opportunity to salvage value from a subpar harvest.
@e_v Hi EV, thanks for your feedback. I realize that both Dave and Adelia come from marine backgrounds, but that definitely isn't the case for all the speakers in this course. Next week both farmers Sean and Tela started without a lot of ocean-experience. It is definitely a steeper learning curve and more expensive investment, but doable if you're dedicated! I encourage you to ask some of the other speakers for advice on coming from a non-marine background. I'd also reiterate Dave and Adelia's advice to try and job shadow or get a job working on a kelp or an oyster farm in your region to validate you enjoy the work before investing too much in your start-up costs. By no means is the industry limited to just folks who grew up on boats.
@sean_carroll Hi Sean, nice to meet you! Sounds like a laudable goal you have to make an impact on the Texas coast. You might track some of the action that's happening over in Florida. Florida Sea Grant hosted a webinar recently for shellfish farmers looking to diversify into algae farming, and there might be some relevant lessons to be learned there. You can also check out some of these old community threads for others interested in warm water species. Another cool organization in your region is Oyster South. They might be worth checking out for like-minded folks looking to revitalize the aquaculture industry in your region.
@devin_lee Hi Devin! Love your takeaways. Yes 100%. In fact, GreenWave has started really investing in the Market Development wing of our programming trying to do just that -- build the market for kelp by connecting buyers and farmers and educating buyers on the specifics of kelp. You'll hear more from that team and their work on the January 31st call!
@bengt_liberg Hi Bengt! Nice to hear from you and thanks for the great questions. I would qualify your statement to say there is some money in kelp -- enough to make it worthwhile for farmers who do it year over year like Dave and Adelia-- but you're probably not going to get rich doing this. You'll hear from a few larger scale farmers towards the end of the course too who run bigger operations. In some ways, scale is a solution to profit if you have a market to support!
Tagging my colleague @sam_gar here who actually did several drying trials drying kelp in unused tobacco barns in Connecticut! Definitely some parallels there. Regarding your request to find folks in the NL, you can try searching users by location in the community. On the right hand bar where is says "find people in the community" try typing in a country name to filter.
@patricia_nolan Nice to meet you, Patricia! I appreciate your frank take on your situation. Perhaps you could look to incorporating a seaweed based soil amendment into your on-land regenerative farming practices? There is a lot of promising research at the benefits to soil by adding seaweeds! Just a thought. Glad you're here.
@jocelyn_lindner Nice to meet you Jocelyn. Exciting goals you have. It's been a pleasure to watch the industry start to take off in New Zealand. I hope you find some other dedicated and inspired Kiwis on the community.
@kerr_jeferies54 Really nice to read your thoughts, Kerr, and inspiring to see that you've been at this idea for a while and are undeterred. I applaud your efforts this far - starting something from scratch is no easy task. I'm sure you've come across them, but Car-y-mor, in your region, are a group of helpful and great folks. I hope that you can continue to draw inspiration from the course.
@jack_mason Thanks for joining, Jack! You can find the recordings of all the sessions at the course landing page here.
@colin_wadeson Really nice to hear your thoughts Colin. Couldn't agree more with getting hands-on experience in the region you want to farm. That's the best way to build community and a network of farmers to support you on your own journey too! And yes, starting small is key, I think. Bren always says "you'll learn as much with 2 lines of kelp as you will with 20." Nice to have you in the course!
@lindsay_olsen thanks Lindsay, good shout, I'll check them out now! An excuse for a trip over the water to Wales as well
@lindsay_olsen
I am drawn to ocean farming because it has potential to enhance the ocean’s health and perpetuate the mindset that our industries and actions should be regenerative for this planet! The uses of seaweed are vast and could really help humanity be more in tune with the earth system. I envision a future where seaweed is part of food, energy, and materials solutions.
I really enjoyed Adelia Myrick’s presentation about her operation in Kodiak. She brought up really interesting points for farm site selection such as sloping and drift. Also, really drove home the advantage that those in the fishing industry already have due to their experience and existing investment in equipment.
I would love to know more about what happens after they harvest: Is another vessel contracted to take the product to the processing facility that is 8 hours away? Do they take it themselves on their fishing boat? I’d also love to know more about how they obtained their parent species (those that have to be within 50km) and seed string! These are such important parts of the process that I’ve struggled to comprehend on my own through readings and perhaps need to just hear the unique experiences of farmers in action! @adelia_myrick I'd love to know more if you're open to connecting!
@lindsay_meyer Hi Lindsay, Great questions and yes, I’d be happy to connect further. In brief, our buyer Blue Evolution has sent a larger fishing boat to collect our harvest, which they take all at once so far at our scale. There’s a lot that goes into getting the harvest done all on time in a very short (less than 24 hour) window. In the future we may be looking at doing this with our own boat but right now we don’t own one that is big enough to transport the harvest that far in bulk. As far as obtaining parent species, we have to get the permit from AK department of fish and game and then collect the sorous material ourselves with wetsuits and snorkels. We then send it to the Blue Evolution hatchery in Kodiak via float plane where they grow the seed string for us. When it is ready, we fly it again via float plane out to our site. It’s tricky because it needs to be outplanted very quickly so we have to time the weather window to be able to get it from the plane and outplant the same day. I’m very happy to talk to you about anything in more detail. Feel free to email me at adelia.myrick1@gmail.com. Good luck!
I am Mi'kmaq. As a Mi'kmaw woman living in Newfoundland, my life has been intrinsically linked to the ocean. The people I am descended from utilized the ocean in their transport, their subsistence, and their spirituality. These are just things we wish to continue to do.
Under the guidance of DFO in Canada and various politicians, Newfoundland has not fared well. The Cod Moratorium of 1992 was more than just an environmental and economic collapse - it was a cultural one as well. What we here in Elmastukwek territory want to do is create a polyculture sea forest that supports low-impact sustainable bi-valve and crustacean harvests as part of our band food security initiatives. We want to harvest the kelp for value-added products. But we also want to restore our natural fish nurseries, to adapt to the climate changes we see every day - the marine heat waves are changing how existing fish stocks are being managed, and current ocean-based aquaculture solves one problem but creates a host of others. Sea-level rise creates more coastal flooding, saltwater intrusion, and erosion.
Creating the sea forest now is what is best for my people and so far I'm very impressed by the work your organization is putting forth.
@lindsay_meyer Hi Lindsay, Great questions and yes, I’d be happy to connect further. In brief, our buyer Blue Evolution has sent a larger fishing boat to collect our harvest, which they take all at once so far at our scale. There’s a lot that goes into getting the harvest done all on time in a very short (less than 24 hour) window. In the future we may be looking at doing this with our own boat but right now we don’t own one that is big enough to transport the harvest that far in bulk. As far as obtaining parent species, we have to get the permit from AK department of fish and game and then collect the sorous material ourselves with wetsuits and snorkels. We then send it to the Blue Evolution hatchery in Kodiak via float plane where they grow the seed string for us. When it is ready, we fly it again via float plane out to our site. It’s tricky because it needs to be outplanted very quickly so we have to time the weather window to be able to get it from the plane and outplant the same day. I’m very happy to talk to you about anything in more detail. Feel free to email me at adelia.myrick1@gmail.com. Good luck!
@lindsay_olsen
Hi! My exposure to ocean farming so far has been through reading/following the subject (beginning with reading Bren's book) and discovering AKUA and their kelp based foods. My day-to-day work is as a camera assistant in the NYC film industry so I don't yet know what the next step is for me in this area but I'm naturally drawn to both sustainability and how that affects the food industry. I also have feelings of being disconnected to the natural world, especially living in a metropolitan area, so I'd love to find my way into learning in a more hands on way and being a part of a solution.
My big take away was the honest realities of working in an industry that is still trying to figure itself out, which I greatly appreciated. And that it's a process that can take quite a bit of planning and time to be up and running. Keeping those things in mind has helped me readjust my expectations.
Thank you for a great 1st week!
@lindsay_olsen I came across seaweed as a source of food a few years ago, as I was foraging for a fine dining restaurant. I instantly enjoyed the idea of being able to eat these vegetables from the sea. As access to land and freshwater is becoming harder, it seems like a great idea to expand our food resources to something that doesn't require any of those. I live in Australia, where the seaweed industry is still pretty non existant, although starting to pick up. I have been dreaming of starting a small operation, being harvesting at sea, on tidal rivers or on shore, have contacted the authorities to obtain permits and have quickly come across a lot of red tape that almost made me renounce to my dream. Your course is for me a way to see how people, in other countries and climate have overcome their own challenges, hoping to find there inspiration and a new burst of energy.
What I take from the first course is that even though there is a growing interest in seaweed farming, there seems to already be, in the US, an imbalance between the supply and the demand, with more producers than consumers; that kelp farming is hard and requires a lot of equipment and a wide range of skills; that it is not something that people to get rich; but is also immensely rewarding.
I really appreciated how well the first class was run, and how the hub and website are clear. Congratulations on all the prep work and thank you for putting together this course that can't be found anywhere else and offering it. It's quite special. I am looking forward to the next class!
@lindsay_olsen I was drawn to this course out of nothing but pure interest to see what it is all about. Working within an Indigenous organisation provide great insight into the impacts and affects this can have on our environment, that together with a strong connection to Sea Country, it completes a cycle for looking after what we have.
Learning just from the first session for me show that there is a lot to learn. Put aside the seamanship needed to operate in the environment, the ever expanding Seaweed industry is another big bucket of learning. Its a journey I am looking forward to and "diving in" (pardon the pun) with both feet first.