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Sea ice can be a major threat to your farm. The risk with sea ice is that the buoys of your farm can get frozen into the ice. As the ice moves over the surface of the water, it will pull your farm gear with it, causing your anchors to drag and the whole farm to “walk.” In serious ice conditions, some ocean farms have walked half a mile. Ideally, your farm is located in an area where sea ice is uncommon. But if you know that ice is a concern in your region, or if you’re having a particularly cold winter, you may want to take steps to prepare your farm to be ice-resistant.

The main strategy for combating sea ice is to reduce the amount of flotation on your farm that could catch in the ice. One effective solution is to switch out your buoys for oblong buoys called winter spar buoys. These long and skinny buoys are designed to allow the ice to flow around them without catching and dragging. However, spar buoys aren’t cheap. If you know your site is likely to see sea ice over the course of the winter, it may be worth investing in just enough to mark the ends of your growlines, and withhold flotation from the middle of your lines. As soon as the coldest part of the winter has passed, and your kelp starts to really grow, you could switch out your buoys and add flotation to the middle of your lines.