Why Regenerative Ocean Farming?

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Historically, seaweed has been a provider for us.

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And so to be able to cultivate and harvest

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and restore seaweed in the bay goes along with our culture

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and with our traditions.

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I, I've been a, a commercial fisherman

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and, uh, a number of things where I

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made my living from the sea,

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and I really feel as though, well,

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this has given something back.

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There's one thing I kind of wanna do with my life,

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is I want to leave the world a better place.

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And, um, I think aquaculture's a great way to do it.

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This type of food production is, it's ultimately, uh,

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an ethical way to conduct oneself in a time

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of environmental crisis.

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So I'm just fortunate that, uh, the work aligns with that.

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Shellfish farming is really an incredible way,

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again, to produce food.

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I mean, you have these shellfish that are filtering up

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to 50 gallons of water a day.

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You're providing physical habitat for

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hundreds of marine species.

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You're supporting a local bluegreen economy.

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Uh, you know, the list goes on and on.

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And it's essentially, uh, you know, you'd be hard pressed

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to find, uh, an agricultural practice even, um, that

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has as many benefits and as few drawbacks.

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I don't, I really can't think of any drawbacks.

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You know, it's a completely echo positive endeavor.

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I spent my life on the ocean

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and I felt like I was taken from it a lot.

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So it feels good to try to

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Help. Kelp is

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not a small step. It's a vital step.

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It might seem small right now,

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but it is something that has to be done.

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You have to begin somewhere.

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And we feel really, really, um,

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that this is the right place to begin.

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We've, we've planted, um, the oysters and they've died.

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We've planted the, uh, clamps and they've died.

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So this, you have to get to the root of the problem,

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which is filthy water.

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And this is where it all begins, is with the cleaning

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of the water with this kelp process.

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So it's a tiny step right now,

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but it's, you know, we're going to do this.

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Yeah.

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I see a lot of potential in, in it,

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and I know kelps gonna grow amazing in Kodiak.

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I know, I, I see that, you know,

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we could create a real industry here.

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We have, we have the skills, um, we have the location,

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we have the infrastructure potentially.

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Um, so I, I don't know.

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I just, I just feel like it's, it's worth the effort.

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I, you know, grew up in these waters

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and, you know, I've had a connection to the ocean since, uh,

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since I was a, uh, a child.

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So that's why I went to school to be a marine scientist.

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I just wanted to be by the ocean.

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My other passion in life since I've, since my childhood,

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has been growing things.

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So I've always had gardens with my, with my, um, family.

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To this day. My wife and I were avid gardeners

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and when I first started thinking about aquaculture,

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you know, 20 years ago, I was like, wow,

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growing things in the ocean.

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That was like my two passions put together into one

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On a personal level.

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It's, it's a selfish, um, pleasure.

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It's, you know, I get to work on the water.

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It's something that I always love doing.

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And, um, I love growing food on the water.

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I love selling that food.

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I love, um, earning my living, doing that.

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And just the fact that I can spend a good part of my, uh,

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week on the water, uh, you know, without any other regard

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for anything else, just that, uh, that's extremely,

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you know, pleasurable and satisfying to me.

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Uh, I like the challenge of it.

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'cause farming kelp, everything's so new.

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Um, every year is different.

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There's new challenges all the time.

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And so I like trying to think those, trying to, trying

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to solve those problems, you know, coming up

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with something new, making it better

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uhtraining again next year.

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Um, so that's, that's kind of what keeps me coming back is,

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is figuring out something new.