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Tempered optimism for industry is message of National Seaweed Symposium

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Story and photos by Judy Benson

UPDATED: September 2024 to include the report from the 2023 National Seaweed Symposium

With the seaweed industry as a relatively young sector in the United States, there have been limited opportunities to date that bring together the country’s diverse and growing seaweed expertise to focus specifically on the domestic sector. The National Seaweed Symposium has provided the space for this needed information sharing and collaboration. This report aims to document and advance the impacts of the 2023 National Seaweed Symposium.

Seaweed, said Keolani Booth, isn’t exotic or strange to the native Alaskan community that is his home.

A second keynote address was given by Briana Warner, chief executive officer of Atlantic Sea Farms, a Maine company that produces seaweed veggie burgers, seaweed salad and other edible products. While there is great promise for applications of seaweed in many different products, from nutrition supplements to fertilizer to textiles, she cautioned against exaggerating its potential benefits as an environmentally friendly crop that can help mitigate climate change.

“Where fisheries are diminishing, seaweed aquaculture represents a sense of hope and independence,” she said. “It is not the answer, but it is an answer. It is a way people can do something to make the planet a little better. But think about the harm we can do to our own industry by overblowing the potential of seaweed.”

Presentations on the first day of the symposium covered a broad array of seaweed-related topics, from nuts-and-bolts issues such as food safety, permitting and processing considerations, to cutting-edge research on different seaweed strains and novel materials for seed string. During a panel discussion, Joth Davis of Blue Dot Sea Farms of Washington urged his fellow seaweed farmers to consider themselves as part of the larger community where their farms are located, avoiding conflicts whenever possible.

“You have to look at working with the community where you’re going to be farming,” he said. “It’s all about your community and walking in the footsteps of those people who you’re going to be impacting. If you ignore it, you ignore it at your peril.”

Robert Pomeroy, UConn professor emeritus and fisheries extension specialist at CT Sea Grant, turned the discussion to the economics of seaweed farming with a presentation of a business planning tool for growing kelp, the most common seaweed type raised through aquaculture. The computer-based tool, which he has been developing over the past three years with Tammy Warner, professor of management at Keene State University, is near completion. During a Seaweed Showcase event the next day, he and Warner demonstrated the tool in one-on-one meetings with prospective farmers.

“We’ll be doing a lot of training on this with our Sea Grant partners to show them how to use it,” Pomeroy said. “We’ve developed it to be very user friendly.”

The showcase, which featured numerous vendors of seaweed products – from animal feed to artwork to cosmetics and granola bars – came at the end of a day of field trips to local seaweed farms, a culinary demonstration featuring seaweed, and Portland’s working waterfront.

Highlighting the third day of the conference were talks about what the future might hold for the seaweed industry. Jessica Chalmers, co-founder of Everything Seaweed, talked about her company’s plans to build a bioengineering facility to turn seaweed into biodegradable microfiber textiles. Ocean’s Balance Chief Executive Officer Mitch Lench said his firm is investing in a “gargantuan” dehydrator for kelp that he envisions will be used by many independent seaweed harvesters.

“It’s been the big bottleneck in the industry,” he said, referring to the lack of processing facilities for seaweed. “This equipment will be able to dry 30,000 pounds per day.”

A third entrepreneur, Julia Marsh of the California-based company Sway, held up sheets of transparent film made of seaweed, one of the compostable plastic alternative products her company manufactures.

A major announcement came from Jaclyn Robidoux, marine extension associate at Maine Sea Grant and lead organizer of the symposium, of the “Let Seaweed Surprise You” marketing campaign, which grew out of the marketing opportunities work group formed at the first symposium. She showed logos and a marketing tool kit that will be used in the campaign to familiarize the public with seaweed and its uses.

The symposium ended with an international perspective on the seaweed industry, with speakers from Mexico and Denmark along with Nichola Dyer, senior advisor of the Global Seaweed Coalition. It has 1,000 members worldwide and has a mission “to support the safety and sustainability of the seaweed industry,” according to its website. The coalition is currently sponsoring 24 projects around the world, researching heavy metal content, nutritional value, safe post-harvest practices and other topics.

“We don’t want to hype,” Dyer said. “We want to make sure the message is one of enthusiasm and optimism and is grounded in science.”

Judy Benson is the communications coordinator of Connecticut Sea Grant.

woman holding a long piece of kelp
Seraphina Erhart, whose family started Maine Sea Coast Vegetables 50 years ago, shows a ribbon of wild kelp she harvested that morning at the culinary demonstration.
Keolani Booth shared a jar of dried seaweed he harvested to sprinkle on salad at the lunch buffet.
Keolani Booth, who gave one of the keynote addresses, shared a jar of dried seaweed he harvested to sprinkle on salad at the lunch buffet after his talk.
attendees of the symposium look at posters and network
Dozens of vendors displayed products using seaweed, from cosmetics to animal feed to artwork.
Anoushka Concepcion giving a talk
Anoushka Concepcion started the symposium with a summary of progress since the 2020 symposium.
attendees at the symposium
About 250 people attended the symposium, a sharp increase over the first symposium in 2020 that demonstrates growing interest in seaweed.
woman samples several different types of dried seaweed.
Participants in the culinary workshop sample several different types of dried seaweed.
Brianna Shaughnessy samples one of the dishes prepared with seaweed at the culinary workshop.
Brianna Shaughnessy, aquaculture literacy coordinator with NOAA, samples one of the dishes prepared with seaweed at the culinary workshop.
The "Let Seaweed Surprise You" marketing campaign includes a toolkit that is being made available to seaweed businesses.
The “Let Seaweed Surprise You” marketing campaign includes a toolkit that is being made available to seaweed businesses.
Tammy Warner demonstrates the tool to a prospective farmer at the Seaweed Showcase.
Tammy Warner, who developed a business planning tool for growing kelp with CTSG’s Robert Pomeroy, demonstrates the tool to a prospective farmer at the Seaweed Showcase.
Mary Jameson displays pottery, cards and prints with seaweed designs during the showcase.
Mary Jameson, artist with Saltwater Studio of Newport, R.I., displays pottery, cards and prints with seaweed designs during the showcase.
speaker at the event
Jaclyn Robidoux of Maine Sea Grant, lead organizer of the symposium, announced the “Let Seaweed Surprise You” marketing campaign on the final day of the event.
Nichola Dyer speaking at the symposium
Nichola Dyer, senior advisor of the Global Seaweed Coalition, shared an international perspective on the industry.