Products coming from Maine include kelp flakes, kelp seasoning and kelp burgers. Within the United States, producers in Maine dominate the seaweed-cultivation industry, holding 80% of the market, according to Liz MacDonald of Maine-based Atlantic Sea Farms, who spoke at the Juneau conference. Harvested seaweed from Asia goes into a variety of products – for industrial and agricultural use as well as well as for food. The global commercial industry, with an estimated value of $14 billion in 2020, is heavily dominated by Asian countries. Department of Agriculture for a mariculture incubator and processing facility to several million dollars appropriated by the Legislature to the University of Alaska for mariculture research and training.Īlaska is currently a long way from being the world’s seaweed-producing capital. Other investments range from $500,000 from the U.S. to settle government claims over the massive oil spill, has devoted nearly $32 million to mariculture research and development, focusing on the spill-affected Prince William Sound. The Exxon Valdez Oil Spill Trustee Council, the federal-state panel that administers money paid by Exxon Corp. Department of Commerce awarded $49 million to a “ mariculture cluster” of Southeast Alaska organizations for projects that include seaweed farming. Through the Democratic-backed American Rescue Plan Act, the U.S. Bill Walker and continued by Dunleavy set a goal for an Alaska industry generating $100 million a year in revenue in contrast, the nascent Alaska industry was worth only about $1.5 million as of last year, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.Īlong with the lofty ambitions, there are high levels of new investment. Mike Dunleavy said at the Juneau conference, an applause-generating line he has used elsewhere.Ī task force established by Gov. “I want to make Alaska the mariculture capital of the world,” Gov. (National Marine Sanctuary photo provided by NOAA) High hopesĪmbitions for seaweed cultivation and other forms of mariculture are high. Commercial seaweed production in the state has grown in volume from virtually zero in 2016 to about 650,000 wet pounds in 2022, according to the Alaska Fisheries Development Foundation. It is part of an expanding mariculture industry in Alaska that, until recently, was almost exclusively about oyster farming. Seaweed farming is a bright spot in an Alaska coastal economy roiled by climate change, habitat disruptions and uncertain fish returns. It’s good for animals,” Kirk Sparks, with Pacific Northwest Organics, a California company that sells agricultural products, said in a panel discussion at a mariculture conference held in Juneau in February by the Alaska Sea Grant program.īut before it achieves these broad benefits, Alaska’s mariculture industry must first address significant practical issues, including an American consumer market that has yet to broadly embrace seaweed. Seaweed farms can produce ultra-nutritious crops to boost food security in Alaska and combat hunger everywhere, and not just for human beings. To optimists, the plants that grow in the sea promise to diversify the Alaska economy, revitalize small coastal towns struggling with undependable fisheries and help communities adapt to climate change – and even mitigate it by absorbing atmospheric carbon.Ĭultivation of seaweed, largely varieties of kelp, promises to buffer against ocean acidification and coastal pollution, the promoters say. Hollarsmith/NOAA Fisheries, Alaska Fisheries Science Center) Tiffany Stephens, left, works at the Seagrove Kelp farm in Doyle Bay near Craig on April 14, 2021.
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