With cold fingers, a team of seaweed farmers hauled in rope heavy with thick ribbons of sugar kelp from Legoe Bay on Lummi Island in mid-April. Later this year, the same anchor system for the kelp lines will be used for reef netting during the salmon runs as part of a plan to increase the economic opportunities at the site.
It was the first full harvest for Lummi Island SeaGreens as the first fully permitted commercial seaweed farm in Washington. The previous year, the operation was using an experimental permit issued by the state.
Gallery: Kelp harvest off Lummi Island
In Washington’s nascent aquaculture efforts, Lummi Island SeaGreens founder Riley Starks and his team not only have to determine how to grow and harvest kelp — a feat in its own right — but also how to process the seaweed and develop a market for the product.
“We’re just trying to figure out basically how to do what we’re doing,” Starks said.
After completing the arduous permitting process, one not designed specifically for kelp farmers, Starks is still learning by trial and error.
The first setback occurred two weeks after the gear was set when an island of bull kelp swept in and stripped off more than half of the sugar kelp seed line from the 350-foot grow lines. While bull kelp is also native to Washington waters, the destructive patch of wild seaweed would not have provided the same smooth texture and slight sweetness of sugar kelp.
Another major operational problem was with halibut snaps, used to connect the grow lines to the anchor lines, “self-destructing” at various times through the season, leaving Starks and his team chasing gear as it drifted down tide.
“Those are two things that we won’t be doing again,” Starks said.
Despite the setbacks, Starks said it was a good harvest. The team pulled in about 16,000 pounds of wet kelp by the end of April. The haul was then either frozen into blocks or dried to be used in a variety of products SeaGreens is developing, such as mixed spices and bath products.
Starks envisions a not-too-distant future where reef net fishers can generate a second, winter income by using the infrastructure and marine property for their sites to farm kelp. Reef net fishing, a traditional method in the region, uses stationary nets between anchored platforms to sustainably catch migrating salmon while minimizing bycatch.
At the moment, the numbers don’t quite pencil out. Within the global commodity market, the going price for kelp is about 6 cents a pound — netting SeaGreens harvest about $960.
It’s a price that Starks said “wouldn’t even pay for our seed.”
But SeaGreens isn’t trying to break into the international market, which is dominated by Asia-based companies. Instead, it’s focusing on bringing high-quality, sustainably grown kelp to regional restaurants and businesses.
One such customer is the Northwest seafood restaurant 84 Yesler in Seattle.
“We have a lot of emphasis on local ingredients,” said Christina Siegl, the restaurant’s executive chef and general manager.
Both Siegl and Sam Takahashi, the owner of 84 Yesler, joined the harvest at Legoe Bay this season. Siegl said she was “floored by the experience.”
In her test kitchen, Siegl is developing a seafood pasta with the SeaGreens kelp powder incorporated into the dough. She’s also used the kelp to make chips.
“It made these beautiful, almost crystal-clear, light-green-hued, crispy chips,” Siegl said. “It’s like every form I have kelp in is delicious.”
Kelp brings a significant amount of umami to any dish, but it also has saltiness, a fresh crunch and a bit of sweetness on the back, she explained.
“It tastes like the ocean but in a precious way,” Siegl said.
Kelp is also fundamental to dashi, a soup stock used in Japanese cuisine, explained Takahashi, who regularly pushes to incorporate traditional Japanese ingredients into dishes that will resonate with an American palette.
Takahashi pointed out that kelp’s uses go beyond a healthy option in the kitchen to being good for the skin, as well as other cosmetic purposes — a fact not lost on Starks, who has already created a bath product with his kelp.
After returning from a week-long kelp farming training hosted by the nonprofit GreenWave in Kodiak, Alaska, at the end of May, Starks noted a consensus among the 16 or so farmers who attended: the major hurdle facing the industry is finding a market for locally-grown kelp.
Nonetheless, Stark said, “It was very inspiring to be around other people who are doing what we’re doing, because we live in our own little world [in Washington].”
The first kelp farm in the U.S. was established in Maine about 15 years ago, while Alaska had its first commercial kelp farm up and running by 2016.
“We thought we were way behind,” Starks said. “But the fact is that we’re not late to the party at all.”
Starks said that SeaGreens was “ahead of the game” in some respects. The most notable of these was processing capacity.
While some of the first batches of kelp harvested were taken to Sauk Farm, SeaGreens ended up renting a chopper and screw press from a vendor in Florida to process the last of its kelp in house. The company has also rolled out a number of products, from kelp tea to spice mixes.
Starks also came back from the training with ideas on how to improve his own operation, including building a better system for harvesting. In Kodiak, they used a pontoon boat designed to allow the farmers to reel in the kelp lines and automate the kelp harvest — which SeaGreens did by hand this season.
Despite the market challenges and growing pains, Starks remains optimistic and committed to leading the charge in Washington kelp farming.
“Kelp is consumed all over the world,” Starks said. “It’s just about us figuring out the process.”
Isaac Stone Simonelli is CDN’s enterprise/investigations reporter; reach him at isaacsimonelli@cascadiadaily.com; 360-922-3090 ext. 127.
