Farmer Forum:

Nursery Operations

October 3, 2024

What’s your name? ��What’s your current role or interest in seaweed?��Where are you located?

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Intros

New Programming:

Regional Advanced Farmer Cohorts

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• Three regions:
• Cordova, AK
• Kodiak, AK
• Maine Family Sea Farms Coop

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• Provide support from seed production to stabilization

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• Distill lessons and replicate in other regions

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Agenda

• Nursery Resources on the Hub
• Updates from Nursery Operators
• Maggie Aydlett, GreenWave
• Nicole Potter, Maine Family Sea Farms
• Michael Mahmood, Alutiiq Pride Marine Institute
• Lexa Meyer, Alaska Ocean Farms
• Q&A

Maggie Aydlett

GreenWave Nursery

New Haven, Connecticut

Nursery Overview

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About your nursery:

• New Haven, CT - providing seed to farmers in the NY, CT, RI, and MA
• Cultivating sugar kelp
• 20 ft refrigerated shipping container envelope
• Can grow 76,800 ft at max capacity
• We have eight 60 gallon flow through tanks that can each hold 24 x 400 ft spools

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Tank Setup

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What’s Happening Right Now?

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• Currently finishing up seeding
• We have spools ranging from 1 week to 4 weeks old
• Collecting water 2-3 times per week

3 weeks

4 weeks

What’s Going Well?

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• The timing of our seed is on track with our target outplanting/distribution
• So far, we haven’t seen any signs of major contamination
• What we’ve changed:
• Water replenishment rate
• Cleaning/sterilization process
• Earliest outplant date

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What Challenges Have You Faced?

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• Water consumption and water treatment are our biggest hurdles now
• Currently testing out lower refreshment rates
• Have had contamination issues in the past
• Diatoms 2023-2024 season
• Bacteria 2022-2023 season

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Questions or Concerns

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• Contamination
• Sorus availability
• Water consumption and treatment

Michael Mahmood

Alutiiq Pride Marine Institute

Seward, Alaska

Nursery Overview

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• The Alutiiq Pride Marine Institute (APMI) is located in Seward, AK.
• This year I am growing Sugar, Ribbon, Bull, Split, Sieve and 3-Rib kelp.
• Kelp is grown on 15 in. spools with 200 ft. seedstring.
• Maximum capacity in a perfect world is 93,600 feet of seedstring total.

What’s Happening Right Now?

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• 57,000 feet of Sugar, Ribbon, Bull and Split kelp between one to four weeks old split amongst five farms.
• 16,600 feet of Sugar, Ribbon, Split, Sieve and 3-Rib that are one week old split amongst four farms.
• 16,800 feet of Sugar, Ribbon, Bull and Giant kelp that will be inoculated this week for two farms!

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What’s Going Well?

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• Many, but not all, farmers have helped with the cleaning and processing of the sorus tissue which has been a great help.
• Communicating early with the farmers has been a positive experience this year.
• Expectations of what I desire from the farmer and what they expect from me is clearer this year than in previous years.

What Challenges Have You Faced?

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• With the second and now third batch of kelp on the way I have barely been able to keep up with all the tank cleaning since we are still doing weekly tank changes as opposed to the new Greenwave protocols.
• I deal with this by trying to not get too overwhelmed by looking out my back door at Resurrection Bay and deep breaths. Also mapping out my tomorrow at the end of each day.

Questions or Concerns

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I would like to know how the other nursery operators are faring with the new set-up?

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Nicole Potter

Maine Family Sea Farms Nursery

Yarmouth, Maine

Nursery Overview

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• Location: The Boatyard, Yarmouth, ME
• Growing Sugar Kelp. Hoping to grow Skinny Kelp and Alaria
• Max capacity of seedstring: 48,000’
• Over tank lighting, 0.2um filtration, UV, and Ozone
• Test

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What’s Happening Right Now?

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• 1 week post release
• 3 out of 5 tanks. 4th tank prepped for spool seeding.
• Collecting more sorus for another release

What’s Going Well?

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• Teamwork, improved communication
• Surprise that things have been going so well
• Our communication has improved as we’ve navigated our day to day workflow
• Small equipment tweaks here and there as we find ways to improve while doing our day to day tasks

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What Challenges Have You Faced?

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• Finding and acquiring quality sorus samples
• Figuring out proper forms of communication across multiple people
• The protein skimmer
• To deal with these challenges we have done more note taking and posting updates in group chat
• Made adjustments to protein skimmer

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Questions or Concerns

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• Our question for other nursery operators is, will you be our friend and tell us anything you possibly could?
• Biggest concern for this season and upcoming years is the market for kelp
• Keeping a motivated and positive attitude during all of the challenges faced

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Lexa Meyer

Alaska Ocean Farms

Kodiak, Alaska

Nursery Overview

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About your nursery:

• Located in backyard in Kodiak, Alaska
• Growing sugar, ribbon, bull, split, and dragon kelp
• Max capacity of seedstring
• Shallow tanks, horizontal spools, overhead light, recirculating water within tanks

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What’s Happening Right Now?

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• Seeded all Sugar Kelp
• Collecting sorus and releasing the other species

What’s Going Well?

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• What have you been pleased with so far this season?
• What improvements have you made from past seasons?
• New spool winder
• Mini-split for temperature control

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• What is your nursery design?

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• What stage are you at in your season?

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• What has gone well?

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• What challenges have you faced so far?

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• What questions or concerns do you have?

Let’s hear from other operators!

Q&A