Jamie Bassett, center, said his Chatham Kelp partners, Richard Curtiss and Carl Douglass.
By Rebecca Westgate
Kelp farming has attracted a lot of attention in New England and has been explored as a way to diversify coastal businesses, support working waterfronts, and add another crop for shellfish growers during the quieter winter months.
Most kelp farming in our region has focused on sugar kelp, a large brown seaweed native to New England waters. Sugar kelp has become the main seaweed species grown in the United States, and growers have established methods for starting it in nurseries and growing it on lines in coastal waters during colder months.
But being able to grow kelp is only one part of the equation.
A new report, Kelp Aquaculture in Massachusetts: Opportunities, Challenges, and Future Directions, looks at Massachusetts kelp farms, what growers have learned, and what questions need to be answered.
The quick conclusion: Sugar kelp can grow here, but where, how much you can grow, and what you can do with it after harvest all matter.
The project team talked with 10 people who have grown kelp in Massachusetts. Most tried for a few seasons before stopping because they were not getting enough growth or enough financial return. Only one interviewee was still farming kelp.
That operation, Chatham Kelp, has been in the business for close to 10 years and is the largest permitted commercial kelp farm in the state, an unobtrusive wintertime endeavor a half mile off Harding’s Beach in Chatham.
Jamie Bassett said he and his partners, Richard Curtiss and Carl Douglass, have learned a tremendous amount since they settled on the idea one night at the Red Nun bar in Chatham. Douglass, who has a shellfishing background like Bassett, wanted an oyster grant. Since new aquaculture farms aren’t allowed in Chatham, this was the next best thing.
When the trio made it through the permitting gauntlet in 2017, one agency lead said he had high hopes for them, in part because “they understand it’s not going to be a breeze.”
Day-to-day work is not necessarily the problem.
Growers described kelp as relatively easy to manage, fitting well with shellfish farming because kelp grows during the winter, when shellfish work slows down.
The harder part was getting enough reliable growth in the right place.
This is where the research gets especially interesting for Cape Cod.
Many kelp-growing efforts south of Cape Cod have struggled. One reason is a lack of dissolved inorganic nitrogen in the water. Kelp needs nitrogen to grow, and many of the waters tested south of Cape Cod did not have enough in a useful form during the winter growing season.
Over several years, Cape Cod Cooperative Extension and partners followed test plantings at 15 sites south of Cape Cod. Falmouth Harbor showed the most success, while most sites had nutrient or salinity levels likely too low to support strong kelp growth.
There may be better growing conditions north of Cape Cod, but there are trade-offs. Regulations to protect North Atlantic right whales can limit where kelp farms can be placed, and more exposed waters can leave farms vulnerable to storms.
There is no simple “best place” to start a kelp farm. Finding the right site that is both permittable and productive is one of the biggest challenges.
Then comes the next big question: Who Will Buy It?
This may be the biggest reality check in the report.
Even when Massachusetts growers successfully harvested kelp, some reported that they could not sell their harvest at all.
There are small markets for local kelp in food and specialty products. But those markets only use so much. Larger markets need a steady supply, competitive prices, and processing scale.
Massachusetts also lacks shared infrastructure for processing, drying, storing, and distributing kelp. That can leave an individual grower responsible for much more than farming.
One grower summed up what needs to happen:
“More market and product development is required to form the foundation of a robust industry with longevity.”
Bassett said markets are anemic, but Chatham Kelp has gotten kelp into restaurants, hot sauce, beard balm, surf wax and alcoholic seltzer.
Products such as a beauty bar with kelp flakes are available on their website. They also have begun working with partners, including A.R.C. Hatchery in Dennis, on a fertilizer.
Challenges in the report do not mean seaweed aquaculture has no future in Massachusetts.
Instead, the research helps narrow questions: Where can kelp grow reliably? What markets make sense? What infrastructure would growers need? And could another type of seaweed be a better fit?
The report points to areas worth exploring.
- Better site selection could help identify places where kelp is more likely to grow reliably.
- Market and product development could help connect growers with buyers.
- Smaller pilot projects could answer questions before growers make larger investments.
- Shared processing infrastructure could also make it easier to turn harvested kelp into a product that can reach a market.
- Sugar kelp may not be the only option.
Cape and Islands State Senator Julian Cyr highlighted the value of the research:
“Massachusetts’ coastal economy depends on our ability to support innovation, protect our waters and stay rooted in the realities of the people doing the work. Kelp aquaculture has generated tremendous interest as a potential new tool for coastal communities, and this research gives us an important foundation for understanding where opportunities exist and where more research is needed.”
Growers interviewed for the report expressed interest in other seaweed species, including species that naturally grow in Massachusetts waters or may have greater market value. Future research could help determine whether some of those seaweeds are a better fit for local growing conditions and markets.
“I think the biggest thing is that maybe demand for kelp is low at the moment, but things change,” Bassett said. “We are ready and scale-able.”
There are a lot of positives, he said. Kelp is high in nutrients and helps with everything from heart health to blood sugar; it’s an ecosystem winner that removes harmful carbon from the ocean, slows erosion, smooths out ice cream and is a welcome addition to burgers and meatballs –and can even be used as a wound dressing.
Doreen Leggett contributed to this story.
Read the full report, developed by Cape Cod Cooperative Extension, Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution Sea Grant, Global Seaweed Coalition, Cape Cod Commercial Fishermen’s Alliance, and Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, with support from the Commonwealth of Massachusetts.