Atlantic Sea Farms
When I first heard about Atlantic Sea Farms, I didn’t even think you could grow kelp as a Seaford source or even knew that it added value to climate change. I was lucky enough to have Briana Warner, President and CEO of Atlantic Sea Farms on Makers of Maine podcast. “I always say as a joke, when people are like how'd you get into seaweed? I'm like, I've dreamed of it since I was a kid. And then they look at me like of course I haven’t.”
Bri came to Maine with her husband, a Mainer who was a boomerang-er. She noticed that the kelp was gorgeous here in Maine, healthy and clean. Bri describes her craft as kelp, in general and said, “the motivation behind it is is mostly around looking at climate change along our coasts, and figuring out ways that crafts in one way or another can help the coast both adapt to and mitigate some of the effects of climate change.”
Photographed by Hannah McGowan
To my surprise, seaweed aquaculture has been around since the 1600s. “It's been it's been around for a while and but in Maine, the first commercial seaweed farm was actually in for the entire United States was here in Maine in 2008. And that was by the founders of the company, I now run Ocean Improved Incorporated, which is now Atlantic sea farms. It's right out here in the Casco Bay and it was the first commercial seaweed farm anywhere in the US. So it's very new” - Briana Warner.
Bri took over as CEO after a founder transitioned out in 2018. Even though it was fairly recent, she says it feels like she has been there forever. She is so passionate about her job and her craft and was able to explain to me all the benefits the business has for climate change. Something that stood out to me the most was that Bri really gets her hands into the work unlike others in leadership roles.
Photographed by Hannah McGowan
“We did some studies with Bigelow laboratories where we've actually worked with muscles underneath the kelp halo directly on the periphery of it, and then outside the kelp halo. And what we found is in about a six month growing period, which is how long our kelp farms grow, the muscle strength was much, much stronger, both within the halo versus outside of the halo of the kelp. So there's a significant effect because of that reduction in ocean acidification.”
I love to see Maine becoming more sustainable and eco-friendly and this company is one of the best that is benefiting our environment. It is truly phenomenal that they are bettering our environment through kelp.
Photographed by Hannah McGowan
Bri shared with me a day in the life of being a kelp farmer: “we are dead in the middle of our nursery season. So, we start collecting source tissue, which is basically the reproductive tissue in kelp. We go out and we get about 40 pounds of wild kelp for about a 400,000 pounds of kelp. So it's a big multiple there. We don't take much out the ocean. We reproduce it in house and then we turn it into a big kelp nursery. So that is totes and totes and totes of seawater and line wrapped around a PVC pipe. So the kelp seeds just sort of swim around attached to that line and then we grow that out for five weeks, let me give it to the farmer while the farmer then wraps that twine around 1000 foot ropes in the water, about seven feet under the water.
Most of the farms that we work with are around four acres, so they're pretty small, but they can grow up to five pounds of foot. Five pounds of foot is one of the most efficient ways to grow food. We grow it with no arable land, no fresh water, no inputs, no fertilizers, nothing. So they'll they'll it'll take them a few days to plant that to see their lines. And then you basically let it sit. Now you go out and you check it after storms, you go out and you make sure the lines aren't tangled, you make sure the lines are at the end of the season, some of the lines get pretty heavy, so you have to tighten the lines, make sure there's the proper like weights on the sugar, kelp, or buoyancy on the skinny cap.
And then you harvest. So you basically bring it, take knives, and you cut it off the line and put it into 1000 pound bags, and we pick it up at the dock and it goes away.” - Briana Warner
Photographed by Hannah McGowan
Hear all about what the next steps are for Atlantic Sea Farms in this new episode of Makers of Maine. I look forward to seeing all they do in the future!