Seaweed Farming Has Vast Potential (But Good Luck Getting a Permit)
by Alex Brown (PEW Stateline) … The state’s permitting process involves nine different agencies, and the paperwork is so burdensome and time-consuming that few people bother.
“There’s a lot of people who are interested in seaweed farming, take a look at that [permitting] flowchart, and decide there’s just no functional way,” said Laura Butler, aquaculture coordinator with the Washington State Department of Agriculture.
Last week, the Washington House advanced a bill that would create a state strategy for kelp and eelgrass restoration, including research on seaweed aquaculture. The state Senate approved the legislation last month. Davis thinks the bill could promote more ocean farming, but state officials acknowledge that a regulatory overhaul is still needed.
Many coastal states have an equally cumbersome process to administer ocean aquaculture, also known as mariculture.
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Ocean farmers say their industry offers a sustainable method of food production. Kelp helps to sequester harmful nutrients, while oysters and other shellfish serve as natural water filtration systems. Proponents think farming of fish species can offer consumers protein with far fewer climate emissions than beef and pork production. And the growth of aquaculture could bolster climate resilience, as farms on land face changing weather conditions and scrutiny over their environmental effects.
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Seaweed also has potential as a fertilizer, animal feed, a packaging replacement for plastics and biofuel.
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“The core reason aquaculture is not occurring in our state in any meaningful way is the broken permitting process,” said California Assemblymember Robert Rivas, a Democrat who chairs the Committee on Agriculture.
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Florida created an Aquaculture Use Zone system in the 1990s, with 26 coastal regions in which shellfish farmers can apply for leases with a streamlined permitting process. In Alaska, legislators passed a law last year to speed up the lease renewal process for ocean farmers. The measure’s sponsor, Democratic state Rep. Andi Story, also has worked with regulators to make more staffers available to clear a backlog in lease appeals.
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Lawmakers in New York passed a law last year to allow commercial kelp farming in two Long Island bays, in waters that already had been designated for shellfish operations. Officials are likely to expand ocean farming to more state waters.
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Many aquaculture leaders cite Maine, which created the nation’s first leasing system for farming in state waters in 1974, as having a well-developed industry and reasonable regulations.
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But because their prospective farm sites are in public waters, they must contend with other ocean users, including the military, shipping companies, recreational boaters, commercial and recreational fishers and shorefront property owners.
“The ocean is actually a very busy place,” said Dobbins, with the World Wildlife Fund. “Permitting is never efficient or fast, and there’s good reason for that, because these farms operate in the commons.”
Ocean farmers say their biggest task is building public acceptance. In some areas, wealthy property owners have tried to block farms that alter their views. Farmers and conservationists will have to work out whether aquaculture can coexist in protected marine habitats. READ MORE
Cultivating seaweed for carbon removal in California: Barriers and recommendations (Columbia University/Phys.Org)
Sustainability — Farming seaweed could help bolster food security (The Hill)
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