Seaweed farming is the fastest-growing aquaculture sector and over the last decade has become an increasingly important sector of our coastal economy. Significant growth has occurred in the farming of kelps in New England and in Alaska. The markets are primarily aimed at food products but larger opportunities exist for use as chemical feedstocks, animal feed, fertilizer, and energy production. In order to compete with agricultural sources in these markets, the scale of the seaweed farming sector must grow and the costs of production must be reduced. Needed steps include increasing the spatial efficiency of farming systems, the adoption of more robust systems able to exploit less protected waters, and the introduction of mechanized harvest methods.
In New England where smaller farms dominate, single lines are suspended horizontally below the surface, held in place by anchors at each end and suitable buoys. Farms can utilize multiples of these single-line systems but to avoid entanglement with each other and resulting loss of crop, wide spacing is needed, limiting the production potential of a lease area.
This presentation will report on multi-line farm systems developed under several projects funded by the Department of Energy ARPA-E Mariner program. These systems range from 5 to 110 lines across and line spacing as close as 2.5’ (0.76m). The methods of farm design, construction, and deployment will be discussed as well as the key role of innovative components in the success of these systems deployed in New En gland, Alaska, and the Caribbean.