Join us on the Aquaculture Information Exchange for a webinar where our team, along with researchers at the University of Maine, chat about integrating tech into the seaweed farming industry. Register here!
Seaweed farming is a big deal, making up over a quarter of all aquaculture globally. It has grown a lot over the past 15 years in the U.S., especially in Maine and Alaska, but to keep expanding, the industry will need to move beyond niche food markets and into larger scale markets. This may require farming in offshore or nearshore-exposed cultivation sites, where innovation and reliable tech are key.
To explore this, researchers at the University of Maine set up one of the deepest and most exposed seaweed farms: 100 meters down, 20 kilometers off the coast. The site used smart buoys from Blue Ocean Gear and a BlueBoat from Blue Robotics equipped with Cerulean imaging sonar to track kelp growth. The project is already giving a glimpse into how tech can help seaweed aquaculture scale sustainably.