CANADIAN SEAFOOD FOR A PROMISING FUTURE

by Kait Burgan photos courtesy Cascadia Seaweed

SEAWEED. LIKE TERRESTRIAL “WEEDS”, THE WORD HAS A SOMEWHAT NEGATIVE CONNOTATION. WEEDS ARE AN ANNOYANCE, SOMETHING TO GET RID OF, SOMETHING NOT VALUED. AS WE LEARN MORE ABOUT OUR NATURAL ENVIRONMENT, WE’RE DISCOVERING THAT, LIKE ALL THINGS IN A HEALTHY AND INTACT ECOSYSTEM, EVEN WEEDS SERVE AN ESSENTIAL PURPOSE.

Klahoose Territory farm installation

Cascadia Seaweed, based out of Sidney here on Vancouver Island, is embracing all that is good about seaweed. As it turns out, there’s a lot to embrace.

There are more than 10,000 different seaweed species known in the world, with more than 600 in British Columbia alone. They are rich in protein, iron, calcium, and fiber and contain significant amounts of magnesium, potassium as well as vitamins A, C, and B, but seaweed isn’t good for just humans and animals. It’s good for the planet. Seaweed has enormous potential to help solve our current climate crisis.

“We must turn to the seas to look for solutions for all sorts of global challenges,” says Erin Bremner-Mitchell, Manager of Communications and Engagement at Cascadia Seaweed. “Food, feed, medical and cosmetic uses, energy, and [the possibility of] carbon sequestration.”

James Island farm installation

Founded in June of 2019, Cascadia Seaweed is Canada’s largest provider of ocean cultivated seaweed—a regenerative crop with a variety of uses requiring only the sea and sunlight to grow.

In a recent interview, Bill Collins, Chairman of Cascadia Seaweed, told Scientific American that “seaweed can be part of an integrated, ecosystem-like aquaculture. It captures carbon. When seaweed falls off, it becomes carbon in the sediment, and ends up in the deep ocean. In areas where poor land-use practices have taken place, seaweed can assimilate nutrients, acting as a biofilter. We’re producing food that has less impact on our climate and is a great natural source of high nutrition, including protein and micronutrients. Given the movement towards alternative and particularly plant-based protein, there is no doubt in our minds that in North America, seaweed will find its niche.”

Since a natural next step may be to start thinking about selling highly sought after carbon offsets, Cascadia is also participating in a global study that will quantify just how much carbon can be sequestered by seaweed. Though not definitive enough for Cascadia to move forward quite yet, results from current international studies on carbon sequestration, range from zero to eight tons of CO2 per hectare. There are also scientific studies underway to examine the role kelp farms play in providing habitat for salmonoids and their prey.

Erin Bremner-Mitchell

Cascadia Seaweed recently launched its consumer brand, Kove, with Sea Spice being the first available product. There are plans for more consumer products in the future. To learn more, visit www.koveocean. com. Also, check out www. cascadiaseaweed.com to go in-depth on how British Columbia is leading the way in North America's rapidly growing seaweed industry.

“Seaweed truly is a global game-changer,” says Mike Williamson, CEO of Cascadia Seaweed. Citing the Agenda for Sustainable Development, adopted by all UN Member States in 2015, Mike continues, “we know that seaweed is a naturebased climate solution addressing a multitude of Sustainable Development Goals, including Life Below Water, Climate Action, Good Health and Wellbeing, and Decent Work and Economic Growth.” *

In 2021, the Department of Fisheries and Oceans Canada (DFO) put out a request for feedback to be considered for the development of its national Blue Economy Strategy. In response, Cascadia developed an extensive report in which it stated that “…seaweed cultivation has the potential to generate $1 billion for the GDP of BC while creating tens of thousands of jobs.” It went on to say that “for the economic rewards to be delivered, companies pursuing seaweed farming have to scale up, innovate in science and engineering, and gain maturity in industrial-scale food and feed processing amongst other avenues.”

Vegan Poke Bowl made by Chantal Davis from That Planted Life

True to its word, Cascadia Seaweed has grown to more than twenty staff, and has developed working partnerships with five different Indigenous communities. Within its core staff, a dedicated team of scientists is focused on ensuring that environmental integrity remains intact across all stages of the process. This starts with collecting parent stock from the area close to each farm. A critical component of protecting biodiversity perfected over millennia of evolution, this practice allows species to thrive in the specific environmental conditions they require. The stock, or seed, is grown in a custom-built nursery before being out-planted back onto the ocean farm infrastructure. Planting is done just before the December full moon for a late spring harvest. Cascadia is currently working with sugar kelp, winged kelp, and dulse. If the seed is well cultivated, it’s thick by harvest time. “The line is just full of this beautiful golden seaweed,” says Bremner-Mitchell.

Seed growing in tanks

Cascadia has seven farms along the British Columbia coast. Logistics in each of the Indigenous territories in which the company operates are unique and Cascadia works with each community, committed to extending to them the right of first refusal to participate in any necessary on-water operations. Cascadia’s most recent farm installation is near James Island, close to Sidney, in partnership with the Tsawout First Nation. “This was a beautiful opportunity to partner with an Indigenous community that established their own marine use law as a sovereign government and issued us a license under their law,” says Bremner-Mitchell. She adds, “UNDRIP—United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples Act came into law in Canada in June of 2021. We feel that recognizing the Indigenous community as a sovereign government aligns with the [Canadian] government’s goals to foster reconciliation and self-determination. They [Tsawout First Nation] were exercising their Douglas Treaty rights.”

Sugar kelp from James Island

Cascadia Founders: William T. Collins (Chairman), Mike Williamson (CEO), Tony Ethier (Chief of Marine Operations)

The opportunities for seaweed reach far beyond food and feed ingredients. This is true while most of us are unaware that seaweed extracts—currently processed in Asia, where seaweed is a household staple—are in many products we already use on a daily basis, including ice cream and toothpaste. Cascadia sees enormous potential in processing the valuable compounds of their product to supply international markets. At the same time, Bremner-Mitchell describes scaling up seaweed production as a tightrope act, balancing the approach of science and industry: study first, then act vs. act first in order to study the results. “It’s a tightrope, trying to appease both sides. But really, we don’t have time to wait. Climate change is not something that is happening in the future. It is happening now.”

* The 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, adopted by all United Nations Member States in 2015, provides a shared blueprint for peace and prosperity for people and the planet, now and into the future. At its heart are the 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), which are an urgent call for action by all countries— developed and developing—in a global partnership.

Source: sdgs.un.org/goals