Regenerative Ocean Farming: The (Least Deadliest Catch

Regenerative Ocean Farming: The (Least) Deadlies

By Bren Smith

New Generation of Fishermen

My journey is one of ecological redemption. After the cod stocks crashed in my home of Newfoundland in the early ‘90s, I joined the ranks of fi shermen working the salmon farms in Northern Canada. We were promised that aquaculture was the answer to overfi shing and unemployment. We were told that we were a new generation of fi sh farmers that were going to help feed the world.

Our dreams became ashes in our mouths. The salmon farms were the equivalent of industrial pig farms at sea, pumping fi sh full of antibiotics and food coloring, polluting waterways, and growing livestock that were neither fi sh nor food.

Disillusioned, I kept searching for a way to remain on the water, to make a living but not at the expense ocean ecosystems. I ended up in Long Island Sound where forward thinking regulators opened up shell-fi shing grounds for the fi rst time in decades to attract young fi shermen into a new industry. There began my 15-year journey into regenerative ocean farming.

Discovering Mussels

Shellfi sh like mussels taught me that we can farm to restore rather than deplete. As farmers, our crops can breathe life back into the oceans while feeding local communities. Our mussels fi lter nitrogen and carbon out of the water column, while providing vital habitats for hundreds of species.

In terms of sustainability, mussels and other shellfi sh blow land-based food out of the water. They require zero inputs—no feeds, no fertilizers, no fresh water—making them the most sustainable form of food production on earth.

Restorative ocean farming is a trade both old and new. Mussel cultivation began as early as the 13th century, supposedly invented by an Irishman who was shipwrecked in the Baie de l’Aiguillon on the west coast of France. He originally tied nets to tall stakes to catch birds, but quickly those stakes were covered with mussel seed. Mussel cultivation became immensely popular and is the reason the bay is known as the “Bay of the Stick”. Fast forward centuries later and dotting U.S. coastlines are companies like Bang’s Island Mussels in Maine, Catalina Ranch in California and American Mussel in Rhode Island, who keep the tradition alive through relentless innovation and good old-fashioned hard work.

Mussels

Diversity is the Future

The future of restorative ocean farming is polyculture—not monoculture. There are thousands of species of edible shellfi sh and seaweeds in our oceans, but only a handful are farmed around the world. At GreenWave, we’ve been hellbent on developing integrated farming methods. Most recently we teamed up with Wood’s Hole Oceanographic Institute, University of Connecticut and NOAA to further integrate

mussel, oyster and kelp farming into vertical

systems in order to grow an increasingly diverse mix of species on our 20 acre farms.

st Catch

As ocean farmers, this is the fi rst opportunity in generations to build a food system from the bottom up. In 1979, Jacques Cousteau, the father of ocean conservation, predicted this opportunity: “We must plant the sea...using the ocean as farmers instead of hunters. That is what civilization is all about—farming replacing hunting.”

This is our chance to avoid the mistakes made by industrial fi shing, agriculture and aquaculture.

We can push GMO-spiked salmon, seafood mislabeling and factory trawlers off the table.

Together let’s move bivalves and sea greens to the center of the plate. Let’s cultivate blue-green jobs, tackle the climate crisis and feed the planet. Restorative ocean farming represents our chance to do food right, and ensure that those working at sea can make a living on a living planet.

But good food grown for both people and the

Kelp Farming - Zanzibar

planet must also be delicious! One of the most enjoyable meals of my life was an afternoon spent with a gaggle of culinary wizards at Yvon’s home tasting literally dozens of diff erent mussel recipes. The creativity of each dish was proof that, in the right hands, mussels have the potency to be the gateway drug to a new “climate cuisine” that is both delightful and hopeful. www.patagoniaprovisions.com/blogs/stories/ regenerative-ocean-farming-the-least-deadliestcatch