Picking food from the sea

Text: Eva Lundgren Photo: Johan Wingborg

From two beams on a jetty, ropes hang down into the water. When Maria Bodin pulls them up, one is full of algae, the other is covered with mussels, sea squirts and sea urchins. The organisms did not end up there by chance. Rather, it is a kind of allotment in the sea, which is now being tested in a pilot project at Tjärnö Marine Laboratory.

It is a sunny day in May on Tjärnö when we visit to find out more about the marine allotments that Maria Bodin is working with. We walk down to a jetty, and Maria Bodin kneels to examine a cultivation strip with mussels. It is also covered with a lot of other interesting things. – Look here, do you see the barnacles? They are small crustaceans that sit with their posteriors up and catch food. Invasive Pacific oysters are also on the strip and are recognizable because their shells are wavier and much sharper than their European relatives; they form reefs instead of staying on the sea floor. There is also grass kelp, a green algae that is only one single cell thick and which is also called the truffle of the sea, as well as sea squirts, a sack-like animal. As larvae, they have a spinal cord, a kind of precursor to the spine, which is a sign that they are more closely related to us humans than you might think.

Mussels and sea squirts willingly attach themselves to the strip, but algae require a little more work. – Fertile plants of sugar kelp are brought into a lab where they can reproduce, and the algal shoots then settle on a spool of thread. The thread is wrapped around a rope, which is then put out into the water in September. We harvest in April, so it is the opposite of the cultivation period on land. In addition to cultivation ropes, we have also hung baskets from the jetty for the storage of oysters, snails and crabs.

Marine allotments do not just provide new edible species for us humans. They are also good for nature, if you do it in the right way and only grow species that occur naturally in the environment, points out Maria Bodin. – Well-managed aquaculture helps to build healthy ecosystems that bind carbon dioxide and increase biodiversity. Furthermore, neither watering nor fertilization is needed because there is enough nitrogen and phosphorus in the sea already.

The pilot trial is part of the project Marint gränsforum Skagerrak (Marine Border Forum Skagerrak), which is a collaboration between Sweden and Norway. But the idea of cultivation in the sea comes from Denmark. – They have had marine allotments for about 10 years, which have become almost like a popular movement. In Denmark, you can obtain a hobby permit for small-scale aquaculture, which does not involve much red tape. There is also less bureaucracy in Norway. In Sweden, on the other hand, there is no coordination between different authorities, which makes it very difficult to obtain the requisite permits. The purpose of all the rules is good, it is about protecting animals, nature and people’s access to beaches, but for growers the system should be simplified.

There is a great deal of interest in marine allotments, says Maria Bodin – Restaurants in particular get in touch. They want to grow mussels, algae and other interesting things, in much the same way as they often have their own herb garden. Some products will probably not be accepted by the public any time soon, but others are easier to introduce, such as chips of sugar kelp, fried grass kelp or sea lettuce, which can be eaten as it is.

Despite the fact that oceans cover 70 percent of the

earth’s surface, only about 5 percent of the world’s food production comes from the sea. Sweden, which has the EU’s longest coastline, contributes only about 1 percent to the EU’s total seafood production, says Maria Bodin. – Scary Seafood is another project that I lead where we encourage restaurants and entrepreneurs in the tourism industry to try different ingredients from the sea, such as jellyfish. We have conducted two workshops, one where we cooked things we found on the beach when kayaking, and another where the newspaper GP’s food panel had to try to find words for new exciting flavours. Another four workshops are underway, including alternative cuts of fish. Today we only eat the fillet, which makes up about 17 percent of the fish, but we could very well eat other parts as well. How about, for example, fish ribs?

Tjärnö Marine Laboratory is like a microcosm of the world, full of researchers from different countries, students from all over the world, school visits and summer tourists. Everyone’s special interest is the ocean.

Maria Bodin has been here from time to time, ever since she studied marine biology at university. But originally she is from Stockholm. – That I became a marine biologist may seem obvious considering that I was fascinated by whales and dolphins even as a child. But for a while, I actually thought of becoming a hairdresser instead. That was because at secondary school I did my work experience at a hairdresser’s and she was very encouraging. Even though I was still at school, I was allowed to cut the staffs’ hair, among other things. What I learned there was how important it is to capture the interest of young people, but also that it is always possible to make a person look nice, even if it’s only just a haircut. So I worked there for several years and I’m still in contact with the owner.

Later, at university, I studied earth sciences and biology, which was really interesting. But it was when I took a supplementary course in marine biology and came here to Tjärnö for the first time, that I realised that this was what I wanted to do.

Maria Bodin has previously worked as an Environmental Coordinator at the University of Gothenburg and as a summer guide on Tjärnö. In 2012, she became the Director of Naturum Kosterhavet (the Kosterhavet Nature Centre), which she helped to create. – My job was to get the public, not least school classes, to take a respectful interest in nature. You can do this in many different ways, such as with the help of music along with beach excursions.

Havets hopp – en skräpmusikal (The Ocean’s Hope – a Junk Musical) was an event that Maria Bodin arranged for middle school students. – Over the course of one day, the students had to pick up rubbish, learn about different sea organisms and practice newly written songs which they then performed for relatives and friends.

Another way to increase interest is to bring aquariums to various public events.

– Sometimes it can involve a little too much lugging things around and I start to wonder why I do what I do. But then something special happens, like during Västerhavsveckan (the North Sea Week) in Stenungsund a few years ago. A little six-year-old boy was so fascinated by my aquarium that he did not want to leave. His mother told me that he had never shown an interest in the sea before, but he stood there and helped me explain to the visitors what was in the water. Yeah, I reminded

Grass kelp, ”truffle of the sea” Sea urchin

myself there and then, it’s for that little guy that I do all the work.

Maria Bodin’s work involves a lot of time out in nature. She is often outdoors also in her spare time, she loves skiing and stand up paddle boarding. But she also has a keen interest in creative pursuits. – In my work with Naturum, I arranged craft cafés with a marine theme. I believe that everyone needs to use their hands, it is not enough to learn via a computer screen. I think that it’s great fun to reuse things that would otherwise be thrown away. You can make jewellery from a bicycle inner tube, and you can make braided bags from coffee packages.

The sun is still shining but it has become really chilly out on the jetty – Yes, there is something special about Tjärnö. It rarely snows here, but otherwise we have every kind of weather!

1. Periwinkle soup with grilled sugar kelp and wild garlic mayonnaise 2. Breaded and deep-fried moon jellyfish, yuzu vinaigrette, croutons and garlic butter 3. Crab salad made from great spider crabs and shore crabs served with deep-fried starfish 4. Herring tapas (marinated sea ribs, grilled ventral fins, deep-fried fish skin and minced fish burgers) with dipping sauce made from lime, chili and coriander 5. Grilled razor clams, softshell clams and cockles with melted butter, horseradish and crème ciona 6. Algae paste with chili-marinated sugar kelp fritters and deep-fried bladder wrack buds

Recipes from Scandsea

Bladder wrack pesto 50 g roasted sunflower seeds/pine nuts 5 g dried bladder wrack, soaked in water for at least 30 mins 1 jar of basil 10 cl of cooking oil 1 small bulb of garlic, grated 10 cl of grated parmesan 2 tsp of lemon juice Salt and pepper Cut the soaked bladder wrack into smaller pieces. Then put everything into a food processor and mix into a pesto.

Cream cheese with grass kelp

5 g grass kelp, soaked 1 packet of cream cheese natural flavour ½ lime, juice and peel 1 small chili, chopped Cut the grass kelp into small pieces, mix all the ingredients together.

Maria Bodin

Works as: Project Manager for a pilot study on marine allotments at Tjärnö Marine Laboratory. The project is conducted within Marint gränsforum Skagerrak, a collaboration between the Västra Götaland Region, the University of Gothenburg and Viken Fylkeskommune, and is supported by the EU programme Interreg Sverige-Norge. Maria is also Project Coordinator for Scary Seafood, the goal of which is to increase interest in seafood. Lives in: Strömstad. Family: Big and spread all over.

What is the most recent book you have read?

The Doggerland series. What is your favourite music? Håkan Hellström and musicals. What is your favourite food? Sushi, stuffed cabbage leaves and root vegetable mash with pork hock. What are your hobbies? Being in the great outdoors, skiing, yoga, but also crafts – preferably using recycled materials.