The Beach Site: The growline at the Beach site (The Sites / The Seed / Arrays) is simply suspended between two screw anchors, just a foot off the bottom. Preparation and installation was straightforward. On dry land, the rope was measured and cut with a soldering iron to keep all the strands fused together. On site, the anchor points were identified. The helical anchors were screwed ~36” into the sandy bottom. The rope was fastened between the anchors, cranked tight (with the help of a truckers hitch), and tied off.
Right: A helical anchor, screwed into the bottom, that will hold one end of the growline (just a couple inches below the waters surface at low tide). Left: Stretching the growline from one anchor to the other.
The Island Site: The preparation and installation of the Island site array was more involved due to the fact that it had more parts – including heavy anchors – and required a boat. Once all sections of rope were cut (measure twice, cut once), the array was laid out on dry land and the knots sussed out. The anchor lines would be tied to the anchor chain shackles with anchor knots. The breakaway links were attached to the anchor line with butterfly knots. Everything else – buoys, buoy lines, and growline – would be attached with bowline knots.
From here, the gear made its way to the boat, and shortly after was plopped in the water. So far, so good.
Top: The Island site array, as seen from above the water. Bottom: Depiction of the submerged array. The green line represents the growline, where the kelp seed will be added (and hopefully grows 🤞).
Note on shallow water cultivation: Much of this project has been facilitated by helpful people who have shared their knowledge and equipment. Ie. The Island site required a boat, which isn’t the easiest thing to acquire, and is an expensive thing to buy and own. For this reason, the prospect of cultivating sugar kelp closer to shore – in wadable water – with fewer and lighter parts is exciting; it could open the door for seaweed farmers who find the cost of operating in deeper water prohibitive. “Could” is the operative word here, as shallow water may present a number of other challenges, including access to nutrients, competition with other shallow water species, scalability, and ice. Hopefully, our pilot project helps identify such hurdles as well as the shallow-water opportunities.
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