Me with a seedspool, ready to attach it to the Island site growline. Waders rock.
A growline is seeded by wrapping it with a seedstring. You untie one end of the growline, slide it through the seedspool, retie the growline, and move the seedspool to the other end of the array. As you move along, the seedstring slides off the seedspool and spirals around the growline. At the other end, you cut and tie off the seedstring. You untie the growline to remove the empty spool, and then retie it. All in all, a simple process.
The Beach Site
One end of the Island site growline, marked by a makeshift buoy, prior to seeding. Lots of other other marine organisms, aka fouling, are calling it home.
In the period between installing the growlines and returning with the seedspool, the lines had become covered with various types of algae. This sheathe of brown fuzz-mush was removed by gloved-hand, aided by a brush and knife. How much will other marine organisms compete with the sugar kelp? TBD.
After cleaning the growline, one end was untied from the helical anchor and threaded through the seedspool. The seedstring was attached and I started moving down the growline.
As stated up top, the seeding process is simple; but being a beginner can make it feel less so. I barely made three steps before stopping to fiddle with a mess of knotted string and peppering the scene with f-bombs. Turns out, the first couple feet of seedstring really want to pop right off the spool, and loops of loose string quickly tangle in a current. Fortunately, this initial section of seedstring showed little growth, so the loss of seed was minimal. The tangle was eventually untangled and my movement down the growline resumed; this time, with close attention to tension on the seedstring, plucking the string every couple feet to ensure that it was tight against the growline.
After 100ft of slow and steady wading, I reached the other end of the growline, and cut and tied off the seedstring. The growline was detached in order to remove the spool, reattached, and cranked tight. I probably mumbled something along the lines of “please, please grow,” and that was that.
The Island Site
The Island site growline was seeded the following week*, on a day with more favorable weather; since we’d be working from a boat, with a flat bottom, we wanted low-to-no wind. With calm waters, lovely temps, plenty of helping hands and lessons from the Beach site, seeding the Island site went off without a hitch.
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A wonderfully calm January day.
Transferring the seedstring from the spool to the growline.
With any luck (plus the right nutrients, temps, weather and more) they’ll be long, lovely kelp fronds under these buoys by April.
Having extra help at this location made everything easier. One person pulled the boat along the growline, removing fouling along the way. Another person took care of the spool and seedstring tension. A third person guided the growline back into the water to avoid snagging the boat, and occasionally snapped pics. Teamwork makes the dream work.
Efficiency
Seeding the second line was smoother than the first. If we were seeding more lines, our efficiency would, without a doubt, further improve. However, it’s hard to go through the process and not wonder if there’s a faster way to get it all done. Would it include pre-seeded growlines? The use of a completely different growing substrate? Which steps are most fit for automation? There is nothing wrong with full days spent seeding growlines by hand, but if scale is the target then it’s hard to imagine manual method as the means.
This aspect of seaweed cultivation is ripe for innovation, and there’s a lot happening – much of it directed at specific applications: ie. seaweed for consumer goods vs seaweed for carbon sequestration and sinking. Bangalore-based Sea6 Energy is developing a “sea combine” to mechanize ocean farming. Materials science company Gore has partnered with Seaweed Solutions to develop optimized growing substrates and processes. There’s research being done to determine kelp spore’s favorite twine to bind to, and companies such as AtSeaNova developing alternates to twine altogether.
These are exciting developments that will be further explored on this site. In the meantime, please consider mumbling the mantra of “please, please grow,” for our freshly seeded growlines.