music) - I'm here with Mason Silkes and Azure Cygler, and we're gonna be talking about harvesting kelp and mussels.

Mason, you're with American Mussel Harvesters.

- [Mason] Yep.

- [Alex] There's been a lot of talk about the waters getting warmer in this part of the country and how things are changing with climate change.

I was wondering if you see any differences with the mussel harvest in terms of the water temperatures changing?

- Yeah, so we know that our farmed mussels in the bay, as the waters get warmer, the mussels tend to die off.

So they hit 70 degrees, the water hits 70 degrees in the bay, and the mussels have a hard time with that just because their physiology, but we're thinking if we move offshore and have a mussel farm in deeper waters then we can kind of get below that thermal climb, and the mussels will have a better survivability throughout the summer, and that'll give us an extended harvest season year round.

And that would be super beneficial to our business because farmed mussels are a more reliable source than the wild mussels because with wild mussels, you're relying on nature, and they could be here one year, they could not be there the next year.

If a big storm blows up the coast, it could bury the mussel beds, and that's just not reliable for us as a nationwide distributor.

- Now, many people probably don't know how you actually grow mussels.

What's the process of that?

- So we have long lines that are in the water, and there's like an anchor on one end, an anchor on the other end, and then it goes up and there's floats and it keeps the line up in the water column.

The mussels hang off of those on essentially ropes.

- So now you put in a seed on the ropes - Yep.

- To get the mussels to grow.

- Yeah, so we have a wild set of seeds at our farm in the bay, and they'll set very densely, and we'll take those, harvest 'em, and thin 'em out into a lesser density, and that way they grow larger.

- And how long does it take to grow mussels in terms of a size where it's adequate to use for food?

- [Mason] I would say probably a year and a half to two years.

- That's quite a long time.

- [Mason] From the time that it sets as like a microscopic organism.

- Okay.

- So that's over the fall.

And then by next spring, they'll be ready for harvesting.

- You're dropping in how many lines?

- Oh, that's to be determined kind of thing.

Right now we have one big seed line, and that'll hopefully fill up, oh, I don't know, thousands of feet of grow line.

- And what about the kind of- - Oysters.

I'm mostly an oyster farmer.

I spend a fair amount of time mussel harvesting, but oysters are the bulk of what the farm does.

And now we're kind of doing a foray into kelp as well just to have multi-species on our farm.

- Now we were talking about ducks.

Now most people probably wouldn't think that ducks eat mussels, but this has been an issue with the ducks out on the bay.

And you mentioned the possibility of using kelp to cover where the ducks are more or less hanging around.

You would drop kelp lines in the water, which would be used kind of as a camouflage?

- It's a possibility.

We're trying just about everything we can to thwart the ducks because they're our biggest nemesis.

They're an arctic species.

The eider ducks are the ones that we're concerned about.

They're an arctic species, but now we have a population in the bay for some reason.

It's pretty frustrating as a farmer because you're trying to get around that, whatever we could do to prevent it.

The kelp might be something or sinking it to a certain depth might be a way to get rid of 'em, but they're the biggest threat across the world for mussel farmers.

- Kelp seems to be becoming very popular these days.

You've been studying kelp, and you have your own kelp farm.

Well, what do you call your farm?

- My farm's called Rhody Wild Sea Gardens.

So I like to often say that we're sea gardeners because as just a kelp farmer, I don't focus on shellfish, which folks like Mason and his family and his team are just really experts at that.

So I'm not even gonna gonna try my hand at farming shellfish.

So we are just growing sugar kelp to be specific.

- You call it sugar kelp.

So, growing kelp also involves dropping a line that has seed on it.

- Mhm.

- [Alex] You usually drop lines in November and harvest when?

- So sugar kelp is a winter species, so it only grows in the winter, so from about November to May, and we are also constrained by regulatory concerns.

So we're not allowed to plant prior to that or have gear in the water after that, and that's really a Rhode Island state-based regulatory constraint to avoid any sort of potential conflicts with other water uses.

So the recreational boating seasons are in full effect obviously in the summer.

So we're really constrained to the winter growing season, but that works very well because kelp is a winter crop for first cold water - You call it sugar kelp.

Where did the name sugar come from?

- Well, saccharina latissima it's a scientific name, but it has a compound in it that actually makes it taste a little bit sweet.

So the common name is sugar kelp.

It's grown, and it's a wild native species to not only Rhode Island, but all the way up to Maine and then down south.

It's a beautiful, lovely, sort of a golden lasagna noodle-looking marine macroalgae.

So it's not a plant, it's an algae, and that's one of the species we're allowed to grow in Rhode Island because it's native and it's local.

We like to call our kelp farm zero input.

So there's no inputs needed once we seed and set the lines to grow.

Nature does everything.

So there's no fresh water.

It's just like other aquaculture operations in the state.

There's no freshwater inputs.

You're not having to water a crop.

There's no fertilizers.

There's no pesticides.

There's no chemical chemical inputs at all.

And so that's what I think really makes- - All natural.

- Yeah, not only kelp farming, but our aquaculture, shellfish farming industries really sustainable and regenerative - Turns out that kelp is something that can be used to also regenerate soil and something that can be used for feed to mix in with the feed for livestock.

- That's right.

That's right.

So not only is our zero input native local sugar kelp good for humans to eat, which is really where the markets are for human consumption.

It's amazingly healthy for you.

I like to call it a superhero of the sea.

It's just packed with all sorts of good things, but it can also go back to the earth to nourish terrestrial land-based crops in various ways.

So all the good minerals and vitamins that are good for our bodies when we eat kelp also makes it good for the soil, and there's all sorts of amazing science that's come out to show how it benefits and reduces disease, increases disease tolerance in certain plants like tomatoes and broccoli and all those types of things.

So an amazing soil amendment, but I think there's also great potential in capturing carbon, and that's something there's a lot of attention right now.

And kelp is one of the species that captures 20 times more carbon per acre than land-based forests, so it grows really fast.

So as it's growing fast, it's taking in carbon from the atmosphere and the water and using that.

Obviously as a plant, it'll make oxygen as a byproduct.

So it's a pretty powerful carbon capture.

How we store or sequester that carbon is up to what the kelp gets used for.

So storing it in a land-based system, if they're cover crops or there's a no-till system, you're gonna store that carbon for longer.

So there's a lot of potential for the crops that are coming out, but also for carbon storage.

- I mean, do the mussels cleanse the water like oysters do?

- Yes.

So essentially mussels feed on excess nutrients in the water, and they clean up the water system 'cause they're filter feeders.

- So, even though the waters are getting warmer, the answer is to go, okay, we'll go a little deeper where the water's a little colder.

And are there any issues with the... Well, you're growing kelp in the winter, so that's not gonna be an issue with the water being cold.

- Yeah, no, I think that unfortunately we are seeing that trend, and so the shoulder seasons for us might be shortened.

So our growing season will be shortened, therefore, the amount of environmental or ecosystem good we're doing is shortened and abbreviated.

So I think that there is a real climate change impact potential for kelp farming.

I like to think of not just kelp, but our shellfish, aquaculture industries in Rhode Island as being future friendly food, and I think that's the way we need to be.

That's the story we need to tell to allow some of those regulatory burdens to ease, but also to recognize the great potential that it has for our whole food system.

- Will you be able to grow kelp going out a little deeper, do you think if you have to?

- Hopefully.

I think, again, we're catching up on the regulatory system with growing in offshore water.

So it's currently only permitted in Rhode Island state water, so in our coastal salt ponds and then in Narragansett Bay.

I think that that would be a nice direction to head, so other small businesses can grow because think that's the model that Rhode Island is proud of is that our ocean-based farms are small business models, - They are.

- That they're generational, and that we wanna keep it that way.

And I think showing full circle is also a lot of potential with our aquaculture industry, so not just growing it.

It's doing good, then we're feeding people with it.

It's doing good for them, and then it's going back into the soil even with the shell waste just like the kelp pieces that can go back and feed the soil.

It's really a full circle solution.

- [Alex] It is full circle.

Now if people who are watching the program, and if they're saying, "Well, where can I buy kelp to add to my diet," where would they go?

- Well, they can certainly go to my website, and we can get them fresh kelp in the growing season.

We sell baby kelp, which is these sort of tender blades from about end of March through April.

And then the post harvest, they can purchase.

We do home deliveries, and we also can sell it to different restaurants.

- I was just gonna say, are there restaurants using the kelp right now?

- Well now, this is one of the issues we're working on as a industry is growing the market, so building the demand.

We do a Kelp Week as part of a cooperative.

Sugar Kelp Cooperative is a group of five of us kelp farmers in Rhode Island, Connecticut who put on an event at the end of April.

We have over 40 restaurants from Connecticut, Rhode Island who participate, and they get kelp to prepare in these very delicious ways.

Our very own Matunuck Oyster Bar participated last year.

So really a wonderful way for folks to get out and go to a restaurant they trust and love and to be culinary curious, I like to call it, try a kelp dish.

Anything from kelp ice cream was available, kelp martinis.

(Alex laughs) There were kelp tamales.

It was amazing.

- Really?

- So I would encourage folks to come and follow us on Instagram or send me a note, and we'll keep 'em abreast to the Kelp Week of 2023, end of April.

- Rhody Wild Sea Gardens - (laughs) Yes.

- So I want to thank you both for coming out here today.

- [Mason] Thank you, Alex, for having us.

- Thanks.

- Really appreciate it.

- Pleasure.

- Showcasing the wonderful world of aquaculture in Rhode Island.

- So thank you so much.

- Cheers.

- Pleasure, thank you.

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