Newfoundland’s first commercial kelp farm, Holdfast NL, had a bumper crop when it made its first commercial harvest of sugar kelp in St. Mary’s Bay this summer.
“We were overwhelmed. We didn’t know how much it would grow. It almost doubled in size in the last month. We had likely over 18,000 pounds of seaweed from our 10 lines… over 10 kg per metre. That’s really good growth and really high-quality stuff. We had growth rates comparable to people who have been doing it for years,” said Holdfast NL owner Michael Teasdale.
Incorporated in 2022, Holdfast NL has been doing more than growing sugar kelp. They are also involved with several research projects that ultimately could directly support the Canadian seaweed aquaculture at large, as well as coastal communities throughout Atlantic Canada.
Where sugar kelp helps clean the water and pull carbon from the atmosphere as it grows, last year Holdfast NL and the Town of Conception Bay South (CBS) began a one-year study in Conception Bay to see if growing sugar kelp near the Town’s wastewater outflow pipe would help with wastewater remediation.
“One of the big issues in N.L., even all of Atlantic Canada, are the new regulations from the federal government about wastewater that nobody can meet. It would cost millions of dollars for all these small little communities to build all this infrastructure. What we’re doing with CBS is a nutrient-based solution as a possible alternative to constructing a multi-million-dollar facility,” said Teasdale.
“We’re doing a bunch of measurements trying to figure out if it’s a viable option for N.L., Nova Scotia. It’s native seaweed. There’s nothing we’re adding to the water. It’s a sustainable nature-based solution that could be a really good option for some of the small towns to have without infrastructure upgrades.”
The second research project, a collaboration between Holdfast NL and the ocean monitoring company Coastal Carbon based in Kitchener, Ontario, is just wrapping up, said Teasdale.
Supported by Canada’s Ocean Supercluster (OSC), the purpose of the AI-Driven Sensors for Seaweed Measurement Project is to develop a small, non-intrusive, AI-enabled sensor for online remote biomass monitoring of seaweed growth.
“This project will have significant benefits for the greater seaweed farming community in Canada. The sensors designed by this project will form the foundation for further leveraging AI for ocean biomass measurement. Beyond the project consortium, access to high quality inexpensive biomass monitoring has the potential to positively impact all Canadian seaweed farmers. Farmers in remote or small communities with limited measurement ability and resource constraints are positioned to see the most economic benefit. Many of these farmers and communities are Indigenous, and this low-cost, minimally intrusive monitoring offers a pathway for Indigenous-led knowledge and understanding of their own seaweed sites,” said the OSC.
Canada’s Ocean Supercluster committed $485,000 to the almost $1.6-million project, with the balance coming from project partners.
“Both project participants, Coastal Carbon and HoldFast NL, are dynamic startups at the forefront of innovation in Canada’s ocean sector. Coastal Carbon is dedicated to the remote monitoring and measurement of ocean biomass, facilitating regenerative seaweed farming, ocean restoration and the scaling of blue carbon initiatives. In parallel, HoldFast NL is committed to revitalizing Canada’s east coast through regenerative seaweed farming. As this project reaches its conclusion, it will not only yield crucial strategic and technological advancements for these participants but also position them favorably to secure private investment, thereby fostering growth and innovation in small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) within the ocean industry,” said the OSC.
Teasdale said one of the interesting things about seaweed is there’s a key point in the last couple of months in the grow period where it grows a lot but that’s when the water starts to warm up and that’s when things start to grow on the seaweed.
“When you actually harvest is a key question and a key parameter for development of the seaweed industry,” he said.
Seaweed farming was primarily developed in Asia, but is up and coming in North America, said Teasdale. Full of micro nutrients, sugar kelp is safe for human consumption and has multiple uses.
When it comes to commercialization and marketing their product “we had to pick a lane,” said Teasdale, opting to go the agriculture route with dried sugar kelp being used for fertilizer and the development of HoldFast BioStim, a natural seaweed-based plant booster.
“Like a multivitamin for your plants, but better. Packed with nutrients, minerals and plant hormones, it helps your plants grow stronger, bounce back faster, and stay healthier longer,” reads the Holdfast NL Facebook page.
