Meet the Cultivators
Introducing the pioneering seaweed cultivators
… harvesting in 2022 and beyond on the West Coast of Scotland.
The Scottish seaweed industry is a fledgling industry but is set for substantial growth in the coming years. Until recently, seaweed cultivation was mostly undertaken by marine researchers. However, this is changing fast, with commercial seaweed crops harvested in 2021 and now, in the Spring of 2022, the harvest is underway, with bigger volumes, and big plans for the future. The industry on the west coast of Scotland is community-oriented, committed to environmental stewardship, fair work practices and is overwhelmingly lead by women.
Meet the cultivators working the 2022 crop, and those planning to join this community fora bountiful 2023 harvest.
Who’s harvesting in 2022?
Aird Fada
Seaweed Farm, Ross of Mull
South West Mull & Iona Development
Image courtesy of Inverlussa Marine Services
Discreetly sitting just under the surface of Loch Scridain, Aird Fada Seaweed Farm in the south-west corner of the Isle of Mull is, at 6 hectares, currently the largest sugar kelp farm in Scotland! It is also the only community-owned seaweed farm in the UK, bringing employment, skills, and business opportunities to the area.
South West Mull and Iona Development, who own and operate Aird Fada on behalf of the local community, harvested their first crop of Sugar kelp (Saccharina latissima) in May 2022: a bumpercrop of premium kelp, grown from 6km of seeded line. Sugar kelp from Aird Fada headed to Oceanium, a seaweed processing company based in Scotland.
This year, 3km of Winged Kelp (Alaria esculenta, or Atlantic Wakame) has been deployed and will be harvested from Mid-March to the end of April 2023. This crop is destined to be sold mainly in dry form, with some wet available. Processing will take place at Bendoran to produce a high quality food grade product.
The team at South West Mull and Iona Development, led by General Manager, Celia Compton, is proud that the farm is truly a community endeavour. Local fishermen were involved in deciding the location of the farm and are employed in deploying, maintenance, and harvesting, while members of the community are engaged for harvesting and processing at their on-shore site at Bendoran, another community-owned endeavour.
Loch Sunart, Ardnamurchan,
GreenSeas Solutions
Image courtesy of GreenSeas Solutions
GreenSea Solutions are one of the oldest seaweed farms in Scotland. Founders Douglas and Amabel Hamilton are committed to sustainable seaweed production through cultivation and they grow sugar kelp and winged kelp from rope installations in the sheltered, pristine, nutrient rich waters of Loch Sunart. The main crop is sugar kelp, along with some winged kelp, planted and harvested with a view to enhancing the local marine environment and producing low impact quality products for the home and garden. Greenseas Solutions produce their own products from seaweed under the brand 'Tangle Greens'. Their sustainable kelp harvest is processed for both the garden and the kitchen. A liquid fertiliser provides high quality nutrition for garden centres, and Kelp Cubes provide flavour and goodness in the cooking pot!
Parbay, Isle of Skye
KelpCrofting
Image courtesy of KelpCrofting
Martin Welch, Kyla Orr and Alex Glasgow established KelpCrofting to bring the environmental stewardship ethos of crofting to seaweed cultivation. This team has a passion for recycling and upcycling – just one of their innovations is the use of discards from the local salmon fisheries to create on-shore sheds!
Kelp Crofting had a successful 2021 harvest, (despite the challenges presented by Covid) and gained invaluable knowledge from an Innovate UK project that involved harvesting seaweed for Oceanium for bioextraction research.
They are also experts at design and creation of their grid-structure farm and have several installations along the coast of Skye for this year (2022) supporting a mixture of Atlantic wakame (Alaria) and Sugar kelp (Saccharina) grown from ropes held below the surface. This allows growth down to depths of 10m benefiting from the exceptionally clear and toxin -free waters around the farm sites. They provide quality kelp either fresh, frozen or dried (and milled), with a HACCP quality control system in place to offer clean kelp, to food-grade standards. Microbiological analysis is carried out regularly on their batches of kelp, and test for heavy metals, to ensure it is safe for a variety of uses.
Kelp Crofting is poised for expansion and intend to have at least 6km of rope in the water for the 2023 harvest to increase the volume of their sustainable, rope-grown kelp as a raw material to the food, feed and health industries.
Kilchoan Estate
Loch Melfort
Kilchoan Estate is a cultural and educational initiative dedicated to ecological restoration and preservation of the diverse species and habitats found on the Degnish peninsula and in Loch Melfort. In addition to the terrestrial projects, Kilchoan is restoring the native oyster population in the loch. As part of the enhancement of the local waters, a small-scale trial algae farm has been developed just off the estate coastline. Installed in 2021, the first crop was harvested in 2022 and produced just under 1 tonne of Saccharina latissima (sugar kelp). The next stage of the farm's development is to trial multi-trophic production by combining the native oyster nursery cages and kelp production system. The estate will trial different methods of cultivation, after which the results and experiences will be shared.
Who’s joining the future harvests?
2023 onwards is set to see an expansion in cultivation operations, with new growers joining the cultivating community after much planning, public consultation and licensing legwork. Introducing, the new west coast farmers joining the pioneers in this exciting regenerative aquaculture space:
Isle of Bute,
MAWKIT
Polly Galita & Paul Thomson
Mawkit are planning on using the relatively sandy bottom of the coastal shelf around the north end of the Isle of Bute to grow seaweed - mainly sugar kelp - for multiple purposes. They are interested in supplying to local Argyll industries for food, flavourings and ingredients, but also to larger customers for inclusion in pharmaceutical and cosmetics products.
They are at the planning stage, and have developed a design that takes into account tidal and wave research in the area. They have pinpointed a location with easy access but rarely visited by recreational boats or leisure activities. Mawkit are committed to promoting biodiversity, local job creation and providing high quality seaweed for the emerging UK market.
Lochalsh, Glenelg Sea Forest
Birgit Defoort & Nicolas Vyncke
Glenelg Sea Forest is an environmental start-up founded by Birgit Defoort and Nicolas Vyncke and will be putting first lines in the water in the coming planting seasons. The goal is to become a medium-sized farm in the coming years with a seaweed farm in the waters of Glas Eilean in Loch Alsh. The focus will be on growing sugar kelp, winged kelp and kombu with a view to selling to a range of commercial markets. The location they have chosen is quiet, and with good accessibility and will co-exist with local fishing concerns and employ a local workforce for the set up, maintenance and harvest which falls during the off-peak tourist season.