Rebuilding the Puget Sound Ecosystem

Why Kelp?

  • Kelp are brown algae that serve as a vital ecological component in the Puget Sound ecosystem.

  • Puget Sound contains 17 species of kelp. These kelp forests provide an important habitat for many fish species, including several that are considered endangered or threatened under the Endangered Species Act.

  • Marine vegetation like kelp can also be a tool in the fight against climate change, as they can sequester carbon.

  • Alarmingly, recent analyses show a decline of more than 90% in bull kelp in the south and central Puget Sound in the last 150 years.

Initial focus of the company will be two species:

Cultivation

Sugar Kelp
(Saccharina latissima)
will be grown for sale.

  • This farming activity will remove nitrogen from the ecosystem, which is helpful in reducing harmful algal blooms and the biotoxins they produce.

  • Kelp harvested from the site will be used in a range of products including food (e.g. seaweed snacks) and non-food products (e.g. fertilizer, cosmetics, bioplastics).

  • These eco-friendly products are crucial for our environment. Examples include: replacing chemical fertilizers with organic fertilizer, substituting single-use plastic with bio-plastic, and creating new high protein seaweed foods.

Restoration

Bull Kelp
(Nereocystis luetkeana)
will be grown for restoration.

  • Bull Kelp is an annual species — kelp will begin growing in the spring and will die in the winter. However, the blades are reproductive and will produce trillions of zoospores which will grow into gametophytes which will shed sperm and eggs.

  • When fertilized, the eggs develop into juvenile sprorophytes.

  • Vashon Kelp Forest's efforts will aim to repopulate the kelp beds on the North end of Vashon and elsewhere in Central Puget Sound.

Kelp Products

Harvested kelp from the Vashon Kelp Forest will be used as an input into a range of food and non-food products. While the range of beneficial and natural products is huge, initially the focus will likely be on compost/ fertilizer and as an input for kelp snacks for human consumption.

“Within 10 years, I think there will be algae or algae-derived products in nearly 75 percent of the things that we interact with on a daily basis … People are starting to realize that we’ve barely scratched the surface of algae’s potential, and we’re seeing a massive surge in interest.”

– Michael Lomas, Senior Research Scientist,
Bigelow Laboratory for Ocean Sciences