KEEPER of the SEA

FROM BEING LABELLED DEVIL’S APRON BY FRUSTRATED FISHERMEN TO BEING LAUDED AS A SUSTAINABLE FOOD SOLUTION: HOW KELP’S POTENTIAL IS BEING REALIZED, JUST AS SCIENTISTS LEARN IT’S DECLINING

- RYAN STUART

BILL COLLINS REMEMBERS WHEN lobster was a worthless bycatch. “Growing up in Newfoundland, no one wanted to eat it,” he says. Kelp was even worse: fishermen called patches of it “devil’s apron.” Its long, flat strands fouled nets, jammed up propellers and marked rocky, dangerous waters. But just as lobster has become a delicacy, Collins thinks kelp’s day is coming.

A few years ago, the Vancouver Island Economic Alliance hired the marine geologist and entrepreneur to find the best industries for attracting foreign investment to the area. He considered everything from eco-tourism to clean-tech, but one option stood out as too good to hand over to someone else — kelp farming.

Kelp is a type of seaweed that grows in long strands stretching from depths of more than 50 metres right up to the surface of the ocean. Like their landlubber counterparts, kelp grows in forests of trunks that both shade the seafloor and create multi canopy habitats that harbour some of the richest biodiversity in temperate waters. Wave energy undulates the trunks and leaves back and forth, as the energy is absorbed by the kelp, protecting coastlines and creating calmer habitat for birds and mammals to shelter in. Many biologists agree kelp forests are one of the most important habitats for marine wildlife in all the Canadian oceans.

Those same factors make kelp farming attractive. “The opportunity is tremendous,” Collins says. “Canada is in the sweet spot for brown kelp. And farming it here can check a number of boxes.”