The seaweed aquacuture industry is rapidly expanding around the world. As coastal and offshore seaweed farms become larger and more complex, new methods of farming are needed to maintain economic viability. Here, we focus on methods and equipment in support of the out-planting process, or the seeding of growlines to support biomass develoment over the growing season. The cost of production needs to drop significantly if the seaweed aquacuture industry is to enter new markets, such as biofuel, bioplastics, and carbon credits. For seaweed farmers, one of the largest costs is labor. Current methods of transferring seed-line from the nursery to the seaweed farm have signifigant drawbacks. The out-planting process is labor intensive and expose juvenile seaweed, which is especially sensitive, to low temperatures, wind chill, and other undesireable environmental conditions. Consequently, there is a need for new out-planting methods that can attach juvinale seaweed to grow-line without requirements to unfasten the grow-line from the farm infrastructure or otherwise manipulate the farm structure.
Researchers at the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (WHOI) have developed line seeding equipment for rapidly seeding kelp farms with juvenile seaweed (fig. 1). The farming techniques enabled by the described equipment will allow farmers to out-plant juvenile seaweed to farm structures underwater, without the need to manipulate the farm structure or pull a work boat up and down the grow-lines to apply seed string. The associated reduction in labor is expected to result in significant time and costs saving across the seeding process. This method also reduces juvenile seaweed exposure to air, as the seeding process occurs under water, which is expected to improve successful seeding rates and increasing the weather windows for seeding operations. These improvements reduced stress on the juvenile seaweeds and allow farmers to access to optimal out-planning times which is expected to increase total biomass yield and harvest at the end of the growing-season.