LUMMI ISLAND, Wash. — With cold fingers, a team of seaweed farmers hauled in rope heavy with thick ribbons of sugar kelp from Legoe Bay on Lummi Island in mid-April. Later this year, the same anchor system for the kelp lines will be used for reef netting during the salmon runs as part of a plan to increase the economic opportunities at the site.
It was the first full harvest for Lummi Island SeaGreens as the first fully permitted commercial seaweed farm in Washington. The previous year, the operation was using an experimental permit issued by the state. In Washington’s nascent aquaculture efforts, Lummi Island SeaGreens founder Riley Starks and his team not only have to determine how to grow and harvest kelp — a feat in its own right — but also how to process the seaweed and develop a market for the product.
“We’re just trying to figure out basically how to do what we’re doing,” Starks said. After completing the arduous permitting process, one not designed specifically for kelp farmers, Starks is still learning by trial and error. The first setback occurred two weeks after the gear was set when an island of bull kelp swept in and stripped off more than half of the sugar kelp seed line from the 350-foot grow lines.
While bull kelp is also native to Washington waters, the destructive patch of wild seaweed would not have provided the same smooth texture and slight sweetness of sugar kelp. Another major operational problem was with halibut snaps, used to connect t.