Native Kelp Farmers

Immersive Training Technical Assistance

Native Conservancy Indigenous Ocean Farmer Immersion & Training Experience

The Native Conservancy’s Indigenous Ocean Farmer Immersion program was born from a vision developed by Native Conservancy staff and leadership to listen, learn and respond to invitations from Native leaders into their villages and cultural gatherings as we understood that ocean farmers need to begin from a trusted place and to learn experientially.

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Restore & Protect. Revitalize regenerative economies.

Native Conservancy has worked to conserve over one million acres of critical habitat in the Copper River Watershed and Exxon Valdez Oil Spill Zone. Urgent next steps include the ongoing preservation of traditional Eyak lands and protection of djiLqaad (the Bering River) and aanguu’nAw (the Copper River) from resource extraction and corporate control.

Our focus is sovereignty and self-determination, accomplished through our initiatives to secure and preserve sacred sites, mitigate the impacts of climate change, and keep coal and other minerals in the ground, in perpetuity.

Scarcity In Changing Times

Challenge:

Spill Zone communities face scarcity in all forms. Thirty-one years after the Exxon Valdez oil spill, Pacific herring along with three other oil-impacted species (Marbled Murrelet, Pigeon Guillemot and the AT1 Killer Whale Pod) are on the verge of extinction. Fish scarcity after the spill, coupled with low prices paid for seafoods, drove a generation of fishermen from self-reliance to seasonal labor. This loss of subsistence and commercial fishing livelihoods is one of the reasons for youth abandoning their homelands over these years in the spill zone for urban areas. For those who remained, mounting impacts of climate change are further threatening their once-thriving food sources and income.

Solutions:

Canopy of Restoration and Protection for our Oceans

Restorative managed kelp in the 1,500-mile Exxon Valdez spill zone will build protection and further restoration for critical habitat needed for forage fish, wild salmon and herring. This will also provide for sustainable food sources from a kelp forest canopy while we help our oceans heal.

Our Native Conservancy kelp enhancement program is a mitigation-based project that helps restore our ailing ocean ecosystems. Restoration of habitat will benefit subsistence users as clams, mussels, scallops, oysters filter the water and can clean entire bays in a few days, while expanding kelp forest habitat that supports healthy ecosystems by creating valuable habitat for Pacific herring that have hit record lows in the Exxon Valdez oil spill zone.

This program integrates local and traditional ecological knowledge with science and technology to revitalize injured habitat that is desperately in need of restoration.

Kelp to Revitalize of Regenerative Economies

Subsistence-based and commercial Alaska fishing cultures will work together to revitalize the ocean habitat that is being impacted by Climate Change, Ocean Acidification and The Blob (warming oceans).

Communities themselves within the spill zone, will manage these kelp enhanced ocean forests to promote restoration and mitigation.

Why Kelp & Regenerative Economies?

Our communities can no longer rely on the seafood industry alone for economic resilience and subsistence. Continued low catches, expensive permits and boats, and processors who retain a majority of the profits have created an environment where our families are struggling to survive. Meanwhile rising ocean temperatures and acidification are quickly destroying marine ecosystems, pointing to a future where the ocean will no longer provide the nutritional, economic, and spiritual bounty upon which our ancestors have relied for a millenia.

We must act now. We must find bold and innovative ways to ensure our communities thrive not only today, but for the next millenia to come. The Native Conservancy is the home where we can experiment and develop these creative solutions to foster true regenerative economies. One of these bold strategies is kelp. We love kelp. Not only does it draw on the knowledge and subsistence practices of our ancestors, it also has great potential for habitat restoration, deep sea carbon sequestration, nutritional food products, bioplastics, biofuel, and more. Not to mention it is grown during the fishing off-season allowing for economic diversification and stability. This new (to the US) industry is receiving national attention, with many looking to Alaska as potentially becoming the green belt of the sea. Yet we have seen how the seafood industry was overcome by monopoly processors and distributors, with family fishermen struggling to retain profits to support their communities and know we must act quickly to create a different future for kelp. We are boldly stepping forward now to break down any potential barrier to entry and create a pathway for Native peoples, women, young people, and families to confidently step into a life of ocean farming. There are numerous barriers including permitting, investors, regulations, seed production, processing and distribution. The science is still being explored and the infrastructure is yet to be created. Our programs aim to take a practical and holistic approach to tackling these challenges and creating a new, brighter future for us all.

Research & Training

Native Conservancy’s Kelp Mariculture Research spans all stages and processes related to kelp farming; our ten year goal is to facilitate permitting and deployment of one hundred (100) 20-acre Native-owned kelp farms that have the ability to sequester carbon in 2,000 acres of ocean and grow 30 million pounds of raw food and restorative kelp annually.

Community Kelp Seed Nursery and Research Lab

Access to parent kelp seed stock is a major barrier to entry into the kelp mariculture industry in Alaska and is fundamental to establishing a thriving network of kelp farms in Prince William Sound. Native Conservancy currently operates a Community Kelp Seed Nursery (CKSN) in partnership with the Alutiiq Pride Marine Institute in Qutalleq (Seward). We are scaling the nursery to expand to Eyak (Cordova) in 2022 to meet projected demands for kelp seed in the region. The CKSN is a conduit for Native Conservancy’s research into innovative direct-seeding and outplanting methods, and currently serves as the only laboratory cultivating kelp seed for commercial outplanting according to specific demands and regulations set forth by state and federal agencies. Our model for portable kelp seed nursery operations is scalable to all coastal regions and our approach, based on information sharing and the open-source publication of best practices, will for the first time in rural Alaska enable low-income individuals, families, and communities to build regenerative ocean farms.

Landscape Analysis/Site Analysis/Site Selection

We have deployed kelp testlines and established kelp mariculture operations across 100 miles of Prince William Sound in the Alaska Native communities of Eyak (Cordova), Tatitlek, Chenega, and Qutalleq (Seward). Our seven testlines and two established kelp farms provide critical data for our kelp farming initiatives and have allowed us to formulate and publish a Best Practices Manual based on our findings from experiential research and monitoring at these sites. Our research test sites have allowed us to develop processes for the following critical processes for deployment of kelp farming operations:

• Landscape Analysis, including permitting, regulations, use, impact for potential farm sites
• Site Analysis, including granular site profiles (substrate, topography/bathymetry, nutrients, salinity, silt content - particularly important in glaciated waters)
• Site Selection and array design, including how the above factors impacts kelp growth at farm and testline sites and what steps can be taken to mitigate negative impacts

Climate Preparedness Research

Native Conservancy’s projected climate preparedness research results from the urgency of monitoring glacial calving and flow at two sites: Miles Glacier and Child’s Glacier on the Copper River. As yet there are no glacial monitoring webcams or remote sensing devices; the Alaska Department of Fish and Game operates sonar monitoring at Child’s Glacier but more data is needed to track glacial activity at this site.

• Landscape Analysis, including permitting, regulations, use, impact for potential farm sites
• Site Analysis, including granular site profiles (substrate, topography/bathymetry, nutrients, salinity, silt content - particularly important in glaciated waters)
• Site Selection and array design, including how the above factors impacts kelp growth at farm and testline sites and what steps can be taken to mitigate negative impacts