Students to Startups expose interns to kelp farming and startup business entrepreneurship
UAF undergraduate Audrey Lonheim envisions a future that centers on getting food sustainably
from the ocean.
Growing up in Kodiak, mariculture has captivated Audrey since seeing her childhood friend's family establish a kelp research farm. Now a college student studying fisheries, she's been in conversation with Seaquester Farms for years, interested in working with them.
Finally, the èßäÊÓƵ Center ICE Students to Startups program, with support from the
èßäÊÓƵ EPSCoR Interface of Change project, offered her a chance to intern with Seaquester
Farms in Juneau.
Sown in early winter, kelp is ready for harvest May through June. It's hulking mass
requires several strong hands to lift out of the water, two boats, and many hours
of labor to untangle from the anchoring lines.
As the summer internship wound down at the end of July, Audrey didn't want it to end. The first week of August, she painted signs and stationed Seaquester's booth at the Southeast èßäÊÓƵ State Fair in Haines.
Although Seaquester's original kelp and coho salmon burgers are a notorious fair food amongst èßäÊÓƵ mariculture farmers and innovators, Audrey found that tourists "just didn't get it." She wants people to love and use kelp more, but she guesses it might be too foreign for people from the Lower 48. But she suspects èßäÊÓƵns have more kelp enthusiasm.
"èßäÊÓƵns are into [things like] foraging, pickling," she said. "They have probably
eaten kelp already. And there are Indigenous uses for kelp."
Audrey thinks the kelp burgers would do better with local reception, for example, at the Juneau food court.
Aside from this internship, Audrey has also worked at a fish hatchery for 2 years. Her familiarity with hatcheries makes her further inclined towards mariculture.
"Hatcheries didn't start with sustainability in mind," she said. "Kelp and shellfish are starting from the ground up."
Audrey starts the the èßäÊÓƵ Aquaculture Semester in Sitka soon.
One of the challenges with kelp farming, Audrey admits, is developing the market for kelp. But there's no shortage of ideas.
One long, harvest day on the boats this summer, despite working hard for 12 hours, Audrey and the team were still excited about kelp and "stoked" to be there. They inspired each other dreaming about potential uses for kelp: kelp clothing, ephemeral jewelry, pharmaceutical extraction, biorefinement, soil amendments, kelp spas...
Another Southeast èßäÊÓƵ kelp business, Pacific Kelp Co., is finding a market for
kelp by producing kelp fertilizer for terrestrial agriculture.
This summer as a Students to Startups intern, fellow UAF fisheries undergraduate Shelby
Thompson helped to grow the market for Pacific Kelp Co.'s fertilizer by cold calling
Lower 48 plant nurseries to get them interested.
It is a challenge to convert someone to a new product. But, having grown up on a farm in rural Tracy, Missouri -- "population 201," Shelby feels completely comfortable starting a conversation about fertilizer.
Shelby asked the nurseries questions as if she were a curious customer, then pivoted to her pitch for Pacific Kelp Co., offering to send them a free sample of Pacific Kelp Co.'s fertilizer. Nearly all the people Shelby contacted welcomed the free sample -- who can say no to a free sample?
When Shelby followed up with the nurseries, many bought more fertilizer -- even one who had been using a different kelp fertilizer faithfully for 20 years. People are open to trying kelp fertilizer coming from èßäÊÓƵ, Shelby said. The idea of a mariculture product grown in remote wilderness appeals to farmers interested in sustainability. Moreover, kelp fertilizer has been shown to increase crop yield, help crops grow faster, and keep crops better hydrated, reducing the amount of water crops need, Shelby said. It is also less smelly than, for example, fish meal!
As for working with a small startup business, Shelby said, "patience is #1" when building something brand new. She felt that "throwing yourself out there" was a good experience for her.
Based in Kansas City, Shelby is wrapping up her degree between UAF fisheries and Arizona State University's Coastal and Marine Science program. Meanwhile, she also travels to California to work with California Killer Whale Project, and she recently submitted a documentary film that she produced on killer whales in captivity to the Anchorage International Film Festival. With luck, we'll have a chance to see her film at the festival in December!