What to expect when you’re expecting kelp

For an organism that grows so readily in the Alaskan wild, kelp is surprisingly complicated to cultivate. The process calls for a cutting-edge nursery and extensive specialized knowledge, both of which were recently provided by Alaska Sea Grant and mariculture nonprofit GreenWave at their initial Kelp Nursery Training Workshop.

“We brought in people from around the state so that way we could teach them the nuts and bolts of running a kelp nursery,” explained Alaska Sea Grant Mariculture Specialist Missy Good, who co-taught the October workshop alongside GreenWave’s nursery manager Allie Conrad. “The idea was that someone would take away the information and could easily step in to be a mariculture technician.”

The workshop was the first training event to take advantage of Kodiak’s kelp nursery, a “nursery-in-a-box” located in a 40-foot refrigerated shipping container that was designed and built by GreenWave and funded by the Alaska Mariculture Cluster. The nursery is hosted by Alaska Sea Grant at the Kodiak Seafood and Marine Science Center (KSMSC), where GreenWave operates it to supply seedlings to the five kelp farms of the Kodiak Ocean Growers Cooperative. It has been operating since August 2025.

“Nursery costs are really high,” Good said. “Because the industry is trying to figure out how to be profitable and sustainable, there have been a lot of public funds that have supported efforts like this.” 

Classroom sessions at the workshop covered topics like the state of the kelp industry, kelp biology, marine safety and contamination management. But the meat of the event was hands-on learning in the nursery.

As participants learned firsthand, nursing kelp seedlings is an intricate process. First the farmer gathers reproductive material (sorus) from kelp in the wild. The sorus material is cleaned and “put to bed” between paper towels in a small container in a refrigerator for one or two nights, then moved to a beaker of seawater to release its spores. Spore-laden water is transferred to tanks which hold PVC pipes wrapped in twine. Spores settle on the twine, which remains in the nursery for six to eight weeks, during which time the water is regularly changed to prevent contamination, among other constant maintenance chores. After kelp begin to sprout on the lines, they’re transferred to kelp farms. 

Attendees were able to observe the whole nursery process, with lots of hands-on learning opportunities along the way. “We went through what you would do as an operator,” Good said. “What are the day-to-day tasks? What are the every-three-day tasks, the once-a-week tasks? A lot of it is doing water changes, checking for contamination, checking temperature, measuring out nutrients.”

The 10 participants were selected from 28 applicants, and hailed from Kodiak, Wrangell, Juneau, and Vancouver. Good said participants came with varied goals in mind. Some planned to start their own nurseries. One was a new hire at the Kodiak facility. Two attendees were from the Sun’aq Tribe on Kodiak Island, which is building a biorefinery to generate products like dried kelp and kelp extracts.

Attendees gave the event high marks, and Good said Alaska Sea Grant plans to hold more workshops in the future modeled on this one. “We’re creating capacity in a growing field,” Good said.  “If our industry grows, we’re going to need more nurseries. And the projections are that it will grow.”

The purchase of the nursery, and the workshop itself, were both supported by the Alaska Mariculture Cluster, which is funded by a $49 million grant from the U.S. Economic Development Administration’s Build Back Better Regional Challenge.