By Alyssa Andrews
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CAPE COD, Massachusetts (WBZ) — Seaweed is everywhere. We’ve all seen it on walking along the shores of New England. But it is more than just a nuisance to avoid on the beach. In reality, it’s a vital part of our fight against climate change.
A research team at Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution has identified kelp for all of its positive economic and environmental contributions.
“Kelp is, I call it, a kind of Swiss Army Knife of many climate solutions,” said Scott Lindell, a research specialist at WHOI. “Replacing plastics, fuels, biofuels eventually. Replacing fertilizers on land. All of it comes from fossil fuels right now. So, it provides a real great climate solution while it sucks down all this CO2 that’s overabundant in our oceans right now.”
Right here at home, the nutrient-rich waters of the Gulf of Maine are known as the perfect breeding grounds for kelp production. However, in recent years, the water temperatures in the Gulf of Maine have been warming faster than almost any other body of water on the planet.
Threat to kelp farming Lindell says that kelp production is under threat of extinction due to the rising water temperatures if nothing is done. “If the water temperatures rise, the nutrients are not going to be there as well, and kelp farming could collapse in the next 50 years,” Lindell said.
In an attempt to save this vital ocean resource, over the last five years, Lindell and his team at Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution have developed a heat-resistant kelp that can withstand the effects of climate change.
“We took a two-prong approach to discovering which kinds of kelp are heat resistant or climate resilient,” said Lindell. “What we’ve done is stress the little parents microscopically in a petri dish and see which ones survive. And we take the fittest of those, the ones that survive, cross them, and lo and behold we found that the sporophytes are more heat tolerant.”
Lindell then takes the new climate-resilient seeds and sprays them on to this rope-like structure called a seed string.
“Within six months, you go from tiny little something you can’t even see on the rope to things that are 10 to 12 feet long,” Lindell said.
Benefits of kelp The next step in this process is getting this product in the hands of local kelp farmers. This will not only provide a boost to the local economy, but hopefully help clean our waters at the same time.
Eventually, Lindell and his team think the benefits of kelp farming can replace our dependence on fossil fuels.
“Eventually, we think if we can grow kelp on a large enough scale, we’ll be able to produce biofuels from it as well and replace our fossil fuel dependence,” said Lindell.
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