Our own home-grown seaweed seeds
At Fiora Mara, we are committed to sustainable aquaculture and to cultivating seaweed in a way that benefits both the environment and the communities we serve. Recently, with our partnership with Hart Hatchery, we collected live seaweed from the waters off the coast of Long Island and began extracting the seaweed sorus (seeds) for re-planting. This is a second method of growing seaweed plantlets on grow lines, the first is the gametophyte(1,2) method, which was a huge success for us. This effort is part of our long-term strategy to source seaweed from the regions that we operate in, ensuring that we only grow plants that are well-suited to local ecosystems, avoiding any negative impact on their natural balance.
1. Collecting Live Seaweed from Long Island
In collaboration with Hartland Lobster, our team obtained live seaweed from the rich, biodiverse waters off Long Island. This step is key to our cultivation process, as we aim to support local biodiversity and create resilient, regionally adapted seaweed populations. By sourcing seaweed directly from the areas where we intend to operate, we ensure that the plants we grow are genetically diverse and well-suited to thrive.
2. Transporting to Our Pilot Seaweed Hatchery in New Jersey
Once the seaweed was collected, it was carefully transported to our pilot seaweed hatchery in New Jersey. The journey was managed with great attention to detail to preserve the health of the seaweed, ensuring that it arrived at our facility in optimal condition for the next phase of processing and cultivation.
3. Processing the Seaweed to Extract Sorus Tissue
At our hatchery, we began processing the live seaweed to encourage it to release sorus tissue, a crucial step in our seaweed cultivation process. Sorus contains spores that are essential for growing seaweed plantlets from scratch on our grow lines. The extraction requires precision and care to ensure the sorus is extracted properly, to help ensure optimal results.
4. 24 Hours of Careful Cultivation
After approximately 20 hours of processing, the sorus tissue was successfully released into our beakers. We then transferred it into our grow tanks, where it was kept in the dark for 24 hours to settle and stabilize. This incubation period is crucial for preparing the sorus to attach to our grow lines and to begin their next stages of development. Once the 24 hours passed, we exposed the sorus to light, which triggered the growth cycle and set the stage for the plantlets to begin developing.
5. Supporting Local Ecosystems Through Localized Cultivation
This successful process is an important step in Fiora Mara’s long-term goal of growing localized seaweed based on the varied areas that we operate. It is a way to ensure that our seaweed is adapted to their natural surroundings and by using local strains we promote an approach where we minimize the risks associated with introducing non-native species and promotes the growth of sustainable, resilient seaweed.
We are pleased with the success of this first big step of the grow process and look forward to expanding our efforts in other regions. With each step, Fiora Mara is closer to achieving its goal of growing seaweed around the world and capturing the massive amount of carbon that seaweed stores for the long term.
