Today we celebrate the success of our live seaweed experiment, where we took fresh seaweed, carefully extracted the sorus tissue (seaweed spores), and attached them to grow lines in our hatchery’s grow tanks. Over time, we nursed these seeded lines until they developed into healthy plantlets, ready for oceanic deployment. This process not only demonstrates our ability to cultivate seaweed independently but also reinforces our capability to scale our solution efficiently.

Our unconventional, Breaking Bad-style RV biological clean-room has proven to be a game-changer. Not only has it allowed us to convert live seaweed into viable plantlets on grow lines, but it has also demonstrated success in transitioning gametophytes to plantlets. These results validate our ability to create a sterile, controlled environment for seaweed cultivation—an essential step in scaling our operations while maintaining quality and consistency.

This success marks a pivotal moment for Fiora Mara. By proving that our methods work, we’re laying the foundation for a scalable and sustainable system that will drive our mission forward. We’re excited about what’s next—refining our processes, expanding our capabilities, and taking the next steps toward deploying our biodegradable seaweed farms in the open ocean. Stay tuned as we continue to push the boundaries of innovation in ocean-based carbon sequestration.

With the male and female gametophytes being combined and applied to the grow lines that are wrapped around PVC piping, we’ve entered the early stages of nurturing them to maturity. This initial test is focused on evaluating our hatchery processes and our methods for growing gametophytes into plantlets in our tanks. Our future tests will explore different methods, including working with seaweed spores.

Conducted in a shared warehouse space, this experiment aims to demonstrate that our hatchery can maintain a clean, contamination-free environment while functioning under challenging conditions. Success in this phase will confirm that our hatchery design is capable of being constructed at any location, producing deployment-ready seedlings, adaptable to more rugged settings like an ocean bound barge.

This testing is essential for achieving our long-term vision: creating a portable hatchery that can be deployed from barges during oceanic journeys. By using collecting seaweed and isolating gametophytes from the varied regions where we operate, we aim to seed our self-sinking, biodegradable seaweed farms directly in the ocean. Proving the effectiveness of our hatchery design ensures that our methods are scalable and capable of supporting barge-based operations, driving large-scale carbon removal globally.

As we refine our hatchery and progress toward full-scale ocean deployment, we’re taking another exciting step closer to realizing our vision for the future – where seaweed plays a crucial role in capturing significant amounts of carbon while protecting the ocean.

Controlled Clean-Room Environment

At the heart of our new facility is a meticulously designed clean-room environment. This space is housed within a warehouse and features positive pressure to prevent contaminants, ensuring our seaweed thrives in optimized conditions. This level of care underscores our commitment to preventing contamination, enhancing growth conditions and overcoming obstacles when our design is moved to a barge on the ocean.

Aquaculture Tanks Ready for Action

We’ve also completed the setup of our first two aquaculture tanks. The first tank is dedicated to growing sugar kelp on grow lines, promising a robust and healthy yield. The second tank is set aside for experimental purposes, where we are excited to be the first hatchery to explore the potential of growing Ulva plantlets on grow lines – with the hopes of establishing a summer crop.

Ready Access to Sea Water

To streamline our operations, we’ve collected many gallons of ocean water that are stored on-site for easy access. This ensures that our tanks will always be supplied with the most suitable water, which is crucial for optimizing the growth of our seaweed.

Advanced Transitional Working Area

Our transitional working area is now fully developed and equipped. Here, we measure our progress with high-precision microscopes, organize additional nutrients to maintain a healthy water environment, perform miscellaneous tasks and manage spools of seed-lines that are cut and configured to perfection.

This space is designed to be the versatile nerve center of our operations, where our progress meets practical application.

The Next Stage: Introducing Seaweed Spores

With everything in place, we are now prepared for the next stage: introducing seaweed spores. This step will officially kick off the growth phase for our seaweed grow lines, enabling us to both verify our methods and make changes as needed.

Stay tuned for more updates as Fiora Mara pushes forward in the goal to help save the planet.  Our journey has just begun, and we can’t wait to share our progress with you!

The clean-room is a controlled environment with low levels of contaminants, used for the sensitive biological processes. This setup marks a significant step in preparing our seaweed hatchery for the cultivation of seed strings for use in our long term goals of absorbing massive amounts of carbon on the open ocean.

To create the clean-room, we used wood and painter’s plastic, ensuring the hatchery remains contaminant-free while minimizing odors that may impact our neighbors. Additionally, we cut PVC pipes and wrapped the seed strings, configured the chiller and bubbler, and added tank lighting to prepare our aquariums’ environment for cultivation

In the pilot’s next phase, we are testing various biodegradable seed strings such as manilla-based hemp rope, cannabis-based hemp, and jute rope for strength and degradation. As we wait for our new source of seaweed spores, we’re continuing to make improvements to our hatchery, such as better air circulation, smaller diameter PVC pipes to maximize output, and improved seawater filtration methods.

As we build and experiment with our hatchery, we’re always keeping our vision in mind: construct a sinkable seaweed farm to sequester carbon at the bottom of the ocean.