Episode 4: A Seaweed Snack

Preview

Sara:  In general, growing kelps or growing seaweed is really sustainable, low input because all kelps really need is light and good quality, sea water with some nutrients in it. And they just can grow really fast. They’re really prolific.

Introduction

Emilie: You just heard from Dr. Sara Hamilton, the science coordinator for the Oregon Kelp Alliance. Because today on Tending the Tides, we’ll be talking about one of our personal favorite foods: Seaweed.

Kaitlyn: We’re your hosts for today. I’m Kaitlyn Rich.

Emilie: And I’m Emilie Chen.

Kaitlyn: So kelp is a type of seaweed and, in today’s episode, we’ll hear folks talk about both. From the humble seaweed snacks to the kelp forest ecosystems, we’ll take a look at all the ways seaweeds have shaped cultures, economies, and environments. There are over 50 species of seaweeds growing on the Oregon coast. And, okay, Emilie, to get us started, what is seaweed? Is it a plant?

Emilie: So I was wondering the same thing. Seaweeds are not actual plants. They are algaes. More specifically, they are macroalgaes, since we can see them with the naked eye. Like plants, seaweeds photosynthesize, but they also absorb nutrients directly from seawater.

Ecosystems & Wild Harvest

Alanna: So just in terms of its growth, it grows incredibly fast. And as an example, the fastest growing kelp species can grow about three feet per day in the right conditions.

Kaitlyn: That was Alanna Kieffer, marine biologist and owner of Shifting Tides, a local business that offers foraging and educational workshops on the Oregon Coast. As Alanna points out, seaweeds and kelps grow fast and efficiently, providing oxygen that helps mitigate against ocean acidification and a changing climate.

Alanna: The bull kelp forests that we have in Oregon. It’s hard to even conceptualize, but they’re an annual species, so it grows an entire forest and creates this really important ecosystem. But they die off every winter and then they regrow like 70 to a hundred feet in one season. And it just feels like you could practically watch it grow. But in terms of a food source, that’s a huge amount of food that can be grown in not only a small amount of time, but a relatively small space.

One of the components of it growing really fast is just its really efficient photosynthetic rate. So in the process of photosynthesizing, it’s removing carbon dioxide from the water. And so naturally, our kelp forests and our seaweed beds are creating really healthy water, and they’re removing excess carbon dioxide from the water. They’re emitting oxygen. They’re supplying us with oxygen, as well as everything else in the ocean that needs oxygen. And by growing more seaweed, the hope is that we can continue to be removing carbon dioxide, which is becoming, of course, more and more abundant in our oceans and beyond.

Kaitlyn: Seaweeds make the ocean a livable place, and this is one of the reasons shellfish farmers are co-culturing seaweed and shellfish together. With the goal of stewarding the waters they farm in, it’s a no brainer to replicate these natural systems.

Alanna: In places where they have shellfish farms, a lot of shellfish farms are now starting to grow seaweed alongside of their shellfish, and it’s because they benefit each other. So the seaweeds are removing carbon dioxide, they’re making the waters less acidic for the shellfish. The shellfish remove tiny little microalgaes out of the water, so it makes the water more clear and allows the seaweeds to get more sunlight. So they’re really mutually beneficial.

Emilie: Here’s Dr. Sara Hamilton again, on the important role seaweed plays in these ecosystems and how those ecosystems shape our coastline, here in Oregon.

Sara: Kelp is like trees. When you get a bunch of trees together, you don’t just get a collection of trees, you get an entire forest ecosystem. Kelp creates habitat, and when you get a bunch of kelp in one place, it creates something bigger than the sum of its parts. It creates this forest habitat, and that’s not just important for the kelp.  So it’s important for a lot of species that are iconic and commercially and recreationally important to Oregon.  

Another kind of recent discovery is that gray whales actually use kelp forests as foraging grounds because little tiny baby mysids, which are tiny little shrimp that whales like to eat those mysids like preferentially hang out in kelp forests.

Emilie: And on the topic of foraging, our podcast team joined Alanna on the coast to learn more about how to sustainably and ethically forage edible seaweeds.

[waves and sounds of the foraging class]

Alanna [speaking in the distance]: Okay, welcome. You made it to the intertidal… the world of seaweed is really—if you’re into mushroom foraging, it’s kind of parallel in the sense that seaweed classification has changed so much as technology has gotten better…

Kaitlyn: We were blown away by the variety and abundance of species you can find at low tide.

Alanna: Nori grows abundantly all over the Oregon coast. It’s often one that people maybe have seen and don’t even know that they’ve seen it, but it grows in the high tide zone. So you don’t need the lowest tides ever to go forage it. And where it grows, there’s normally an abundance of it. It grows really long, really fast.

Sea lettuce is another one. It looks similar to nori, but it’s bright green, and sea lettuce grows, I wanna say, all over the world. It’s very abundant.

Some of my favorites: the kelps are a little bit—they require a little bit lower tides. Bull kelp washes up on shore every year. It is an annual species, so typically I’m only salvaging it off the beach. I’m never harvesting it. But I love to pickle it. You can cut the stipe up, and it makes little hollow perfect circular pickles.

Emilie: A note here: Alanna is talking specifically about salvaging bull kelp that has washed ashore, because Oregon Bull Kelp is protected, and there is no commercial wild harvest allowed.

Alanna: Seaweed foraging is really, you know, it’s a matter of going out at low tide and finding different seaweed species on our coast, and really I think the biggest practices are knowing how to do it sustainably and knowing how to do it within regulation on the Oregon coast. So depending on where you are in the world, if you’re not in Oregon, these regulations are different all over the place. But on the Oregon coast, we have a pretty limited seaweed foraging season, so you can only remove living seaweed off of the rocks from March 1st to June 15th.

And you have to do it with scissors or a knife, you can’t just be pulling seaweed off the rocks. And the important point there is that seaweeds regrow from the structure that they’re attached to the rock with. So, a lot of ’em are annuals, and they need that point to regrow from every year. So, staying within the season is really important. There’s not a license that you need to harvest seaweed in Oregon, but anytime you are actively cutting seaweed off of a rock, that is what we refer to as seaweed foraging.

Salvaging seaweed is a little bit different. So salvaging is what I refer to as harvesting seaweed off of the beach that has already been detached and washed up on the beach, and that you can do any time of year.  There’s a lot of different species of seaweed that you can harvest on the Oregon coast. The Pacific Northwest has more kelp diversity than anywhere else on the planet, which I find really fascinating.

Kaitlyn: As Alanna notes, Oregon’s wild harvest season for seaweed is limited to four months a year, and as we learned, commercial wild harvest of bull kelp is prohibited to protect these important and sensitive ecosystems. So, while foraging is an engaging way to build a relationship and connection to place, it left us wondering: where is all the seaweed we’re seeing at the store and on our plates coming from?

Farmed & Commercial Seaweed

Chuck: To give you an idea about the seaweed business, there’s about 10 or 15,000 different species of seaweed, and the world’s commercialized about six of ’em. So, there’s quite a bit of room to grow in terms of species selection, this sort of thing.

Emilie: You’re hearing from Chuck Toombs, the founder of a business called Oregon Seaweed.

Chuck: Oregon Seaweed is the largest on-land seaweed company in the United States, and we operate two farms: one in Bandon and one in Garibaldi. They’re 200 miles apart on the Oregon coast. And the way we grow our seaweed is we pump water in from the ocean at high tide, and we bubble the seaweed in the tanks. And it goes through photosynthesis. And the magic happens is because this seaweed is clonally propagated. In other words, it doesn’t go through a sexual reproductive cycle. So it just continues to grow.

And the other benefit is that we live on the eastern boundary upwelling zone, which is—there’s four of these around the world—it’s a natural occurrence where it brings cold water from very deep in the ocean up to the surface, and we capture that water, and it provides basically free nutrients, free fertilizer for our seaweed. So we can do a very, very environmentally friendly growing without having to add a lot of fertilizers.

Emilie: Alanna, who you heard from earlier, is also a team member at Oregon Seaweed, where they are commercially growing a type of seaweed called Pacific dulse.

Alanna:  We’re specifically using dulse ’cause it’s a species that has been cultivated at Oregon State University for about 30 years. And so there’s really good methods and efficient methods on how to farm it in tanks. There’s other varieties of seaweed that we can be growing. And in terms of looking into the future, we are thinking about tapping into some other varieties.

Jason: …it was always our vision that fresh seaweed was going to be the main product.

Kaitlyn: That’s Jason Bush, the Chief Operating Officer of Oregon Seaweed. Jason works to figure out how to expand their markets.

Jason: We can either continue to grow organically farm by farm, selling fresh seaweed and dried seaweed products into various markets—the Portland market, the Seattle market—and grow organically. And certainly that’s the path we’re on.

But there are other markets that we could tap into. We, for example, already sell our seaweed into the pet food market where it’s an important ingredient at providing some key nutrients that are hard to come by. So we’ve done real well there. And there are a variety of other uses.

Most recently, we sold a lot of seaweed to Oregon State University as part of a research project. They’re using the dry seaweed to feed the cattle, where it’s been demonstrated that certain red seaweeds, Asparagopsis in particular, can greatly reduce methane production.

Kaitlyn: We’ll hear more in a future episode about the research on including seaweed in cattle feed. And as we’ve heard from everyone in this episode, the opportunities for seaweed are vast—from being used in pharmaceuticals, to new formulations that replace traditional plastics, to beauty products and fertilizers. In addition to dulse, there are many types of seaweed and kelp that could be farmed in Oregon and new markets and products that could be explored.

Emilie: But, before that can happen, there are permitting and regulatory hurdles to work through. You heard Chuck earlier, explaining the method that Oregon Seaweed uses, growing dulse on land in a flow-through tank system that pulls water from the bay. It’s also possible to grow seaweed directly in the ocean, which is done in other states and around the world, but in Oregon, there isn’t a clear regulatory framework. Establishing a framework could open the door for many farmers to cultivate a wider range of seaweed and kelp, on their own or alongside their current crop.

Chef Strong: We try to highlight dulse wherever we can. So dulse seaweed, it tastes great. When you cook it, it’ll kind of turn a little bit from that beautiful purple color to more green. You can even like crisp it up like kale chips or seaweed chip. One of my favorite ways really is to kind of highlight it fresh and then mix it with a salad. It just can do so much. You can do so much with it.

Emilie: You’re now hearing from Chef Jack Strong, whom you may remember from our previous episode. Chef Strong is a Siletz tribal member and the executive chef at the Allison Inn in Newberg.

Chef Strong:  At the Allison here, it’s really great ’cause we use only local, small producing vendors. So when we get our proteins, we use a local vendor out of Tualatin. Our seafood comes from a local vendor here in Newberg. So, small little place. It’s not some big conglomerate that has a reach across the world.  

So for me the biggest challenge, which is not really a big challenge, but it’s just something you have to do is  you just have to be purposeful and organized, and you have to make those connections in the communities.

Like the dulse seaweed was a new thing for us last year, and creating a partnership with the company that has it on the coast. And so, you know, sometimes I just come across someone who does something amazing and I try to support them, or I search it out and I’m like, where can I get this?

Missing Perspectives

Kaitlyn: There’s a lot of excitement around growing seaweed, which makes sense. It’s fast-growing and has low input for such a nutrient dense food. But, it definitely feels like amid the excitement, there are perspectives missing from the conversation. Seaweed is an important First Food for many West Coast Tribes. And historically, kelp forests were such a large and important part of the ocean environment they connected Indigenous peoples throughout the Pacific Rim as travel and trade roots for tens of thousands of years. Here’s Chef Strong again:

Chef Strong:  If you have, this super highway of kelp, and then kelp sustains sea life, salmon, and all the different other sea life that then sustain us, people. And so, from the Pacific Rim of Asia down to North America, migrations happened, and part of that is because of the kelp that was there. And that, the same way when you look at, say maybe the Midwest. When the tribes would follow the migrations of the buffalo, and that was their lifeline.

And, so I felt like there’s a connection in that way, in the sense that kelp, is I think overlooked a little bit as far as how important it was. ‘Cause that was like the food line for sea life, which then helped sustain human life.

Kaitlyn: Despite its traditional importance, the commercial market for seaweed is still growing in the U.S. and being developed here in Oregon. In Asia, the commercial market for seaweed is well established and is valued at an estimated $9 to $12 billion annually.

With such a significant global market, it is no surprise that seaweed is a food with deep cultural meaning for myself, my co-host Emilie, and many communities in Oregon.

Emilie: Seaweed is a part of our formative and early food memories, so we got together to share and eat some seaweed snacks from our childhoods. We talked about how important these foods are to us, as well as how important it is to us to acknowledge the deep roots and histories of these foods as they become commercialized in the West.

Kaitlyn: Ok, so I’m going to open up this Korean rock seaweed that I got from Costco. [sounds of opening packaging]

It’s very flaky. There’s a lot of like holes in the sheet of it. And a very quintessential flavor of all roasted Korean seaweed is sesame oil. So it tastes really warm, kind of toasty. And then there’s like a really lovely, kind of like flavor of the sea. 

Emilie:  It definitely tastes like an ocean breeze, and there’s a nuttiness from the sesame oil. I have more of a savory tooth more than a sweet tooth, so seaweed snacks always really fulfill that craving for salt. 

So the seaweed snacks I grew up with have like 5 or 6 strips in a thin plastic package. They’re seasoned with more of a sweet and savory type of glaze.

Since seaweed snacks come in these small packets, my caretakers liked to slip a few of these into my backpack to take to school as my snack. I was in kindergarten, and one of the very first times I took my seaweed packets out at snacktime, one of the other kids was like “ew, what is that?” And before I knew it, this seaweed packet got snatched out of my hands and was being circulated around the other students. And some of my classmates were supportive, but—like a lot of kids from immigrant households—I quickly learned I didn’t want that experience again. I still remember the look of confusion my caretakers had when I asked them never to give me seaweed to take to school again. And it wasn’t just with other kids, I also later experienced an adult shame me about seaweed.

Seaweed is a food that I learned, at a very young age, was not socially acceptable for me to eat outside of home.

Kaitlyn: Yeah, I can definitely relate to that experience of eating a food that I love, from my culture, and having someone outside of my culture yucking my yum. I think both of us have seen this, where our cultural foods, seaweed included, are trending in the US mainstream. Now that I live in a smaller town, I don’t have much access to Korean groceries and I find myself shopping at stores like Costco, Trader Joes, or World Market to find what I consider to be the staples of how I cook and eat. But, the reason I can find seaweed at these stores is because it’s “trendy” for a western consumer.

Emilie: Some people hear that and might think it’s a sign of progress, that our society has become more accepting of a wider range of foods. But the anti-Asian racism in 2020 and 2021, which really put Asian cuisines under a negative spotlight, was a clear reminder that that’s not what’s happening. Instead, cultural foods can be taken out of their contexts and commodified, while the communities for whom these foods are important continue to be harmed.

Kaitlyn: So true. And, I don’t expect everyone to have a deep cultural connection to seaweed in order to enjoy eating it. I think there are ways to learn about the foods and the cultures they come from and enjoy them in ways that don’t yuck someone else’s yum or decontextualize them for a western palate. For example, when I hear folks say they have to make seaweed palatable for a western palate, my response is ‘no you don’t.’ You can innovate a new seaweed product, but you don’t have to do it on the premise that seaweed is unpalatable.

Aaron: Well, as an Asian American, I feel like seaweed is so part of what I eat on a daily basis, um, that I don’t necessarily know what I could do without it. So I’m also really keen on seeing mariculture and more kelp farming.

Emilie: You’re hearing from Aaron Huang, co-founder of Oo-Nee Sea Urchin Ranch. You’ll hear more from him in a later episode that explores uni, which are the edible gonads of sea urchins, but he also shared with us his unique perspective as an Asian American entrepreneur:

Aaron: I think if people are steeped in food, in seafood as a culture, I think they get it immediately. I don’t necessarily talk about restoration. I don’t talk about aquaculture. I just talk about food, and I think that when people connect with food, then the backstory can illuminate itself.

Kaitlyn: It’s a personal and special experience if someone cooks you food from their culture. Korean food is one of the first types of food I ate and whenever I eat it, it’s inextricably linked to memories of my halmoni cooking for me. Halmoni is the Korean word for grandmother. And mine was a really good cook.

With some of the seaweed we foraged with Alanna, I was able to make a Korean seaweed soup—it’s called miyukgook, and it’s traditionally eaten on birthdays or after giving birth because seaweed is full of nutrients. And making a locally foraged version of this soup brought me a lot of joy.

My halmoni is no longer with us, and so cooking foods she made for me is one of the ways I keep her memory alive and stay connected to the people who shaped and raised me and my culture.

Emilie: Thanks for sharing your experience. Incorporating local ingredients is such an important way for diaspora to feel culturally connected. Because whether or not it’s trending in the mainstream, foods like seaweed will always have deep meaning and importance for many communities. I want to end this episode with something Chef Strong shared about his dream for the future on the Oregon Coast:

Reflection

Chef Strong:  So I would say in a dream world, we would have a culture along the coast that is thoughtful as to how we harvest, and that we’re trying to do it in a way that makes sense with seasons, while letting populations come back. Because, I know like different tribes have different access and treaty rights. If it was looked at as an important beautiful resource that can be enhanced and supported through business, through the way that we harvest, but that would be the overall goal.  I feel like it’s a really important part of our life is all along the coast, for many people.

And I feel like, know, the protection of that support of it, and then how can we help that grow? ’cause you know, we all hear these stories of what it was, you know, say pre-contact, and what a bounty it was to be able to see that and or something, some version of that. That would be like the biggest kind of dream I think.

Kaitlyn: More of that will be explored in our next episode, which takes a look at how Oregon mariculture is balancing a delicious commercial industry with ecological restoration. More to the point, we’ll take a look at how restoring kelp forests by reducing the overpopulation of purple sea urchins can also create market value.

Tom Calvenese:  …I had been working as a commercial urchin diver for a while, and more recently, over the last five years or so me and other divers in the area, particularly here in southern Oregon, see some really rapid changes in our kelp forests …

Credits

Emilie: This episode was hosted and written by Emilie Chen and Kaitlyn Rich. Edited by Emilie Chen. Produced by Jon Bonkoski, Megan Foucht, Suzie O’Neill and Tyson Rasor. Music by Imagined Nostalgia and Boxwood Orchestra. Illustrations by Tony Sterling and design by Heldáy de la Cruz. This podcast was made possible by our funders at Builders Vision Philanthropy; Builders Vision invests in and col­lab­o­rates with nonprof­its, busi­ness­es, and oth­ers work­ing towards sus­tain­able solu­tions to soci­etal and envi­ron­men­tal chal­lenges. Lastly, this podcast is a production from Ecotrust, where we work in partnership at the intersection of equity, economy, and environment. Learn more at ecotrust.org.

Blooper 😛

[woof!]

Kaitlyn: That’s my dog, she wants our seaweed.