The health and environmental benefits of sugar kelp | 60 Minutes Archive

Seaweed Perception and Ocean Farming Introduction00:02

Many people view seaweed as a nuisance that clogs nets, tangles ankles, and washes up on beaches. Its name implies something undesirable. However, increasing numbers of fishermen, scientists, and foodies in the United States are viewing seaweed differently as a promising source of food, jobs, and help cleaning ocean waters. With rising global populations and limited land for agriculture expansion, they are turning to the sea and its weeds as a new frontier.

Bren Smith and Ocean Farming00:30

Bren Smith is the nation's leading advocate for ocean farming. On a cold December day, the segment joined him to visit his farm by boat. His staple crop is sugar kelp, a type of seaweed. The farm is located underwater with white buoys marking edges and black buoys holding up a horizontal rope below the surface in rows of crops. The seed appears as a tube covered in fuzz with baby plants about 2 mm that will grow to 15-18 feet by spring. It is one of the fastest growing plants on Earth. Unlike plants grown in earth, seaweed does not need fertilizer or fresh water. It is called a zero input crop.

Planting Process and Farm Development02:02

The process involves attaching the string the kelp grows on to rope and suspending it 8 feet underwater. In five or six months, the fuzz develops into mature crop. Smith began leasing the right to farm a 20-acre plot of water in 2012 from the state of Connecticut. His was the first commercial seaweed farm in the state. Now there are nine with a half dozen more in the works. Smith hopes that in 10-20 years there will be thousands of farmers doing this, viewing it as the future of moving out into the ocean while doing it the right way.