The East Hampton Town Trustees are considering allowing a private company to utilize public bottomland to cultivate kelp.
The proposal from the Promised Land Kelp Company is for an initial pilot program at locations in Napeague Harbor, Three Mile Harbor, and near Northwest Harbor County Park to determine the optimum site for growth, followed by a long-term program at the site that proves to be best. "These areas have historically been nonproductive shellfishing areas, especially for bay scallops," according to a letter from the company.
The trustees resolved in March to write a letter of support for a separate proposal by John Dunne, director of the town's shellfish hatchery, to fund a pilot kelp-farming program at the head of Three Mile Harbor.
Seaweed farming is the fastest-growing aquaculture sector, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. Seaweeds use the entire water column, allowing farmers to grow the crop on long lines suspended below the surface water. As a winter crop, kelp farming does not interfere with shellfish farming: Waterways are seeded in November or December, and the kelp is removed after six months.
One of the fastest-growing seaweeds in the world, kelp takes in five times more carbon than most plants on land and sequesters more carbon than eelgrass, mangroves, and salt marshes combined, based on biomass. Seaweeds also extract nitrogen and phosphorus from the water, excessive concentrations of which have been blamed for harmful algal blooms that can kill marine life and harm humans. The species has multiple uses, including as food for human consumption, as animal feed, as fertilizer, and as biofuel.
Mr. Dunne told the trustees on May 10 that he is serving as an adviser to the proposal presented by Lori MacGarva of the Promised Land Kelp Company. She told the trustees that each location in the pilot program would be seeded with one to three lines of sugar kelp. Lines are typically 100 feet long. The parallel lines would be 20 feet apart, submerged, and marked with buoys.
Along with Mr. Dunne, Ms. MacGarva is working with Nat Miller, a Springs bayman, on the project, and another adviser, Paul Dobbins, a longtime kelp farmer and senior director of impact investing and ecosystems services on the World Wildlife Fund's United States aquaculture team. "I've been working with him for about a year now," she said. "He's been showing me plans, setups, and timeframes, and Nat has been communicating with him" as well.
"We're not entirely sure how this stuff is going to grow here," Mr. Dunne said, though he pointed to the kelp farming effort by Great Gun Shellfish in Moriches Bay, "which is performing extremely well."
Mike Martinsen, a trustee and shellfish farmer, said that the two 100-foot lines of kelp he is cultivating as a test in Montauk waters are "growing fine."
Rick Drew was generally supportive of allowing the pilot program at the locations requested, but urged his colleagues to allow public comment before permitting it. "There are definitely some potential conflicts with these sites," he said. "I do think we need to consider input from other user groups on this. . . . I just think in fairness — this is a lot of public bottomland — that we should consider the user groups that have been working these areas so that we don't have conflict."
The trustees sent the proposal to its aquaculture committee for review.
