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Kelp and mariculture industry growing along with Kodiak's farms, output and potential market

Kodiak resident Nicholas Mangini runs Kodiak Island Sustainable Seaweed on top of his other mariculture related jobs and roles.
Nicholas Mangini
Kodiak resident Nicholas Mangini runs Kodiak Island Sustainable Seaweed on top of his other mariculture related jobs and roles.

Mariculture continues to grow in Alaska, and Kodiak is no exception. The mariculture director of the Southwest Alaska Municipal Conference, says the local industry had record growth in 2024.

KMXT’s Davis Hovey recently spoke with Nick Mangini about his own journey as a former commercial fishermen turned Kodiak kelp farmer, and the industry’s growth around Kodiak Island.

Nick Mangini: “I'm also one of Alaska's first kelp farmers. There were three of us that started in 2016. Since then, the other two have shifted their primary focus to oysters. And then a number of other people have come online here in Kodiak and elsewhere around the state.

KMXT: And talking about the local kelp or mariculture industry here in Kodiak. I mean, it seems like not everyone, but a lot of folks are coming from commercial fishing backgrounds, right? And it seems like initially, maybe it was a way to diversify revenue and income while still doing something productive on the water. But how would you characterize the local industry now, in Kodiak at this point?
 

Mangini: That was a little bit of my vision when I started. Admittedly, when I got started, it was more of a hobby. I had no idea that this was going to bring me where it's brought me today.
So when I started this, it was exciting to see how well it took off, not just for me, but for industry folks that had been trying it elsewhere in the United States. There was people from all over the world that first year that came here and were blown away by the volume and the quality of the kelp that we grew. That being said, it was a very small scale, you know, three lines, 1600 feet a piece. The first year was not very much kelp, 10,000 pounds. Sounds like something, but on the grand scale, you're gonna need to produce a lot more volume than that to probably make any kind of money at it.

And then the harvest is also a very nerve wracking time of year, because you want to get to that maximum potential. But as soon as kelp reaches its, you know, highest volume or biomass, it also starts to degrade really fast and then gets out of the food realm.

So luckily, most of the markets now are starting to become less and less dependent on food grade, and more looking at livestock feeds and bio stimulants and polymers and stuff for bio plastics and just all sorts of different kinds of materials that actually come from the kelp that we could produce and get away from petroleum based or, you know, chemically based things, and more organic, natural to our Earth.

 
KMXT: What have been some of the successes that you’ve seen even just this past year [2024]?

Mangini: Last year was really exciting for Kodiak on not the biomass production side, but rather the amount of processors that we had in town. We had four different processors that came into Kodiak to process kelp. Most of the projects were like bench-top level scale or scale projects.
A lot of it was based on projects that are coming out of this, Build Back Better funding that Southeast Conference won for the state, which is $49 million of funds injected into the state.

There wasn't any processors doing any, really, any production anywhere else in the state. There's a few vertically integrated things happening, and maybe some really small sending of kelp out of the state to be reprocessed.

KMXT: And I also understand there’s limited hatcheries available in the state as well correct?

Mangini: Yeah, the hatcheries is a big sticking point right now.

It’s been a really big bottleneck for most of that producers of kelp is: where do we get our seed? How do we get it here? When you have to ship it across the state, it’s not always that easy.

We have been blessed here in Kodiak, because through a partnership with Blue Evolution and NOAA, they had some kind of agreement where we were able to use their coolers until, last year was the first year that we didn't have a hatchery in there. So actually, last year's seed all came from off Island.
Alf and Lexa Pryor with Alaska Ocean Farms have developed and made a new hatchery here in town that they run themselves as their company. So we're very lucky to have such a skilled hatchery technician right here in Kodiak.

KMXT: And that leads into my final question, which is about trying to expand the industry in general. And again, this is something you've already alluded to, but it seems almost like a chicken before the egg scenario, right? I think you put it during the meeting, you can't have more farms until you have more farmers. And you can't have more farmers until you have, as you mentioned, kind of the resources and the need and the market catches up. So what's the issue right now that you see as the biggest barrier that stands against expanding kelp farming?

 
Mangini: Yeah, I mean, for a long time, I think I thought it was maybe processing, an area to process, but I think that was maybe my own misunderstanding of the greater problem, which is probably product development and how we utilize kelp, and what things we can replace to use kelp with. Because the fact that it's a zero input crop using no fresh water, no arable land, no fertilizers, and is relatively; once it’s there there's really not a lot you can do to help it grow or not grow. All you can do is try to keep it stabilized and in the right area of the water column and not tangled together. And then the harvest is a whole nother beast.
So as we just grow in that whole area, I think that's the biggest need, is product development, and with that, will come the infrastructure on the shore side. Because once processors see the need for this marketable product, then they're going to want to get involved.

After the interview with KMXT, Mangini added via email that over 200 visitors, “have come to Kodiak in the last year to take part in programs or tours of the sites here. This represents a very large influx in tourism of a sort that did not exist before this industry.”

Davis Hovey was first drawn to Alaska by the opportunity to work for a radio station in a remote, unique place like Nome. More than 7 years later he has spent most of his career reporting on climate change and research, fisheries, local government, Alaska Native communities and so much more.
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