Alaska’s kelp industry has been growing for at least a decade with the help of an increasing number of hatcheries around the state. These facilities nurture kelp seeds to juvenile plants before they are transplanted into the ocean and ready for large-scale cultivation.
The inside of this old refrigerated shipping container would typically hold frozen fish. Instead this 40-foot reefer container holds three separate water tanks which hold growing kelp seeds and plants. Each nursery tank is typically filled with 100 gallons of water but can hold up to 120 gallons. And the smell is not fishy. Instead, Lexa Meyer said, "it smells like a swimming pool in here."
Meyer is the co-owner and hatchery manager of Alaska Ocean Farms in Kodiak. Her and her husband Alf Pryor are the only ones actively operating a kelp hatchery on the island. There is one other kelp hatchery actively permitted on Kodiak Island according to Michelle Morris, aquatic farming coordinator and permit coordinator for ADF&G, but it is not currently in operation.
The Kodiak shipping container hatchery has been shut down for the season during my visit in April of this year. That’s because kelp growing typically occurs later in the year, usually from late August to November, but this year that drug on into January according to Meyer.
The racks where the kelp seed tanks typically sit are left bare minus the low watt greenhouse lights and dozens of zip ties.
“Everything is removable because after each season we then go through and completely sanitize the system," she explained. "Every piece of equipment will get a bleach treatment to make sure we are killing any pathogens that may have snuck their way in over the last cultivation season."
Cleaning is a big part of operating a kelp hatchery or nursery. Meyer starts with 300 gallons of seawater, which is pre-filtered by NOAA’s Kodiak Laboratory inside the Kodiak Fisheries Research Center, and runs that water through two filters and a UV light unit to keep as much bacteria out of the system as possible. Meyer says light and water quality are the main factors she can adjust to impact the kelp seeds’ growth as they develop into plants. Meyer previously worked for Blue Evolution in Kodiak from 2019 to 2022 and oversaw the operations of what she says was the first permitted kelp hatchery in Alaska.
“So no creepy crawlies, no bacteria, no things. And so we’re fairly confident that we’re doing a good job sanitizing our seawater coming in,” Meyer said.
There are 14 permitted kelp hatcheries in the state, according to the Alaska Department of Fish and Game – that’s 10 more than just a few years ago. The vast majority of existing permitted aquatic farms and facilities, which includes hatcheries, are located in Southeast Alaska according to state data. Aside from the Kodiak hatchery in a shipping container, that also includes operations in Seward like mobile processing vessels owned by Mothers of Millions, the fisher-women duo of Kristen Smith and Briana Murphy who now live in Seward and a dedicated hatchery space within the Alutiiq Pride Marine Institute in Seward.
Many of the people involved in kelp or mariculture ventures around the Kodiak Archipelago are also commercial fishermen. Being a kelp farmer is not a very lucrative job. Meyer said her and Alf Pryor are the only ones working at the kelp nursery every season but they have to work other jobs to pay the bills.
“So right now this is run by me and my husband," she said. "It’s a large operation for a nursery and it requires a lot of work. Plus, he’s [Alf] a farmer. He’s got his gear to get together and get that out there. I have a day job.”
Meyer said Alaska Ocean Farms mainly focuses on growing sugar kelp, bull kelp and ribbon kelp with Kodiak’s bull and sugar kelp tending to be the more successful varieties on the market. But the state also allows for aquatic farming of giant kelp, split kelp and Dragon kelp, among others. Roughly 90,000 total pounds of sugar, bullwhip and ribbon kelp was produced, cultured and sold in 2018 statewide. Just over 155,000 pounds of all kelp species was harvested in Alaska in 2024.
Alaska Ocean Farms’ kelp hatchery in Kodiak is able to produce 220,000 feet of seed line each season when growing at full capacity. According to Meyer, each linear foot of seed line sells at an average price of 50 cents. She said paying for all that kelp seed each season equals roughly half of kelp farmers’ annual operational costs.
In order to cut down on those costs, the couple are testing out newer technology called an automatic rotation system. This is essentially a rotisserie motor device that rotates the kelp cells at a certain rate every minute to mimic what happens naturally in the ocean.
“So we think that’ll help them grow better and then add additional current through that rotation," she said. "So that spinning will create a current in the tank, and again, help move seawater over the cells of the developing kelp.”
Meyer said they are only able to afford this automatic rotation system for part of the nursery tanks this year and will have to compare which kelp seeds grow better, with or without the automatic rotation.
Alaska Ocean Farms harvested its kelp around Memorial Day weekend which was a little later compared to usual. They have now switched to oysters for the rest of this summer until they resume work in the kelp nursery later this fall.
