I have been thinking about a kelp blog for a while and have continually made excuses for why I haven’t started it - the timing isn’t right, I should’ve done this from the beginning, what the heck do I know about kelp, and who is even going to read this….. But here we are, over a year into a pandemic that has changed my life and everyone’s lives. I realized if I keep thinking about the kelp blog that’s a pretty good sign to just make the friggin kelp blog. After all, kelp saved me from a dark brain space during the pandemic and brought me so much joy so I think its about damn time to honor the sea vegetable and the people I met over the past year.
And so, I present to you a blog devoted to kelp! Let’s start at the beginning……
May 17, 2019
In 2019 I stumbled across Stonington Kelp Co on instagram. I was in grad school and had just started my Among the Tides project so I was trying to soak up all things ocean related. After following the seaweed posts for a while, I gathered up my courage (and awkwardness) and sent a DM message that went something like this: “Hey! Can I buy some seaweed?? I have wanted to meet you, been following your company and it looks amazing!” Little did I know at the time, one of the coolest people ever was on the other side of that message chain - Suzie Flores.
After meeting up for our first seaweed transaction, Suzie invited me out to the farm. It was May so it wasn’t freezing out but it certainly wasn’t warm on the water. She lent me a pair of Grundens (I felt cool but very very short) and we hopped into a 19ft skiff and made our way to the farm. I loved everything about that trip. Suzie told me about the benefits of seaweed both for the ocean and for us while we were in the quieter no wake zones : It absorbs carbon and nitrogen from the water. It creates habitats for fish and bivalves. It’s rich in nutrients for us to eat. It’s just friggin amazing. What she left out in her introduction was the feeling you get when on the farm, that is something you have to experience yourself.
We landed somewhere in the Fishers Island Sound (now I know where it is but that day I had no clue which body of land was which and where our boat was floating). I watched and photographed as Suzie surveyed her farm and mumbled about which line to hook onto. At the time I had no idea what any of this meant, all I saw were floating buoys and water. Once she made up her mind she swiftly put the boat in nuetral, procured a boat hook and submerged it into the freezing cold water. With a quick movement she grabbed ahold of a buoy and started to pull a line in.
The first section of line was empty but the more she pulled, the more I could see a dark mass in the water move towards us. Eventually the amorphous shape was parallel with the boat and Suzie (using quite a bit of strength) hooked the line onto the skiff’s side cleat, and revealed what had been hiding in the water: shimmering blades of sugar kelp. I can tell you that the kelp looks like lasagna noodles but that description isn’t enough. The blades are opaque which leads to color changes as it overlaps one another and the sunlight hits it - it can be a beautiful gold/brown and then change to a deep purple where the blades stack on top of one another (it is a color correcting nightmare in postproduction but oh so lovely to witness in person).
May 17, 2019
As Suzie used a knife to cut the lasagna shaped blades, she made jokes about how she was “giving the kelp a haircut”. The way she harvests, allows the seaweed to continue to grow back and be harvested again later on. The harvested blades went into bright orange fish baskets to be weighed out for local chefs and farmers markets. She worked quickly and while it felt like time stood still on the farm we were only there for an hour at most. When the baskets were full, the lines were unhooked from the boat and I watched as the remaining sugar kelp slowly sank back to its’ home beneath the water’s surface, ready to regenerate.
Looking back on this experience is amusing to me. I can remember being excited and smiling all day. And I can remember talking my husband’s ear off (or really anyone who would listen) about the day and what I learned. But what I find truly amazing is how that trip brought my life together in a way that feels so obvious yet unexpected. It was as if a puzzle was scattered on a table and someone had just flipped all the pieces over to reveal what puzzle I was actually working on. My project in grad school had me thinking and researching all the BAD things that were happening to our oceans. I was overwhelmed with the negative effects and the pollution, at times it felt debilitating. Suzie and her farm changed my attitude - there are ways to positively help the water, and kelp is one of them. The experience gave me hope that we humans can connect with our oceans as a resource in a mutually beneficial way. Yes there is still pollution, yes there is still overfishing, yes there is still climate change…. but a big YES there are solutions and YES we can work on ocean pollution and climate change together. When it comes to my art practice, ocean research, and really my everyday life - kelp is here to stay!
Me with a small harvest of kelp, grundens that were too big, and so much joy after my trip to the farm.