Last month, the Kodiak Seafood and Marine Sciences Center hosted the inaugural Kelp Farm Operations: Training of the Trainers workshop. This event was organized by Alaska Sea Grant and aimed to equip participants with the skills needed to assist new and prospective kelp farmers in their communities. Attendees received comprehensive training materials, including a PowerPoint slide deck, reference material, tools for testing potential farming sites, and a model farm array.
Melissa Good, an Alaska Sea Grant mariculture specialist, emphasized the importance of the teaching kit provided to participants. “We put a lot of effort into creating a teaching kit that will help speed up the process of getting hands-on training to communities looking to start mariculture businesses,” she said. Good noted that this approach is efficient for supporting industry growth across Alaska.
Participants came from various locations such as Kodiak, Cordova, Sitka, Anchorage, and Ouzinkie. They learned teaching methods applicable in their own communities while also sharing knowledge with each other. Arron Jones, an Alaska Sea Grant mariculture technician and workshop organizer, expressed satisfaction with the group dynamics. “For this workshop in particular, we hoped for strong group discussion and engagement, and this group exceeded my wishes,” he said.
Jones highlighted that the workshop helped strengthen support networks within Alaska’s emerging mariculture industry. “As these statewide partnerships, collaborations and connections continue to grow, so will the Alaskan mariculture industry,” he added.
The training was funded by the Alaska Mariculture Cluster. Joe Hok of Nautical Marine constructed the model farm arrays used during the sessions. Nick Mangini from Southwest Alaska Municipal Conference and Kodiak Island Sustainable Seaweed contributed his expertise and provided his kelp farm for practical sessions on water quality monitoring and farm maintenance.
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