Grant: Industrial Research Chairs for Colleges Grants

Aquaculture, or aquatic farming, now produces more seafood annually than all of the wild fisheries of the*world. In Canada aquaculture is usually associated with fish farming or with the production of oysters, mussels*and clams - but certainly not for seaweeds. Despite supporting the greatest seaweed diversity, Canada remains*remarkably absent from a global sector that has not been able to meet market demand - realizing an annual*increase of 5.7% over the past 10 years, with a total annual production of greater than 18 million MT and a*value exceeding US $10 billion. Asian countries continue to dominate in terms of seaweed production -*99.05% by volume/biomass and 99.36% in terms of value.*The North Island College (NIC) Industrial Research Chair for Colleges in Sustainable Aquaculture, Dr.*Stephen Cross, will continue his applied research program with a focus on the development of an entirely new*aquaculture sector for western Canada - that of seaweeds. Much like many of our land crops, seaweeds can be*produced annually and typically within a season - for kelps seed is entered in January and harvested in June.*The products that can be made from the harvested material include food, materials used in food processing,*medicines, cosmetics, dietary supplements, building materials, fertilizers, and even fuels. In addition,*seaweeds play an important role in the natural environment and may offer real solutions to the increasing*impacts we see as a result of climate change.*The 5-year research program will explore how we can develop seaweed farming on Canada's west coast,*from technical aspects of producing the seed to the development of innovative technologies for farming,*harvesting, processing, for adding value to the raw material in support of target markets, and to determine how*and at what scale seaweeds could be used to remove carbon from the oceans, thereby reducing climate change*impacts. The applied research is supported by a unique cross-sector collaboration including a number of*coastal First Nations, shellfish and fish farm companies, product development enterprises, and the forestry