Ocean Rainforest USA - Offshore Exposed Macroalgae Farm

Case Study Overview

When Ocean Rainforest was ready to scale up their seaweed aquaculture operation, they needed an engineering firm to help them understand the specific components necessary for their cultivation systems to withstand the conditions of the ocean, both off the coast of California and in the Faroe Islands. Javier Infante, Aquaculture Engineer, and Eliza Harrison, Program Manager, turned to Kelson Marine for help.
 
Kelson Marine has been working with Ocean Rainforest for the last three years to develop designs for large-scale offshore aquaculture, as well as to assist with the regulatory permit application and review process. “Kelson Marine has emerged a leader in the ocean engineering industry. They have proven so easy to work with,” says Javier, “I am also an aquaculture engineer and have been in the ocean for all my professional life. The Kelson Marine team and I share an understanding of how things work in the ocean, along with hands-on experience. We speak the same language, which really makes the difference.”
 
Eliza echoes Javier’s sentiments on what it has been like to collaborate with the team at Kelson Marine. “They created striking and useful animations showing different forces applied to seaweed cultivation systems. They are able to step forward and say, based on our models, this will be the tension on the system, these are the infrastructure components you will need, and by doing these things, the risk to marine mammals will be extremely minimal. Kelson Marine has been remarkably flexible in terms of their timeline and have been able to turn documents, models, or analyses around quickly. They have been really instrumental in alleviating some of the concerns of the regulatory agencies, which ultimately allowed us to get a permit.”
 
Both Javier and Eliza hope to continue to collaborate with Kelson Marine on future projects. “Whenever I have the opportunity, I bring Kelson Marine’s expertise to the table,” Javier says. I trust what they are doing. There are very few people around the world with this expertise, specifically in seaweed aquaculture.”