An Australian blue economy industry-academia partnership has been permitted to deploy marine infrastructure to further research into growing commercial-scale offshore kelp to achieve positive environmental outcomes.
The Blue Economy Cooperative Research Centre (CRC) announced Wednesday it had secured a permit from the Tasmanian Department of Natural Resources and Environment to deploy the infrastructure at a research site on the island state’s south-east coast.
The goal is to develop, test, and demonstrate technologies for offshore kelp mariculture in Tasmania or other offshore environments, that are scalable, economically viable, achieve positive environmental outcomes, attract strong public and market support, and are supported by the rightsizing of policy and regulatory frameworks, the centre said in a statement.
The deployed infrastructure will include three small rings, 18 metres in diameter, and associated moorings, and an underwater array consisting of 60 metre long grow lines at a depth of around 10 m.
The research aims to develop commercial-scale offshore kelp production in Tasmania that could also be deployed in offshore environments elsewhere in Australia and New Zealand.
“If done correctly, growing kelp at commercial scale can yield significant positive environmental outcomes as well as positive social and economic results,” Professor Craig Johnson from the Institute for Marine and Antarctic Studies at the University of Tasmania said.
“We have much to learn about how to do this most efficiently and effectively, and this research allows those initial careful steps to be taken in establishing some necessary foundations which can potentially help the industry to grow quickly.”
He said that kelp mariculture at commercial scale has the potential to contribute to some of the large existential challenges facing society, namely biodiversity, food security, and the climate crisis.
The CRC programme is an Australian government initiative that funds industry-led collaborations between industry, researchers, and end-users.
Weather permitting, the anchors will be deployed mid-June with planting of the baby kelp immediately following.
According to the CRC, the global seaweed market is valued currently at around $6 billion annually and is growing rapidly, however the industry is still nascent in Australia.
Several Australian companies, some of which are backed by the government, have been granted patents to commercially develop asparagopsis – a type of seaweed endemic to Australia – to reduce methane emissions in livestock.
Australia’s Clean Energy Regulator is running a livestock working group to look at the potential of introducing an accepted methodology to reduce methane emissions from livestock that could generated Australian Carbon Credit Units.
However, this is unlikely to occur until the recommendations of the recently held review into the market are fully implemented.
By Mark Tilly – mark@carbon-pulse.com
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