2025-2026 school seaweed farming program off to a strong start

Fri, 12/19/2025 - 8:25am

Pauline Dion, BSSC

Planting seaweed droplines with Ken Sparta on Spartan Sea Farms in Casco Bay. Courtesy photo

The Boothbay Sea and Science Center’s 2025-2026 Exploring the Science of Seaweed Farming school program in its ninth year is off to a strong start as we wrap up our annual seaweed planting season. This year we are in 23 classrooms in nine Maine counties. We are supporting science projects in a high school in St. Louis, Missouri, and Waldoboro, Maine, that are focusing on seaweed’s tolerance to temperature changes and impact on the ecosystem of clams and mussels. (read early findings on our website at www.boothbayseaandsciencecenter.org )

This fall teachers and students raised enough seedlings in their classroom tanks for 54 droplines that are planted on the following farms:

Clark Cove Farm in the Damariscotta River (22 droplines);
Springtide Seaweed Farm in Frenchman’s Bay (6 droplines);
Spartan Sea Farms in Casco Bay (20 droplines);
PDion Farm in the Damariscotta River (6 droplines).

In the fall schools use equipment and seawater supplied by BSSC to raise two species of seaweed in their classrooms: Saccharina latissima (commonly known as Sugar Kelp) and Alaria esculenta (Winged Kelp). While nurturing the seedlings’ during the six to seven weeks of this stage of their growth, the students learn about marine biology and aquaculture techniques, and collecting data about the process.

When the seedlings have grown enough to be planted, they are collected by BSSC staff and then planted on one of the four farms listed earlier. BSSC staff work with the seaweed farmers to wrap the seedling strings onto vertical droplines attached to small buoys that are clipped to long lines held in-place by moorings.

The seaweed is left to grow from early December to late April when BSSC staff with participating farmers harvest the seaweed droplines, that are bundled up and used by the teachers and students to complete their post-harvest data sheets and create their final report. Seaweed seedlings with blades only inches long have grown to several feet in length and increased in weight from a few grams to many pounds – so heavy that at harvest it’s a challenge to lift the seaweed from the sea into the boat. It’s an awesome transformation and a very visual and experiential example of the potential of seaweed as a food and environmental resource.

The student-led science research projects are:

Medomak High School: Cadence Overlock, Jennifer Hatch (mentor)

St. Joseph’s Academy, St. Louis, MO: Izzy Mancini, Katie Lodes (mentor)

This winter we will pilot our new “For the Sake of Seaweed” program with tanks at the Morrison Center in Scarborough overseen by Melody Brown and Erin Chase and at Bristol Consolidate School managed by Kevin Crafts and his grade 4 students.

This program will provide an opportunity for students to allow their creativity to influence the way they see and how they interpret their observations over time.

A complete list of the participating schools and teachers and the location of where their seaweed grows can be found below:

Clark Cove/Damariscotta River (22 droplines)