“Over the past 7 years, Cascadia Seaweed has focused on building all stages of our value chain, from seed production and farming through to harvest, processing and product development. With our Port Edward facility now online, the next phase is about improving operational efficiency, growing revenue, and building long-term partnerships that support the future of Indigenous-led marine economies and regenerative agriculture.”
— Michael Williamson, CEO and Co-founder, Cascadia Seaweed
BC’s coastal workers under pressure
There is growing anxiety among workers and companies in the wild fisheries, forestry and salmon farming on the coast.
These issues have received extensive coverage, and there will be much more to come. Several significant issues are unfolding simultaneously at this time:
- Old-growth timber harvesting policy remains divisive and may escalate.
- The review of the Salmon Allocation Plan (SAP) among the user groups is being updated to take into account the court decision that declared the SAP of 1999 to be an unjustified infringement of Aboriginal rights to fish for salmon and sell the catch, including Chinook and coho.
- No workable transition plan to the 2029 scheduled banning of ocean net-pen salmon farm operations has been settled on as of now.
- The recently announced Mia-yaltwa Ha’lidzogm hoon National Marine Conservation Area lies within the same territory as the Great Bear Rainforest on the Central Coast of British Columbia. As more of B.C.’s coast is drawn into restricted zones where a management role extends to Parks Canada, there is no clear picture of future salmon allocations, and the anxiety only grows.
These ongoing pressures are precisely why kelp farming deserves attention — and support.
Cascadia Seaweed on the North Coast
There is one sector expanding quietly but steadily — kelp cultivation, more widely known as kelp farming, as demonstrated by Cascadia Seaweed and Metlakatla Development Corporation on the North Coast, recently celebrating the opening of a processing plant in Port Edward.
Metlakatla Development Corporation (MDC) launched its kelp farming initiatives in 2019, working with Ecotrust Canada. In 2021, Cascadia Seaweed and MDC partnered, leading to the processing plant in Port Edward.
Kelp farming holds out a vision for reimagining ocean-based processing in isolated coastal communities, especially First Nations communities and the regional service hubs that support them.
Old becomes new
Kelp harvesting, practiced for thousands of years by Indigenous Peoples, is still practiced by them and others today. Traditionally, the kelp was cut with a handheld blade just below the surface to produce various food items and other artisan products.
Cultivated kelp farming is an entirely different proposition. In order to scale up, Cascadia Seaweed Corp., headquartered in Sidney, British Columbia, has built its business around products to improve land-based agriculture.
The farming process begins with embedding lab-cultured spores in a fine-diameter twine, which is wrapped around a heavier synthetic rope to be set from a boat just below the ocean’s surface. Before and during the growth cycle, there are no additives — only the natural habitat. The harvested crop is transported to a production facility. There are two products with global markets in agriculture and livestock production.
Liquid kelp extracts are used by farmers to boost crop yields, increase nutrient absorption and build plant resilience against stressors like drought is currently in production. Dried feed additives that support animal health, nutrition and farming efficiency are being developed by Cascadia Seaweed. Both products have global potential.
Legislation and regulation
Overlapping provincial and federal jurisdictions, First Nations claims, and the emotional weight of the ocean ecosystem make for a complex regulatory environment — but one that the industry navigates with broad support.
Broad support for kelp farming
Mainstream environmental organizations express their support in a variety of ways.
Organizations like the World Wildlife Fund and the Nature Conservancy actively promote and invest in the industry.
In an interview with the Pew Research Center, Vincent Doumeizel, founder of the Global Seaweed Coalition, makes the case that seaweed is the world’s greatest untapped resource.
B.C.’s own David Suzuki Foundation published an analysis and policy recommendations for seaweed aquaculture in British Columbia in September 2025 — and the industry would find little to disagree with.
Over recent decades, Coastal First Nations have expanded into commercial aquaculture across a range of species. Kelp farming is the latest expression of that trajectory, with many First Nations communities actively participating.
The criticism of kelp cultivation
The arguments against kelp farming are made by environmentalists who maintain an unbalanced view of monoculture, and by those who claim that carbon credits tied to seaweed could be open to abuse. Covered by the British Columbia regulatory framework, neither concern holds up well under scrutiny.
Our World in Data highlights that global life expectancy has more than doubled—from roughly 32 years in 1900 to over 73 years today—powerfully driven by improvements in global food availability, supply stability, and overall nutrition.
Ignoring the benefits would do more harm to humanity and make it difficult to contribute more resources to the environment.
The future for kelp cultivation in B.C.
Kelp farming in British Columbia is built upon centuries of ecological knowledge, strong and evolving regulatory frameworks, and oversight of First Nations and often with their own investment in operations — not to forget the high value British Columbians place on their coast.
While kelp farming won’t move the needle on B.C.’s GDP, it has the potential to contribute generously to the resilience of coastal First Nations and the regional hubs that serve them.
There are some who, for years, have maintained that small coastal communities can survive on tourism and farmers’ markets. Living in a coastal community is not seasonal. It is not like going to the cottage. It requires work and business opportunities that fill all seasons.
There are individuals who might work logging, commercial fishing, fish guiding, processing, fish from a salmon farm or from a capture fishery, or even longshoring. Kelp farming is a valued addition to many communities.
Port Edward demonstrates coastal resilience — home to the North Pacific Cannery built in 1889, and now the Cascadia Seaweed Biorefinery, opening in 2026.
Seventy-five years ago, most urban residents had a connection to resource industries through a manufacturing job, but more likely through family.
That is the frame through which kelp farming and all the other resource industries on the coast should be seen, if prosperity is the goal.
Further Reading
Cascadia Seaweed — farm operations on the water (video)
Seaweed: The Miracle Macroalgae with Major Economic and Environmental Value — NOAA
Jim Rushton is a 46-year veteran of BC’s resource and transportation sectors, with experience in union representation, economic development, and terminal management. Reach him at [email protected].
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