Oyster-tecture and Farming Seaweed

model & image by SCAPE Landscape Architecture DPC

While reading Drawdown by Paul Hawken I was surprised by the inclusion of "ocean farming" in the coming attractions section at the end of the book. Haven't we been "farming" the ocean for decades leading to mass extinction and destruction? I then realized that I associate the word "farming" in general use as taking-from and not necessarily replenishing. 

Time to hit reset.

Hawken advocates for an aquaculture where "complimentary species are cultivated to provide food and fuel, clean up the environment, and reverse climate change". This has me thinking about the recent conversation that we had with @cascadiaseaweed sharing their story of how they cultivate local seaweed from seed in collaboration with local first nations to produce an edible spice line, animal feed additives, and plant biostimulants. I was also super intrigued by their website declaration that ecosystem services deserve to be measured and valued... (insert new currencies in our evolving world order here). 

Cascadia Seaweed grows local seaweeds from seed on low-impact farms in the ocean - in contrast to wild harvesting. The infrastructure includes anchors on the seafloor, floats on the surface and tensioned ropes in between. Seed is "planted" in the winter and harvested in the spring - utilizing processing facilities and local labour that is perfectly synced with the off season of fishing.

This also has me thinking about SCAPE landscape architecture - a firm that has popularized the concept of oyster-tecture - building artificial oyster reefs and floating gardens as breakwater to protect coastal communities from storm surge. Drawdown claims that an oyster filters thirty to fifty gallons of water a day - the biggest bonus being the removal of nitrogen from the water stream. Living off of excess nutrients already in the water column, they require no additional inputs. 

Both of these link into the concept of a Blue Economy - a term that refers to the overall contribution of the oceans to economies, and the need to address the environmental and ecological sustainability of the oceans; the end goal being to decouple socio-economic development from environmental degradation.

As we design for a future that embraces climate change, I find these two approaches hugely inspiring as such a contrast to the defensive measures within resilience planning of so many of our institutions. Cascadia utilizes the ocean as a "host" not unlike other symbiotic patterns of nature, while then also using existing processing infrastructure and labour pools to process goods in the off-season of the fishing industry. Scape blurs the concept of infrastructure with public space and habitat - providing a unique glimpse of what a modern integrated landscape might look like - as considered of the landscape below the water as the humans occupying the surface.