Slick Sheet: Project
Makai Ocean Engineering will lead a MARINER Category 3 project to develop tools to simulate the biological and structural performance of offshore macroalgae systems. Macroalgae farming systems will require significant capital and operating costs. Investment and management decisions can be guided by the development of advanced modeling tools to help better understand the nature of macroalgae production for profitable operation. Makai's project will result in a hydrodynamic-mechanical model which simulates forces on offshore algae structures from to waves and currents.

Slick Sheet: Project
The Kampachi Farms team will lead a MARINER Category 1 project to design and develop technologies to deliver deep seawater nutrients to a novel macroalgae production farm concept suitable for deployment in tropical and subtropical deep ocean environments. The superstructure of macroalgae farms typically consists of an anchor grid that tethers the farm in a fixed location and orientation. The Kampachi Farms team aims to disrupt this model by designing a macroalgae array anchored by a single-point mooring, or anchor point.

Slick Sheet: Project
The C.A. Goudey and Associates team will lead a MARINER Category 2 project to develop an autonomous marine tow vessel to enable deployment of large-scale seaweed farming systems. Essentially all marine transportation systems rely on manned vessels. These systems are labor-intensive and depend on boats and ships that are a poor match to the tasks associated with deployment and operations of large-scale seaweed farming systems. This project seeks to remove the costs and requirements of manned systems through the use of slow-moving, autonomous tow vessels.

Slick Sheet: Project
Fearless Fund will lead a MARINER Category 1 project to design and develop a new system to enable large-scale macroalgae “ranching” using remote sensing, imaging, and modeling technologies. The core concept targets monitoring free-floating, low-impact Sargassum seaweed in the Gulf of Mexico for cost-effective biomass harvest. Fearless Fund’s cultivation process is designed to mimic naturally occurring seaweed mats found at the surface of the ocean.

Slick Sheet: Project
The Catalina Sea Ranch team will lead a MARINER Category 1 project to design an advanced giant kelp cultivation system for deployment on open ocean sites to assess their ability to produce economical and sustainable biomass for a future biofuels industry. The team plans to develop solutions to the main challenges facing macroalgae cultivation: scalability of seeding, cultivation, and harvest; survivability of the offshore installations; energy use and ecosystem impact; predictability of yield and quality of harvested biomass; and cost effectiveness.

Slick Sheet: Project
The Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution will lead a MARINER Category 4 project to develop an autonomous unmanned underwater vehicle (UUV) system for monitoring large-scale seaweed farms for extended periods. Compared to more costly human labor and boat operations, UUV systems present an attractive option for consistent, daily monitoring of large-scale, offshore seaweed farms. The system will routinely survey and quantify key parameters such as infrastructure health, macroalgae growth rate, and nutrient content of the water.

Slick Sheet: Project
The Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution leads a MARINER Category 5 project, to develop a selective breeding program for sugar kelp, Saccharina latissima, one of the most commercially important kelp varieties. The goal of the project is to improve productivity and cost effectiveness of seaweed farming. The breeding program will build a germplasm library associated with plants that produce a 20% to 30% yield improvement over plants currently in the field.

Slick Sheet: Project
The University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee (UWM) will lead a MARINER Category 5 project to develop a breeding program and enable the development of macroalgae varieties that consistently produce high yields under farmed conditions. Controlled genetic improvements through crop breeding require establishing a bank of genetically homogeneous lines that are examined for markers and traits important for domestication and production. The researchers will sample giant sea kelp from the Southern California Bight, an area of high genetic diversity.

Slick Sheet: Project
The University of New England (UNE) will lead a MARINER Category 3 project to develop a high-resolution, 3D computational modeling tool for simulating hydrodynamic forces on macroalgae cultivation and harvest systems. Advanced modeling tools can help inform decisions about farm structure and the significant capital investment required. UNE’s modeling tool will quantify fluid dynamics and mechanical stress at the sub-meter level.

Slick Sheet: Project
The University of California, Santa Barbara (UCSB) will lead a MARINER Category 4 project to develop a system-level solution to continuously monitor all stages of seaweed biomass production. To maximize biomass yields and minimize risk, farm managers must be able to monitor farm progress starting at seaweed outplanting and continuing through the growth cycle to harvest.