Of course, clearing trash is only part of the story; it is also important that we restore and revitalise the marine ecosystem of Oslo Fjord.
Sugar kelp (aka Saccharina latissima, Sea belt or Devil’s apron) is known to remove excess nutrients and carbon dioxide and release oxygen. This helps mitigate ocean acidification and restore a balanced ecosystem.
There are many studies about the environmental benefits of sugar kelp – here are just a few for starters:
How kelp naturally combats global climate change
So when Hans Jørgen Hamre of Oslo Fjordhage managed to locate and retrieve some precious Sugarkelp from Oslo Fjord we jumped at the chance to get a head start on one of our stage 3 goals to implement natural cleaning solutions by growing seaweed.
We lovingly cared for “McWeed” for many months under the floating saunas at Oslo Fjord Spa before it was big enough to ship to Trondheim. The amazing folks at Seaweed Solutions managed to induce fertility and do a spore release.
We then brought the spored ropes back to Oslo and checked on them weekly to measure growth. As you can see from the pictures it was a great success!
A great team effort! Watch this space for another project this winter. We would love to be able to plant in more locations this year and to be able to compare results to work out the ideal growing conditions so this can be done on a much bigger scale in future.
Kelp in the news:
https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2021/aug/26/new-york-seaweed-farming-kelp-producers