Barbery K1, Bailey D1,2, Garwin S1,3, Grzenda D4, Gray K1, Goudey C5
1GreenWave, New Haven, CT, USA, 2Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, Falmouth, MA, USA, 35th Quarter Foods, Boston, MA, USA, 4Data Science Institute The University of Chicago, Chicago, IL, USA, 5 CA Goudey & Associates, Newburyport, MA, USA
Launched in April 2022, GreenWave’s Regenerative Ocean Farming Hub is a free, online resource designed to provide seed-to-sale support for both emerging and experienced ocean farmers and hatchery technicians. Already having drawn over 2,200 users across 88 countries and 47 U.S. states to date, the Hub Courses, Tools, and Community make GreenWave’s training and support offerings and community knowledge-sharing accessible to a significantly wider audience, helping the industry scale and problem-solve more rapidly and efficiently. Using the Hub’s Kelp Farm Design Tool, aspiring farmers can easily navigate common startup pain points by generating basic farm designs, gear lists, budgets, and U.S. state-specific permitting language, based on the location and characteristics of their sites. With this Tool, users can visualize how certain site factors influence farm design, assess financial viability early on in the process, and download permit-ready design descriptions to support effective communication with regional regulators. This presentation will address the models, assumptions, and safety factors built into the Kelp Farm Design Tool; and will explore possibilities for expanding its utility to new regions, design types, and species.