UW project took nuisance seaweed from shellfish farm to help growers. The USDA cut its funding

Excess seaweed can smother shellfish farms. But University of Washington researchers had hoped to turn that nuisance seaweed into something beneficial. Last summer, swaths of seaweed scraped from one shellfish farm were dried and shared with five vegetable farms where they’ll be used as soil amendment.

“It’s a multi-win type of thing,” said Sarah Collier, project director and assistant professor in the UW Department of Environmental and Occupational Health Sciences. “It makes sense for shellfish farms. Vegetable farmers are enthusiastic about experimenting with new, promising things.”

The Blue Carbon, Green Fields project received a $5 million grant from the U.S. Department of Agriculture to promote climate-smart farm practices.

The project was launched in March 2024. In its first year, the team harvested nearly 17,000 pounds of wet seaweed. Collier says there was so much interest that they were ready to include more farms in the pilot when she learned the grant was cancelled.

“It’s a lot to launch and get off the ground,” Collier said. “We’ve invested a whole bunch of time and effort and energy and everything, it’s just left kind of dangling.”

Collier says work on the project has halted for now. The project includes Washington State University and several nonprofit organizations that support growers. She says they’re looking for ways to save the project or stabilize the research for the time being.