For the past four years, Julie Browne’s Edgecomb Eddy School science class has kept a date to harvest kelp in East Boothbay. Browne’s class has participated in Boothbay Sea and Science Center’s “Exploring the Science of Seaweed Farming Harvest” educational program. This year, the research project expanded from five schools in 2019 to seven schools. Edgecomb Eddy was joined by grades 5-7 science classrooms from Boothbay Region Elementary, Southport Central, Medomak Valley Middle, Freeport Middle, Philip W. Sugg Middle School (Lisbon) and South Bristol Middle schools. 

Last fall, classrooms received a tank and grew seaweed in a controlled environment for seven weeks. In November, the seaweed was transplanted to the ocean waters near BSSC. On May 3, the seaweed was harvested so students could further examine the growth. This year, only Browne’s class witnessed the harvest, but teachers from each school attended.

Each year, Browne’s students return to the classroom to dry and further study their cultivated kelp. The class grew two strains: skinny and sugar kelp. This year’s harvest yielded 17.5 pounds of sugar kelp and two pounds of skinny kelp. Browne’s class will examine the kelp to determine what factors worked in growing their experimental crop. She also explained the program provides several educational and practical lessons to her students. “This is a real life situation which helps our students practice making observations and see how changing variables impact the project. It also connects them to the waterfront and see what people do on the water,” she said. 

This was the first year Philip W. Sugg Middle School seventh grade teacher Deb Antl brought her science class from Lisbon. She heard about the program while attending a science conference last year. “A friend of mine in the kelp industry introduced me to Pauline (Dion, BSSC executive director) who explained the program which I thought would be a great lesson for my students,” she said. “We’re going to return to the classroom and discuss oxygen production in the growing process and how kelp can be used as a product.”

The May 3 harvest results were as follows: South Bristol School, sugar kelp, 30.5 pounds; Boothbay Region Elementary, skinny kelp, three pounds, sugar kelp, 11.25 pounds, Southport Central, skinny kelp, seven pounds; Freeport Middle School, sugar kelp, class tank, 41.25 pounds, school touch tank, 14.25 pounds; Medomak Middle, skinny kelp, 20.5 pounds, sugar kelp, 18.5 pounds; and Lisbon Middle, sugar kelp, 13.75 pounds.

The program began in 2017 with a University of Maine Seanet Grant. This year, the program also received financial support the Onion Foundation, Maine Community Foundation Lincoln County Fund, Bristol Seafood, Farris Foundation, Dudley Charitable Fund and an anonymous donor. The program also received support from BSSC’s board of directors, Ocean Point Marina owners Dan and Eileen Miller, Maine Sea Farms co-founder Seth Barker, and Springtide Seaweed owner Sarah Redmond, Jonne Trees, Boothbay Region Community TV, Robert Crink, Rotary Club of Boothbay Harbor, Bigelow Laboratory for Ocean Sciences, and 2021 BSSC Waterfront Director Dalton Brauer.