kelpable

According to CTV News, the Tsawout First Nation on the Saanich Peninsula of Vancouver Island have just declared a Marine Protected Area in nearby waters. Previous to this, they created a set of undisclosed Marine Use Laws and issued a licence to a non-indigenous company called Cascadia Seaweed to farm kelp just off James Island (not part of their reserve).

These Tsawout actions are an assertion that their 1852 treaty right to carry on our fisheries as formerly broadly includes authority over all local maritime matters, even though the sea is not part of their legal jurisdiction and underwater farming is not a former practice of the tribe. They have proclaimed control of 155 square kilometres of ocean and intend to back it up with Guardian patrols.

Cascadia Seaweed is a for-profit company, established with little or no knowledge about kelp farming according to a 2021 Civil Eats interview with the company’s CEO in Kelp at the Crossroads: Should Seaweed Farming Be Better Regulated?:

“We incorporated the company and said, ‘You know, we have this great plan to become North America’s largest ocean cultivator of seaweed,” he told Civil Eats. “We looked at each other and said, ‘Who knows how to grow seaweed?’ Nobody. So, we also realized we had to get a farm in the water right away. Otherwise we’re just a paper company. We have to walk the talk.
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In a February 2022 Tsawout Media Release the First Nation proudly set out how quickly the James Island project was established:

In October, under provisions of this new Law, Tsawout issued a license to Cascadia Seaweed to engage in commercial seaweed farming activities within their territorial waters and on Tsawout’s behalf. In November, Cascadia Seaweed installed and seeded one of its largest farms to date, with over 20 km of production line in the water.

The typical process to secure a licence from the Province of BC to install a seaweed farm can take anywhere between 8 months to 3 years. Tsawout First Nation recognized the economic and environmental benefit of farming seaweed in their territory and were able to grant a license in under 5 months to what is now the largest provider of ocean cultivated seaweed in North America — Cascadia Seaweed.

However, given the brevity of the 5 month licencing review it is hard to imagine that any real environmental assessment (EA) took place.

Paradoxically, the Tsawout (SȾÁUTW̱) then wrote a May 2022 letter to the BC Environmental Assessment Office about being included in an EA study associated with the Fraser River tunnel replacement, connecting Richmond and Delta in Metro Vancouver. In it they claim: The project area resides within SȾÁUTW̱’s traditional marine use boundary which is protected under the SȾÁUTW̱ Marine Use Law. Really?

So, the Tsawout avoid the EA process in some situations but embrace it in others, depending on their agenda.

The James Island kelp farm is not the first indigenous partnership for Cascadia Seaweed. A number of other coastal BC First Nations have established similar operations in conjunction with the company. Is all this interest in algae strictly a noble effort to expand healthy food sources? Probably not.

Cascadia have also partnered with an organization called Oceans 2050. The Chief Scientist for that group is a high-profile Marine Biologist named Carlos Duarte. According to a Hakai Magazine story Kelp Gets on the Carbon-Credit Bandwagon:

Duarte envisions a world plastered with four million square kilometers of seaweed farms globally (2,000 times the current area of just 2,000 square kilometers), creating a thriving ecosystem for fish and collectively earning farmers billions of carbon credits a year. That’s a multibillion-dollar industry that hasn’t yet gotten started—but which could transform the oceans and a small slice of the carbon economy over the coming decades.

The theory is that the kelp wouldn’t be harvested, but after die-off on the ropes it just gets cut loose, sinking to a relatively shallow depth on the ocean floor. Then it becomes covered with sediment, trapping the CO2 in place. The fact that decomposition of the kelp takes place on a much quicker timescale than sedimentation, seems to be overlooked … and what happens to the other sea life under this dead algae blanket?

The folly in this carbon capture plan is discussed further in an article from The Breach:

Science has very little understanding about what happens to dead seaweed once it’s on the sea floor. While carbon credit excitement is based on the idea that dead kelp will remain there and be covered by sediment, trapped for thousands or even millions of years.

But some researchers speculate that it may dissolve into the ocean, releasing its carbon and acidifying it further. It may be into ocean currents, ending up on land in a decomposed condition.

Meanwhile, it appears that the federal and provincial governments are just leaving any environmental questions to blind faith in indigenous stewardship. They certainly don’t want to be seen as against carbon capture, and have good political reason to fear indigenous/legal/media backlash.

British Columbians are largely unaware that a patchwork of Indigenous Protected Areas have been declared over their lands and water. When kelp farm carbon credits finally get Verified Carbon Standard approval, BC operations will scale up and conflicts will no doubt arise much like with salmon farming (but without the food value).

Today’s government complacency around indigenous imperialism, cloaked in faux environmental virtue, will be responsible for a host of tomorrow’s problems.