Joya Carson Austin hangs strands of Macro Kelp to air dry at the Canadian Kelp facility in Bamfield, B.C. on the west coast of Vancouver Island.James MacDonald/The Globe and Mail
The well-loved yellow and blue Boston Whaler skips across the swells as they roll in off the Pacific and into Barkley Sound. The small harvesting crew from Canadian Kelp speed off from the town of Bamfield into the Broken Group islands. There, the cold, clean waters of Vancouver Island’s west coast create ideal conditions for a variety of kelp species to grow and flourish.
Which is why it’s the base for Canadian Kelp’s harvests and operations. Founded in 1982, the small business is run by Louis Druehl and his wife, Rae Hopkins. They were the first to create a commercial kelp farm in North America, and they continue to produce and distribute seed for kelp farmers and conservationists.
Mr. Druel, once a marine biology professor at Simon Fraser University, has been researching and working with kelp since the 1960s. He also consults for companies and organizations looking to create kelp aquaculture operations. It’s a growing sector, especially on Vancouver Island, as many see the environmental benefits and myriad potential uses for the seaweed, including food, cosmetics and even livestock feed.
Out on the Boston Whaler, crew members Joya Carson Austin and Tory Pritchard begin to search through massive strands of kelp. Armed with box-cutters, they look for the best fronds, slicing them from the stalks and dragging the wet mass into the flat bottom of the boat. The shining leaves of today’s macro kelp harvest are huge, wrinkly and strikingly beautiful. Also known as giant kelp, the brown algae can reach lengths of more than 50 metres, although around 30 metres is more common.
Canadian Kelp rotates through harvesting locations every month or so within the island group. Macro kelp has been found to grow back more resilient – similar to an apple tree once it’s pruned – growing at rates of up to 50 centimetres a day.
It takes slightly less than two hours to pack the boat with rolls of kelp. Once back on shore, the team will hang the strands to warm-air cure in the dry heat of Vancouver Island’s summer.
Canadian Kelp has had to weather the pandemic downturn like countless others: Many of its partners are chefs, restaurants and stores around Vancouver Island and British Columbia. But as the province begins to open back up – and diners return, chefs unleash their creativity and people look for deliciously odd and wonderful snacks to fuel their adventures – Canadian Kelp will keep pulling the massive shining strands out of the Pacific.
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