[00:00:02.03]
[gentle instrumental music]

[00:00:15.05]
- Really just grab the tie
again and pull it through.

[00:00:20.04]
- How can we continue to keep
Maine exactly like it is?

[00:00:26.02]
The way to do that is by
keeping people on the water

[00:00:30.02]
and keeping people invested in the things

[00:00:33.01]
that they love to do.

[00:00:35.01]
Kelp grown here can help
fishing communities adapt

[00:00:38.02]
to climate change by also
mitigating some of its effects.

[00:00:42.06]
[uptempo electronic music]

[00:00:44.04]
- [Voiceover 1] The way we farm today

[00:00:46.00]
will not sustain human
civilization as we know it.

[00:00:51.00]
- [Voiceover 2] There's
not gonna be enough water

[00:00:52.07]
and there's not gonna be enough land.

[00:00:57.00]
- [Voiceover 1] We are
never going to replace

[00:00:59.04]
traditional agriculture,
but we sure can innovate.

[00:01:03.09]
- [Voiceover 3] We can
learn how to at least pivot

[00:01:05.09]
and to work with this changing world.

[00:01:10.00]
[music continues]

[00:01:24.02]
- We are so dependent
on the lobster fishery.

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All the other fisheries
are gone for the most part.

[00:01:30.05]
And this lobster industry,

[00:01:32.00]
while it's doing well,
is terrifyingly volatile.

[00:01:35.06]
[gentle instrumental music]

[00:01:37.05]
The Gulf of Maine is warming
faster than 99% of oceans

[00:01:41.01]
in the world.

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We have a perfect
temperature here right now

[00:01:44.05]
for lobster to thrive.

[00:01:46.04]
And just a few more degrees in the water,

[00:01:49.00]
that is no longer gonna be the case.

[00:01:53.01]
[music continues]

[00:02:05.06]
- Yeah, right here is fine.

[00:02:06.07]
We don't have to go all
the way out and around.

[00:02:10.05]
When I was a kid,

[00:02:11.03]
we used to go out five, six
days at a time, my father and I,

[00:02:14.00]
and it was just part of life.

[00:02:16.00]
Yeah, I never thought twice about it.

[00:02:18.02]
Yeah, I love it.

[00:02:21.05]
- We were kind of looking

[00:02:22.04]
into the different types of aquaculture

[00:02:24.02]
that we could get fishermen
into, oysters and mussels.

[00:02:27.06]
At the time, seaweed was
becoming more and more

[00:02:30.03]
in consumer's diets through
sushi, through seaweed salads,

[00:02:34.02]
through seaweed snacks.

[00:02:43.00]
It became very clear to us

[00:02:44.04]
that kelp was a tremendous
opportunity for fishermen.

[00:02:49.09]
It's grown in the winter,

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which is counterseasonal to lobster.

[00:02:54.01]
It uses the exact same
equipment as lobstering does.

[00:02:59.01]
- Yeah, the kelp knives!

[00:03:00.09]
- In addition, kelp can
also help mitigate some

[00:03:03.03]
of the effects of climate change

[00:03:04.07]
by removing carbon and
nitrogen from the water.

[00:03:08.08]
[gentle ambient music]

[00:03:13.03]
So my plan when I was a kid

[00:03:15.01]
was not necessarily to be in kelp

[00:03:17.07]
or seaweed in general.

[00:03:19.01]
I grew up in Central Pennsylvania,
which had long been known

[00:03:23.03]
for its lumber and natural
resource-based economies.

[00:03:27.01]
Most of the industry
had long left the place,

[00:03:30.03]
and it was a pretty depressed place,

[00:03:32.01]
and it's really informed the
way that I have seen the world.

[00:03:45.02]
Ocean Approved needed to go
on to kind of the next step

[00:03:48.02]
for the marketing and branding
and better kelp farming,

[00:03:51.03]
and they had just harvested
about 30,000 pounds of kelp.

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The lobster fishermen,

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they're incredibly competent on the water,

[00:04:08.09]
and they have all the equipment they need

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to farm aquaculture.

[00:04:13.07]
Our promise to them

[00:04:14.09]
always has been, we'll give you free seed,

[00:04:17.05]
'cause we have to grow
all of our seed in house.

[00:04:19.09]
You don't just put out lines
and kelp just grows on it.

[00:04:22.05]
And then we have a buyback guarantee

[00:04:24.02]
for every single blade
of kelp that they grow.

[00:04:26.08]
Here we are three years
later, and this year

[00:04:30.03]
we're working with 27 partner farmers,

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most of whom are fishermen.

[00:04:42.02]
After Covid, we did a pivot into retail.

[00:04:45.09]
When I say pivot, I mean a Hail Mary.

[00:04:49.02]
That's really what it felt like,

[00:04:50.02]
'cause suddenly not only did
we not have those customers,

[00:04:52.08]
but we had 450,000 pounds of kelp

[00:04:55.07]
that we had to harvest in 3 months,

[00:04:57.04]
and all the payments for that kelp

[00:04:58.07]
and all the ways to process it.

[00:05:00.06]
- [Sue] How much does this weigh?

[00:05:01.06]
- About 1,000 pounds.

[00:05:04.01]
And this just came off
a farm this morning,

[00:05:09.08]
and this is our harvest bag

[00:05:11.02]
that people harvest the kelp into.

[00:05:16.05]
I don't have a knife on me.

[00:05:17.03]
- [Man] I do!

[00:05:18.03]
- I got it.

[00:05:19.08]
And you can just eat it right off--

[00:05:20.08]
Well, we'll check out the farms too.

[00:05:22.08]
You can eat it right off the farm.

[00:05:24.09]
We did it.

[00:05:29.00]
We'd get on these retailer calls

[00:05:31.00]
and act like we're totally fine,

[00:05:33.06]
like, "Oh, we don't really
need this business."

[00:05:36.05]
And we had some incredible
support from retailers

[00:05:41.05]
that was beyond my imagination.

[00:05:49.01]
Kelp is now very much being seen

[00:05:51.03]
as not only climate friendly,

[00:05:53.02]
but also incredibly nutrient
dense and different.

[00:05:57.00]
If we say nothing about
its climate benefits,

[00:05:59.07]
nothing about its nutrition,
still just tastes good.

[00:06:03.04]
Matt is doing a lot of
our recipe innovation.

[00:06:05.09]
So Matt, what kind of new
things are we working on?

[00:06:08.09]
- Some vegan fish sauce.

[00:06:10.02]
So I'm currently fermenting
some of our fresh kelp

[00:06:15.04]
with a couple of different
blanched mushrooms,

[00:06:17.09]
and then some ginger and onions

[00:06:20.01]
and then let it go for a little bit,

[00:06:22.07]
and then blend in some miso

[00:06:24.03]
and tamari to keep it gluten free

[00:06:26.06]
and hopefully tasting delicious.

[00:06:28.06]
- Our whole mission is to
focus on getting more fishermen

[00:06:31.06]
in the water, but the way to
do that is to drive demand.

[00:06:34.09]
And the way to drive demand

[00:06:35.09]
is to make everything taste outstanding.

[00:06:38.00]
So when we're selling to wonderful chefs,

[00:06:40.04]
we're not talking about our mission,

[00:06:41.06]
we're talking about, like,

[00:06:42.05]
"Hey, this is really
good to wrap around fish.

[00:06:44.06]
"It keeps the juices in."

[00:06:47.01]
Or, "Sprinkle a little bit
of this on your ramen,"

[00:06:49.06]
or, "Put this in your pesto."

[00:06:55.03]
Kelp is not a silver
bullet for climate change.

[00:07:00.04]
I think right now, people are
looking for silver bullets.

[00:07:04.01]
It's all well and good, but
we need to change our habits.

[00:07:07.09]
What kelp does is it helps
people make better choices

[00:07:11.07]
about what's on their plate.

[00:07:22.05]
[upbeat instrumental music]

[00:07:48.04]
[music continues]