(At left) Sugar kelp harvest, Lazy Point Farms, The Moore Foundation. Credit: Wendy Moore

Contact:

Michael Ciaramella, NYSG Seafood Safety & Technology Specialist, P: 631-632-8730, E: mc2544@cornell.edu

New York Sea Grant is responding to increasing interest in nutritious blue foods and the emergence of a seaweed industry in New York.

Stony Brook, NY, August 10, 2022 - Seaweed is becoming a more prominent feature in the culinary landscape and represents a new potential industry for New York State. Navigating the regulatory framework and building a novel industry here, however, can be a challenging feat. Before an industry can flourish, guidance is needed to ensure that regulators and producers understand how to grow and handle seaweed safely. New York Sea Grant (NYSG) is providing expertise to assist the emergence of a seaweed industry for New York State.

With growing interest in seaweed production and processing statewide, clear support and guidance for the industry was necessary to ensure its success and to protect consumers. In 2021, to help address the gaps in knowledge and awareness, NYSG initiated a Seaweed Processing and Marketing Task Force. This Task Force consists of industry, agency, academic, and NGO representatives with a vested interest in seaweed production and processing.

The Task Force met regularly to discuss and identify industry challenges and opportunities to foster growth. A lack of understanding and guidance on how to get product to market led to the development of two resources by NYSG: a Seaweed Regulatory guide, outlining the regulatory framework surrounding the harvest, processing, and marketing of seaweed products in NY; and a general guidance document on the Food Safety and Modernization Act’s Preventative Controls Rule, the primary regulation related to seaweed.

Project Partners:

• Blue Moon Fish 
• Center for Aquatic Animal Research and Management 
• The Montauk Seaweed Supply Co. 
• GreenWave 
• Peeko Oysters 
• The Crop Project 
• The Moore Foundation 
• Connecticut Sea Grant 
• Cornell Cooperative Extension Suffolk County 
• Cornell University Food Venture Center 
• National Sea Grant Law Center 
• Stony Brook University 
• Connecticut Department of Agriculture 
• New York State Department of Agriculture and Markets 
• New York State Department of Environmental Conservation 
• Nassau County Department of Health 
• Suffolk County Department of Economic Development and Planning 
• Suffolk County Department of Health Services

New York Sea Grant recognized and responded to a need to support the emergence of a seaweed industry in New York State by coordinating a statewide task force and developing critical guidance documents to foster the new industry’s establishment and growth. Learn more at www.nyseagrant.org/seaweedguides.


More Info: New York Sea Grant

New York Sea Grant (NYSG), a cooperative program of Cornell University and the State University of New York (SUNY), is one of 34 university-based programs under the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s National Sea Grant College Program.

Since 1971, NYSG has represented a statewide network of integrated research, education and extension services promoting coastal community economic vitality, environmental sustainability and citizen awareness and understanding about the State’s marine and Great Lakes resources.

Through NYSG’s efforts, the combined talents of university scientists and extension specialists help develop and transfer science-based information to many coastal user groups—businesses and industries, federal, state and local government decision-makers and agency managers, educators, the media and the interested public.

The program maintains Great Lakes offices at Cornell University, SUNY Buffalo, SUNY Oswego and the Wayne County Cooperative Extension office in Newark. In the State's marine waters, NYSG has offices at Stony Brook University in Long Island, Brooklyn College and Cornell Cooperative Extension in NYC and Kingston in the Hudson Valley.

For updates on Sea Grant activities: www.nyseagrant.org has RSS, Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and YouTube links. NYSG offers a free e-list sign up via www.nyseagrant.org/nycoastlines for its flagship publication, NY Coastlines/Currents, which is published quarterly.