If there are many thousands of edible sea plants, maybe plants and shellfish local to the region could be used.
Seems like you could potentially find places where the farms would do more good than harm, even ignoring the food production aspect: They claimed that the farms make good habitats for various types of marine life, serve as effective storm breaks, etc. I wonder if they might even be able to improve local ocean chemistry in some cases (absorbing fertilizer runoff, stabilizing pH, etc.).
It will take significant practical experience and study to tease out all the effects and figure out the most sustainable techniques. At any rate, itβs likely better than most of the existing fish farms in the ocean. How are those currently regulated?
The author begins to address one of your questions in the article, although I would like to see this subject treated in a little bit more depth.
"Even the best land-based farms pollute, sending nitrogen into our waterways, so we use our kelp to capture that nitrogen, turn it into liquid fertilizers, and send it back to organic farmers to grow their wonderful vegetables. When the nitrogen then runs back into Long Island Sound, we capture it again."
It seems like, at least in theory, these types of farms can also help limit the damage caused by land-based human activity to coastal ecosystems.
Seems like you could potentially find places where the farms would do more good than harm, even ignoring the food production aspect: They claimed that the farms make good habitats for various types of marine life, serve as effective storm breaks, etc. I wonder if they might even be able to improve local ocean chemistry in some cases (absorbing fertilizer runoff, stabilizing pH, etc.).
It will take significant practical experience and study to tease out all the effects and figure out the most sustainable techniques. At any rate, itβs likely better than most of the existing fish farms in the ocean. How are those currently regulated?