"The seaweed industry in the United States doesn't really exist yet," Olson tells me as we motor past the Portland waterfront and out into Casco Bay. It's chilly, and Olson has just lit a fire in the boat's tiny wood stove below deck. "We're really just making it up as we go along," he says. So far, that has entailed the fledgling company's chief executive slipping over the side of a boat several times each week to harvest the stuff. In a few minutes he'll change into a 7-millimeter-thick wetsuit to keep him alive in these frigid waters.
So far, Ocean Approved seaweed is available in two local specialty shops and Portland's Whole Foods Market. The company is in talks with Hannaford to expand distribution further but because the kelp is gathered by hand, keeping even these few outlets stocked is becoming a problem.
More freezer space will increase capacity in the short term, but Olson is really counting on ramping up an aquaculture installation here over the next year to bring capacity up and costs down. For now, the chief executive emerges from below deck with a snorkel and a linoleum knife and puts on his flippers. It's about an hour before low tide, and employee Bernie Sutherland drops anchor 40 feet off of a rocky outcropping guarded by a few dozen lazy seals.
"I'll be lucky to last an hour today," Olson says, stepping into the small skiff we've been towing. The boat's radar display says the water temperature is 38.9 degrees. Sutherland starts the skiff's outboard and ferries his boss to the shallow kelp beds, now just three or four feet beneath the surface, while Olson's partner, Paul Dobbins, arranges three big marine coolers on deck and sets out a long, wide, wooden board to work on. Olson rolls out of the skiff and into the frigid water.
