Canada salmon farming firm Cooke Aquaculture announced it’s farmed kelp product will soon be available.
The kelp, farmed in the Bay of Fundy, has been certified to the Canadian Organic Aquaculture Standard.
Marketed under the True North Salmon brand, the company is producing two species at the site, Alaria esculenta and Saccharina latissima, also called winged and sugar kelp. The seaweeds can be eaten fresh or cooked.
“Seaweeds, like kelps, are popular around the world and in North America we are discovering how easy they are to prepare and how delicious and healthy they are,” said Andrew Lively, marketing director of True North Salmon, the processing and sales arm of Cooke. “Our sales team has been identifying a wide range of potential customers, such as chefs, restaurants and non-food sectors like the cosmetic and feed industries. We look forward to providing our first customers with organic kelps in the next few weeks.”
The organic certification comes following third party audits by SAI Global.
The site is an Integrated Multi Trophic Aquaculture (IMTA) farm, which means that it raises species from different trophic levels and is designed to mimic the natural ocean ecosystem where many seaweeds and animals co-exist. The farm raises fish that are fed along with seaweeds and shellfish that are extractive that means that they absorb nutrients from their environment. In this case, the farm produces the kelp along with blue mussels and Atlantic salmon. This IMTA venture is a collaborative project between Cooke, the University of New Brunswick and Fisheries and Oceans Canada.
