6 full lessons
Written in plain language, illustrated, and kept as a reference afterward.
Species · the working season on a line farm
Seaweed Farm Operations
Seed, line, season, and harvest: how a kelp farm is actually run, from the nursery string to the wet product leaving the dock.
Six lessons on running a seaweed farm: the season laid out with its unmissable weeks, the site conditions and gear a longline needs, where seed comes from and how short its handling window is, what tending really looks like, the harvest day and the cooling clock that starts at the cut, and the records and gear recovery that close a year properly.
$125 once, or $125 on Driftline. Add $60 and Jules reads and grades one real piece of work, passing at 80 percent. Review is optional. Nothing here is accredited or carries credit.
Take this class
Pay once, and it is yours to come back to. Pick how you want to take it.
On your own
The whole class, the practice work, and the knowledge checks. No pass score, no graded work, no certificate gate.
With Jules reading your work
Everything above, plus one real piece of work, "One season on a seaweed farm", that Jules reads and grades against a rubric you can see before you start. You pass at 80 percent, and you can rewrite and send it back as many times as you need. This is optional, and it is not accredited and carries no continuing education credit.
Already taking this class? You can add review later and pay only the $60 difference.
12 contact hours
Measured per lesson, with written outcomes, so your time is recorded honestly.
No-pressure checks
Clear answers and explanations, unlimited tries, and nothing sent to a gradebook.
Region aware
Rules are shown by state with the source and the date we checked it.
The complete course
Lesson 1 · 2 h
The Season, End to End
- · Lay out a seaweed season in order with its critical windows
- · Identify the tasks that cannot slip and the ones that can
- · Describe the labor pattern the season creates
Lesson 2 · 2 h
Site and Gear
- · Describe the site conditions a longline system needs
- · Name the main components of a longline array and what each does
- · Explain why anchoring and tension are the usual failure points
Lesson 3 · 2 h
Seed and Nursery
- · Describe how seeded string is produced and handled
- · Explain why the transfer window is short and temperature sensitive
- · State the local sourcing and permitting questions to ask before moving seed
Lesson 4 · 2 h
Tending the Crop
- · Run a routine line check and record it usefully
- · Recognize fouling and grazing pressure and judge its urgency
- · Describe what to check after a storm and in what order
Lesson 5 · 2 h
Harvest and Handling
- · Judge when a crop is ready and why waiting costs quality
- · Describe deck handling and cooling for wet seaweed
- · Plan a delivery route within the perishable window
Lesson 6 · 2 h
Records, Rules, and the Next Season
- · List the records a seaweed farm is expected to keep
- · Describe end-of-season gear recovery and its obligations
- · Write a season debrief that changes next year's plan
What this course covers where you live
We say plainly how well each part of the country is covered, rather than implying the whole country is written to the same depth.
- West Coast: sourced and ready
- Alaska: partly sourced
- Northeast: partly sourced
- Mid-Atlantic and Southeast: partly sourced
- Gulf: partly sourced
- Great Lakes and inland: partly sourced
- Hawaii and the Pacific islands: partly sourced
Siting a farm in public water involves federal review
Gear placed in navigable water and the associated environmental review bring in federal agencies alongside your state. NOAA Fisheries publishes the overview of how marine aquaculture is regulated.
NOAA Fisheries, Aquaculture · checked 2026-09-19West Coast siting has its own regional guidance
NOAA's West Coast region publishes what applies on this coast, including habitat considerations that shape where gear can go.
NOAA Fisheries, Essential Fish Habitat on the West Coast · checked 2026-09-19Gear in the water may need marking
Buoys and structures placed in navigable waters can require private aids to navigation, which are governed by federal regulation and administered by the Coast Guard.
eCFR, 33 CFR Part 66, Private Aids to Navigation · checked 2026-09-19Sea Grant runs the practical seaweed extension work
Much of the working knowledge on seeding, line design, and handling comes from Sea Grant programs and university extension rather than from vendors. Their material is public and free.
Connecticut Sea Grant · checked 2026-09-19
Where the published guidance is thin
Some of this subject has no rule behind it yet. Rather than sounding more certain than the record allows, we say what is missing, point to the newest and best material that does exist, and give you the date we last checked it.
no rule yet
Harvest-water quality for seaweed is borrowed, not set
Shellfish growers work to classified growing waters under a national program. Seaweed growers have no equivalent classification, so the common practice is to borrow the shellfish growing-area picture for the same water body and to test product rather than water. That is a reasonable stand-in and it is what the 2025 guidance recommends, but it is a borrowed practice, not a standard written for seaweed.
Best available right now
If you want Jules to read your work
Everyone gets the same lessons, practice work, and knowledge checks. For $60 more you also get one real assignment that Jules reads and grades. You can see exactly how it is judged before you start, you pass at 80 percent, and you can rewrite and send it back as many times as you need. This is optional, and it is still not accredited and carries no continuing education credit.
The assignment
One season on a seaweed farm
Plan a season of gear, labour, and harvest, and price the work.
Plan one growing season for a seaweed farm of a size you choose. Give the site and why it suits the crop, the gear and its layout, the calendar from seeding to harvest, the crew at each stage, and what happens to the crop within hours of coming out of the water. Then cost one unit of production, showing your working. Mark every number as either sourced, with a citation, or as your own estimate with the reasoning behind it.
How it is graded
Site and crop matched with conditions · 25 points
Your reasoning uses real conditions for that site, not general suitability.
Calendar and crew hold together · 25 points
The labour at each stage matches the gear and the acreage, and the dates are plausible for the region.
Post-harvest handled within the real window · 25 points
You account for what happens immediately after harvest, because that is where value is lost.
Costs traced to one unit · 25 points
The arithmetic reaches a per-unit cost, and every input is either cited or clearly flagged as your estimate.
100 points in total. You pass at 80. Jules grades what you worked out, not your formatting or your word count.
Where it can take you
Siting is its own project. Talk to your state's leasing authority and your Sea Grant program early, and expect federal review for gear placed in navigable water.
This course does not carry accreditation, credit, or continuing education units, and completing it does not count toward any outside credential. It is written to the structure a continuing education standard expects, with measured hours, written outcomes, and a completion record you can keep.