Coming event: Shaping the future of the Seaweed Sector together
2022-11-22
First-hand best practices of offshore seaweed production. The opportunities and challenges of multi-use on the North Sea. Building a roadmap together for the future of the seaweed sector. And of course, meeting other members and stakeholders of the sector while enjoying some nice drinks and bites.
Enough reasons not to miss the coming joint North Sea Farmers Community Event and Wier & Wind End Event on Friday 2 December at the Hogeschool Zeeland in Middelburg from 12:30 – 18:00 hours. An exclusive events for members of North Sea Farmers community. We hope to see you there!
Looking back and forward
The first mechanical harvest of seaweed taken place offshore in the project Wier & Wind was a fact this year. This result is a milestone in the production of offshore seaweed and multi-use on the North Sea. To share the best practices of the project, we have prepared a varied program with all the project partners, that looks back at the learnings and forward to the future of the seaweed sector.
Technical, ecological learnings and the future
The event will take you through the technical aspects of the project Wier & Wind and the potential ecological effects of offshore seaweed farming. We end with an interactive session where we want to shape the future of the seaweed sector with you. Not yet a member, but you still would like to attend? Please contact us.
The program and speakers of the event
Opening
Part 1: Technical
Part 2: Ecological
Part 3: Interactive, shaping the future together
Opening
The requirements of multi-use in a windfarm on the North Sea
The Dutch approach of multi-use, the government program and how the area passport works. Natalie Scheidegger (the Ministery of LNV) will tell more about it. As well as the possibilities of multi-use windparks, such as aquaculture including seaweed, fishing, nature development and sun energy, and what still needs further research. Marijn Rabaut (Blauwe Cluster) will take us along possibilities at the use of the Belgium coast.
The chances and changes of Interreg
Why was Wier and Wind an important project for Interreg? And what possibilities are there if you want to start a similar project? Bram de Korte, director of Interreg European Funding for Regional Development, will tell more about it. He will also mention what changes in Interreg VI to make applying for it easier.
Part 1 - The technical part
Harvesting seaweed offshore
We trust our system in operating on the North Sea. That statement Jan Murre of Murre Technology will make in his presentation. Already familiar in the mussel world, the company extended with Wier and Wind his horizon to offshore seaweed harvesting, an investment in the future. Only the seeding is still a challenge. He’s looking for a partner who wants to find the perfect solution for that.
This takes it to design a production system for growing seaweed offshore
Wind, waves and tidal streams. Michiel Mol from the Seaweed Company had to cope with the North Sea environment while designing an offshore production system for the growing of seaweed in Wier and Wind. He will share some insides in the challenges he faced and solved.
Grow and monitoring of seaweed in the North Sea
What results we have achieved with different seeding methods? What was actually on the nets? And what were the results of the growing on the different net types? How did the seaweed grow, and what could we learn from it? Gabrielle Verbeeke, researcher at the Aquaculture in Delta Areas lectureship at the HZ, about the biology learnings of Wier and Wind.
Part 2: The ecological learnings….
Limits to seaweed cultivation (?)
We want to scale up the growing of seaweed in the North Sea. But can we do that in balance with the marine ecosystem? Are there boundaries? Klaas Timmermans (Royal Netherlands Institute for Sea Research /NIOZ) speaks about recent (model)studies of seaweed cultivation in Oosterschelde and the North Sea. What can be learned from those studies? Finally Klaas will talk about the possibilities for co-cultivation of seaweeds and shellfish.
Part 3: Interactive, shaping the future together
In this interactive part, we want to make a roadmap for the seaweed sector together. Klaas Jan Wardenaar of Smartland designed the basis for it. We already made a start and we are curious about what you think of it and need further. By discussing some statements about where we should be heading with the sector, we want to make the future clearer.
