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Photo / Courtesy Maine Sea Grant
Jaclyn Robidoux showcases kelp of the type farmed in Maine and used in a variety of products.
Seaweed and ceviche poke bowls. Kelp burgers. Sugar kelp vodka cocktails.
Seaweed-infused beers and teas. Seaweed-inspired bread, cheese, chocolate and ice cream.
Those are some of the products participants of Maine Seaweed Week can try, along with kelp smoothie cubes, power bars, dried dulse, bath and body items and the opportunity to learn how to identify seaweed species and view algae-inspired works by local artists.
Now in its seventh year, Seaweed Week is scheduled for April 25 through May 4.
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With more than 70 businesses participating annually, Maine Seaweed Week is the largest seaweed food and drink festival in North America.
Celebrating Maine’s kelp harvest and showcases restaurants, bars and businesses across the state, events will include cooking workshops, field ID workshops and aquaculture community panels.
Returning for the second year is Seaweed Saturday, a free, all-ages expo featuring seaweed food, art, science, marketplace vendor and, new this year, panel discussions with seaweed farmers, scientists and others in the industry. The event will take place April 26 from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. at the Gulf of Maine Research Institute on Portland’s working waterfront.
This year’s lineup is still being finalized. Past festivals have featured participation from restaurants, breweries, bars, and college campuses.
The festival was founded in 2019 by Josh Rogers, owner of Heritage Seaweed in Portland, a retail seaweed shop, and the maker of Cup of Sea, a line of seaweed teas. Rogers launched Seaweed Week as a way to showcase Maine’s growing kelp aquaculture scene, according to a news release.
“Seaweed checks all the boxes: it’s sustainable, nutritious, versatile and tasty,” Rogers said. “It’s one of those intriguing foods that people are curious about, and we’re seeing increasing numbers of chefs and product developers experimenting with seaweed.”
The festival is timed to coincide with Maine’s spring kelp harvest.
“Maine leads the nation in seaweed farming,” said Jaclyn Robidoux, a seaweed extension specialist with the University of Maine’s Maine Sea Grant program. “Each spring, around a million pounds of kelp are harvested from ocean farms by Maine fishermen and working waterfront families who grow it over the winter.”
Most of the kelp is incorporated into seaweed salads, sauces, kelp burgers and health foods, then distributed to restaurants and retailers.
“The number of participating communities has been steadily growing,” Robidoux told Mainebiz.
Initially centered around Portland-based bars and restaurants, the festival is drawing more involvement from the midcoast and Downeast regions, including participation this year from restaurants and breweries in Alna, Blue Hill, Ellsworth and Lubec.
“We've seen new restaurants continue to join the festival every year but we've also seen the diversity of participating businesses grow,” she continued. “In addition to traditional dining establishments, we also have participation from food trucks, local makers, specialty shops and more.”
With expanded statewide reach and the addition of new public events, there’s been “a significant increase in the number of attendees,” she said.
The inaugural Seaweed Saturday last year attracted over 500 people.
The events and menus are a hit for locals, and also draw visitors from out of state, she added.
What’s driving the growth?
“I think the growth of the festival has really been driven by an increasing public curiosity about seaweed and its diverse food uses, as well as growing recognition of its health and environmental benefits,” Robidoux said. “Maine's leadership in both seaweed farming and wild harvest has played a key role, along with the broader enthusiasm surrounding the state's aquaculture sector.
“Also, the rising demand for seasonal, local foods from both chefs and consumers has contributed to the festival's success, especially for a product as unique as seaweed. It's not every day you hear about a 'seaweed festival', so I think that grabs people’s attention — it's unexpected but fun and quirky in a way that's distinctly Maine.”
Maine is a farmed seaweed hub for a variety of reasons, she said. That includes its cold, pristine water, necessary for farming kelp, which is a cold-water species.
Thanks to its maritime heritage, Maine has working waterfront infrastructure and professionals with years of expertise working on the water. The longtime wild seaweed industry has lent its expertise to the farmed sector. Maine also already has a strong seafood brand.
Maine has over 40 commercial seaweed farms along the coast. Landings have been steadily increasing since 2019, driven by expanding processing capacity in the state and farmer-processor contracting that guarantees farmers their kelp will be purchased at the end of the season, Robidoux said.
Maine’s farmed seaweed production in 2018 was in the range of 30,000 to 50,000 pounds. In the most recent season, Maine kelp farms landed over 1 million pounds of seaweed, according to Department of Marine Resources 2024 landings data.
The majority of that went into value-added food products.
With many farms now having a few seasons under their belt, there’s been an increase in farm yield and harvest efficiency, as well as farm profitability, according to Maine Aquaculture Association’s 2023 Seaweed Benchmarking Report.
“There is also an increasing number of kelp farms who are diversifying their businesses by creating and selling their own products, from facial oils to kelp pickles,” said Robidoux.
On the wild harvest side, products created from harvested seaweed have gained international recognition as biostimulants and health products. The Maine Seaweed Council — the state’s longstanding organization of wild harvesters, scientists and experts — is focused on best practices, ecosystem-based management approaches and access to the waterfront and the resource as key priorities for the industry moving forward.
“We've also seen increased business partnerships between kelp farms and wild harvest companies of sea vegetables and rockweed, particularly in processing and the production of value-added products,” Robidoux said.
In the value-added sector, Maine is seeing product development, with a number of new products coming to market in the last few years or taking off, she continued.
“A few examples include fermented seaweed salads, kelp burgers, and even kelp meatballs, which can be found in public schools and college dining halls across New England,” she said. “Consumer packaged goods continue to be a major market for Maine farmed kelp.”
In Ellsworth, Seaweed Week is sponsored by Maine Coast Sea Vegetables.
Ellsworth is the first accredited Maine Street Community in Maine to spotlight Seaweed Week, according to a separate news release.
On May 3, nonprofit organization Heart of Ellsworth will lead a seaweed themed walk coinciding with Jane’s Walk, a community-led “walking conversation.” The seaweed walk will explore downtown Ellsworth businesses that sell products produced with Maine seaweed, while learning about the sustainable and innovative ways seaweed is shaping Maine’s food and wellness industries.
Ellsworth-based Fogtown Brewing was one of the early adopters of Seaweed Week with its Scupper Beer, said Seraphina Erhart, general manager of Maine Coast Sea Vegetables, a Hancock seaweed harvester that ships several hundred thousand pounds of certified organic, minimally processed sea vegetables to customers across the U.S. and Canada.
Erhart continued, “We hope as the program expands with organizations like the Maine Seaweed Council or Gulf of Maine Research Institute becoming increasingly involved, we’re able to broaden the awareness around the state and encourage more people to be seaweed curious.”
Heart of Ellsworth is looking for Ellsworth businesses and organizations to participate in Maine Seaweed Week. For more information, contact Zabet NeuCollins at zabet@heartofellsworth.org by March 31.
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