Photo: Sugar kelp harvest at Violet Cove Oyster Company, Moriches Bay, NY. Credit: Michael Ciaramella/NYSG

Contact:

Michael Ciaramella, NYSG Seafood Safety & Technology Specialist, P: 631-632-8730

NYSG helps coastal producers adapt to changing environmental, social and political climates through updated practices and novel technologies and products

Stony Brook, NY, March 23, 2023 - Seafood producers’ resiliency relies on their constant ability to adapt to the changing environmental, social, and political landscape of New York. Therefore, producers are interested in exploring new species for production. This has led to increased interest in seaweed production, which attracts markets for sale of product to support an economically viable industry.

To assist the emerging seaweed industry to explore opportunities and access markets for seaweed products, New York Sea Grant (NYSG) created the Seaweed Processing and Marketing Task Force.

In 2022, in collaboration with industry and agency partners, NYSG created three seaweed-centric guides to help potential producers understand the regulatory framework surrounding the processing and marketing of seaweed products and the best practices for maintaining quality and safety during harvest and processing. These guides are Seaweed Guide 1: Food Safety Modernization Act Preventative Controls for Human Foods, Seaweed Guide 2: Best Practices for Maintaining Quality in Seaweed, and Regulatory Guide to Processing and Marketing Seaweed in New York.

NYSG facilitates discussions around the emerging seaweed industry in New York, publishes resources to advise the seaweed industry on best practices and regulatory requirements, and supports opportunities for NY’s aquaculture industry to adapt and grow.

Partners: 

• Blue Moon Fish 
• Center for Aquatic Animal Research and Management 
• Montauk Seaweed Supply 
• GreenWave
• Peeko Oysters 
• The Crop Project 
• Lazy Point Farms 
•  Connecticut Department of Agriculture 
• New York State (NYS) Department of Agriculture and Markets 
• NYS Department of Environmental Conservation 
• Nassau County Department of Health 
• Suffolk County Department of Economic Development and Planning 
• Suffolk County Department of Health Services 
• Connecticut Sea Grant 
• Cornell Cooperative Extension Suffolk County 
• Cornell University Food Venture Center 
• The National Sea Grant Law Center 
• Stony Brook University


More Info: New York Sea Grant

New York Sea Grant (NYSG), a cooperative program of Cornell University and the State University of New York (SUNY), is one of 34 university-based programs under the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s National Sea Grant College Program.

Since 1971, NYSG has represented a statewide network of integrated research, education and extension services promoting coastal community economic vitality, environmental sustainability and citizen awareness and understanding about the State’s marine and Great Lakes resources.

Through NYSG’s efforts, the combined talents of university scientists and extension specialists help develop and transfer science-based information to many coastal user groups—businesses and industries, federal, state and local government decision-makers and agency managers, educators, the media and the interested public.

The program maintains Great Lakes offices at Cornell University, SUNY Buffalo, SUNY Oswego and the Wayne County Cooperative Extension office in Newark. In the State's marine waters, NYSG has offices at Stony Brook University in Long Island, Brooklyn College and Cornell Cooperative Extension in NYC and Kingston in the Hudson Valley.

For updates on Sea Grant activities: www.nyseagrant.org has RSS, Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and YouTube links. NYSG offers a free e-list sign up via www.nyseagrant.org/nycoastlines for its flagship publication, NY Coastlines/Currents, which is published quarterly.