USDA: A Series of Workshops on Farming Seaweeds and Seagrasses In Waters of the United States

The United States Department of Agriculture and the Center for Seafood Solutions at the Bigelow Laboratory for Ocean Sciences are pleased to invite you to a series of virtual, half-day stakeholder engagement workshops focused on a report being prepared for Congress on the prospects of seaweed and seagrass farming in waters of the United States.
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Overseen by the Interagency Working Group for Farming Seaweeds and Seagrasses, the report will review the current understanding of research for farming seaweeds and seagrasses to (1) deacidify ocean environments, (2) become feedstocks in the agriculture sector, or (3) be used to develop novel products in our Blue Economy. The Working Group also supports a range of demonstration projects which seek to expand upon current knowledge of these three topics.

• Workshop 1: October 23, 2023 (register here)
  Filling Critical Knowledge Gaps in Seaweed and Seagrass Research
• Workshop 2: October 30, 2023 (register here)
  Seaweed and Seagrass Research Efforts Towards Ocean Deacidification
• Workshop 3: November 6, 2023 (register here)
  Seaweed and Seagrass Research Efforts on Agriculture Feedstock
• Workshop 4: November 13, 2023 (register here)
  Seaweed and Seagrass Developments for a Blue Economy

An agenda for each event and draft copy of the report will be circulated in the weeks ahead.
Purpose of the workshop series: Each workshop will provide a forum for participants to engage on the following topics:

• Explore how the draft report captures the state of the science
• Learn about pilot studies funded under this initiative
• Discuss key topics and priorities with subject matter experts
• Review and consider draft report recommendations
• Generate awareness of coordination capacity and ways to advance collaboration in the future (both in the United States and abroad)

For more information contact The Center for Seafood Solutions at the Bigelow Laboratory for Ocean Sciences at [email protected].