March 25, 2026 — Five kelp farmers from around Kodiak Island have started the Kodiak Ocean Growers Co-op. It’s a member owned and operated organization that hopes to benefit all of the archipelago’s kelp farmers in the growing, local industry.
Kelp farmer Tollef Monson, who operates Alaska Sea Greens with his wife Adelia on the west side of Kodiak Island in Uganik Bay, said the idea for the co-op started two years ago. He said the hope is that the farmers will collectively be able to communicate with buyers about a price that they can survive on.
“So each farmer didn’t have to go to each buyer and try and negotiate,” Monson said. “The co-op can be kind of a place of negotiation but also for aggregation, for the total amount of kelp that a buyer wants.”
Monson said the intent is for each participating farm to sell its kelp to the cooperative, which then sells to the buyers. They’re working with at least two main buyers this year, Macro Oceans and Cascadia Seaweed in British Columbia.