Kelp Farming Could Help Clean up Polluted Waters

An Indigenous-run business is using regenerative ocean farming to clean up the waters off the eastern end of Long Island and create local jobs.

By Iris M. Crawford
Nov 21, 2022 5:00 PMNov 21, 2022 4:52 PM
kelpfarming
Bringing in our lines after harvest. Waban Tarrant and Donna Collins-Smith (Credit: Danielle Hopson Begun)

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This article originally appeared in Nexus Media News and was made possible by a grant from the Open Society Foundations.

For most of the Shinnecock Nation’s history, the waters off the eastern end of Long Island were a place of abundance. Expert fishermen, whalers and farmers, the Shinnecock people lived for centuries off the clams, striped bass, flounder, bluefish and fruit native to the area.  

Today, the area is best known as a playground for the rich, where mansions sell for tens of millions of dollars. The Shinnecock community no longer lives off the water as it once did — rapid development, pollution and warming waters have led to losses in fish, shellfish and plants that were once central to the Shinnecock diet and culture. 

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