Ocean Rainforest is a limited company located in the Faroe Islands. It is engaged in the production of marine biomass from macroalgae in open-ocean cultivation installations. As of 2016, it is the single largest macroalgae cultivator in Europe and North America, and the largest in the world deployed in a deep open-sea environment. The aim of the company is to become a leading supplier of sustainable cultivated macroalgae in open-ocean environments.
Cultivating seaweed in the open ocean
Fisheries and aquaculture are the single most important contributors to the Faroese economy, contributing over 91% of its total exports in 2012 (Statistics Faroe Islands 2014). In addition, a large portion of the Faroe Islands’ biological resources are found in marine environments, and significant opportunities for biorefining seaweed that is cultivated and processed offshore have been identified. Ocean Rainforest undertakes ambitious and advanced development in this field, and has developed a method to cultivate seaweed in the open ocean. The company has 13,500 meters of seaweed seed lines in the Faroese waters, where a continuous current and a stable sea temperature provide the perfect conditions for seaweed farming.
Incremental progress towards a higher goal[1]
Ocean Rainforest first obtained its licence for pilot testing in 2009. The cultivation rig was deployed the following year at the aquaculture test site north of the Faroese village of Funningur. The installation demonstrated its ability to withstand the physical strains of the stormy North Atlantic conditions early on, withstanding winds of up to 62 m/s and waves 7.8 m high. Since then, Ocean Rainforest has consistently undertaken development work supported by public funding. This has led to next-step development projects in international consortia. For example, the MacroBiotech Project, which was funded by the North Atlantic Cooperation Forum (€300,000), has contributed to knowledge about the technical and commercial viability of cultivating macroalgae in the open ocean. Similarly, the International Macroalgae Biorefinery Project, which was funded by the Danish Innovation Fund (€3.3 million), includes a consortium of Danish and international experts who focus on cultivating and utilising macroalgae in sustainable and climate-friendly ways (see Case 26).
The road ahead
Public funding and national and international interdisciplinary collaborations have been key enablers in developing Ocean Rainforest and taking the concept closer to large-scale commercial applications. Ocean Rainforest is involved in several research projects, and is already selling seaweed for food and cosmetics production in Europe. The company is committed to expanding knowledge on the biorefining of seaweed, seeing this as the most commercially viable way to produce biomass from seaweed. The next phase in the company’s journey will be to undertake product and market testing based on the techniques and applications developed through numerous R&D projects. This work will require an investment of €1 million.
Regional dimension
Despite Ocean Rainforest’s relatively small size, the progress it has made during its first decade of existence is promising. The company’s operations are based on a range of activities occurring along an unbroken chain—from seeding, cultivation, harvesting and processing to storage and sales to the business-to-business market. As a result, the initiative offers substantial potential for the creation of a range of employment opportunities when operations are eventually scaled up. Successful commercialisation of seaweed production, coupled with international demand for the related products, could see Ocean Rainforest’s activities make a substantial contribution to job creation in the Faroe Islands.
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[1] Material for this section provided by Rógvi Olavson