Edible Vancouver

Cultivating Kelp

• Kate Rolheiser photographed the giant kelp bed in the coastal waters near Bamfield, B.C.

• In the pristine waters of Barkley Sound, Cascadia Seaweed is seeding kelp in one of two football-sized fields they use to cultivate kelp, above left.

• Dafne Romero, top right, owner of North Pacific Kelp Wild Foods, harvests bull kelp from the waters near her home in Haida Gwaii. Photos by James MacDonald.

• Louis Druehl, above, could be called the "king of kelp." He has authored books on the subject, taught marine biology at Simon Fraser University for the past 37 years and runs Canadian Kelp with his wife, Rae Hopkins. They also do non-profit conservation to re-introduce giant kelp beds along the B.C. coast.