Seaweed Exploration

Join us at the Whaling Museum on Saturday, October 21 for hands on seaweed exploration with Paul Dobbins, Senior Director of Impact Investing and Ecosystems Services, Aquaculture at the WWF-US.  This family-friendly program is free with general admission. Kids and adults are encouraged to pick through a large pile of a variety of seaweed species - red, green and brown -  and describe what you are finding, sensing, smelling. As you are interacting with the seaweed, you will have an opportunity to ask the experts questions and discuss with fellow seaweed explorers.

How Does Seaweed Grow?

You'll have the opportunity to learn in another hands on activity!  Through this activity kids and adults will collect data through observation to answer the question, "Does brown seaweed generate energy from the sun?" Each participant will have a chance to pick up a short ribbon of brown seaweed and dunk it halfway into a glass beaker and hold it there for a few seconds. The participants will be asked to describe what they observe and we will have a discussion of how seaweed operates as a beneficial organism in our oceans. This activity is always a crowd pleaser!

How is seaweed farmed? 11:30am & 2:30pm in the Cook Memorial Theater

We encounter seaweed every day in many of our consumer products. The seaweed we encounter is farmed. Come find out how farmers grow seaweed in the ocean and participate in a hands on seeding activity.

Audience participation will be encouraged in this presentation and discussion - presenters will ask for volunteers to help them seed a kelp line. Two to four attendees are moorings. One or two  attendees are motor boats and qualify by making the motor boat sound.

This program is made possible by the support of the World Wildlife Fund (www.worldwildlife.org)

Organic Kelp Krunch™ Seaweed Energy Bars, provided by Maine Coast Sea Vegetables will be available for tasting. Made from Kelp grown in New England off the Coast of Maine, these bars are both crunchy and chewy with unique flavor that packs a nutritional punch. Bars will be distributed on a first come, first served basis.