Can we give the sea
more than we take?

Something is happening beneath the surface.

A quiet change is under way along our coast. In the Skagerrak, eight out of ten sugar kelp forests are gone. In the north, sea urchins have grazed down around 5,000 square kilometres of kelp forest, leaving behind what researchers call urchin barrens. In the Oslofjord, the Norwegian Environment Agency describes the state as serious: the cod is nearly gone, and three quarters of the nitrogen flowing into the fjord comes from sewage and agriculture.

What is disappearing is not decoration. Kelp forests and eelgrass are the nurseries of our fish. They store carbon, produce oxygen and clean the water, quietly and for free, year after year. The Institute of Marine Research estimates that the kelp forest alone gives Norway values worth close to seven billion kroner a year. But money is only half the story. If the forest disappears, both the wildlife it shelters and the values it creates disappear with it.

Sources: NIVA, the Institute of Marine Research, the Norwegian Environment Agency.

One species, two purposes.

Terralgea lives off the sea, but takes nothing from it. The algae in Pure Ulva are cultivated in the sea and harvested from it, like a crop. With Terralgea Restore we want to find out whether we can also give something back: use nature's own tools to rebuild what has been weakened.

Restore builds on what we already know: the same species and the same know-how as Pure Ulva. The difference is the purpose. The species follows the water, Ulva fenestrata in salt water and Ulva intestinalis in brackish water.

Why Ulva.

Ulva is among the algae that absorb nutrients most efficiently. It draws nitrogen from the water as it grows, and it gives off oxygen. The same process that makes the fjord healthier also makes the algae rich in protein.

The method: spores on stone.

Algae spores are fixed to small stones and grown before being placed in weakened coastal areas. The method is proven in Nordic waters and is known internationally as “green gravel”.

Nordic SeaFarm, the producer of the raw material used in Pure Ulva, also produces green gravel for Terralgea. They contribute know-how and field experience from cultivating Ulva.