Skye Steritz is the co-founder and President of Noble Ocean Farms in Cordova, Alaska. Ever since she began scuba diving at age 12, Skye has been enchanted by the sea. She loves being below the surface, gazing up at golden columns of sunlight cascading through the water. Her deep connection to the water greatly influenced her path. Skye’s environmental activism began in college. She volunteered in Ghana and served as an environmental educator in California and Alaska before joining Dune Lankard's Eyak Preservation Council and then Native Conservancy. Now through Noble Ocean Farms and her work as an advocate and elementary school educator, Skye pursues two of her great passions: social justice and habitat preservation. She holds two Master of Science degrees in Water Resources Policy and Management, and a Master of Art in Water Cooperation and Diplomacy.

Skye and her partner in business and life, Sean Den Adel, founded their regenerative kelp farm with the intention of strengthening food security for their regional communities through nutrient-rich kelp products while also enhancing the marine biodiversity of the Prince William Sound through habitat creation and restoration. They see their kelp farm as a small part of a global effort to restore the ocean’s health and heal the communities most directly connected to the ocean. As ocean farmers and educators, Skye and Sean hope to inspire a new generation of maritime food producers and empower young stewards throughout their region.

Kelp farms like Noble Ocean Farms can be transformative for a region. Kelp is a keystone species that provides vital habitat and food for many species of mammals, fish, crustaceans, and sea birds. By farming kelp, Skye and Sean are also creating nurseries for juvenile salmon and herring. Salmon smolts rely on the safety of kelp in their journeys from their natal rivers to the open ocean.

Kelp also chemically transforms the waters around them, purifying and alkalizing the water by sequestering dissolved carbon and creating oxygen-rich pockets. Kelp that will be harvested during the spring can then become human superfoods, low-methane animal feed, alternative biofuels, and material composites for bioplastics. Noble Ocean Farms will enhance rural Alaskans’ access to healthy foods by providing kelp.

By embracing the regenerative potential of natural systems, kelp farmers can help heal the disastrous effects of over a century of extractive economics.

This episode of the Enduring Curiosity Podcast is sponsored by Enduring Curiosity, in association with the Sustainable Ocean Alliance - Charleston and the CityCraft Foundation.

Show Notes:

Guest - Skye Steritz

Host - Grey Gowder

Music (via Epidemic Sound) - "Deep in the Blue" (Instrumental Version)  by Ingrid Witt

Photo courtesy of Eiko Jones

Produced by Lugus Films Media