coast | Northwest Coast Energy News

British Columbians by a 48-32 percentage margin support the $5.5-billion Northern Gateway pipeline project linking the Alberta oilsands to the West Coast, according to a new poll.The Ipsos-Reid survey, commissioned by project proponent Enbridge Inc. of Calgary, counters the perception that an overwhelming majority of British Columbians are against the controversial megaproject, according to Enbridge spokesman Paul Stanway.

Northern B.C. business community gives tepid support to pipeline project

Despite the promise of thousands of construction jobs and hundreds of millions of dollars in contract opportunities, the business community in northern B.C. has had a low-key reaction to the controversial pipeline project.

Northern View (Prince Rupert) Cuts to Coast Guard hours and changes in procedure coming to Prince Rupert station

The Coast Guard is cutting back on the staff on watch at the Prince Rupert Coast Guard station as of this month, but only when someone can’t make their shift, and only if the supervisor thinks they can manage without. In order to save money the Federal Government is ordering DFO to claw back on the amount of overtime being paid to Coast Guard employees. There are usually three people manning communications equipment at all times in the Coast Guards marine communications and traffic services station in Seal Cove.

The Tyee Enbridge Pushes Oil Tanker Safety Strategy
Kitimat critics unconvinced by double hulls, super-tugs and fast response spill promises.

Journal Star (Lincoln Nebraska) Mike Klink: Keystone XL pipeline not safe
..as a civil engineer and an inspector for TransCanada during the construction of the first Keystone pipeline, I’ve had an uncomfortable front-row seat to the disaster that Keystone XL could bring about all along its pathway.

Troy MediaThe Northern Gateway project is a Canadian decision
Foreign billionaires don’t care if thousands of Canadians go without jobs

Financial meltdown hits oil tanker fleets

Energy Business Tankers

A tanker entering Prince Rupert harbour. (Robin Rowland/Northwest Coast Energy News)

The world’s oil tanker companies are in financial meltdown, a crisis little noted outside the industry itself and the financial media, a crisis caused, experts say, by combination of the weakening world economy and an over abundance of the giant vessels that ply the world’s oceans filled with crude .

Although oil prices are generally on the rise, this has not helped the tanker fleets, because overall demand for oil is down and there is a “glut” on the tanker market, with too many vessels, so chartering and transportation fees are dropping. ( One ship broker reports that “day rates for leasing tankers” have dropped 47 percent since the start of 2010. Rates for tankers were $229,000-a-day at the peak of the market in 2007. By mid-November that had dropped to $28,829).

The crisis in the tanker industry first hit the financial news in mid-November.

On November 16, 2011, Torm, a Danish tanker company warned investors that it was revising expectations and stated that the company expected to lose $175-$195 million US (pdf) for 2011, because freight rates in the second half of 2011 for tankers, especially the large tankers, had been “lower than expected.”

On November 17, 2011, General Maritime Corp., a New York based major American crude transportation company that describes itself “one of the world’s largest and most diverse fleets of tankers, filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy. GMC is said to be the second largest American flagged crude carrier.

According to Reuters,the same day, Torm told the markets it was in talks with creditors. Three days later, on Nov. 20, Torm (pdf) cancelled an order for a new tanker that would have been delivered in 2013.

On Nov. 22, Frontline Ltd, based in Bermuda, reported that the company could run out of money in early 2012. Frontline has one of the world’s largest tanker fleets, including Very Large Crude Carriers. The company has $1 billion in bonds and loans due in the coming decade, and is looking for new cash.

On Nov. 23, ACM Shipping, a British company, told The Financial Times that company was taking a £6.85 million write-off largely due to poor market conditions. The paper added that ACM had strong cash reserves and ACM CEO Johnny Plumbe was confident about ACM’s medium to long-term prospects.

The Financial Times says the oil tanker industry is facing “the worst market conditions in 25 years.” The FT adds that the oversupply of ships has pushed earnings for most tankers to well below the level required to cover operating costs The paper also noted that ACM is “one of a handful” of tanker companies publicly listed on stock exchanges, raising questions about the state of the books of privately held tanker companies, which do not report.

Both the Reuters report and the financial website The Street quoted analysts as saying that more tanker company bankruptcies were expected. The analysts say at least in the near future, the tanker companies will probably have trouble getting bank financing. The reports also say that the Eurozone crisis could make things worse, but if the economy rebounds, the industry could recover in late 2012, or 2013.

General Maritime Corp listed total assets of $1.72 billion and liabilities of $1.41 billion as of September. The private equity company Oaktree Capital Management will provide it with $175 million in equity. Creditors will defer cash payments of about $140 million to June 2014. GMC.

ACM said its revenue decreased by 9% to £13.2 million mainly due to adverse currency movements and the company still made a before tax and amortization of £2.3 million. It said it had a strong cash position of £4.9 million at 30 September 2011 and no debt (£5.0 million as at 31 March 2011)

Frontline’s third quarter report said it had a net loss $44.7 million in the third quarter of 2011. The company’s long term outlook says world oil consumption is rising but American imports (at least by tanker) will continue to decline unless that country’s economy recovers.

According to Bloomberg, John Fredriksen, the Norwegian-born billionaire who controls a 34 percent stake in Frontline and serves as its chairman, “has the funds available and he is prepared to go in and try to find solutions” if creditors go along, says Tor Olav Troim, one of his aides.

The Financial Times notes that the shipbrokers – who arrange the buying, selling and chartering of ships – suffer earnings declines as their commission is dependent on earnings by the shipowner.

The financial crisis in the tanker industry is going to add new factors to the debate over current and proposed tanker traffic along the west coast of British Columbia, especially with the energy industry and the government of Prime Minister Stephen Harper pushing for greatly increased tanker traffic along the coast on the assumption that the Enbridge Northern Gateway pipeline is approved.

That’s because Enbridge has acknowledged that company is no longer legally responsible for the bitumen crude once it has been loaded on a tanker for shipment to a customer. Enbridge, has however, filed thousands of pages of contingency plans for handling any oil spill that may occur in Kitimat harbour, along Douglas Channel or the British Columbia coast.

Under Canadian and international law, the tanker owners are legally responsible for any damage caused by a wreck or spill along the coast. Under plans filed by Enbridge with the Joint Review Panel, the tanker companies are also supposed to have to have special training for officers and crew, not only to ply the waters of British Columbia but what do in the case of an accident at sea, in the Douglas Channel and the Kitimat terminal.

Many of the tankers that will call at the proposed Enbridge terminal will be the Very Large Crude Carriers. Frontline, one of the companies’ in financial difficulty, owns many of the world’s VLCC (see list)

While there are international contingency funds marked to handle spills, one question has to be whether or not a bankrupt company, now or, if in the future if still in bankruptcy protection, be able to able or willing to pay compensation for a spill.

It is highly unlikely that tanker rates will return to the highs seen in 2007. Operating costs are likely to be a problem for tanker companies in the future, even if the economy comes back to life.

As has been seen in other industries, financial problems, even if a company is not bankrupt, usually leads to cutbacks in areas such as maintenance and training.

Climate change decreases some mussel beds in Salish Sea by 51%: UBC study

A UBC study shows that some mussel beds in the Salish Sea have decreased by 51 per cent over the past 52 years, a consequence of gradually rising temperatures off Vancouver Island, the Gulf and San Juan Islands and Washington’s Olympic peninsula.

The study shows that the climate change is already affecting species by not only causing stress but changing the complex relationship among the species in an ecosystem, as some species may become relatively stronger and others weaker.

University of British Columbia associate professor of zoology Christopher Harley say climate change will bring biodiversity loss caused by a combination of rising temperatures and predation – and may be more severe than currently predicted.

The study, published in the current issue of the journal Science, examined the response of rocky shore barnacles and mussels to the combined effects of warming and predation by sea stars.

Harley surveyed the upper and lower temperature limits of barnacles and mussels from the cool west coast of Vancouver Island to the warm shores of the San Juan Islands, where water temperature rose from the relatively cool of the1950s to the much warmer years of 2009 and 2010.

Map showing the area of the UBC climate change study. The squares show areas used for “spatial comparison of temperature and zonation.” The circles were used for comparison. (Science)

“Rocky intertidal communities are ideal test-beds for studying the effects of climatic warming,” Harley says. “Many intertidal organisms, like mussels, already live very close to their thermal tolerance limits, so the impacts can be easily studied.”

At cooler sites, mussels and rocky shore barnacles were able to live high on the shore and that is well beyond the range of their predators, including the sea star. As temperatures rose, barnacles and mussels were forced to live at lower shore levels, the same level as predatory sea stars.

Daily high temperatures during the summer months have increased by almost 3.5 degrees Celsius in the last 60 years, causing the upper limits of barnacle and mussels habitats to retreat by 50 centimeters down the shore. However, the effects of predators, and therefore the position of the lower limit, have remained constant.

“That loss represents 51 per cent of the mussel bed. Some mussels have even gone extinct locally at three of the sites I surveyed,” says Harley.

“A mussel bed is kind of like an apartment complex – it provides critical habitat for a lot of little plants and animals,” says Harley. “The mussels make the habitat cooler and wetter, providing an environment for crabs and other small crustaceans, snails, worms and seaweed.”

The study says, “the loss of mussel beds over time has probably resulted in declines of species richness.”

When pressure from sea star predation was reduced using exclusion cages, the prey species were able to occupy hotter sites where they don’t normally occur, and species richness at the sites more than doubled.

These findings provide a comprehensive look at the effects of warming and predation, while many previous studies on how species ranges will change due to warming assume that species will simply shift to stay in their current temperature range.

Harley says the findings show that the combined effects of warming and predation could lead to more widespread extinction than are currently predicted, as animals or plants are unable to shift their habitat ranges.

“Warming is not just having direct effects on individual species,” says Harley. “This study shows that climate change can also alter interactions between species, and produce unexpected changes in where species can live, their community structure, and their diversity.”

He adds ecological change can only be anticipated if scientists understand the ways various factors “determine the distribution and abundance of species in space and time.”

Coastal First Nations reaffirm opposition to Northern Gateway and tanker traffic

Energy Environment

Updated at 1630 Nov. 23, with First Nations are calling for a complete overhaul of the Northern Gateway Joint Review process

The Coastal First Nations have reaffirmed their “categorical” opposition to the Enbridge Northern Gateway pipeline, contradicting media reports that a deal with Enbridge was in the offing.

In a news release issued Wednesday, Nov. 23, Art Sterritt, executive director said:

The Coastal First Nations categorically oppose Enbridge’s Northern Gateway Project ….we unequivocally maintain our ban on oil tankers on the coast.”

It was Mr. Daniels, of Enbridge, who spoke of wanting a fresh start with the Coastal First Nation.

Sterritt, on behalf of the board, told Daniels that a fresh start from the Coastal First Nations perspective meant having Enbridge ask the Joint Review Panel (JRP) to stand down. “The Joint Review Process is seen by the Coastal First Nations not as objective, rather as a process that advances the Enbridge Project.

Subsequently the Coastal First Nations has been informed that Enbridge is not prepared to ask the JRP to stand down or reveal who the other proponents are, he said.

In August of 2009, Enbridge stated that the proposed project would not go ahead if First Nations communities opposed it, said Sterritt. “None of our communities support the project. Nor do any First Nations along the pipeline route.”
“Why would we support a proposal that would put our rivers, oceans and lifesource at risk?” Sterritt said. “It’s time Pat Daniels and Enbridge take the correct action and give us the fresh start they promised. It’s time to shut down the Joint Review Process and the Northern Gateway project.”

More to come

DFO, Coast Guard to “shed services” documents obtained by CBC say

Environment Fishery

Documents obtained by CBC News say there are major cuts coming to DFO and the Canadian Coast Guard.

Fisheries and Oceans to ‘shed’ services

Employees of the federal Department of Fisheries and Oceans were told Wednesday their employer will soon be significantly smaller, and responsible for fewer things.

DFO also warned its workers that some of them will definitely not be working there once the department completes a $56.8-million budget-cutting plan by 2014.

“More savings are expected in the future,” said a letter signed by Deputy Minister Claire Dansereau and two other top officials.

The letter and supporting documents, which were obtained by CBC News, say reductions are part of a “dynamic change agenda,” and will apply broadly to services that include the Canadian Coast Guard.

Kitimat takes halibut fight to BC municipal convention

Environment Fishery

District of Kitimat councillor Randy Halyk, seen here at the local Jack Layton memorial on August 27, 2011, will be defending Kitimat’s resolution on halibut quotas at the Union of BC Municipalities convention. (Robin Rowland/Northwest Coast Energy News)

Kitimat is taking the fight over halibut allocation to the Union of British Columbia Municipalities convention to be held in Vancouver September 26 to September 30.

The resolution is one of two that the union will consider on the halibut controversry, the other comes from the Capital District on Vancouver Island,

Members of the District of Kitimat council will be at the convention to sponsor and defend the resolution.

The Kitimat resolution calls on the union to endorse:

Whereas the current federal allocation of the sustainable Pacific halibut resource is insufficient to provide reasonable catch and possession limits for the recreational and commercial sport fishery;

And whereas an increase in daily catch and possession limits would be of great benefit in attracting sports fishing tourists to coastal communities.

Therefore be it resolved that the UBCM support an increase in the allocation of the sustainable Pacific halibut resource to the sport fishing and requests that the federal Ministry of Fisheries and Oceans increase the catch limits to two per day and four in possession.

The Kitimat resolution was endorsed by the North Central Local Government Association

The overall province wide resolutions committee gave no recommendation on the Kitimat resolution saying it wasn’t clear what impact the resolution would have on the sports fishing industry. The committee added a note to the agenda that in 2010 members of the UBCM did endorse a resolution that requested the provincial and federal governments support both the commercial fishing industry and the sports fishing industry equitably as they are both critical economic generators for residents within the province.

The resolutions committee notes that British Columbia did express “support for the sustainability of both commercial and recreational fisheries in tidal waters.” The province apparently “highlighted a number of its activities related to ensuring fisheries sustainability and maximizing the economic and social benefits.”

The somewhat stronger resolution from the Capital Region did not receive an endorsement from the Association of Vancouver and Coast Communities and a “no recommendation” from the province wide resolution committee. That resolution says, in part that the allocation between the recreational and commercial sectors in the Canadian halibut fishery during years of low abundance will destroy the economic viability of coastal communities and deny Canadian citizens access to the common property resource of halibut.

It calls for a “more fair and equitable approach that would allow the recreational and commercial fishing industries to survive during years of low annual quotas,” it calls for the federal government to purchase or lease halibut quota from the commercial sector (rather than having the recreational sector purchase individually as the current Department of Fisheries and Oceans “pilot project” calls for) so that the recreational sector has a “permanent base limit,” that the season be guaranteed from February 1 to December 1 each year and that the limit be one halibut per day, two in possession. (The Department of Fisheries and Oceans stopped the recreational halibut season as of midnight Sept. 15 while allowing the commercial season to continue).

Earthquake, magnitude 6.4, strikes off west coast of Vancouver Island

Environment Earthquake

Last updated 1444 PT

A 6.4 magnitude earthquake struck off the west coast of Vancouver Island at 12:41 PM PT, Friday, Sept. 9, 2011. Iniitial reports say there were was no damage or injuries. The US Geological Survey first set the magnitude at 6.7, but that was later revised to 6.4 A 6.4 magnitude is considered a major earthquake. The quake was not felt in the Kitimat region but was in Vancouver Island towns like Campbell River, Port Alice and Port Hardy. In the small village of Zeballos, residents gathered quickly at an emergency gathering point, but it was soon clear that danger had passed and there were no injuries. Shaking was felt in Vancouver and Victoria, as far south as Seattle and east to Abbotsford.

US Geological Survey page on the Vancouver Island earthquake.

The West Coast and Alaska Tsunami Warning Centre has not issued a tsunami alert.

To: U.S. West Coast, Alaska, and British Columbia coastal regions
From: NOAA/NWS/West Coast and Alaska Tsunami Warning Center
Subject: Tsunami Information Statement #1 issued 09/9/2011 at 12:43PM PDT

A strong earthquake has occurred, but a tsunami IS NOT expected along the California, Oregon, Washington, British Columbia, or Alaska coast. NO tsunami warning, watch or advisory is in effect for these areas.

Based on the earthquake magnitude, location and historic tsunami records, a damaging tsunami IS NOT expected along the California, Oregon, Washington, British Columbia, and Alaska coasts. Some of these areas may experience non-damaging sea level changes. At coastal locations which have experienced strong ground shaking, local tsunamis are possible due to underwater landslides.

The USGS says the epicentre was 119 km WNW of Ucluelet, 138 km WSW of Campbell River, 140 km SSE of Port Hardy and 289 km WNW of Victoria.

US Geological Survey maps showing history of earthquakes off Vancouver Island.

Earthquakes Canada information page from Natural Resources Canada.

Emergency Info BC

Northwest coast hazards

This detail of the Natural Resources Canada/ Earthquakes Canada shows the historical record of earthquakes along the northwest coast of British Columbia. The larger the circle, the greater the magnitude.

Most, not all, the earthquakes took place in the tetonic plate boundaries off the coast in the middle of the Pacfic Ocean, although the map does also show quakes on Haidi Gwaii. However, large quakes can be felt far inland. The magnitude 9.2 Good Friday earthquake in Alaska in 1964 did shake the town of Kitimat.

Media links

CBC :Earthquake strikes off Vancouver Island’s west coast

Global BC 6.4 earthquake hits off Vancouver Island

Globe and Mail
6.4 earthquake hits off Vancouver Island

Harper kills bitumen export ban, support for ocean monitoring group: reports

Energy Links

According to media reports, Prime Minister Stephen Harper has killed support for the Pacific North Coast Integrated Area Management Initiative (PNCIMA) set up to monitor the ocean on the northern BC coast, while at the same time killing a plan to ban export of bitumen to countries with poor environmental records.

The Calgary Herald, in Harper backs off from initiative that threatens opposition to Northern Gateway pipeline

Prime Minister Stephen Harper’s government has withdrawn support from a deal with the B.C. government and First Nations due to concerns about excessive influence by U.S.-funded environmental groups in the development of an oceans management plan for the B.C. north coast….

There were specific concerns that a new plan being developed under the Pacific North Coast Integrated Area Management Initiative (PNCIMA) could be used to rally opposition to Calgary-based Enbridge Inc.’s proposed $5.5-billion Northern Gateway pipeline that would funnel diluted bitumen crude from Alberta’s oilsands sector to Asian markets docking at Kitimat, B.C.

A letter dated Sept. 1, and sent to the B.C. government, three First Nations groups and the environmental organization Tides Canada, said Ottawa is withdrawing support for a proposed agreement that would have resulted in $8.3 million, from the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation of Palo Alto, California, to fund the PNCIMA process.

The letter, from Fisheries and Oceans Canada regional director general Susan Farlinger, said the government still intends to come up with an oceans management plan by 2012 in co-operation with B.C. and First Nations.

The Vancouver Sun reports Conservatives’ promise to restrict bitumen exports falls by wayside

The Harper government has quietly buried a controversial promise to ban bitumen exports to countries that are environmental laggards…

One person familiar with Prime Minister Stephen Harper’s surprise announcement during the 2008 federal election campaign said the pledge was simply electioneering at the time and was to be “buried and never seen again.”

Alberta’s energy minister also wonders whether the campaign promise is even a government policy any longer, noting the issue has never been discussed with him during his two years in the portfolio.

However, a spokeswoman for federal Natural Resources Minister Joe Oliver said Wednesday the government policy — designed to halt the flow of raw bitumen and jobs overseas — remains in place but is being regularly examined.

Link Pacific North Coast Integrated Area Management Initiative

Editor’s note:A double standard?

On the issue of the PNCIMA, the controversy is over money for the organization from the foundation set up by the founder of Intel, Gordon Moore.

Moore is famous not only for starting the successful chip company but for Moore’s Law, which has governed the accelerating pace of technological change in the past decades and is described by Wikipedia in Moore’s original formulation: “The number of transistors that can be placed inexpensively on an integrated circuit doubles approximately every two years. This trend has continued for more than half a century…” That simply means that computer processing power can be expected to double every two years.

The Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation, according to the Herald, called for the money to be channeled through a group called Tides Canada.

Support for Canadian environmental efforts by American foundations has long been the subject of a heated campaign by blogger Vivian Krause who told the Herald, “I’m pleased that taxpayers’ money will no longer further a foreign-funded campaign that is against Canadian interests,” Krause said, adding that foundation money should go to the developing world.

Krause says she is an independent commentator. She once worked as Corporate Development Manager for North America for NUTRECO, one of the world’s largest producers of farmed salmon and fish feed but disassociates herself from current public relations campaigns by the fish farming industry. Her online biography says she spent some part of her childhood in Kitimat.

Krause is a favourite of many of the right wing columnists across the PostMedia newspaper chain.

While Krause may have some valid points, one wonders why for Krause and her supporters on the business pages across Canada, that it is perfectly acceptable for the billionaires in the transnational energy industry, many of them American, (as well as the state owned Chinese energy companies) to spend corporate millions supporting the oil sands and the pipelines, while is not acceptable for another American capitalist billionaire to spend his money earned in the free market to support his views on the preservation of the environment.

Kelp has great potential as green biofuel studies suggest

Energy Environment Biofuel

A surfer enters the water on a stormy beach at Tywyn, Wales, July, 2008. Scientists from nearby Aberystwyth University have studied kelp as a potential biofuel. The kelp was growing near a rocky outcrop some kilometres south of Tywyn at Aberystwyth Beach near Ceredigion. (Robin Rowland/Northwest Coast Energy News)

Kelp has potential as a renewable biofuel resource because it is a fast-growing, large “macro-algae” that could be harvested, processed and turned into ethanol, methane or bio-oil, according to a recent study in Wales.

The study by Jessica Adams and colleagues at Aberystwyth University in the west of Wales was presented at a biology conference in Glasgow on July 4, 2011 and published in the journal Bioresource Technology.

Coastal Wales has a similar environment to the west coast of North America and both regions are abundant in kelp.

In her paper, Adams says that most biofuels today come from terrestrial sources such as agricultural products or forests, and both sources can cause environmental problems. Harvesting kelp for biofuel would mean that potential food crops, such as maize, would not be taken out of the food supply chain. She says the ocean accounts for half of the primary biomass on the planet, but has not been used very much in the search for biofuel.

Her study, assisted by the Energy and Resources Institute at the University of Leeds, concentrated on the potential that kelp has for producing fuel at various times of its life cycle during the year.

View Larger Map

By analyzing the chemical composition of kelp harvested at low tide at rocky outcrop on Abesrtystwyth Beach, Ceredigion, Wales, Adams and her colleagues determined the best time to harvest the kelp for use as potential biofuel, which in the case of Wales, was in July when the kelp had the highest levels of carbohydrates, including two key sugars, mannitol and laminarn, which are easily converted to biofuel. Those carbohydrates could be fermented or put through anaerobic digestion to produce either ethanol or methane. Another method is pyrolysis, a method of heating the fuel in the absence of oxygen, which can produce bio-oil.

Another advantage that kelp has over terrestrial plants is that it contains little cellulose and thus is easier to handle when creating biofuel.

The First Nations of British Columbia used the kelp for centuries, as a place to find fish, crustaceans and shell fish in the kelp beds or to hunt seals that fed on the fish. In some parts of the BC coast, First Nations used kelp branches to harvest herring roe (before the collapse of the herring stocks)

For the past century, modern use has concentrated on the minerals the kelp produces, it was burned to obtain soda ash (sodium carbonate) , used for the production of soap, ice cream and lotions as well as in some processes for making glass.

Kelp is increasingly popular as a health food, both as an edible seaweed and for health supplements. In British Columbia, kelp is harvested for health food at a time of peak mineral content, when the content is 25 per cent to 50 per cent minerals, including potassium, calcium, magnesium, phosphorus and iodine. Salt extracted from BC kelp is high in potassium and thus attractive for people on low sodium diets.

For biofuel, however, the time when kelp is highest in minerals, and thus attractive to the current harvesters, is not the time it would be best for biofuel. Adams says: “Seaweed ash has previously been reported to contain, potassium, sodium and calcium-carbonate and high concentrations will lead to increased slagging, fouling and other ash related problems during thermochemical conversion.”

In Wales, Adams’ study showed that the mineral concentration in the kelp peaked in March and was lowest in July, a time when the carbohydrate content is also higher. She says “This means that a July harvest would provide the highest heating value and the lowest ash and alkali index values, making it the best month for harvesting for thermochemical conversion.”

It appears also that cleaner water will produce kelp that is better suited to biofuel conversion, since the kelp her study used from Cardigan Bay had a lower mineral content than kelp from areas off Cornwall where effluent from the tin mines was carried by rivers into the ocean in that region.

An earlier small pilot project in 2008 at a royal estate on the north coast of Scotland looked into the possibility of setting up a kelp farm that could potentially used for biofuels. That project showed that using kelp for biofuel meant that agricultural land did not have to be taken out of production for biofuel planting and even that agricultural runoff could be used to fertilize a concentrated kelp farm.

The species of kelp used in the Welsh study had high concentrations of both water and minerals and that is whyJuly was the optimal time for a possible biofuel harvest. Other species, in other areas, once studied, might be better suited to be used as biofuels. Adams concludes by saying: “Macroalgae or macroalgal residues could pryrolysted to create a bio-oil or used in hydrothermal liquefaction to make bio-crude in a process which does not require the initial drying of the feedstock.”

Map of the kelp beds on the north coast of Haida Gwaii, taken from the BC provincial government kelp inventory survey.

Correction: An earlier version of the story said the journal was Biosource Technology. This has been corrected to Bioresource Technology.