The California Coastal Commission has approved plans for what would become the largest kelp farm in the United States, a 7.8-square-kilometer operation set roughly six miles off Ventura Harbor in federal waters. The commission voted to let the project move forward with conditions, clearing a major hurdle for Faroe Islands-based Ocean Rainforest after years of permitting work along the Southern California coast.
According to DC News Now, construction on the farm could begin as early as 2027, with Ocean Rainforest building the operation gradually over roughly a decade rather than all at once. The company plans to start in a smaller area before expanding, and maintenance and harvesting could eventually require hundreds of boat trips a year once the farm reaches its full footprint. The proposed farm covers 2,000 acres and is sited on a mud-and-sand bottom at approximately 115 feet.
The company's target crop is giant kelp, or Macrocystis pyrifera, a species native to Southern California waters. At full capacity, the farm could harvest as much as 6,000 tons of kelp, the AP report notes, destined for use in soil and plant health products aimed at California avocado farms and strawberry fields. Ted Travers said all kelp currently used for agricultural purposes in the U.S. comes from the Atlantic Ocean, and he voiced support for developing kelp-based agricultural products on the West Coast instead.
Federal Backing And A Decade Of Groundwork
Ocean Rainforest's push into California waters has been years in the making. The company first received Coastal Commission consistency approval in October 2021 for an 86-acre pilot research site about 4.4 miles off Santa Barbara, laying the groundwork for the far larger commercial-scale proposal now moving forward. That earlier project drew federal research dollars too: the company secured $4.5 million in October 2023 through a Department of Energy ARPA-E MARINER program award for its California testbed, following a $6.2 million Series A round in February 2023 backed by the Grantham Foundation and the World Wildlife Fund, according to Global AgInvesting.
The Ventura project also fits into a broader federal push. In September 2025, NOAA Fisheries formally selected 13 Aquaculture Opportunity Areas across Southern California and the Gulf of Mexico under a Final Programmatic Environmental Impact Statement, executing an executive order aimed at identifying ocean zones suitable for commercial aquaculture. The Trump administration has sought to promote commercial aquaculture as part of a broader U.S. seafood industry initiative that originated in 2020. Doug Bush framed the ambition plainly: “Let's start in our backyard. Let's grow the seaweed here, let's process here in California, let's use it in California farms.”
Fishermen Fear Displacement, Whale Advocates Watch The Lines
Not everyone is celebrating. An assessment prepared for the Pacific Fishery Management Council in April 2026 found that the proposed farm's footprint overlaps with active commercial grounds for market squid, California halibut, and ridgeback prawn, according to a council document. Commercial fishing operations will be displaced by the farm, though sportfishing will still be permitted in the area. Ocean Rainforest and fishermen are now working on an industry support fund to address the fallout.
This isn't the first time the company has had to make amends with the fishing community. In July 2026, the California Coastal Commission documented a proposed remedial arrangement involving $14,000 retained from surety funds and $105,000 returned for Ocean Rainforest's pilot-project compliance problems, rather than a $10,000 funding agreement with the Pacific Coast Federation of Fishermen's Associations, per commission staff report.
Environmentalists have also raised concerns about boat traffic and whale entanglements. Geoff Shester called the area “our blue Serengeti” and “a very wild place,” underscoring the ecological stakes of building industrial infrastructure in it. Cassidy Teufel said seaweed farms use taut, rigid lines rather than the loose fishing lines that have historically posed entanglement risks to whales. The farm's location was also chosen further offshore in an area with lower marine-mammal density, and Ocean Rainforest has reported that its two-year demonstration project recorded no whale entanglements.
What Ventura Stands To Gain
Ventura, a city of about 100,000 people located roughly 60 miles northwest of Los Angeles, would host the processing side of the operation, with Ocean Rainforest planning to process the kelp locally. Both Ventura officials and port officials have welcomed the project, seeing potential economic upside in a harbor town about 97 kilometers from Los Angeles. Environmental groups say seaweed can absorb carbon dioxide and restore habitat, and the farm may also attract fish, adding an ecological dimension to the commercial venture.
Ocean Rainforest has said it now holds the major approvals needed for the project, though the farm will still undergo periodic reviews by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and the Coastal Commission's director as construction proceeds. The broader market opportunity is significant: a World Bank market report published in 2023 estimated that global seaweed markets could grow by another $11.8 billion by 2030, driven by rising agricultural and industrial demand, as reported by Newsday.
The Ventura approval adds to a growing list of designated aquaculture zones along the California coast, which together span 85 square kilometers, part of the 13 areas NOAA designated for aquaculture development off California and Texas in 2025. Wild kelp forests, meanwhile, have suffered declines, with ocean warming and sea urchin overpopulation linked to those losses, a trend that has fueled interest in cultivated offshore kelp farming as an alternative supply source.
