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https://www.positive.news/environment/wales-underwater-farming-revolution/>
"When Francois Beyers first pitched the concept of 3D ocean farming to the
Welsh regulators, he had to sketch it on napkins.
Today the seafood farm is much more than a drawing, but if you walked along the
Welsh coastal path near St David’s, all you’d see is a line of buoys. As Beyers
puts it: “It’s what’s below that’s important.”
Thick tussles of lustrous seaweed suspend from the buoys, mussels cling to its
furry connective ropes and dangling Chinese lantern-esque nets are filled with
oysters and scallops.
“It’s like an underwater garden,” says Beyers, co-founder of the
community-owned regenerative ocean farm, Câr-y-Môr. The 3-hectare site is part
of a fledgling sector, one of 12 farms in the UK, which key players believe
could boost ocean biodiversity, produce sustainable agricultural fertiliser and
provide year-round employment in areas that have traditionally been dependent
on tourism.
Created in 2020 by Beyers and six family members, including his father-in-law –
an ex-shellfish farmer – the motivation is apparent in the name, which is Welsh
for “for the love of the sea”.
But it could have all been different for Beyers, a software developer and South
African native. He was on the verge of returning home to be closer to the sea
when he started exploring how ocean farming could enable him to make a living
by the coast. When his father-in-law stumbled upon the perfect site, two
abandoned mussel farms in Pembrokeshire, concept became reality."
Cheers,
*** Xanni ***
--
mailto:xanni@xanadu.net Andrew Pam
http://xanadu.com.au/ Chief Scientist, Xanadu
https://glasswings.com.au/ Partner, Glass Wings
https://sericyb.com.au/ Manager, Serious Cybernetics
