63 



Mr. Studds. What was your reaction to that in terms of the 

 quaUty and quantity of their commitment in this field and the 

 speed with which they seem to be going and the priority which 

 they seem to attach to it? 



Dr. Neushul. I think they are being very conservative, but that 

 may change in the future, hopefully. 



Mr. Studds. There are a number of things that may change 

 around here. Thank you. 



Mr. Hughes? 



Mr. Hughes. Thank you. 



Doctor, did I understand that you are yourself involved as a 

 small businessman in the production of kelp? 



Dr. Neushul. Yes, that is correct. 



Mr. Hughes. What, in your judgment, is the smaller size oper- 

 ation a small businessman could have to have an operation that 

 would be productive and successfully, economically viable? 



Dr. Neushul. We have — I don't know whether I should say this 

 proudly or with shame but, we have the largest marine farm in the 

 tjnited States as far as I am aware, and that is 1 acre in extent. 



Mr. Hughes. Only 1 acre? 



Dr. Neushul. One acre. But this is still an experimental farm. 



Mr. Hughes. Where is it actually located? 



Dr. Neushul. It is located in Goleta Bay near Santa Barbara, 

 Calif. 



Mr. Hughes. Have you had any difficulties with other uses; 

 recreational, fishery, and other uses? 



Dr. Neushul. No, we haven't. 



Mr. Hughes. Have you found it is compatible with the other uses 

 of the bay? 



Dr. Neushul. As far as we are able to tell, it is barely visible 

 from the coast. It is a few buoys showing on the sea surface. The 

 area of ocean used is leased from the State of California. 



Mr. Hughes. Can you describe your operation for us a little bit? 



Dr. Neushul. Yes. We use pipe as the farm substrate. We have 

 anchors which anchor buoys and pipes into position in the bay and 

 on the pipes we attach the seed stock. We produce the seed stock at 

 the university in greenhouses and from culture dish material. This 

 is raised up to a certain size and vegetatively propagated and 

 placed on the farm. 



The preliminary growth rates of plants that we have been get- 

 ting have been 1 to 2 percent wet weight increase per day. As I 

 mentioned earlier, the farm project is supported by the National 

 Science Foundation applied research program for the development 

 of chemicals from alternative sources, and it is primarily designed 

 at the moment to produce agar. 



Mr. Hughes. How do you actually harvest the kelp? 



Dr. Neushul. Right now this is an experimental farm so we are 

 just harvesting by hand. Ultimately, if it gets larger than an acre, 

 we would have some sort of harvesting machinery doing it. 



Mr. Hughes. From your testimony I gather there really isn't any 

 difficulty in marketing the kelp because we are presently import- 

 ing kelp from other countries. 



Dr. Neushul. That is correct. 



Mr. Hughes. Mostly from South Africa? 



