SATURDAY Workshops

The 6th Annual California Seaweed Festival is coming to Los Angeles to celebrate and explore Urban Ocean Ecosystems. 
Please visit our website for full schedule and details, plus all the latest updates! 

In addition to the main event, we have these special activities:

10:15am -11:15am: Seaweed in a Solidarity Economy, with Julia Dunn, Earth Equity
Short Workshop for up to 25 participants ($10)
Sponsored by CSU Northridge & NOAA
As the seaweed industry grows, there's a repeating conversation around "scaling up" which often winds up replicating the same extractive values that caused the climate crisis our industry hopes to mitigate and heal. This interactive workshop explores cooperative economies as an answer to this "problem of scale" and considers how seaweed farmers can be leaders in a just transition.

11:30am -12:30pm: Identifying Common Seaweeds: Southern California Seaweed Taxonomy and Morphology, with Adi Khen and Jen Smith, Smith Lab at Scripps Institution of Oceanography, UC San Diego
Short workshop for up to 40 participants, includes a Southern California Seaweed ID card ($40)
Sponsored by The Azulito Fund
Learn more about Southern California seaweeds-- how to identify them, where they grow, and why they're important. Participants will receive a field guide featuring pictures and information on 24 common species.

12:45 -1:45pm: Glow with Kelp: DIY Sunscreen from Ocean Science, with Jason Williams, UC Los Angeles
Short workshop for up to 30 participants, includes samples to take home ($50)
Explore the science of natural extracts and how they interact with zinc to form nanoparticles with unique sun-blocking properties. Following a live demo of nanoparticle formation from kelp extract, participants will work together in small groups to blend their own natural sunscreen cream using ocean-derived ingredients. Along the way, discuss kelp's ecological importance and how green chemistry can replace harmful industrial processes.

2:00 - 3:00pm: Artistic Seaweed Pressings, with Karina Arzuyan, Nuzhdin Laboratory, USC and Hayden Schneider, KelpArk
Short workshop for up to 30 participants, take your own seaweed pressing home! ($40)
Learn to make seaweed pressings that highlight unusual natural aspects of algae, both large and small. After reviewing a variety of examples and a short demonstration, each participant will have an opportunity to select seaweeds and complete their own artistic, alternatively angled pressing.

3:15 - 4:15pm: Seaweed Ink, with Jenny Gil, Algy Lab
Short workshop for up to 40 participants, take your own box of seaweed inks home! ($50)
Learn about the pigments produced by algae (chlorophyll, phycocyanin and carotenoids) and a step-by-step process for making ink from microalgae. We will end by using the inks to paint on paper or wood and participants receive a tin box of algae inks to take home. Algy Lab is dedicated to creating workshops and products inspired by algae.

4:30 - 5:30pm: Algae Jello as Abalone Feed, with Johanna Hultberg, Aquarium of the Pacific
Short workshop for up to 40 participants ($30)
Use carrageenan to make algae "jello" that can be used to feed invertebrates. The workshop leader uses it to increase diet variation for endangered white abalone leading up to breeding season, but there are many additional possible applications, especially for times or areas where it is difficult to provide live algae to invertebrate populations.