New Ketchikan company aims to kick-start Alaska kelp industry

New Ketchikan company aims to kick-start Alaska kelp industry

Nick Stern holds up a strand of giant kelp, after harvesting it from a wild kelp bed near Ketchikan on Thursday, March 13, 2025. (Michael Fanelli/KRBD) On a clear March afternoon, John Smet shut off the engine of his workboat as he approached his go-to wild kelp bed. It was high tide, so less kelp was pooling on the surface of the water, making it harder to see. As the boat drifted ahead, his business partner Nick Stern noticed a kelp strand wit…