California's Ocean Economy - California Resources Agency - State ...

NOEP
consistency and comparability purposes. Appendix B contains estimates after 2000 done
according to the newer NAICs codes, which give a more detailed accounting of the industry
values. The charts found in the Appendix, however were taken from California state sources
instead of the Federal Bureau of Labor Statistics source and so may represent a slightly
different set of estimates.
3.3 Kelp and Sea Vegetable Harvesting
In addition to fisheries, California’s Living Resources sector includes kelp farming offshore.
Algin, an extract from kelp, is widely used in binding, stabilizing, and modeling
pharmaceuticals, and in the cosmetics, hygiene, and food industries. Figure 3-8 presents the
historical kelp production in wet tons in California. From 1970 to 1980, kelp harvest
produced about 150,000 wet tons. As of 1980, the harvest of kelp was below 100,000 wet
tons until 1989. The main reason for the low average was the 1982 to 1984 El Nino, which
disturbed the environmental and climatic conditions of the Pacific Ocean. In 1990, kelp
harvest reached its peak for the past 20 years with more than 150,000 wet tons. In 1998,
25,000 wet tons were harvested. From 1999 to 2001, the harvest was only around 40,000
tons annually. No separate data for employment and payroll in kelp and sea vegetable
harvesting are available. They are included under the commercial fishing industry previously
shown in Tables 3-1 and 3-2.
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