6:30 PM on Zoom

Join us in welcoming Rafael Cuevas Uribe, Ph.D., Associate Professor, Department of Fisheries Biology at Cal Poly Humboldt.

In this presentation we will learn about two projects that Cal Poly Humboldt has been doing with bull kelp. The first project is the farming of bull kelp in Humboldt Bay. Cal Poly Humboldt established the first commercial licensed seaweed farm in open waters in 2019. Currently, they are farming bull kelp. We will describe the farming process. On a different project, Cal Poly Humboldt is evaluating the heat tolerance of the early stages of bull kelp. This will allow us to determine the lethal warmest temperature that bull kelp could resist. As part of this project, we want to evaluate if there is a difference in heat tolerance among different populations of bull kelp in California. In other words, if the bull kelp from Monterey, Mendocino, or Humboldt could have the same tolerance to warmer temperatures.

Dr. Rafael Cuevas Uribe is an associate professor at Cal Poly Humboldt. He did his master's in aquaculture at Kentucky State University and his Ph.D. at Louisiana State University. He has been at Cal Poly Humboldt since 2014. His research areas include integrated multi-trophic aquaculture systems, preservation of germplasm resources for aquatic species, and reproductive biology. Currently, he has five graduate students, three working with seaweed, one with the Sacramento Pikeminnow, and another conducting a survey of California's aquaculture industry.