Westerly Sun — ‘Evangelizing Kelp’: Stonington company helping build seaweed market in Connecticut

Stonington KelP Company owner Size Flores, left, shares a piece of sugar kelp with Connecticut Lt. Gov Susan Bysiewicz on Monday, April 23, 2023. The officials joined Flores to celebrate southern New England’s third annual Kelp Week. Jason Vallee, The Westerly Sun

Apr 24, 2023

By Jason Vallee — STONINGTON — When Jay Douglas purchased the Mechanic Street Marina in Pawcatuck in 2016, his wife Suzie Flores said the couple was looking for a productive, innovative way to spend their winter months out on the water. The couple wanted an activity that could potentially help to improve waterways, provide a secondary income and encourage economic growth and healthier living.

Flores never anticipated that the desire for winter work would lead to her and Douglas to form the Stonington Kelp Company, a sugar kelp business that in the past few years has grown into the largest kelp harvester in Connecticut.

“This was something that seemed to check all the boxes,” she said Monday during a press conference outside the marina. “This was something we could do all winter, and the benefits it has for cooking and other things, it was a product we were completely sold on and believed in from the very beginning.”

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