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We are remembering our friend Seth Barker, who passed away at his home on February 10, 2022 after a courageous battle with cancer. He was only 75 years old.
The Boothbay Sea and Science Center and Seth Barker met during the summer of 2016 when BSSC accepted Seth’s invitation for a tour of his sea farm where he grew seaweed. Jazzed up by what was happening at Maine Sea Farms, I began conversation with Seth about how he and I could bring the BSSC summer aquaculture program to local schools.
Cobbling together a 30-gallon aquarium, a chiller and a pump, we set up the first tank in January 2017 at the Edgecomb Eddy School with the support of teacher Mrs. Sarah Currier. Saying that Seth was extremely skeptical that the seaweed would grow in a controlled environment is an understatement, and he furthered that doubt by cautioning my optimism. In the end the seaweed grew, and Seth conceded that he was completely stunned.
With funding and votes of confidence from the Onion Foundation, Maine Community Foundation, and generous donors, the Exploring the Science of Seaweed Farming program continues today. During these 5 years under Seth’s guidance and supervision this program now includes 11 middle schools and one high school in four Maine counties.
Pre-pandemic, Seth made every effort to visit the teachers and the students participating in the program. He was without a doubt a natural teacher. On his way to each in-school presentation he would stop and collect seaweed. Dressed in his full “farming” attire, Seth helped students to discover and explore the algae that he secreted in his bucket.
Seth and I have produced several “seaweed farming” videos, the favorite being Meet the Farmer. In this video, Seth describes his life as a seaweed farmer on the Damariscotta River and his passion to make the world a better place to live. With the support of Jonne Trees at Boothbay Region TV, the video was made in March 2021 and is available below.
This past fall while Seth and I drank coffee outside the East Boothbay General Store and reviewed plans for this school-year’s planting and harvesting, he told me that he was extremely proud of how this program had grown. We recounted his initial skepticism and laughed about the shabby seaweed that grew in our first tank during the winter of 2017. And we patted ourselves on the back for helping middle-school students gain a better understanding of Maine seaweed farming and for the “growing” success we were having with each passing year.
On Saturday, December 4, 2021 Seth helped me prepare the droplines for the seaweed that would, for the first time in the history of this program, be planted on his farm in Clark Cove. On Friday, December 10 as the snow began to taper off, Seth and I planted on Maine Sea Farms the seaweed seedlings from South Bristol School, Medomak Middle School, Lincoln Academy, and Greenville Consolidated School.
Arriving at the farm on that cold wintry morning, I will never forget Seth’s comment “I would expect nothing less” as I proudly credited my upbringing on a produce farm to the success of backing my car down the very steep snow-covered ramp to the dock … where he waited patiently for me with the cart.
I will hold close to my heart all of the conversations we have had these 5 years and in particular that wintry morning. I will forever treasure the memory of him sitting with me in his snow-covered skiff and with great passion coaching me on the technique of attaching each dropline to the longline. And I will never forget as we made our way back to the dock, cold and tired, he suddenly turned the boat around and headed back to the lines we had just planted feeling that he had not given me enough time to take pictures.
I will forever be grateful for the gift of his friendship and for all the time and energy he shared with me, the teachers and their students.
Seth … may you rest in peace.
Pauline