Tim Visi – Sea Plants Solutions
Tim Visi started his marine biology career while in undergraduate studies at Kent State University when he volunteered on two field trips (1980 & 1982) to the Bahamas for lemon shark studies with Dr. “Sonny” Gruber & National Science Foundation. Shortly after attaining his Bachelor’s in Biology in 1987; his first job in aquatic science was an aquaculture technician position on research ocean cages & tilapia rearing project on a private isolated island in the Exumas; owned by Perry Oceanographics. It also included a supply trip of saltwater tilapia equipment for a NOAA research project in Haiti.
Next adventure in 1988 took him almost to the other side of the world to Seattle, WA to represent NMFS & NOAA as a marine fisheries biologist in the capacity of Marin Fisheries Observer on domestic & foreign fisheries projects; sometimes as the only English speaking person & sole scientist on board.
Eventually; he realized that humanity could not harvest the world fisheries using unsustainable fishing practices and realized aquaculture was the way to go in regards to feeding the masses. However; it didn’t take him long to see the impact to the environment from the tremendous amount of eutrophic (acidic) effluent leaving such aquaculture facilities.
His journey starting to clean up the environment started in this field of aquaculture. His search to find a way to remediate eutrophic nutrient streams from aquaculture farms began in 2002 at the land based seaweed farm at NOAA/NMFS Fish Research Lab in Manchester, WA. In 2007; his research was critiqued by his peers at NOAA/NMFS about he sustainable growing technique he developed.
From 2007 to 2008 Tim Visi advised several Puget Sound renewable energy companies on species selection, growing techniques for seaweed & marine microalgae for various commodities derived from the biomass generated from such growing systems. It was during these years that he realized that seaweed/macroalgae can phyto-remediate much more than just organic compounds. He found that certain species can remediate more toxic compounds that can be found any source water produced from businesses other than aquaculture farms. these included, wastewater treatment facilities, CAFO – manure ponds from livestock farms, marinas, boatyards, and eutrophic/acidic coastal freshwater/estuarine/saltwater watersheds.
In 2009; Mr. Visi was able to win Washington State’s Clallam County Entrepreneur Challenge Contest for the most innovative “green” business plan involving a STC-System farm using a large greenhouse.
Between 2010 – 2011 eight million gallons of water out of Sequim Bay, WA was phyto-remediated in which we perfected the STC-System (Synergistic Tumble Culture-System) using a 40’ X 60’ greenhouse.
In 2017; he wrote a Dept. of Energy grant utilizing his STC-System to phyto-remediate coastal regions affected by acidification to produce biomass for bio-energy.
Presently (2019); he is pursuing consulting work for his systems to phyto-remediate source water for businesses that are interested in commodities that require seaweed as the raw material for their product.
Port Townsend, WA
United States
Website: http://www.seaplantssolutions.com
Social Media: https://facebook.com/SeaPlantsSolutions/
Workshop(s)
Workshop 1: STC-Systems – Land Based Seaweed Systems to Phyto-remediate Coastal Acidification & Create Sustainable Economics
Tim presented subject matter on how efficient land based sustainable seaweed systems called STC-Systems (Synergistic Tumble Culture-Systems) can aggressively remediate eutrophication/acidification of coastal regions, by producing biomass for high in demand commodities that require seaweed as an ingredient; thereby creating a new sustainable technology for future new economics.
For agriculture/aquaculture sites that require phyto-remediation; species selected to perform the job could produce biomass to be used for human consumption, livestock feed, and water conservation use for crop production, etc.
We also discussed many different examples of sites that this technology in conjunction with properly selected seaweed species can remediate harmful toxic compounds found at industrial sites as well. In turn; the biomass produced from such sites could be used in bio-energy forms such as; bio-electric, bio-fuels, bio-plastic that is degradable, etc.
