Who are we?

Câr-y-Môr (For the Love of the Sea Ltd) is a Community Benefit Society, owned and supported by a growing membership of 800 kind souls, and supported by our Welsh community of farmers, fishermen and gatherers.

Our land HQ is less than four miles away, over the fields between St Davids and Solva.

What can you see?

Can you spot the lines of black buoys bobbing on the surface? They’re easier to see when it’s calm. Those are the Câr-y-Môr sea farms.

They might not look like much from up here, but underneath these humble buoys there is a diverse marine farm of livestock (shellfish) and mixed crops (seaweed).

If our team is out on the boat, do give them a wave!

Ferg (Sea Farm Manager) is likely to be on maintenance, while Beth (Marine Biologist) collects data. And if you see someone in a Câr-y-Môr t-shirt walking along the Coast Path with a group of kids, that’ll be our Jess giving a tour to a group from Farms For City Children.

What can’t you see?

Underneath those bobbing buoys our sea farms grow different shellfish and algae, and just like on a land farm, there is lots of wildlife visiting and living on the farm too.

Since Câr-y-Môr was founded in 2019, we’ve had the pleasure of spotting much of this marine life with our own eyes – from nosey Atlantic grey seals to the elusive Manx shearwater.

But even for us sea farmers, much of this marine life is hidden below the waves.

Thankfully, our friends at PEBL (marine monitoring) – regularly film under the buoys that always shows these underwater farms are a haven for sea life, creating a safe nursery for juveniles until they reach maturity and forming a home for at least 10 commercially important species.

What’s more, the shellfish and seaweed on our sea farms are helping to clean the seas as they grow, oxygenating and filtering it.

Why are we farming the sea?

What can we say, we like a challenge!

In all seriousness, Câr-y-Môr believes that a sea farming future in Wales will support food security, coastal livelihoods and marine restoration, whilst reinvigorating ancient traditions and inspiring a love of our cherished waters and the incredibly healthy food it can provide for us.

We are encouraged by the eminent Professor Michael Crawford who said: “The next opportunity is farming the sea. The wealth of opportunity is phenomenal for a new industrial revolution, a new agri-industrial revolution, by using our coastline and our – what was traditional – use of the marine food web.”

How do we farm the sea?

One of the biggest differences between land and sea farming is that no feed, fertilisers, pesticides or fresh water are needed.

Wonderfully the sea naturally provides much of the life on our farms; including mussel, queeny and scallop seed, and many species of seaweed. We just need to hang the right equipment in the water at the right time and sea life settles on our farms. The sea water and the sunlight then feed them over the coming months and years. Each autumn we sometimes supplement what’s growing with native oyster seed and kelp seed - all propagated from local stock.

All year we constantly farm, grade and harvest our shellfish and seaweed - just like farms on land. The shellfish then makes its way to our sea farm shop (just outside St Davids); to chefs all over the UK (including some with Michelin stars don’t-you-know!); or for restoration projects (such as those creating artificial bivalve reefs in Pembrokeshire estuaries).

We are investing in developing a viable market for our seaweed. So far we are using some for food (think laverbread, our best-selling “Kelpchup”, or our friend Jonathan Williams’ superb Barti Seaweed Spiced Rum); and most of what we grow we are turning into biostimulant that we have trialled and are now starting to sell to local farmers and gardeners (just like the liquid seaweed you might put on your own home-grown veg?). We hope all growers will see the benefits of using seaweed biostimulant to reduce agro-chemical use in the future.

How do we make a profit farming the sea?

Farming the sea is expensive business. As you can well imagine, the licences, insurances, equipment, maintenance and more is a huge financial drain on our community business as we become established.

Our part of the deal we have with Mother Nature is to learn how best to sustainably farm the shellfish to produce unprocessed, healthy food.

The profits from the sale of this shellfish will eventually give us the viability needed to keep investing in the seaweed side of Câr-y-Môr – creating more biostimulant (liquid seaweed) for British farmers, creating apprenticeships for young people to join our partner team, and teaching local children about the potential of farming the land and the sea as one ecosystem.

We’ve made a start on these three, and so we know the value they hold and the potential for growth once we can invest more in seaweed biostimulant and education.

What keeps us going?

Our sea farms have been hit by hurricanes (thanks Storm Darragh). Our marine licensing was the first-of-its-kind (making it an ultra-lengthy process). And when the shellfish has needed processing over Christmas or Bank Holidays; it’s been all hands on deck in the cold and dark from well before dawn.

But we feel we owe it to ourselves and future generations to learn from our ancestors - to fish and gather from our seas in harmony with nature, always respecting that our wonderful sea is the source of all life.

We are therefore committed to farm in a way that improves the biodiversity of the sea and to actively work to improve the health of our seas; to provide fulfilling jobs for local people; to grow nutrient-rich, sustainably-grown food; and to forge a resilient sea farming future for Wales which allows coastal communities to thrive within their cynefin (habitat).

Our hope is that one day the work you see here will be replicated up and down the coast of Wales for the benefit of generations to come.

How can you get involved?

All are welcome to join Câr-y-Môr as a member (for just £1). As a member you’ll get to vote at our AGM and have a say in how we operate.

Find out how on our website (carymor.wales) or visit our sea farm shop on the A487 between Solva and St Davids.

It would be a privilege to welcome you as the newest member of our cymuned (community).

Cariad Mawr - from all at Câr-y-Môr