A festival showcasing seaweed, bivalves and other ocean fare of the Pacific Northwest is returning to the coast region for a third year, with events planned on both sides of the Columbia River in February.

Winter Waters has expanded from one seaweed-focused dinner into a monthlong series of events, with seafood education, workshops and many chances to taste seaweed creations by local chefs.

“It’s a celebration of Oregon’s seaweed industry and also local Oregon seafood,” said Alanna Kieffer, a marine biologist and farmer at Oregon Seaweed, who co-founded Winter Waters with fellow seaweed advocates Rachelle Hacmac and Kristen Penner in 2023.

“The Pacific Northwest has more kelp diversity than anywhere else on the planet,” Kieffer said. “Kelp thrives in cold, nutrient-dense waters, which is what we have here.”

On the menu

A full weekend of Winter Waters events will take over Cannon Beach between Feb. 6 and Feb. 9, including a workshop focused on Japanese temaki, seaweed art classes, seafood trivia and a documentary screening.

“If you have no interest in eating seaweed, seaweed is also just a beautiful thing to learn about,” Kieffer said.

On Feb. 8, “Hope in the Water” will be shown at the Cannon Beach Chamber of Commerce. The PBS documentary series from the nonprofit Fed by Blue dives into the blue foods industry, including kelp farming and sea urchin harvesting.

“They made a docuseries that focuses on a few of these different industries,” Kieffer said. “It’s an uplifting and educational docuseries that I love.”

A panel discussion with industry insiders will follow the screening, paired with drinks and seafood appetizers. For those wanting a larger meal, bento boxes are also available for preorder. They’re made by Chef Jane Hashimawari, who runs the Japanese comfort food pop-up Ippai PDX in Portland.

“Her food is amazing and she uses seaweed in a lot of what she does,” Kieffer said.

The boxes will include kombu pickled purple cabbage and Oregon albacore tataki with yuzu kosho. Hashimawari is also leading a workshop on making temaki, traditional Japanese handrolls, on Feb. 9.

Kieffer will also be leading classes on making seaweed cyanotypes — vivid prints made with pressed seaweeds — over the weekend.

Seaweed education

As populations surge and people look for more avenues to grow food, Kieffer said that seaweed farming has taken off in recent years.

“Seaweeds are really sustainable and really nutritious,” she said. “In terms of bringing seaweeds to the culinary market, it does take a lot of education around how to use seaweed in your dishes and how to use seaweed when you’re home cooking.”

Seaweed beers and chocolate seaweed caramels at Bruce’s Candy Kitchen are just a few of the innovative culinary creations local chefs and breweries have come up with in past years.

“We’ve been thoroughly amazed with the diversity of what people are doing,” Kieffer said.

This year, 23 events are planned in February. They’re a mix of fun workshops and screenings along with formal dinners that source local seafood. The series works with restaurants in Portland and on the coast, including in Astoria, Wheeler, Newport and on the south coast.

On Feb. 8, the series will expand onto the Long Beach Peninsula with a Lunar New Year celebration at Snow Peak Campfield, offering samples of Tre-Fin albacore tuna and seaweed oonigiri.

“It’s pretty far-reaching,” Kieffer said.

Winter Waters started as a smaller gathering with about 10 events designed to promote the seaweed companies the founders worked for.

“In that process of doing the first one we realized beyond seaweed there was such a big opportunity to celebrate seafood as a whole and seafood that’s coming from Oregon,” she said.

Research has found the majority of seafood consumed on the Oregon Coast isn’t local and much of the coast’s seafood is exported, Kieffer said, adding when people eat at coastal restaurants and assume they’re getting local seafood, it’s rarely the case.

Changing that demand comes from the consumer, which is why the educational mission behind Winter Waters is so important.

“We just wanted to bring this to light for the general public,” she said.

The month will wrap up with a dinner at The Salmonberry in Wheeler on Feb. 27. The meal will celebrate the coast’s natural resources with a family-style menu and sunset, complete with a view of the Nehalem River.

Winter Waters on the Oregon Coast

• Seafood trivia, 6 to 7:30 p.m. Feb. 6 at Pelican Brewing Co. in Cannon Beach.

• “Hope in the Water” documentary screening, 5 to 8 p.m. Feb. 8 at the Cannon Beach Chamber of Commerce, followed by a panel discussion.

• Tre-Fin Seafood Tasting and Lunar New Year Celebration, Noon to 6 p.m. Feb. 8 at Snow Peak Campfield Long Beach.

• Seaweed cyanotypes, 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. Feb. 8 and Feb. 9, art classes led by Alanna Kieffer in Cannon Beach.

• Temaki Night, Feb. 9 at Basalt Studio in Cannon Beach, a workshop hosted by chef Jane Hashimawari of Ippai PDX.

• Dive Deeper: A Virtual Reading Group with Josie Iselin, 1 p.m. Feb. 13, virtual book club on “The Mysterious World of Bull Kelp.”

• Feast of the Local Fishes, 2 to 6 p.m. Feb. 16 at the Historic U.S. Coast Guard Boat House in Garibaldi, hosted by Tournant and Shifting Tides NW.

• Winter Waters a la carte, with seatings on Feb. 21 and Feb. 23 at Nekst Event in Astoria, featuring a locally foraged menu.

• Wheeler Waters at the Salmonberry, 3 to 6 p.m. Feb. 27, a prix fixe menu at the Salmonberry in Wheeler, with cider pairings by Carola Wines.