![]() ![]() The UN Global Compact recently set out its vision for an “upscaled, responsible and restorative” seaweed industry in its “Seaweed Manifesto”. One of these, in the sea off California, is trying to speed up the growth of kelp by using drone submarines to bring it near the surface while the sun is shining, then deep under the sea at night, to absorb nutrients.Īll over the world, efforts are underway to take seaweed farming to the next level. A viable biofuel industry requires scale and technology that doesn’t yet exist, so a $22m US-government backed programme is working to provide just that, by funding 20 experimental projects. Although it still emits greenhouse gases when burned, fuel derived from seaweed only releases what it previously absorbed – unlike fossil fuels which release carbon that was previously trapped underground. Potentially even more exciting is seaweed-based biofuel. It’s safe to eat and keeps the water healthy too. “They thought I was crazy.” Now, Yarish has shown that seaweed farming can work here, even in relatively polluted areas. When he first suggested growing seaweed here, “I wasn’t able to get to square one,” he says. Much of Yarish’s work has taken place in Long Island Sound, the body of water sandwiched between the states of New York and Connecticut – two of the most densely populated areas of the US. “It has been the last five or six years that we’ve really seen an explosion of interest,” he says. On the other side of the globe, Charlie Yarish, a professor of marine sciences at the University of Connecticut, has been singing the praises of seaweed for even longer. “Sustainability is the initial driver, but human health and nutrition is the second driver.” Winberg has been talking up seaweed for over a decade, and now sees “a combination of things falling into place” to make people listen: the huge cost of poor diets, the climate crisis, the global popularity of Asian cuisine. It’s a way of farming that restores and sustains ecosystems, rather than degrading them. Similarly, fish farmers around the world have discovered that their waste water is full of nutrients that seaweed loves, and it now grows alongside sea snails in China, oysters in France, shrimp in Brazil and salmon in Chile and the US. Once they were introduced, together with mussels and milkfish, the waters recovered. ![]() She saw that seaweeds were “a key missing link in the chain”. Winberg studied what had gone on, and brought together combinations of species that could use up each other’s waste. ![]() Her eyes were opened to the difference seaweed could make to the environment when she visited a prawn farm in Sri Lanka that had been hit by disease. On the coast of New South Wales, Australia, marine scientist Pia Winberg runs a company called PhycoHealth, which makes seaweed-enhanced foods and cosmetics, trading on the health benefits. That could happen in future as part of a carbon credit system, but for now, no farmer is going to sink a crop that’s so bursting with value. Seaweed can grow up to 30cm a day, and can grow up to 60m high.” Some have even suggested cultivating it purely to sink it to the bottom of the ocean and lock in the carbon. Doumeizel says: “When we tell people to plant a tree, that’s fine, but a tree in the early years, it will grow 30cm a year. ![]() On top of that, its capacity to absorb carbon is even greater than that of the rainforest, per square metre. This is all the more important since wild seaweed is increasingly vulnerable to disruption of the ocean ecosystem caused by human activity. If we want to build ecosystems at sea instead of breaking them, seaweed is an excellent place to start. As well as being a resource in itself, seaweed supports fish and shellfish. The sustainability credentials are equally impressive. It’s also a big source of gelling agents used in dairy products, cosmetics and wound dressings, and it makes high-quality feed for livestock, fish and pets. It’s one of the only vegetables to contain vitamin B12, and the presence of seaweed in our ancestors’ diets is even believed to have contributed to the evolution of humans’ unique brains. Seaweed is packed with protein and nutrients vital to human health, including sodium, potassium, iodine and iron. ![]()
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |