The seaweeds are a diverse group of large marine macroalgae that are as important to the marine world as land plants are to our terrestrial world. Seaweeds were the precursors to land plants, and like land plants, they are critical primary producers, forming living links between the inorganic and the organic world, using photosynthesis to convert CO2 and nutrients into living biomass. These primary producers support and encourage other marine life through the production of oxygen, contribution to marine food webs, and by providing structure and habitat for refuge, breeding, and nursery grounds for fish and invertebrates. Seaweeds are an important resource for humans. Coastal peoples have always utilized seaweeds for food, minerals, medicine, fertilizer and fodder, and these sea-plants continue to provide for an everincreasing world population. A multi-billion dollar industry worldwide, seaweeds are consumed as nutritious sea vegetables, processed to extract valuable phycocolloids including agar, carrageenan, and alginate, and utilized in the agricultural industries for animal fodder or plant fertilizers.
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A significant challenge to the expansion of aquaculture production is controlling the outbreak of disease. Many farmers who experience the potential loss of stock from disease may choose to use chemotherapeutic agents to minimize their loss. It is generally understood that a disease in aquaculture is a combination of the health of the animal, the condition of the environment and the presence of a pathogen. From this concept there are a number of precautionary measures that farmers may practice to minimize disease outbreaks. The principles of Hazard Analysis Critical Control Point (HACCP) may be useful risk management tools to reduce pathogens, animal stress and the need for chemotherapeutic agents to control disease outbreaks on the farm.
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Report by the Institution of Mechanical Engineers found that due to poor practices in harvesting, storage and transportation, as wellvas market and consumer wastage, it is estimated that 30–50% (or 1.2–2 billion tonnes) of all food produced never reaches a human stomach.
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The Global Aquaculture Advocate is a four-color trade magazine focused on efficient and responsible aquaculture throughout the world. Written by and for professionals from all farmed seafood sectors, “The Global Magazine for Farmed Seafood” features a range of culture species in articles valued for both their technical content and informative perspectives.
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A Massachusetts company, Aquabounty Technologies, submitted an application to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) in 1995 to grow a genetically modified AquAdvantage® Atlantic salmon to be marketed as a food product. Aquabounty proposed to raise the broodstock fish on Prince Edward Island, ship their eggs to a contained inland recirculating production system in Panama to grow, harvest and process the fish, and then ship food grade product back to the United States for sale. The fish for this physically secure production system would be at least 99 percent triploid and all-female, as an additional reproductive-containment measure.
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"Perhaps the single most important lesson to be learned by direct experimentation is that the natural world, with all its elements and interactions, represents a complex system and therefore we cannot understand it and we cannot predict its behavior...
Managers interact with the system: they do something, watch for the response, and then do something else in an effort to get the result they want. There is an endless iterative interaction that acknowledges we don't know for sure what the system will do - we have to wait and see... Interacting with the natural world, we are denied certainty. And always will be." - Dr. Michael C. Crichton, 2008
As of 2013 almost all Kappaphycus and Eucheuma production has been from family farms and almost all production has served as raw material for the manufacture of carrageenan. Production of Kappaphycus has failed to reach levels of supply that adequately meet demand.
Although there will always be a need for major supplies of Kappaphycus and Eucheuma seaweed crops from small-holder operations there is also a growing need for farming of these crops to be undertaken in adequately capitalized integrates multi-trophic aquaculture (IMTA) systems and for processing to be undertaken using multi-stream, zero-effluent (MUZE) methods withing satoumi seascapes. This requires the development of written agronomy protocolas that can be developed and improved as experience, research and development lead beyond the empirical methds that prevail today.
During more than 40 years of working in seaweed farm development I have obserced (and often participated in) many "failed" farm projects. Of course failure is inevitable for reasons clearly stated in the quotation (above) from Michael Crichton. The keys to eventual success are to make mistakes at as small a scale as possible; to learn from those mistakes; and to keep trying until you succeed.
The present monograph summarizes some fundamental aspects of cot+spin farming that I have learned from seaweed farmers, colleagues, scientists and "the school of hard knocks". I hope that they can help others to efficiently work through failed projects to successful conclusions.
This monograph is the lead-in to sets of agronomy protocols that we have developed for particular projects. Please contact us if you have a project that needs such procedures.
Iain C. Neish, September, 2013, Makassar, Sulawesi Selatan, Indonesia
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In many parts of the world wastewater is not treated at all or only to a limited extend because there are no resources available to establish an efficient wastewater treatment plant and there are also insufficient resources for operation and maintenance costs. Constructed wetlands (CWs) are nature-based solutions to treat wastewater in a highly cost-efficient manner. They can be very efficient and effective when well designed and maintained. Latin America is rich in saline natural wetlands. These can be used as prototypes for CWs treating saline process or wastewater. Similar to natural saline wetlands CWs can deliver several ecosystem services. This review focuses on saline wetlands and will first present the protagonists, the salt-tolerant plant species belonging to the halo- phytes with respect to their physiological and biochemical functions in wetlands. In a second step, their reme- diating activities which are used in many ways by local people will be shown in an exemplary manner. A number of CWs established in different regions, including Latin America, will be introduced as case studies. Halophytes are already being used in a number of CWs as biofilter but their usage could be increased, for example to treat aquaculture effluents and the biomass has a high potential for valuable compounds (i.e. metabolites) or for bioenergy production. Lastly, aspects of sustainability and ecosystem services of saline natural and constructed wetlands are shown with an emphasis on charting a way forward for the future holistic implementation of saline systems in Latin America.
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Using brown seaweed kelp species Saccharina latissima and Laminaria digitata as feedstocks, a set of pilot-scale macroalgae processing batches were conducted (50–200 kg per batch) for the production of a range of food-grade liquid and solid fractions. The aim of this communication is to relay a number of lessons learnt during this period in combination with previous relevant observations and considerations for others who are intending to process macroalgae at scale. The novelty of this paper is thus to form a bridge between academic findings and practical knowhow. Considerations covers material diversity; abiotic and biotic impact and variation; and supply chain considerations. Observations covers milling and cutting; equipment requirements; and acids including their effects on heavy metals, especially lead. Recommendations summarises key points from this pilot-scale and previous work. These include: harvest seasonality, water quality and proximity to processing facilities; minimising contaminants within the macroalgae such as stones and shells; considering equipment composition and volume for all steps and processes including final product quality; acid choice and its effects on both the equipment used and the metals bioaccumulated within the macroalgae.
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By increasing the biological productivity of the vast ocean waters, which cover 3/4 of the Earth’s surface, photosynthesis could remove a lot of carbon dioxide from the atmosphere, helping to control global warming.
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Crop production systems have adopted cost-effective, sustainable and environmentally friendly agricultural practices to improve crop yields and the quality of food derived from plants. Approaches such as genetic selection and the creation of varieties displaying favorable traits such as disease and drought resistance have been used in the past and continue to be used. However, the use of biostimulants to promote plant growth has increasingly gained attention, and the market size for biostimulants is estimated to reach USD 4.14 billion by 2025. Plant biostimulants are products obtained from different inorganic or organic substances and microorganisms that can improve plant growth and productivity and abate the negative effects of abiotic stresses. They include materials such as protein hydrolysates, amino acids, humic substances, seaweed extracts and food or industrial waste-derived compounds. Fish processing waste products have potential applications as plant biostimulants. This review gives an overview of plant biostimulants with a focus on fish protein hydrolysates and legislation governing the use of plant biostimulants in agriculture.
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Marine Agronomy Group, CAFNRM, UH-Hilo
200 W. Kawili st., HI 96720, USA
Contact: Marine.Agronomy.Group@gmail.com
Funding for this web portal is provided by the World Wildlife Fund and the University of Hawaii-Hilo.