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With seaweed resources certainly not inferior to those of Japan or any other country, and probably much superior, the United States may be. said practically to ignore these valuable products except at a few points on its extensive coast. Statistics recently gathered give the paltry sum of $35,000 as the value of the marine algre prepared in the United States in one year. The business is practically restricted to Massachusetts, and is addressed to a single species, the "Irish moss" {('hondrux crin- pus). Considerable quantities of seaweeds are used as fertilizer on farms adjacent to the coast, but this is not a commercial enterprise. In Monterey and Santa Barbara counties, Cal., the Chinese fishermen dry certain algse for food, medicine, and fertilizer; in 1899 the quantity prepared was 35,K24 pounds, valued at $896. There is undoubtedly a good opportunity to develop the seaweed industry of every section of the United States coasts, and to establish a profitable trade in the various species and preparations of marine alga? along the new lines indicated in the foregoing paper on the Japanese seaweed industry, as well as by increasing the output of the species already sparingly utilized. To this end the following information and suggestions are offered in regard to some of the useful alga? of the United States.

Physiological responses to the hypo-osmotic and temperature stresses of an invasive species, Gracilaria vermiculophylla, were compared to those of the native Atlantic species, G. tikvahiae and G. cervicornis. For the hypoosmotic and lower lethal temperature experiment, a Connecticut (CT) strain of the invasive G. vermiculophylla and a Rhode Island (RI) strain of the native G. tikvahiae were cultivated at combinations of five different salinities (S ¼ 5, 15, 20, 25 and 30) and at five different temperatures (58C, 108C, 158C, 208C and 258C) for 3 weeks. For the upper lethal temperature experiment, two strains of G. vermiculophylla from CT and Portugal, two strains of G. tikvahiae from CT and RI and one Florida strain of G. cervicornis were cultivated at temperatures ranged from 228C to 398C in 28C or 38Cincrements for 14 days. Gracilaria vermiculophylla showed a wide range of temperature (58C–348C) and salinity (5 – 30 S) tolerance; whereas, G. tikvahiae cannot withstand harsher environmental stresses, such as prolonged exposures to salinities of 20 S and temperatures of 108C or 348C. Gracilaria vermiculophylla also grew faster and had higher survival rates than G. tikvahiae or G. cervicornis. These results suggest that the high tolerance and growth capacity of G.vermiculophylla may be responsible for the successful invasion of this alga into Long Island Sound and elsewhere along the east coast of North America.

Farmers are one of the most important components of any plant-based cultivation industry. The Philippines is one of the world’s major producers of red carrageenophyte algae and has tens of thousands of farmers involved in this industry. The production of algae such as Kappaphycus and Eucheuma increased significantly from the early 1970s, when the industry was established, before declining from the mid-2000s, due to a number of reasons, including disease and epiphyte outbreaks. The introduction of biosecurity measures has been one approach used to tackle this decline. Biosecurity-related knowledge, attitude and practices (KAP) of the seaweed farmers were assessed in the four highest seaweed producing regions in the Philippines: (1) Tawi-Tawi, (2) Palawan, (3) Zamboanga and (4) Bohol. Analyses showed that seaweed farmers from Tawi-Tawi had relatively higher KAP mean scores than the other three sites. Palawan and Bohol farmers, however, scored lower on their knowledge, higher on their attitude and highest on their practices compared with the other areas. Farmers from Zamboanga scored the lowest in both their attitude and practice mean scores, although their knowledge score was one of the highest. This is the first KAP assessment applied to the seaweed farming industry globally and the results, in which the farmers’ biosecurity-related knowledge and practices, which scored “Fair” (50–75%) across all the regions, and their attitudes, which scored predominantly “Good” (> 75%) suggest that there is potential to raise the score for biosecurity practices. This assessment highlights how biosecurity challenges are currently addressed by seaweed farmers in the Philippines and suggests how the KAP survey could be used as a tool by policymakers and scientists to address gaps in biosecurity management practices.