Digital library

A PDF on "Seaweed for Biofuels".

Ocean acidification is just one of the ways in which coastal communities are already feeling the effects of a changing global ocean. The potentially devastating ramifications have made it an urgent environmental and economic issue. A collaborative project led by the Puget Sound Restoration Fund in conjunction with NOAA and other partners, was just awarded $1.5 million by the Paul G. Allen Family Foundation to tackle the impacts of ocean acidification. The project looks to employ an unlikely hero: seaweed.

“There are not a lot of tools in the tool box that can fight ocean acidification or remove carbon dioxide (CO ) from the ocean” says Dr. Michael Rust, NOAA Aquaculture Science Coordinator and a collaborator on the project. “Seaweed farms might be one of our best bets.”

In the past, storm cast* seaweed was gathered on foot and without mechanization or any equipment. Since the beginning of the 17th century, the commercial use of seaweed, for commercial purposes, such as in the production of glass, encouraged local populations to regulate the activity by establishing rules. For example in France, the first national text, regulating seaweed harvesting, is an ordinance of 1681 which fixed the harvesting seasons of kelp and the number of authorized harvesting days. The use of seaweed for iodine production and later for alginate prompted improvements in harvesting techniques, in order to meet the increasing industrial demand industry for the raw material. Equipment to cut seaweed and boats to carry the algae ashore were first used early in the twentieth century. In 1970, harvesting of Laminaria digitata and Laminaria hyperborea was mechanized in France and Norway. In Europe, the main exploited algae species are Laminaria hyperborea, Laminaria digitata and Ascophyllum nodosum. These species, and especially kelp forests, are considered among the most ecologically dynamic and biologically diverse habitats on the planet. Other species are found on the European Atlantic coast but few of them currently have a commercial value. European scientists have mainly focused their research mainly on kelp which is considered a Keystone Species and whose presence affects the survival and abundance of many other species in the ecosystem. Nowadays, the preservation of kelp forests is placed at the center of environmental concerns and some countries have decided to protect these habitats by restricting the use of mechanical harvesting or by creating protected areas around them. Within this context, mechanical kelp harvesting and seaweed gathering by foot, generate much discussion between scientists, fishers, processing industries and environmental non-gouvernemental organisations. Kelp harvesting is blamed for harming the ecosystem because of the damage it can cause to substrates and to the habitats of certain fish. For some scientists the removal of the kelp species provokes negative effects on the invertebrate species that live in the holdfast, the stipe or fronds or under the fronds. In countries where Laminaria spp is harvested with mechanical equipment, scientists appear to be concerned with the equipment’s impact on the species and also on the surrounding ecosystem. This document presents the main characteristics of the seaweed industry in Europe, illustrated by examples from six European countries (Norway, France, Ireland, Spain, United Kingdom and Portugal). The aim is to have an overview of the European seaweed industry from the six baseline reports prepared by the partners of this project, from literature sources and information gathered during semi-structured interviews of different stakeholders. This document briefly presents the history of seaweed harvesting activity in Europe, the current production and the techniques used in the different countries. The different regulatory systems for the resource and coastal access are detailed followed by the management of the resource and finally the management of the human beings focusing on the social dimension of the activity. The diverse uses of the seaweed resource are outlined.

*material deposited on the shore after storms

Few studies have examined whether dietary factors might affect blood pressure in children. We purposed to investigate whether seaweed intake is associated with blood pressure level among Japanese preschool children. The design of the study was cross-sectional and it was conducted in autumn 2006. Subjects were healthy preschoolers aged 3-6 years in Aichi, Japan. Blood pressure and pulse were measured once by an automated sphygmomanometer, which uses oscillometric methods. Dietary data, including seaweed intake, were assessed using 3-day dietary records covering 2 consecutive weekdays and 1 weekend day. Of a total of 533 children, 459 (86.1 percent) agreed to be enrolled in our study. Finally, blood pressure measurement, complete dietary records and parent-reported height and weight were obtained for 223 boys and 194 girls. When we examined Spearman's correlation coefficients, seaweed intake was significantly negatively related to systolic blood pressure in girls (P = 0.008). In the one-way analysis of covariance for blood pressure and pulse after adjustments for age and BMI, the boys with the lowest, middle and highest tertiles of seaweed intake had diastolic blood pressure readings of 62.8, 59.3 and 59.6 mmHg, respectively (P = 0.11, trend P = 0.038). Girls with higher seaweed intake had significantly lower systolic blood pressure readings (102.4, 99.2 and 96.9 mmHg for girls with the lowest, middle and highest tertiles of seaweed intake, respectively; P = 0.037, trend P = 0.030). Our study showed that seaweed intake was negatively related to diastolic blood pressure in boys and to systolic blood pressure in girls. This suggests that seaweed might have beneficial effects on blood pressure among children.