Digital library

Limu is food, first and foremost, for fish, forming part of the foundation of a complex trophic web that spans from plankton to people. Limu is also food for people, probably most commonly brought to mind as an essential ingredient in our lunchtime poke bowls. Limu has extensive uses in all manner of foods, both Hawaiian and the many other ethnic types represented in our communities, and at events from baby parties to New Year celebrations. Pickled, salted, dried, raw, chopped, fried, boiled, no matter the form, limu for eating is a gif shared among friends and family for afirming ties.

Unfortunately, as urbanization and invasive species pressures increase, the limu which we eat so fondly is disappearing from our coastlines, and only by deliberate effort can we reverse that trend. The recipes on the following pages propose a different, more abundant relationship with limu, from a taste being lost to us, to an ingredient that is vibrantly present, both on our shorelines and in our bellies. In caring for our ocean places, we can all be a part of bringing these recipes to life and to our tables. From soups and salads to crispy snacks, explore and experiment with the tastes and textures of this traditional, yet novel, ingredient.

It’s rare to get good news from the sea. Water ­temperatures are rising, fish stocks are being depleted, and the fish we do eat are increasingly full of microplastics. But the oceans do hold one positive portent: Seaweed. It’s ­regenerative — it can grow about a foot a day — and carbon and nitrogen sequestering. Research suggests that, per acre, it can absorb more than 20 times as much carbon dioxide as a forest. In the U.S. and Canada, entrepreneurs are cultivating it and other macro algae for everything from kelp jerky to capsules containing shots of Glenlivet.

These companies have ambitious plans to grow in 2020, taking up more and more space on shelves and cleaning up more and more oceans. “We are eyes on the blue green economy,” says Chelsea Briganti, chief executive officer of utensil maker Loliware. “Seaweed represents an opportunity everywhere you look.”

Seaweed is essentially a potassie fertilizer, being specially rich in potash, but it also contains notable amounts of nitrogen and other elements of plant food, so that it might be terined a complete manner.

Fresh seaweed in undoubtedly a watery manure, containing from 65 to 90 percent of water and it is this fact, no doubt, (the cartage being a more or less expensive feature) that limits its use to those living more or less close to the shore. A part of this useless water may be got rid of by drying the seaweed on the beach for a few days before hauling to the farm. But not withstanding its large percentage of water, seaweed compares quite favourably, weight for weight, with barnyarnd manure, and it has this advantage that it brings to the farm no weed seeds nor insects nor fungus pests. 

Analyses of many Canadian seaweeds, more especially from the Atlantic seaboard, have been made in the Experimental Farm laboratory in Ottawa, and we append in tabular form certain of the data as illustrative of their general composition. 

The world seaweed industry is currently worth over US$7.4 billion, and the potential for increased seaweed use exists in many countries. The species diversity of seaweeds in Mauritius has been extremely well documented in comparison with many local islands and regions, largely due to the work of the Danish phycologist Dr F. Boergesen, published from 1940-1957. The recorded seaweed flora is currently 435 species (59 brown algae, 108 green algae and 268 red algae), which is more than have thus far been recorded in either Kenya or Tanzania, and many more than for any other similar islands in the Indian Ocean. The world seaweed industry is growing rapidly, particularly the aquaculture sector, and possibilities for sustainable seaweed utilisation in Mauritius are discussed. Most seaweed culture for human food occurs in temperate regions, and current successful industries in tropical environments, especially the culture of Eucheuma / Kappaphycus for carrageenans, are in developing countries with low average incomes, often involving the importation of non-indigenous species. Possibilities exist in the aquaculture of seaweeds including in integrated systems for bioremediation and/or as animal feed, as well as the potential for utilisation of abundant species as feed or fertiliser or in small value-added industries. As an example, the worldwide uses of Sargassum, perhaps the most abundant local genus, are discussed.