Seaweed Aquaculture for Human Foods, Land-Based

Seaweed is a popular term used to collectively describe marine macroalgae. Among this large and diverse  assemblage of photosynthetic marine organisms are  a number of species with a varied array of uses; when  used for human consumption, they are more popularly  known as “sea-vegetables.” This collective of convenience includes the macroscopic, multicellular, red,  green, and brown algae. Seaweeds are often abundant and predominantly found in the near-shore  marine ecosystems in all the oceans of the world. As a result of their diverse intercellular compounds  including alginic acid, carrageenans, and agar, seaweeds  have very important industrial applications.

Being important primary producers in marine ecosystems, macroalgae are an integral component of near-shore environment and form a fundamental part of the basis of the photosynthetic food chains, playing a role similar to that of terrestrial plants. In these natural environments, seaweeds often perform a large number of ecosystem services (e.g., nurseries, nutrient cycling, and reduction of coastal erosion among others), which are neither fully costed nor often appreciated by the public or users of the marine environment. Humans have wild harvested (sometimes called “wild crafting”) and cultivated seaweeds for several centuries for animal and human consumption as well as other applications including valuable sources of phycocolloids and most recently, researched as feedstock for biofuels and carbon sequestration.