Economically important seaweeds

Seaweed industry is a promising and flourishing industry in India. About 700 species of seaweeds have been reported from east and west coasts of India and from Lakshadweep and Andaman-Nicobar. They belong to four groups namely green, brown, red and blue-green algae. At present the seaweeds exploited from natural seaweed beds are used for agar and sodium alginate only. They can also be used for the production of other phytochemicals such as agarose, carrageenan and also for fertilizer, human food and animal feed. Though many species of seaweeds viz. Gelidiella acerosa, Gracilaria edulis, Gracilaria crassa, Gracilaria verrucosa, Sargassum spp. and Turbinaria spp. are harvested from the natural seaweed beds, the fishermen involved in their collection are not fully aware of these species and also other economically important seaweeds growing in the vicinity.