Prospects of seaweed research and utilization

Considerable work has been carried out on various aspects of Indian seaweeds. Owing to the utilisation of seaweeds in India for commercial production of agar and algin, the research on seaweeds has attained a new impetus. The assessment of available seaweed resource in India has been necessitated by more and more algin and agar industries coming up in the recent years. Survey of the seaweed resources on the coasts of Tamil Nadu, Goa, Maharashtra, Gujarat and Lakshadweep has been completed and the estimates of standing crop of these areas are available. The seaweed survey of Andhra Pradesh coast has been done recently. The resources survey on the rest of the Indian coastline and of Andaman-Nicobar Islands has to be undertaken to estimate the total standing crop and, in particular, the harvestable quantities of agarophytes and alginophytes.