Seaweed is the foundation of the ocean and marine food chain, critical to ocean habitats and often serving as nursery areas for many aquatic species around the globe.
Over the past few decades the use of seaweed by humans has also drastically increased. 82 percent of farmed seaweed being used for human consumption. 12.2 percent of seaweed farmed is used in cosmetics, whilst 2.9 percent is used for animal feed, and the final 2.6 percent in agriculture.
Due to this intense increase in demand for seaweed, most natural seaweed growing in the oceans, free from human activity, has now been replaced by monitored farms. The past sixty years have seen a shift, wherein 96 percent of seaweed we now use is gathered from farming operations, whilst only four percent comes from wild harvests.
Seaweed concentration is spread throughout 33 countries, China being its main producer (harvesting 54% of all seaweed), alongside Canada and North America. The seaweed industry is certainly an immense one, bringing in US $5.65 billion and over 25 million tonnes of seaweed annually. The main importers of seaweed include Brazil, Russia and India, while the primary exporters include Finland, Sweden and Russia.
With such a vast quantity of seaweed being processed and harvested per year, seaweed farmers are feeling the pressure to produce even more of the popular algae. But such a rapid turnover means that the seaweed we harvest isn’t always of the best quality, nor produced in the correct manner.
Saving the Seaweed
To safeguard seaweed, the Marine Stewardship Council (MSC) and the Aquaculture Stewardship Council (ASC) are here. These two non-profit organisations have begun a certification scheme, named The Seaweed Standard, to transform the seaweed market into a sustainable one. These two companies collaborated to ensure the protection of marine life and the responsible production of seaweed. The MSC specifically specialises in marine life, with the aim to keep the oceans teeming and populated. The ASC’s primary goal is to minimise the negative impacts aquaculture has on the environment. Both also aim to contribute to the health of the world’s aquatic ecosystems by promoting, recognising and rewarding environmentally sustainable and socially responsible use of seaweed resources through certification. Focussing on all seaweeds, marine and freshwater algae, alongside macroalgae and microalgae, the standard applies globally to all locations and all scales of operations.
Read the full article in the International Aquafeed magazine online, HERE.
The Aquaculturists
This blog is maintained by The Aquaculturists staff and is supported by the
magazine International Aquafeed which is published by Perendale Publishers Ltd
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