The Plans for Giant Seaweed Farms in European Waters

upstart writes:

The plans for giant seaweed farms in European waters:

[...] The kelp had been grown on netting hanging below a 50m (164ft) long plastic tube that was floating on the water, held in place by buoys and two anchors on the seafloor.

The boat was positioned alongside, and an 8m tall, electric-powered cutting arm was moved into the water. It pulled up the tubing and sliced the long strands of seaweed from the 2m wide net. The seaweed was then automatically bagged-up, and dropped onto the deck.

[...] North Sea Farmers has almost 100 members including food and consumer goods giant, Unilever, and energy firm Shell. They hope to dramatically increase Europe's production of farmed seaweed over the next decade.

Currently global seaweed production is dominated by Asia, and particularly China. The total worldwide harvest in 2019 was 35.8 million tonnes, and of that amount 97% came from Asia, with more than half from Chinese waters.

By contrast, Europe produced just 287,033 tonnes that year, or 0.8% of the global total, with almost all of this being the harvesting of wild stocks.

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