First offshore seaweed farm established in US tropical waters

The pilot farm was established by Loretta Roberson of the University of Chicago's Marine Biological Laboratory. Additional farms are being tested in Florida and Belize to assess scalability. "Puerto Rico has stable warm temperatures and ample sunlight year-round, as well as a wide range of exposure to prevailing winds and waves. These conditions make its southern coastline an ideal test bed for exploring how environmental conditions influence the biological, physiological, and chemical properties of cultivated macroalgae, as well as the impact of seaweed farms on the surrounding environment," Roberson said in a press release by MBL. The researchers are currently targeting commercially valuable red algal eucheumatoid species, which are primarily cultivated in East Africa and Asia. To date, eucheumatoids have been difficult to propagate in a cost-effective manner and production has been limited to easily accessible areas near shore. In addition to developing the best methods for ...