Algae foods are a global market, and now the European Union is also looking to establish large-scale seaweed farms. At present, the global production of seaweed is mainly dominated by China.
A breakthrough event is underway this summer at an experimental site off the coast of the Netherlands. 12 kilometres off the coast, a vessel converted from a fishing boat is mechanized to harvest farmed seaweed.
Kelp grows on a net hanging from a 50-meter-long plastic pipe suspended underwater with buoys suspended, which is fixed to the bottom of the sea by two anchors.
The boat travels along plastic tubes, and the ship's electric arms carry scissor heads go deep underwater. The electric arm pulls out the plastic tube and cuts the growing seaweed along the two-meter-wide net. The harvested seaweed is automatically bagged and placed under deck.
The test was carried out by a consortium called "North Sea Aquaculture", which claims to be the first enterprise in the world to carry out mechanical harvesting on coastal seaweed farms.
Eef Brouwers, the farm's manager in charge of culture and technology, said the successful harvest was an "important first step" towards a large-scale commercial harvest of seaweed in the North Sea.
Yves Brauers, the farm's manager in charge of culture and technology, points to seaweed farms in the sea, and says the North Sea aquaculture consortium is conducting large-scale farming trials to prepare for commercial production
North Sea Farming has almost a hundred members, including Unilever, a major food and consumer goods company, and Shell. They hope to significantly increase seaweed farming in Europe over the next 10 years.
At present, global seaweed production is mainly dominated by Asia, especially China. Worldwide seaweed production in 2019 was 35.8 million tonnes, of which 97% came from Asia, with China accounting for half of it.
That compares to Europe's seaweed production that year at just 287,033 tonnes, or 0.8 percent of global production. The seaweed in Europe is mainly derived from wild seaweed.
Most people don't pay much attention to seaweed, but seaweed is an increasingly popular crop. Human food and additives, animal feed, land fertilizers, cosmetics, biological packaging materials that replace plastics, bioenergy, and the process of absorbing carbon dioxide are all used in seaweed.
There are thousands of different species of seaweed in the world, but people mainly harvest 7 of them. This includes kelp and nori, the latter of which is used in Japanese cuisine to roll sushi with dried seaweed leaves.
There are reports that the seaweed industry is worth $40 billion in 2020. The study also predicts that the seaweed industry could reach $95 billion by 2027.
Looking at these statistics, it is not difficult to understand the reasons why European manufacturers hope to start expanding the scale of seaweed farming production.
"European Seaweed" is another trading group for seaweed producers who want the EU to increase seaweed production to 8 million tons by 2030. Adrian Vincent, a partner at the group, said the goal was "ambitious but perfectly achievable".
Another factor that has been very helpful is that this goal is supported by the European Commission. A spokesman in Brussels said the European Union had allocated 273 million euros to seaweed projects and that "this number could increase".
At the same time, the Dutch government has proposed allocating 400 square kilometers of territorial waters in the North Sea for large-scale seaweed cultivation. At present, Germany and Ireland are also at the forefront of the development of seaweed cultivation. After Brexit, it is no longer part of the European Union, and in the United Kingdom, Scotland is also at the forefront of the development of seaweed farming.
The Dutch Seaweed Company now grows kelp along the coast of western Ireland, off the coast of Morocco and india, and along the coast of its own country. Joost Wouters, the company's founder, said, "Scale and speed is our mission. In order to be financially, socially and ecologically sustainable, large-scale cultivation of seaweed is required. "
Jost Waters is tasting seaweed produced at his company's processing facility in Ireland
The company's processing facility in Ireland is located in the scenic Mulroy Bay, and the processing facilities include a warehouse for harvesting seaweed, where they use their own specially designed machines to chop up the seaweed and dry it.
To farm seaweed, the company first grows spores in a laboratory and then places them on ropes in hatching incubators. Once the seaweed begins to grow, the ropes are placed in the sea. This allows the seaweed to be harvested in a few months.
He said, "This is what makes it remarkable. No land, fresh water or fertilizer is required. That's why so many people are now interested in the opportunities that algae bring."
Lucy Watson, head of development at the Irish Fisheries Development Authority, said Ireland "has a great place to grow seaweed, a knowledgeable industry and research and development capabilities."
She added, "Seaweed farming has no negative environmental impact on its own."
Workers at Seaweed's processing plant in Ireland cut kelp from the net
However, there are others who disagree with this view, such as Marc-Philippe Buckhout of the Oceans in Danger agency. The group is a coalition of 30 EU environmental groups dedicated to protecting Europe's oceans and beyond.
He worries that seaweed has become a new flashy green project that could have negative effects, such as its exclusion of other marine organics.
"Large-scale farming may be the approach that the industry might take, but we favor smaller-scale farming so that it can fit into the payload of the sea in which it is located," he said.
Reinier Nauta, a seaweed research expert at Wageningen University in the Netherlands, agrees. "One of the most important issues is the impact of algal reproduction on the balance of marine nutrients," he explains.
He points out that large-scale algae farming could lead to a decrease in phytoplankton, which are food for fish, which in turn are food for seals and porpoises.
Ireland's coastline is 3,000 kilometres long, and many sea surfaces can be used as commercial seaweed farms
Waters of North Sea Aquaculture acknowledges that larger aquaculture trials are needed to clarify the environmental impact. "We need to have large-scale farming before we can figure out the actual situation," he said.
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On Germany's Baltic Coast, Eva Strothotte, a biologist majoring in applied science at The University of Kiel in Germany, is managing an EU-funded project to examine whether it is technically and economically feasible to plant kelp on coastal wind farms.
The test site is located 100 kilometers off the coast, which is affected by extreme weather. Her team had to install strong anchors to secure the ropes, and many sensors to monitor the growth of seaweed.
"We talk to seaweed producers in Scotland and Norway and they say' you must be crazy to grow seaweed in this location, but if it can be done here, it can be done anywhere,' she said.
Back in Ireland's Malroy Bay, Waters admitted that he feared the rapid development of the industry might "attract people who don't care about protecting nature and don't want to live in harmony with nature."