The plans for giant seaweed farms in European waters

Image source, Nathalie Bertrams

A breakthrough was made off the Dutch coast this summer.

A converted fishing boat harvests seaweed out at sea.

The kelp had been grown on nets hanging from a plastic tube that was floating on the water.

An electric-powered cutting arm was moved into the water by the boat. The seaweed was cut from the 2m wide net. The seaweed was thrown onto the deck.

The world's first mechanical harvest of an offshore seaweed farm took place in the North Sea.

The successful harvest was an important first step towards the large-scale cultivation of commercial seaweed farms in the North Sea.

Image source, Tristen Taylor

Food and consumer goods giant, Unilever, is a member of the North Sea Farmers. They want to increase Europe's production of seaweed over the next 10 years.

China is the leading producer of seaweed in the world. More than half of the world's harvest was from Chinese waters in 2019.

Europe produced less than 1% of the global total, with almost all of this being the harvest of wild stocks.

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Most of us don't pay much attention to seaweed, but it is becoming more and more popular. It can be used as a form of bio-packaging in place of plastic, as a source of carbon dioxide absorption, and as an ingredient in cosmetics.

There are many different types of seaweed, but seven are more popular than others. There are also kelp and Pyropia. Nori is the dried seaweed sheets that wrap sushi.

European producers would like to start farming seaweed at a large scale.

The European Union should produce eight million tons of seaweed by the year 2030. AdrianVincent, an associate at the organisation, says the goal isambitious but doable.

The target is being supported by the European Commission. The EU is giving financial support of 273m to seaweed projects, which is expected to grow, according to a spokesman for the EU.

The Dutch government wants to set aside 400 sq km of its territorial waters in the North Sea for seaweed farming. Germany and the Republic of Ireland are leading the way. Scotland is leading the way despite the fact that the UK is no longer in the EU.

In addition to farming off the west coast of Ireland, The Seaweed Company is also farming in the waters of India and Morocco.

Wouters is the firm's founder. Our goal is scale and speed. A lot of seaweed is needed to be sustainable.

Image source, Tristen Taylor

The company's Irish processing facility is located above the picturesque Mulroy Bay and consists of a barn where seaweed is shredded and dried in a specially designed machine.

Mr Wouters doesn't want the company's technology to be seen by other people.

The company has to cultivate the seaweed in a laboratory and then put it in hatcheries. The lines are moved to the ocean once the seaweed starts to grow. Just a few months later, harvest begins.

He says that is the beauty of it. You don't need anything else. That's the reason so many people are interested in algae.

Ireland has good sites for farming seaweed, well informed industry players, and R&D capacity, according to the development executive at Ireland's Seafood Development Agency. She says there are no negative environmental impacts of seaweed farming.

Image source, Nathalie Bertrams

There are others who are not sure. Europe's seas and the oceans are protected by a coalition of more than 30 European environmental organizations.

He is worried that seaweed has become the new green hype, with potentially negative repercussions.

"Although large scale farms might be the industry's preferred way forward, we would definitely prefer smaller operations that are set in the sort of carrying capacity of the area that they're situated in."

There are concerns shared by a seaweed researcher at Wageningen University. He says that one of the most important questions is the impact of algae farming on the sea.

Farming seaweed at scale could result in a decline in the amount of plankton in the ocean, which in turn could lead to a decline in the number of fish.

Image source, Tristen Taylor

To fully determine the environmental impact, there will have to be larger test farms. To figure out what's going on we need to get to a large scale.

Eva Strothotte is a Biologist from the University of Applied Science in Germany who is working on a project to see if growing seaweed at offshore wind farms is viable.

Extreme weather can affect the test site, which is 100 km away from the coast. Her team had to set up an extensive array of sensors to monitor the seaweed's growth.

She says that seaweed producers in Scotland and Norway told her that it was impossible to grow seaweed in such a location.

Mr Wouters is worried that people who don't care about nature could be attracted to the industry.

The additional reporting was done by two people.