Seaweed: A Planetary Savior?

Green woodlands are hidden beneath the swaying ocean's surface. These creatures are the ocean's trees, gently swaying with the currents. Beautiful groves emerge from the ocean's depths, providing countless of species with protection from the ocean's immense gap. These creatures, however, provide a great deal more for us humans, including food, animal feed, storm protection, a means of subsistence, and perhaps even a way to remove decades' worth of fossil fuel emissions from the atmosphere. Seaweed is the source of these marvels. And now we'll learn why these plants—which aren't truly plants—might hold the key to unlocking a novel approach to farming that might be a crucial component of creating a future without carbon emissions.

Seaweed is a type of algae that grows in the ocean. It is an important part of the marine ecosystem and provides food and shelter for many marine creatures. Seaweed also helps to oxygenate the water and remove carbon dioxide and other pollutants from the ocean. Seaweed has been used by humans for centuries, both as food and as a source of medicine. In recent years, there has been a growing interest in using seaweed to help mitigate the effects of climate change. Seaweed can be used to create biofuels, which are a renewable and environmentally friendly alternative to fossil fuels. Seaweed can also be used to create fertilizers and animal feed. The use of seaweed to help combat climate change is still in its early stages, but it has great potential. If seaweed can be farmed sustainably, it could make a significant contribution to mitigating the effects of climate change.

The Principles of Growing Seaweed

The potential of seaweed farming has attracted the attention of businesspeople, fishermen, and thought leaders during the past ten years, often with a rabid zeal. To promote and fuel a seaweed farming boom in the United States, as well as more generally in the Americas and Europe, nonprofit organizations like Greenwave and for-profit organizations like Sea6 Energy have developed.

On the surface, what they propose appears to be quite promising: a successful seaweed farming system that provides for the lives of thousands of coastal people, restores ocean environments, and—for many—sequesters the most significant amount of carbon dioxide from the atmosphere.

This is what the emerging "Blue Carbon" business promises. What seaweed farms truly look like on the ground is important to know before we discuss if seaweed farming lives up to the hype. Fortunately, seaweed farming has been practised in places like China and Indonesia for about 1700 years, so we have a good idea of what this blue-carbon aquaculture looks like in practice. The majority of seaweed farming takes the form of coastal water plots with kelp or other appropriate seaweed species growing vertically downward from lines strung across the water's surface.

When fully developed, some seaweed species, which have a growth rate of up to two feet per day, are collected by boat, processed on land, and then transformed into a variety of products, ranging from dried seaweed flakes to animal feed to agar for thickening to biofuels and bioplastics. Seaweed was produced on a global scale of 35.7 million metric tonnes in 2019, with China and Indonesia accounting for 84.61% of overall output.

The Potential of Seaweed

Worldwide, seaweed farming is becoming more and more popular for a variety of factors. Some farmers cultivate them to meet the demand for edible seaweed in a variety of meals, such as sushi, while others cultivate them for animal feed, with the promise of improving the digestive health of cattle and, as a consequence, significantly lowering the methane emissions of meat. Others are motivated by seaweed's capacity to store significant amounts of carbon in the deep oceans and ocean sediments. We'll start exploring the advantages of seaweed groves here with carbon sequestration.

Scientists have uncovered the enormous ability of wild seaweed, which is an umbrella word for thousands of species of big algae, to remove carbon dioxide from the atmosphere and lock it back into the ground or deep ocean. According to one study, macroalgae worldwide sequester around 173 teragrams of carbon annually.

To put that into context, that is the same as sequestering the emissions produced by 8.65 million Americans each year. According to the authors, the upper end of this carbon sequestration estimate would be sufficient to surpass the combined rates of carbon capture by mangroves, seagrasses, and salt marshes. According to this study, which focuses on seaweed aquaculture, a square kilometre of seaweed farms could store 1,500 tons of CO2 annually, which is equivalent to reversing the carbon footprint of 300 people living in China or 75 people living in the United States. This is still only a very approximate estimate of carbon reduction, to be clear.

It is challenging to determine the precise amounts of carbon that wild and cultivated seaweed are absorbing because the corpus of study and documentation is still in its infancy. Nevertheless, seaweed also supports coastal ecosystems in a wide range of other ways.

Seaweed's Threats

Seaweed farming is a hot topic right now, as seen by the abundance of results from a basic Google search. These and similar articles had the flavour of American West promoters during the gold rush of the 19th century. That much hype gives me the creeps. Especially in light of recent scientific research that questioned the ability of seaweed to store carbon. It makes note of the fact that prior research has neglected to take into consideration the impact of the flood of organic matter and plankton that wash into groves of wild seaweed, increasing the food supply for marine life and eventually causing a considerable increase in carbon dioxide emissions. According to the study, this suggests that natural seaweed forests may be a net supplier of carbon.

Seaweed in the World

To accomplish this, seaweed farming must not be considered as just another novelty for a startup to automate, but rather as the key to a whole new kind of agriculture that will reconnect humanity with the soil and the sea. To create a better society, we must combine a remarkable intricate network of low-carbon, carbon-negative, and justice-oriented acts and ideas. After all, even if seaweed farms spread out to cover every shoreline in the globe and remove millions of tons of carbon from the sky, it still won't be enough.

Yes, it will undoubtedly help, but if we keep expanding our carbon footprint as our capitalist system is doing right now, seaweed farming's sequestration will only serve to cover an ever-widening gap.

What types of seaweed farms are developing along beaches throughout the world, though? What are the implications of these?

There are a few types of seaweed farms that are popping up across global coastlines. The first type is called an open-ocean farm, which is a large net or cage that is anchored to the seafloor and filled with seaweed. These farms are typically located in areas with strong currents so that the seaweed can be constantly bathed in fresh water and nutrients. The second type of seaweed farm is called a coastal farm, which is similar to an open-ocean farm but is located in shallower waters near the coast. These farms are often used to cultivate seaweed for use in cosmetics, food, and other products. The third type of seaweed farm is called a floating farm, which is a platform that floats on the water and is used to cultivate seaweed. These farms are often located in areas with little or no wave action so that the seaweed can grow undisturbed. The implications of seaweed farms are largely positive. Seaweed farms can help to mitigate climate change by sequestering carbon dioxide from the atmosphere. They can also help to improve water quality by filtering out nutrients and pollutants from the water. Additionally, seaweed farms can provide a source of income.

Where is all of that seaweed going, and how is the present seaweed boom being handled?

The current seaweed boom is being managed by the government and the seaweed industry. The government is regulating the industry and the industry is responsible for harvesting the seaweed. Seaweed is being used for a variety of purposes, including food, cosmetics, and animal feed.