It is easier to pump oil from the bottom of the ocean than to farm seaweed, according to French oceans advisor Vincent Doumeizel.

Doumeizel, from Burgundy in France, is a senior advisor on the oceans to the United Nations (UN) Global Compact, a non-binding pact encouraging businesses to adopt sustainable and socially responsible policies.

He is also director of the food programme at the Lloyd’s Register Foundation independent charity and author of “The Seaweed Revolution”, published last year, with illustrations by his daughter Neige.

He says that difficulties in obtaining licenses for seaweed farming are international, and yet the development of seaweed farming is vital to address the needs of the globe’s growing population – and contribute to carbon capture as part of climate breakdown initiatives.

“Seaweed is the healthiest food you can get on the planet”

“I had been working in the food industry for 20 years and began to realise the planet could not feed its growing population, with one billion people starving and an additional 250,000 people to feed daily,” he says.

“For the next 50 years, we are going to have to produce as much food as we ever produced as human beings over the last 10,000 years,” he continues.

“How can we do that? It won’t be possible on land. We have to look to the oceans, which cover 70 per cent of the planet but only contribute to two per cent of our food and calorie supply,” he says.

“Seaweed is the healthiest food you can get on the planet,” Doumeizel said in an interview for Wavelengths.

His book, The Seaweed Revolution, translated by Charlotte Coombe, is published by Legend Press.

A Kerry company says it uses seaweed as an additive to help crops deal with climate change stresses.

Seaweed has long been known for its fertilising qualities on areas of the Atlantic coastline, and research is currently underway here to test its benefits in animal feed in reducing methane outputs

As The Irish Times reports, BioAtlantis in Tralee, Co Kerry has been working on development of natural compounds, extracted from renewable marine and terrestrial resources, to reduce stress in crops, animals and humans by strengthening natural defence systems.

The company is now marketing a product called SuperFifty Prime to help tackle what it calls “abiotic stress”.

“Some 70 per cent of crop losses are due to abiotic stress such as cold, drought, heat, waterlogging, salinity ….. while ten per cent are due to biotic stress such as plant diseases and pathogens,” BioAtlantis research manager Dr Kieran Guinan told the newspaper.

“Even on well-managed farms with full fertiliser and pesticide programmes, crops only reach around 75 per cent of their genetic potential,” he said.

Dr Sujeeth Neerakkal, who heads up plant research at BioAtlantis, says the product is a “highly innovative oxidative stress inhibitor that works by modulating gene expression and inducing a series of stress tolerance mechanisms”.

The company says the technology helps to “prime” crops and plans to tolerate and respond more efficiently to future stresses and potential damage.

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Seaweed farming is in its infancy in Ireland, however, a new strategy, BIM Irish Macro-Algal Cultivation Strategy to 2030, published by Bord Iascaigh Mhara (BIM) this week sets out a roadmap for the development of a sustainable and profitable Irish seaweed aquaculture sector.

Seaweed is increasingly being viewed as an important sustainable raw material, containing many active substances for use in different industries including, food production, pharma and agriculture. The commercial cultivation of seaweed has increased significantly in the last two decades. Annual global seaweed output is now in excess of 35 million wet tonnes, 97% of which is cultivated biomass. Most of the farmed seaweed is from Asia (China, Indonesia, Republic of Korea & Philippines).

Red seaweed, Dulce, in the hatchery at Pure Ocean Algae, Allihies, West Cork

In referring to the ambitions of the new strategy, Caroline Bocquel, CEO BIM, said: “To ensure a sustainable and economically profitable aquaculture industry in Ireland, the volume of farmed seaweed must increase. This new strategy sets out a roadmap for the seaweed sector to realise its potential. Ireland’s long coastline and clean, cold waters present the ideal conditions to cultivate seaweed, and to sustainably develop this crop that is highly resource efficient, requiring minimal resource input.”

There are currently 25 licenced seaweed farms in Ireland, located along the North West, West and South West coastline Farmed seaweeds are grown on ropes and nets, and are exceptionally fast growing plants.

Michael O’Neill, seaweed farmer, in Allihies, West Cork welcomed the new strategy and spoke of the need to unlock the potential of the seaweed sector in Ireland to meet the growing demand for sustainably produced food.

Pure Ocean Algae, Hatchery, located in rural coastal location of Allihies, West Cork

“The seaweed industry has the highest potential for growth in the Irish aquaculture sector. Ireland has always been a supplier of high-quality seaweeds for various uses, but there have been limitations, to date, on the scalability of the industry.

The advances in cultivation technology and processing, leaves Ireland extremely well positioned to become a major player in the international seaweed industry, with the demand for seaweed biomass and seaweed-based products outstripping supply for the foreseeable future.

Pure Ocean Algae welcomes the new strategy and looks forward to playing its part in the implementation of the findings of this review.”

Seaweed’s role in saving the world from climate change and starvation is the title of a talk today (Friday) in Bantry, Co Cork, as part of National Biodiversity Week.

The talk by Dr Julie Maguire is one of a number of marine events in the National Biodiversity Week programme published yesterday.

Dr Maguire is research director of the Bantry Marine Research Station, and has managed the station since 2005.

She was awarded the Copernicus Masters Award from the European Space Agency for “Best service for European citizens”.

Her talk takes place at 4 pm today, Friday, May 19th, in The StreamSchool’, Coomhola, Bantry, Co. Cork P75 TY47

It is being hosted by StreamScapes in cooperation with Seabed Sanctuary Collective.

As numbers attending are restricted, advance booking is advised by contacting tel 027 50453 or emailing [email protected]

Liam McWatt from Dingle Oceanworld hosts a rock pooling adventure on Ventry Beach, Dingle, Co Kerry, on Saturday at 11am, also as part of the programme.

Participants should bring nets and buckets and meet at Ventry Beach car park at 10 am.

Children should be accompanied by an adult at this event.

More details of the National Biodiversity Week programme are here

As part of Seaweed Around the Clock 2022 the Marine Institute, in collaboration with Bord Iascaigh Mhara, Irish Seaweed Consultancy and Nua na Mara, will showcase the Irish seaweed sector: 'Ireland's Seaweed Success – Expertise, Innovation and Opportunity' on Thursday 2nd June 2022 at 3 pm (GMT).

This is the second edition of the largest global seaweed event with the aim of uniting people and businesses to raise awareness and showcase innovations for the growing industry. Seaweed Around the Clock will include stakeholders from across the globe and includes live debates, keynotes and more.

Anyone interested in exploring the world of seaweed is encouraged to register for the event here. Registration provides free access to both live sessions and exhibits on an online platform.

A virtual booth (sponsored by the Marine Institute, Bord Iascaigh Mhara and the Department of Agriculture Fisheries and the Marine) has been set up to highlight Irish seaweed entrepreneurs and researchers. Drop in and get to know some of the innovative companies and researchers that are working in Ireland and across the globe.

As Cop26 continues to debate methane – with the US And EU having pledged to reduce agricultural methane outputs from ruminant livestock by upwards of 30% by 2030 – scientists at the Institute for Global Food Security (IGFS) at Queen’s University Belfast are to feed seaweed to farm animals in a bid to slash methane by at least 30%.

Seaweed has long been hailed a ‘superfood’ for humans but adding it to animal feed to reduce methane gas released into the atmosphere by ruminants' burping and flatulence is a relatively new idea. Early laboratory research at IGFS has shown promising results using native Irish and UK seaweeds.

Previous research in Australia and the USA generated headline results – up to 80% reductions in methane emissions from cattle given supplements from a red seaweed variety. These red seaweeds grow abundantly in warmer climates; however, they also contain high levels of bromoform – known to be damaging to the ozone layer. Seaweed indigenous to the UK and Ireland tends to be brown or green and does not contain bromoform.

UK and Irish seaweeds are also rich in active compounds called phlorotannins, found in red wine and berries, which are anti-bacterial and improve immunity so could have additional health benefits for animals.

Harvesting seaweed research samples at Queen’s University Marine Lab in Portaferry, Co. Down

Now the IGFS science is moving into the field, with trials on UK farms about to begin, using seaweed sourced from the Irish and North Seas as a feed supplement for cattle.

One 3-year project is in partnership with the UK supermarket Morrisons and its network of British beef farmers who will facilitate farm trials. The project also includes the Agrifood and Biosciences Institute (AFBI), in Northern Ireland, as a partner.

A second project sees IGFS and AFBI join a €2million, international project - led by Irish agency An Teagasc - to monitor the effects of seaweed in the diet of pasture-based livestock. Seaweed will be added to grass-based silage on farm trials involving dairy cows in NI from early 2022.

As well as assessing methane emissions of the beef and dairy cattle, these projects will assess the nutritional value of a variety of homegrown seaweeds, their effects on animal productivity and meat quality.

IGFS lead Sharon Huws, Professor of Animal Science and Microbiology within the School of Biological Sciences, said she expected the combined research to evidence a reduction in GHG emissions of at least 30%.

She said: “The science is there. It’s simply a matter of providing the necessary data and then implementing it. Using seaweed is a natural, sustainable way of reducing emissions and has great potential to be scaled up. There is no reason why we can’t be farming seaweed – this would also protect the biodiversity of our shorelines.

“If UK farmers are to meet a zero-carbon model, we really need to start putting this kind of research into practice. I hope IGFS and AFBI research can soon provide the necessary data and reassurance for governments to take forward.”

Agriculture accounts for around 10% of all UK GHG emissions. Within this, beef farming is the most carbon-intensive, with methane, which cows produce as they digest, a major component. At a NI level, methane accounts for almost a quarter of GHG emissions, with 80% of that from agriculture.

The above projects form part of the Queen's-AFBI Alliance – a strategic partnership between Queen’s University and AFBI to maximise science and innovation capacity in NI to meet global challenges, such as carbon-neutral farming.

Morrisons supermarket plans to be completely supplied by net-zero-carbon British farms by 2030. Sophie Throup, Head of Agriculture at Morrisons said: “As British farming's biggest customer, we’re very mindful of our role in supporting and inspiring the farmers we work with to help them achieve goals in sustainable farming.

“By supporting this research at Queen’s and AFBI, we are trialling this natural approach to reducing environmental emissions and improving the quality of beef products.”

Marine biotech company Brandon Bioscience has won an Enterprise Ireland award for a new product that draws extracts from common brown seaweed.

The extract can be used as a crop "bio-stimulant" in fertiliser, which has the potential to reduce chemical nitrogen input on farms by up to 20 per cent.

Brandon Bioscience is working with traditional fertiliser manufacturer Target Fertilisers on the product, which won this year's overall Enterprise Ireland Innovation Arena Award.

The awards for the most innovative Irish agritech and agri-engineering products were announced today by Minister of State for Business, Employment and Retail, Damien English.

The best overall start-up award has been given to Jennifer and Kevin Corley, founders of EquiTrace which is an app that works with a horse’s microchip to identify, locate and track individual animals as they move while also recording animal temperature and health records.

The awards are normally given at the National Ploughing Championships. This year’s competition was moved online due to the cancellation of the event as a result of the pandemic.

More than 50 entries were received for this year’s contest, with 28 selected for virtual pitching, according to Enterprise Ireland.

Hand-harvesting seaweed on the Irish Atlantic coast experienced an unexpected boost due to Covid-19, according to Canadian-owned seaweed company Arramara Teo.

Construction workers with coastal connections opted to supplement incomes on the shoreline, and there are now large quantities in storage, Arramara’s Europe director Jim Keogh has said.

The Connemara-based company plans to make a “significant” investment in upgrading its existing seaweed processing plant in Cill Chiaráín, Co Galway, Mr Keogh confirmed on Monday. 

This will allow it to handle other types of seaweed for the health food and other markets, he said.

The investment to a “food grade” plant, believed to be under 0.5 million euro, will be funded through Arramara’s own resources. 

Among the main species targeted will be Fucus vesiculosus or bladderwrack, a brown seaweed rich in iodine.

It grows alongside Ascophyllum nodosum or “feamainn bhuí” which harvesters currently supply for use in fertiliser and animal feed.

“Fucus vesiculosus grows back quicker than the Ascophyllum, which will give harvesters more options,” Mr Keogh said. 

The company would also look at the potential of other inter-tidal species, such as dulse and carrageen, he said. 

The company will be able to avail of international markets through Acadian’s extensive global network, Mr Keogh said.

Currently, harvesters are paid €55 a tonne for Ascophyllum nodosum.

Some 50 per cent of the Cill Chiaráin plant’s stock is sold on the domestic market, and 50 per cent goes for export, Mr Keogh said.

He confirmed there were large quantities still in storage due to this year’s bumper harvest, but this was a “normal” part of the cycle, he said.

The company, which employs 24 people directly, is currently on a three-day working week.

Arramara Teo, formerly State-owned, was founded in 1947 and was purchased by Canadian multinational Acadian Seaplants six years ago.

The planned upgrade at the Cill Chiaráin plant will take about four weeks and will begin February, Mr Keogh said.

“ This investment is one of the founding pieces in the planned operational expansion of Arramara Teo, which will have far-reaching economic benefits within the local community and west coast of Ireland,” he said.

Three Irish consortiums have been awarded Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) contracts by the Marine Institute and Enterprise Ireland to develop Ireland’s intertidal seaweed resource.

The Phase 1 ‘Challenge’ contracts will run over four months, and will involve scientific observations by satellite, drone and light aircraft to produce accurate estimates of seaweed distribution and biomass, and improve our understanding of Ireland’s coastal marine habitat and ecosystems.

Successful projects may then proceed to scaled-up demonstrations and wider regional resource mapping during 2021.

The move is in response to increasing demand at home and abroad for seaweed and seaweed-based products — from fertilisers and animal feed to cosmetics, medicines and food.

It is estimated that 32 countries actively harvest over 800,000 tonnes from wild stocks and natural beds annually. And in Ireland, the Marine Institute says commercial interest in the sector is growing.

Mick Gillooly, director of oceans, climate and information services at the Marine Institute, says: “With increasing awareness of the economic value of seaweed, mapping the extent of this resource is vital for sustainable management decisions.

“This is an exciting collaboration between industry, small business and research institutions, which will utilise the latest innovations and the expertise of Ireland’s national seabed mapping programme INFOMAR.”

Among the three consortiums in receipt of these contracts are four SMEs, two research groups and two industry partners.

Supported by IT Carlow, Aerial Agri Tech bring their drone mapping expertise from the terrestrial to the marine domain with industry partner Bláth na Mara (Aran Islands Seaweed).

Fathom, a business technology consulting company based in Dublin, has partnered with Earth and Ocean Sciences at NUI Galway and Arramara Teo to focus on the potential for satellite data augmented by ‘groundtruthing’ (direct observations on the ground).

Meanwhile, Techworks Marine, a provider of oceanographic solutions to monitor the marine environment, has teamed up with GeoAerospace — a geospatial information technology company with expertise in space-borne and airborne remote sensing, cloud platforms and machine learning — and with NUI Galway’s School of Botany and Plant Science.

Phase one will see the three groups develop their projects and feasibility plans. Pending evaluation in early 2021, either one or two consortiums will receive further funding to move into Phase 2A — eight months to demonstrate proof of scalability and lay out a path to commercialisation.

Successful partnerships will have the potential to develop a niche coastal habitat mapping service that could be used to tackle marine pollution, harmful algal blooms or invasive species.

The spotlight is on seaweed and other renewable biological resources this week for Bioeconomy Ireland Week 2020 — which begins today, Monday 19 October.

A series of online events from leading stakeholders within the Irish Bioeconomy Network will showcase resources sourced sustainably from land and sea which, along with their byproducts, are later converted into “value-added bio-based products” such as proteins, feeds, fertilisers, plastics and energy.

Marine-related highlights of the week include the launch of Bord Iascaigh Mhara’s (BIM) report on ‘Scoping a Seaweed Bio-refinery Concept for Ireland’ this Thursday 22 October, and Friday’s online workshop on ‘Sustainable Seaweed’ organised by Údarás na Gaeltachta.

Industry representatives say the bioeconomy has the potential to create new sustainable opportunities for farmers, and lead to the creation of high-quality green jobs in rural and coastal areas.

Noting the “unprecedented and difficult position” resulting from the coronavirus pandemic, Minister of State Martin Heydon says: “We have the opportunity to reformulate our economy and the bioeconomy provides opportunities to rebuild and restructure in a green sustainable and circular way for our primary producers, as well as the agri-food, marine, forestry, waste management, energy, construction, pharmaceutical and biotechnology sectors. We must build back better.”

Minister Heydon also joined Environment Minister Eamom Ryan in announcing the launch of the National Bioeconomy Forum.

This forum intends to provide a voice for the bioeconomy industry, relevant state bodies and community groups, as well as “promote, support and advocate for the sustainable development of the bioeconomy in Ireland”.

For full list of events taking place this week, registration for access and for more information of Bioeconomy Ireland, visit the website at www.irishbioeconomy.ie