As waters warm, ecosystems are disappearing overnight and marine economies are shifting. In the United States, seaweed cultivation has emerged as a solution as it provides a new income stream for fishers while pulling ten times more carbon from the atmosphere than terrestrial crops. Buoyed by this data, production of seaweed has tripled to over one million pounds by 2021. But there is scant oversight and understanding of this nascent industry.
The project will investigate American seaweed production, examining business models, harvest strategies and techniques. It will also look into their impact on ocean biodiversity, water quality and interplay with other ocean economies, communities and climate mitigation. Published on Civil Eats, an independent non-profit American news website, this series will investigate whether researchers, fishers and businesses can work together to create the blue economy or if the push for algae aquaculture is bringing industrialized farming - with all of its vices - to our open oceans.
