Seaweed cultivation is centuries old; now with new technologies...

Seaweed farming has been employed out in the Far East for many centuries, mainly for the production of sea vegetables for human consumption.

In recent decades the cultivation and use of seaweed has greatly expanded for various industrial applications. Even though the cultivation now yields about 14 million tonnes fresh weight annually, the old production methods are highly labour-intensive and not optimal for high volume bulk production of seaweed for energy purposes. But that is about to change.

Now species from all algal classes, brown, red and green are being cultivated. The large brown seaweed species are best suited for temperate and cold waters, whereas the red algae favor temperate to tropical waters. Green algae may be found in all waters, but have so far received negligible industrial interest.

Seaweed has not been subjected to any large scale, systematic improvement of the seed material, as compared to the excellent genetic development of the plant material used in modern terrestrial agriculture. But, rapid expansions of this technology are taking place as the seaweed-to-biofuel industry continues to gain traction.