My Summer Seaweed Project
Just a brief disclaimer: This article was originally published in August 2023 on my LinkedIn. I’ve copied it over and made a few edits to drop it on my blog.
During my Internship at the Discovery Bay Marine Lab, I had the honour and opportunity to pursue a research project of my own, provided I kept up with my internship responsibilities. I chose to undertake a personal project, and chose one near and dear to my heart, Seaweed Cultivation.
Seaweed aquaculture and mariculture are topics I believe hold a lot of promise for Jamaica and the wider Caribbean. Jamaica already uses seaweeds, collectively termed “irish moss” in a number of traditional foods and beverages. To date however, the seaweeds used have all been wild harvested. This runs the risk of depleting natural stock.
Cultivating these seaweeds would give more control, help produce more consistent supply, and provide income to coastal communities. There are also several other value-added products which can be created from seaweeds. If it catches on, seaweed farming can also help remove excess nutrients from the water and help ease pressure on the local marine environment. Other territories, namely in East Africa and Asia do cultivate seaweeds, but the practice is not established in Jamaica.
I had been interested in the topic before, and took this opportunity to explore it. My supervisor and I identified the species of Irish Moss available as Euchuema cotonii. Over the course of my internship. I reviewed existing literature, built out a simple cultivation apparatus, seeded it with Irish Moss and tended it.
This tending usually took the form of cleaning. Every Wednesday, I would go shake the silt and sand off my seaweed. Then I would weigh it and record the data. Normally, if I was in the water, which was often, I’d check and clean the seaweed then too.
As a scientist, I believe in using data, quantifying results and making data driven decisions as much as possible. I recorded the growth, health and appearance of my seaweed crop. I analysed and visualised the results using R. I learned a lot being in the water tending to my seaweed. And as a reward, I got to be (as far as I’m aware) one of if not the first seaweed farmers of the 21st century in Jamaica.
From this you can easily see the crazy growth my crop managed to achieve. Eucheuma is cultivated around the world and known for its rapid growth, commnly said to triple in size in 6 weeks. My Eucheuma managed to match these figures. There’s a lot more detailed analysis that went into the report, but to put it simply:
The data and growth I recorded was more than encouraging, The possibility of cultivating seaweed in Jamaica and the wider Caribbean seems bright and hopeful. I personally intend to continue working at it, and establishing mariculture in Jamaica.