Here is a taste of programs to come. Recently, I spent a week on the west coast of Ireland, working with a number of scientists at the Irish Seaweed Center, part of the Martin Ryan Institute of the National University in Galway. One of these lads is Declan Hanniffy, who is searching for ways to harvest and cultivate different varieties of seaweed. In the video, you’ll see a clip of Declan gathering one of the kinds of seaweed he’s trying to cultivate.

{vidavee id=”3077″ w=”320″ }

Along the coastal areas of Ireland, seaweed has been gathered as a food, medicine and fertilizer for centuries, although for the past few decades, the practice has largely been discontinued. Now science and industry are taking a serious second look at seaweed as a source of animal and fish food, nutritional supplements, cosmetics and other uses. On the Aran Islands, just offshore from Galway, they make a pudding from carrageen moss – a kind of seaweed. And of course you can order seaweed salad in most Japanese restaurants. Whether seaweed will ever replace Irish stew is another matter.
More on seaweed science in future Pulse of the Planet Science Diary programs. You heard it here first.

Jim

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