Seaweed Aquaculture

Seaweed aquaculture is the farming of marine macroalgae, red, brown, and green, for food, hydrocolloids (carrageenan, agar, alginate), feed, and emerging biostimulant and bioenergy uses. It needs no feed, fertilizer, or freshwater, drawing nutrients and dissolved carbon straight from seawater, which makes it a low-input crop and an inorganic extractive species in integrated multi-trophic aquaculture. Algae reached 37.8 million tonnes of the 223.2 million tonnes of global fisheries and aquaculture output in 2022, almost entirely farmed and concentrated in Asia. The joint ASC-MSC Seaweed Standard certifies environmentally and socially responsible production.