THE SEAWEED PROJECT

Hi. My, name is Peter and I'm, Jakob, we. Are both students, passionate, about environmental. Science, and natural resources. During. Our studies, we got excited, about seaweed, seaweed. Is a white term that, we use to describe a variety of plants, that grow, in water, while, and place crops, need soil fresh, water and large, inputs. Of fertilizers, seaweeds. Don't need any of this. Seaweed. Farms, take, up nutrients, thereby, improving, the water quality they, also create, important. Habitats, for, marine fauna, and flora once. Harvested, seaweeds. Can be processed for food or for other purposes, all, in all cultivating. Seaweed, sounds, just like the ideal, solution, for a lot of current, global, environmental. Dilemmas, that is, all theory, but. Now we want to see how the reality, of seaweed, farming actually, looks like we, want to get our hands, on some seaweed and get a realistic, understanding of. Seaweed. Cultivation. So. We will go on a journey and meet seaweed, experts, all around, the world. First. We, traveled to the city of truant I'm in Norway here. In the crystal-clear, Fiats, of the Atlantic, Ocean the. Young Norwegian company. Seaweed, energy solutions, is, growing, seaweed, with their own proper. Cultivation, system. Seaweed. Energy solutions, belongs. To the European, pioneers, of seaweed farming, and we. Are excited to meet kaya a manager. Of seaweed, energy solutions. Solutions. Conservation. Manager most. Companies, in Europe today are producing, for food. Fuel, energy solutions, started, with a mission of producing, seaweed, for energy. And. We hope one day that we've mined get, back to that but. At the moment we will see, that the way to earn, money with seaweed. With. The technology, and the cost lives that we have today that is to produce for food markets, and the high valuables, yeah. I think, at the moment we really we, see that there is a huge interest in food it's a really growing trend in Europe due to eg we. Do. Believe that that market, will, we. Haven't, reached to the top of that market that will still develop lost animal that we will see growth there and. In cosmetics, but, I think eventually in, order to make a profitable. Industry it, will need also to develop into more industrial, purposes. The, lifecycle of seaweed, is a little complex, and contains several stages. First. Mature. Plants, for male and female spores. Once. They are released to the water they. Further develop, into male and female, gamete ophites, they, can already be seen under, the microscope. The. Gamut of fights in this stage are already, able to attach to natural surfaces, or in, this case to the prepared, seedlings. After. A female Yamato files fertilized. They. Soon developed, into sporophytes. That, you can already see with their eyes. Seaweed. Cultivators. Control, this process indoors, so. These are the steep lines ready. To. Pray. Yeah what, happened to pray yeah. It's. In the backyard so we're going to. The employee that made that the letter. Of furrow for. A couple of months let me you know receive power we have a seaport material then. That's. The nation of today, it's. Gonna be nice and wet, we don't know if it's gonna be that nice we hope so but it's very sorry it's, a storm all right spoiler. After. Four, to six weeks in the hatchery we. Can bring them out here and then we store them in these tanks here. Until. We are able to have any conditions, to water them in the sea so here it's not about growing, them or something it's just like a sorry, it's just storage until, they sell them and. Then sometimes we can take them straight to the sea but when the butter is like this it's really nice to have an, opportunity. To store them here yeah, okay. And, I think that everyone. That's now our produces, a within a certain scale I think we can have quite good, ideas. Of what kind of technology believe so. But it's just like you cannot invest, a lot of money in, they, can really advise. To do before, you have a market yes so, we really need to. At. The moment the market is growing so I think it's it is quite promising, the future, I think.

It's Becoming, more people, are becoming more aware of saving that's, it actually food. And. Also with this whole like. People. Becoming more have. Been paying more attention to, that, it's not, good for either you, or the environment in so much meat so you see more and more people going vegetarian. Table. So have more meals that are just being a vegetarian you know being it's completely. It's. Also I like a little bit of a green way over, Europe I think people, are more aware of where the food comes. And, see if it fits very well in people's picture. Or, people's. People's it fits very well to this to this idea. From. Norway we, continued, our journey to the Faroe Islands, a tiny. Island state in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean, the. Faroe Islands, provide perfect, environmental, conditions for seaweed cultivation. We. Just, met. Some, real. Z-weed. Enthusiasts. On the, far islands. Here. We, first met with Olaf one and his team from Ocean rainforest. Oliver. Is an expert, of seaweed, cultivation in, Europe and a. True businessman. From. Him we, hope to learn about the opportunities of, seaweed, cultivation in, Europe. Oshin. Rainforest. Uses. A different method of seaplane preparations. Than, most other companies, they. Buy gamma, to fight cultures, and mix, them with sea water and another, ingredient this. Way they, create, a glue, that, can be massaged, into, the, seed lines and makes, the gamete ophites stick, to the lines directly. Therefore. No, stage, of indoor, growth in, tanks, is needed. Different. Species of seaweed. Pizza. What is your new, assignment, here. And. Just given the like a massage. Attached. Even. Me. And. Then. You move to the next one. Today. We, are going out to. Both cultivation. Sites of ocean, rainforest, it's. Gonna be amazing we will exploit, receive lines that, we've prepared. In. The. Last place we will put them there. They. Did the whole idea about ocean, area first we started it was to come. Up with a design that, could be deployed off ship seaweed has a great potential, to. Do a lot of, replacement. Of. Fossil. Based products, in, the world but, if we really go have an impact we need to do. It at a large scale and. If we want to produce seaweed, at a large scale, we cannot only base, for cultivation systems to be, ashore. Or infuse with. Because, the competition about the shoreline. And the near shore, ocean. Areas is. Despite, severe. For. Us living here tomorrow either to support that, we. Use, the ocean because that's the or main resources, that we use is sustainable. And. That's why we, started. To test our systems, in this area. This. Is the. Area, that we categorize, all of us offshore and open ocean. So. The main conditions, for growth here is, it's. Quite good. Because. We have the salinity. In. The ocean that's very stable you have to take the temperature the staple. And. And. We have light that's. Plentiful, from, now on from, from. March April and on till September, and. That's basically what's needed for for having a good, location. For Shiva. Calculated. In November. So, one, pretty, unique thing that ocean. Rainforest does here is that they leave their seat lines in. The water for three years and they, just cut. From. The seaweed. From, the, bottom. Part that. Way we, can see, a whole ecosystem, developing. Something that we just saw when we pulled. Out the oldest sea lines out of the water those. Were not so much for for the purpose of harvesting, anymore they, were there for a long time but it was beautiful to see how there was a whole ecosystem, grown. On those lines like you could see crabs, and all kinds, of other, little creatures, and different varieties of seaweed. And. Yeah. They really they really stand, for their name like if that was a little ocean rainforest. We saw there that was really that, was really amazing. It's. Nice to see that we can grow. Food and on the same time. Create. Something, for the environment and create the new ecosystem. We, can make a change to the world in terms of producing, a sustainable. Biomass and basically. Make the better the world a better place. With. Less pollution and the combating climate change and so on and.

At The same time, Megan, industry. Agnes. Is not only cultivating. And harvesting seaweed. For food but. It's also into other products, that can be made out of seaweed. There. Were organisms, that got. Me into biology that started already when I was. 16. Years old or something like that being from. The Pharaohs and growing. Up here you know we don't have much. Vegetation that, we can see but if you put, your head down under. The surface there's, a whole new, world so. I guess the combination, of. These. Beautiful, organisms. And. The. Environment they. Were living, in and, then. The whole biology, for the citizen. Yeah. That's. That got me going. Together. With her brother akina's, owns the company Terry in their. Latest experiments. They are combining, Simon aquaculture, farms with, seaweed, cultivation, for. This project they, collaborate. With Ferris, Simon, aquaculture companies. Their. Goal is to improve the environmental. Impacts, and the, Simon health in multi-trophic. Systems. If. We can sell the product that is functioning. Us. As. A service, in making. The Aquabot the established, agriculture, in Tavares working. Better to work better, that's. A that. That is a product that fits very well into our. You. Know our philosophy. I feel that we're. Starting a new thing here and, we. Have all the, agriculture. To lead. Up against all the faults, and all the things that they have managed, to do wrong we. Can actually go ahead and try and really right. In. Europe, we were able to meet Civic pioneers, and to witness a young and growing industry, in order. To see how big seaweed, farming, can actually, go we. Wanted to visit the biggest seaweed, production, regions, in the world, therefore. We decided to go to China and South Korea. So, we're having a typical, Chinese. Breakfast. In, Beijing, in Beijing. And guess, what's in the breakfast, sooo, son. Delicious. So, next stop singing, down. They. We are on the way to the Institute of Oceanography. Of. The Chinese, Academy of Science, in the beautiful bay at Tsing Tao it's. Right there. And. Here. We are going to meet professor, Zhang Feng, and his research, team on seaweed. Cultivation. And, breeding, yeah the exciting, thing here is that they have created. Different. Seaweed, breeds they, call them cultivars, and they. Will show us the facilities, and they, will also show us the seaweed farms where they already grow. I. Am. A sodium hyung I walking, isn't. It institute of oceanology chinese, economy science and research professor, majored, in marine biology specialized. In seaweed I'm leading a team and how Kim is focus our stock culture, of CBS including. My core and my core Alvey but. The main focus is, the big one the microalgae because, if you have very big industry so. We are doing breeding, developing. New culture, techniques and, incorrect. Resources. For long-term use he. Grows seven species of seaweed in China so the first one security panic I told before is basically, consumers human, food bakka me to become, a profiler, awesome and, grassle. Area but rustlers basically, for a Beruna a balloon, would fill a balloon and to try them for carrageenan, for. Know acha acha industry. And. Ezekiah. Also has human food, so. They grew from the North's learning province and Taunton subtropical. Virgin. Province all along Khosla actually. Seventies. Started, cultivate, breeding and there are scientists, the working on that 70s. 80s, 90s and, slowly there. Are cultivar, coming. Steadily. And. The car dealer did a lot a lot of lot of a job. To increase the productivity now, more and more kelp circus humans human food if, you grew very good quality, products. And then the price is good I think. In. The past 20 years has been become a very good business to grow help, saccharina. As human food if, you want to harvest million, sulfur. Council. Forest, biomass we seem short period of time it. Takes a lot of Labor but. Now people are getting old a young people do not want the business and that's a big big big problem for large scale agriculture. There. Is no automatic machine, to seed to, harvest and, to process all very, much limited we are working on that now and we have a very big productivity now. Tanna produced 2 million tons receiving the Bombers in dried bit so. The the the the amount. Is, viable, but. In the future I think that we increase the quality of the products it is crucially issue I will, think that with, our, advanced.

Technique To, have good caliber and. We. Will produce less, product, of its good quality nowadays. Room, 2 is one of the main production base in China so. Is a joint. Point of or healthy and yellow sea and there the water current nutrients, you. Medians as a very, good for health to grow and that's. Why the propagate. And. Also Luna has a very long history to, do aquaculture in, the sea so people are experienced, with that to do that. Together. With Xiao Zhang and his team we, took a train from Tsing, Tao to Hong chang beom, Chang is one, of the main seaweed. Farming, areas, of China with, an established, seaweed, industry. Supplies. That's. Very. Business. Already. In the 1960s. Chinese. Seaweed, farmers, established. A long line system, where, seaweeds, are cultivated. On ropes, in the ocean, for. This technique, seedlings. Need to be prepared, first and the, first part, of the seaweed life cycle has to be controlled indoors, this. Way the, seaweed spores attach to, the lines before, these, are deployed, at sea. But, we've seen what they prepared over there the seed lines that we saw they. Will be put in the ocean. Water and the seeds, in here, seaweed. Spores. Then. It will take not much time maybe one hour for them to attach to. These lines and then, they are shifted, to one of all these other. Tanks. Or basins, here and there it will stay for two months. Thanks. To our amazing hosts. We were able to visit the companies, that grow, and harvest the, kite Eva's developed, by Xiao Zhang and his team together. With researchers and, businessmen. We, took a boat ride through what was said to be the, biggest seaweed, farm of the world. Here. We are the, biggest seaweed, farm of the world, just, incredible. How huge, that areas it's. Here since fifty years. So. It's little big news in China they're, doing this some sense buy some time. Here. Seaweed. Is cultivated. In multi-trophic. Systems, in combination. With, a variety of, crustaceans. And shellfish. This. Is where the most nutrients. Come in and, they, are taken, up by all this seaweed. So. Basically. The seaweed, that we see if it has all the nutrition, input that, comes from the land into. This vein. We. Have a look at the. Cave. Today, at the saccharina, and. These, are the breeds they have developed and Tsingtao. Yeah. We need to know the masked beast biomass. Color. And water content, yeah this is we do regularly, every Mouse. So. In, China, and the supermarket, you can find a lot of different, seaweed products, especially snacks, us they seem to be really.

Big. Trend right now. Oh. So. After. Grades and very interesting, stay in China, we. Are now heading for Seoul. Korea. And we. Will again meet a lot of interesting. Researchers. And. Entrepreneurs. In. Farming, as well as processing. Korea. Has, a long tradition of, seaweed. Cultivation and. Processing. A, diversity. Of seaweeds, are part of the daily Korean. Diet and the, fast growing, industry has. Developed around, the farming, and processing of. Seaweeds. Korea. Has become the, world's, biggest exporter of, papaya, or nori. Is, seaweed, used to make sushi and other dishes, our. Goal, was to visit the different, places where nori and other seaweeds, are processed. We, are in a Korean, supermarket and, we can find a variety of, civic products, right here there. Is the, back, a meal that is just dried that you can use for cooking in different ways it. Comes with different packages. Then. We. Have also the, ocarina, japonica. The big head either. Shredded. Or. Boil. Blades and this what, you can find here. As. Well all the snags. Tiny. Pockets together in one large package, and, we. Have some more snacks here, like. This right, deep. Fried stuff. Though. I can't. Read it so we'll have to ask our Korean friend what exactly. This is. So. Far almost every, soup. See. Wait a minute it's, just noise yeah. It's. Not a it's, not a main ingredient, just, a, little. Head. On right the. Seaweed doesn't only has its own taste but it also carries, the place of all the other ingredients, in the dish that's, also another aspect why, they Paolini put it in there. What. Do you think. These. Were like caramelize. Here. We are at, the seaweed research centre of South Korea which. Belongs to the National Institute, of Fisheries science. Yes. And we had another inspiring. Interview. And great discussions here. At the centre we learned a lot about the, cultivation. Sites, and cultivation, techniques in Korea of various. Species very. Long history of cultivation. Very. Nice to be here my, name is in Yohan I am, senior. Researchers. In. The, research centre of the, National. Institute. Of Fisheries science. So. We are the, only one, National. Civil, Research Centre in the Korea. One. Of, the. Main. Research. Area, is developed. New. Strain. These. Days seaweed, we, utilized. Very various. Aspect. Like, food and the functional. Functional. Food also and medical, use and. Many. Things and. Feet. For, abalone like that the middle of 1990s. There. Were the. Amount. Of their cultivation, I was, going down 2000, made, up 2000s the, abalone, industry, was developed, at the time so they need huge. Feet. For, abalone, so. From. That time all, the, creative. Agency amount. Of seaweed is going up like that. Still. It is going up and, also, pyro, fire industry. Is going very. Sharply, increasing. At the moment now. Korea, is the top. Of the world in the export. To a pile of here. Noorie. Plants, are not harvested entirely. But, instead parts, of the plants, are cut off regularly, these. Pieces mixed.

With Water are, pumped, into large washing, containers. After, washing this, mixture, is further pumped, into a press that turns the nori pieces, into, sheets these. Sheets are then dried and later packaged, the. Sheets can either be used directly. For sushi. Gimbap and other dishes or, they can be further processed. One. Way to further, the process these nori sheets is to, cut them into pieces and, roast, them, different. Flavors, and oils can be added the. Roasted, him, is equal, together with rice in Korea but, it has become a popular snack around, the world. So, we will take a look at their impressive. Automated. Production, facilities, now we. Have to get dressed for that but, sadly, we are not allowed to take the camera, with us. We. Can tell you a very big, automatic. Operation. And. It's really. Impressive to see. So. We are now at a little bit, more traditional company. Or. The company where, they process. Mostly. The. Care, sack. Arena japonica. And. Becoming. The, wings. Camp. As they call it. Another. Really. Popular seaweed. In Korea, and beyond, is um Daria. Panetta Fida or, become. A become. In salads gained popularity, in western. Sushi, bars it is farmed on Rose just. Like the Cape we saw in China after. It is harvested, the, vacum is boiled, for short time and then salted, and pressed, later. Workers. Manually, separate, the blades from, the stem the. Blades are again, washed and later, drives. So. Here. We are just, around the corner of the company, where they process the seaweed and you. Can actually see, seaweed. Farms out there too so. Right now it's not the growing season they're already harvested, all we can see now is. The. Sticks where they have the seaweed lines in between and, the nets on which they cultivated. In. Korea, we, were able to see how a mature, and, highly, developed seaweed, industry. Can look like the. Different, seaweeds, are found by smaller, mostly. Family-run. Businesses. But, several larger, companies, specialized. On the processing. Of seaweed, they. Have integrated, a number of new technologies, and they, managed to successfully, export. Their, products, to customers around, the world, this. Could serve as a strong. Example. For a new, sustainable. Marine, industry. We. Are on, our way to assert, where. We will, meet Klaus, the. German, expert, on seaweed, and sea B grower himself. Growing his own seaweed. Sponsored, and. He, already has a proper, business with selling his seaweed to select. Restaurants, on. The island so, he will be able to tell us a lot about the, potential, of. Seaweed. Industry, in Germany there the last stop, of our seaweed adventure. Was, desert an island. In the German, North Sea here. We met with, Professor Klaus. Luening, the marine, botanist, and the true, seaweed, expert.

After. Seeing an Asian industry, we were eager to know whether, something, similar, could be realized, in Germany, and other European countries. My. Goal is to distribute the use. Of seaweeds, in Germany. And. To, produce the. Biomass. Which we need for that purpose, there. Is an increasing. Interest in. Any. Plant, material. Throughout the world the, veggie life the, vegetarians. Then. More. And more people want, to eat plants in the end and so. Also, algae. Microalgae. Are used for a longer time already than macro algae in. European. Or at Western countries, but, there are only two species which can be cultivated, in, the end and mass to. Supply. To market, and with, seaweeds, we have, of course the. Advantage there, is a big, variety of. Species. And. Big. Variety of chemical. Composition. And many. Of the substances, as in higher plants, are beneficial. And. So. For. Functional. Food seaweed, are a very, good source we. Only have to have them now with, the weekends and we cannot take all the seaweeds we want for these new. Applications, from. The wild because. Persons, of ayat' you have the animals, you, cannot destroy, the. Wild. Populations. Of seaweed, just, to eat them always because, there, are kindergarten. For, many. Small. Animals. And so so we have to cultivate, them this, is increasing. Also in European. Waters now. But. In. The sea there, are problems, with cultivation. Of seaweeds, you have that again animals, which from May onwards. Use. Them, the cultivated, seaweed, on ropes as a, substrate. In Germany, we have then the. Special. Problem that all our, coasts, are natural. Protecting. So, we cannot use. Seawater. For. Cultivation. Of seaweeds and so, I can't, use the idea and this is what is. Main purpose, in these years to, cultivate TV, it's far, from the sea from the coast in, artificial, seawater on land. Take, the example of the nori, for, the Sochi in a restaurant in. 1950s. Well, in nineteen fifty sixty, seventy eighty nobody, knew. And so sure it's ours now they're everywhere, so. It, there. Is a rush humbly but you cannot simply. Plan. It, should be now customers. Not, only in the restaurants, but, also in. Normal. Customers are very curious, as soon as there is a new, plant to be eaten they. Will buy it but, it takes time and we cannot predict, exactly, when. On, our. Trip we, gained unique, practical, insights, into seaweed, cultivation in. Northern Europe we, witnessed an emergency. With industry, and met, true sea weed pioneers, in Asia. We, saw a large scale sea with industry, producing. Millions of tons of seaweed, each year, we. Learned that, seaweed, aquaculture. Highly. Depends, on local conditions, and that there is no blueprint, for seaweed cultivation in, all, the world's oceans we. Experienced. Seaweed, farming, as a positive. Solution for. The many environmental. Challenges, we face, from. Overfishing, to climate, change with. This film and with our future, projects, we, hope to raise awareness for, the, unique, opportunity. That seaweed. Farming, offers the. People and the, environment can. Benefit, together. You.

2018-09-11 18:47

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