NURTURING THE SUCCESSFUL GROWTH AND MATURATION OF A DOMESTIC SEAWEED AQUACULTURE INDUSTRY

Seaweed aquaculture is an emerging industry in the United States and several states are actively cultivating seaweed at commercial or research/investigative scale. Although there are many challenges still preventing the industry from becoming commercially viable, the following four main challenges have been identified:

1. Lack of identified and established diverse markets for domestic seaweed;
2. Lack of commercial-scale post-harvest processing, storage, and transportation infrastructure, and associated policies and regulations;
3. Increasing food safety concerns and lack of guidelines and standards for handling, processing, storage, and distribution for different domestic seaweed products, species, and production methods which may be impacted by regional and/or state differences with regard to oversight responsibility; and  
4. Lack of clarification in the permitting process for seaweed aquaculture.

There is a need to compile the available science-based, non-proprietary, practical resources related to previous and current research and outreach efforts into a mechanism that is easily accessible by everyone. A national effort led by Sea Grant is underway to address these challenges and look for viable opportunities for domestically produced seaweed through several processes:

1. A thorough needs assessment of all seaweed stakeholders in seaweed producing states;  
2. The first National Seaweed Symposium will be convened to disseminate results from the needs assessment and refine challenges and opportunities to be addressed;
3. Stakeholder-driven work groups will be established to address challenges and opportunities identified from the needs assessment and Seaweed Symposium;
4. A website dedicated to this effort will be established providing up-to-date information and status of on-going efforts including work group projects and outputs.

Through this nationally-focused and collaborative effort, the Sea Grant established Seaweed Hub will provide current and prospective seaweed stakeholders information on the status of the domestic seaweed industry in order to make more informed decisions as well as provide a chance to participate in addressing challenges and pursuing viable opportunities.