Can British seaweed farms bloom?
A nascent industry in which the country has some natural advantages
Setting up a seaweed farm isn’t easy. Four miles off the north Devon coast in Bideford Bay, Algapelago, one of a spate of British seaweed startups, has just lost a sensor to the ocean. “Well, that’s quite irritating,” says Olly Hicks wryly. “That was our first month of data.” Mr Hicks, a co-founder of Algapelago, is captaining a small crew of research scientists and aquafarmers to a pilot site which could become Britain’s largest. The square-kilometre site may one day yield as much as 2,000 tonnes of seaweed per year. Right now, it’s much less.
This article appeared in the Britain section of the print edition under the headline “With a little kelp from my friends”
Britain June 3rd 2023
- After a decade of SNP dominance, Scotland’s politics is suddenly in flux
- Sad little boys: the backlash against Britain’s boarding schools
- Britain is falling behind in clinical trials of medicines
- How should Britain reform rape-trial laws?
- Can British seaweed farms bloom?
- Britain’s new political sorcerer: the Reform Fairy
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