In response to the growing interest in seaweed farming across the UK and Europe, the Scottish Association for Marine Science (SAMS) has delivered a training course on the early stages of seaweed cultivation.
This course is the first of its kind in the UK and it took the participants through the practical skills required and highlighted important considerations such as building a nursery, biosecurity and selective breeding. The course was run by SAMS Enterprise, the commercial arm of SAMS, through its Seaweed Academy program. All eight places available were filled, with one participant coming from Portugal.
Jenny Black, Seaweed Academy project manager, mentioned: “There has been a lot of interest in this course, which we devised based on industry demand. During the past three years, we have run our Seaweed Academy courses, but there was no training available that got into the detail required to allow people to establish their own nursery. The expertise from our research at SAMS, as well as our own nursery staff, let us offer a comprehensive course that will hopefully boost this part of the seaweed farming value chain.”
The participants came from a diverse range of backgrounds and industries, including prospective farmers, researchers and those who already run nurseries. Some of them were able to attend due to scholarships funded by WWF-UK and Highlands and Islands Enterprise (HIE).
Beth Marshall from Câr y Môr, Wales’ first regenerative seaweed and shellfish farm, said: “This course was really interesting and I have learned a lot. For example, it’s clear that biosecurity and taking time to do things are key to the success of a seaweed nursery. Before, I ran a nursery, but without much experience, so it’s great to see how the experts do it and learn where I was going wrong before. We will be setting up a new nursery at Câr-y-Môr, which we hope will support new seaweed farms in Wales.”
The Michael Uren Foundation and WWF-UK funded the course development, while some of the places on the course were funded by the Department of Agriculture, Environment and Rural Affairs (DAERA) and the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine (DAFM).
SAMS Enterprise plans to run the course on an annual basis, updating course content based on the research ongoing at SAMS.
Find more information here.
