The recent use of seaweed extracts in medicine, combined with its use in cosmetics and as a food preservative, bodes well for the regeneration of the industry in Ireland, a seminar was told yesterday.
Jim Morrissey of the Irish Seaweed Centre at NUI Galway told the conference in Belmullet, Co Mayo, that extracts from carrageen moss, which is plentiful around our coastline, are being tested in South Africa for use in the prevention of Aids.
Mr Morrissey told the conference, organised by the Erris Local Development Programme, that there were now thousands of applications for extracts of seaweed compared to the 19th century when it was harvested in vast quantities.
He said if Ireland's seaweed industry is to prosper again, it will require a type of labour that is now scarce and, perhaps, the introduction of an Asian method of seaweed aquaculture where it is grown on lines running into the sea.
Mr Morrissey gave details of a survey that identified 12 or 13 areas on a 100-kilometre stretch of coastline that form the Mullet peninsula as having commercially viable seaweed resources.
He recommended the setting up of a seaweed co-op, like that at Roaringwater Bay in west Cork, to exploit these resources.
"Families could get involved and the harvesting could be done on a part-time basis. In the region of €20,000 would buy the basic necessary start-up equipment." Internet inquiries were now coming in from all over the world for Irish seaweed, he said, and the industry's potential was significant.
Tim Quinn of Comhair Iorrais Leader Teo said there was a vast array of food, beauty and medicinal products that can be made from various types of seaweed.
"The beauty of the raw material is that it regenerates itself every three or four years. Seaweed harvesting has the potential to once again become a significant industry locally."