Arctic grown seaweed will be next big thing on your menu
Despite being a seafaring nation for centuries, it is only in recent years that Norway rediscovered the value of seaweed - marine algae - as a food source.
"After six weeks in the lab, we put the seaweed out to sea for six months. Then we don't really do anything. It just grows on its own," Laurids Enevoldsen, a researcher at Akvaplan-niva, tells the Barents Observer. He is a part of the ARKELP-project, which focuses on seaweed farming in northern Norway.
While salmon farming has been practised in Norway since 1960, seaweed farms have started to appear along the Norwegian coastline in recent years.
"Growing the seaweed is really sustainable - that's what motivates me. It's growing in the ocean now, just on seawater and sunlight," Laurids says. "We don't use any fertilizer, chemicals or fresh water to make it grow”.
Laurids Enevoldsen stands on a balcony at the Akvaplan-Niva research centre, watching the seaweed farm buoys in the distance with a magnificent view of the fjord near Tromsø. The company responsible for the rig outside the station is called Oceanfood and is based also in Tromsø.
Laurids points out that the Arctic midnight sun season, when the sun shines 24 hours a day, and the constantly cold ocean water make growth fast and efficient.
"We have 8000 meters of algae rope under this small rig out in the ocean. We harvest up to 10 kg per meter, which is potentially 80 tons in total", Laurids says about the harvest that they do once a year.
The product is then preserved through drying or fermentation before being available on the market for food, feed or as fertilizer.
However, Lauridis says that it's also a challenge to break into the market: "In Asia it is very common to eat seaweed. There has been a tradition for it in Norway back in history. But it has been lost and forgotten. So now there is a lot of work to be done in marketing seaweed”.
Tourism attraction
But on board the huge coastal liner Hurtigruten, which plies the Norwegian coast and calls at the Norwegian town Kirkenes a couple of times a week, the restaurant staff seemed to have succeeded in incorporating seaweed into the menu.
"In our restaurant, every dish now contains some kind of seaweed," says Kim Sterten, head chef of the Hurtigruten restaurant says.
About two years ago, Hurtigruten started to gradually introduce seaweed into the menu. Now they even use seaweed soap in the kitchen.
The restaurant cook Tindra Lange prepares a starter.
On the side of the char fish salad she puts the so called 'seaweed caviar'.
She then sprinkles the salad with dried seaweed to give it a salty taste.
The kitchen staff tells the Barents Observer that most of the tourists on board are usually from Germany, the US or the UK, and for the majority seaweed is still perceived as something exotic.
"I tell our customers that it's a very nice dish and it's different from what you've tried before. Then they are pleasantly surprised," Tindra Lange says.
"Personally, I like to add seaweed to smoothies because it contains antioxidants," Tindra said and added "and it is so easy to get here in Norway - you can just go to the sea, pick it, dry it and eat it."
Saving the kelp (marine algae) forests
Even though the seaweed can be easily picked up along the Norwegian coast, environmentalists are sounding the alarm because the amount of seaweed has been declining.
The environmental foundation and science-based NGO Bellona has set itself the task of restoring the seaweed forests.
“Norwegian kelp forests are home to more than 300 species, with over 100,000 small animals potentially living in just one square meter. The loss of kelp forests has therefore had significant ecological ripple effects”, Jessica Anne Hough, marine biologist from Bellona told the Barents Observer, “Another impact has been the reduction of carbon storage capacity in the Norwegian kelp forests, from 30 to 18 million tons of CO2. The Norwegian underwater desert now spans an area almost equivalent to all developed land in Norway, including homes and roads. ”
According to Bellona, overfishing of cod and haddock for many years has led to an increase in the population of sea urchins, which the fish eat. Meanwhile, the urchins eat the seaweed. So one of the ways to help the forests survive is to harvest or crush the urchins that eat the seaweed.
