How seaweed farming could help to offset agriculture’s emissions

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How seaweed farming could help to offset agriculture’s emissions

6 September 2019
News
Researchers find that seaweed could lock up huge amounts of carbon, and partially offset agriculture's emissions impact.

Seaweed could play a considerable role in fighting climate change: so says a new study which finds that cultivating lush expanses of seaweed off the coastlines of the world could sequester huge amounts of carbon, and even offset a portion of agriculture’s vast emissions. 

Published in Current Biology, the study found by analysing coastal habitats worldwide, that an expansive area of coastline – 48 million square kilometres – would be suitable for global seaweed production. If we farmed even just a tiny fraction of that area – 273 square kilometres, or 0.001% – the growing seaweed would lock enough carbon to offset the emissions of the entire aquaculture sector. 

That’s significant, when you consider that aquaculture is now the fastest-growing food sector, and accounts for 50% of all seafood production. So the importance of seaweed as a mitigation tool in this industry would likely grow.