Seaweed Research Species

Sea grapes

Commonly consumed in parts of southeast Asia and throughout the Pacific, sea grapes (Caulerpa lentillifera) are regarded as a high value sea vegetable. It is considered a primary-producer, sequestering energy from the sun and uptaking CO2 to produce a chemical that can be easily metabolized by the plant. Additionally, it is considered a superfood due to its high composition of vitamins and minerals. We are currently growing sea grapes on our farm in different seawater conditions, manipulating nutrient levels as well as water velocity. They are a great candidate for onshore and offshore production and are a culinary delicacy in other parts of the world.

Red Ocean Kale

Halymenia Hawaiiana is an endemic Hawaiian algae species. Due to its nature of success while suspended in the water column with aeration it is a great candidate for offshore productions, as well as onshore. It has a high protein content making it one of the algaes we are investigating for fish feed integration.

Sea Lettuce

Is one of our most promising offshore algae species, due to its fast growing nature and its success in our flume trials. Also observed to be versatile doing well in deep sea (5%), as well as effluent. It’s a crowd favorite, common ingredient in furakake, and was once used to preserve fish by wrapping the lettuce around.