Tropical Phyconomy Coalition Development : Focus on Eucheumatoid Seaweeds

Tropical seaweeds represent a major source of diversity and potential for cultivation. Cultivation of seaweeds has been coined “phyconomy” (derived from phycology and agronomy). One of the world’s most important groups of tropical seaweeds is the eucheumatoids (comprising members of the genera Kappaphycus and Eucheuma). Whilst the biomass from these seaweeds is mostly used to produce colloids (i.e., various carrageenans) trends are changing and new, value-added applications are emerging including bioactives for agriculture, pharmaceutical applications, as well as bioplastics and possibly energy when processed as part of a MUZE (i.e., multi-stream, zero effluent), or biorefinery approach. Phyconomic activities around the production of seaweed biomass provides socio-economic benefits for many hundreds of thousands of global, coastal dwellers around a circum-tropical belt. However, times are changing and the once, repetitive manual aspects of attaching seaweed fragments to ropes and nets is beginning to be mechanized. Whilst it has taken agronomy several thousands of years to develop on land, its phyconomic counterpart is, at best, 50 years old in relation to developments in cultivation of eucheumatoids. Activities around cultivation of these tropical seaweeds can contribute to achieving the UN Sustainable Development Goals.

This book contains contributions from many of the world’s authorities on tropical seaweed farming with a focus on the eucheumatoids. There are many lessons learned and best-practice examples which will be of interest to students of phyconomy (phycology), marine science, industrial users of cultivated biomass, as well as practitioners in charge of coastal zone management and ensuring responsible and sustainable socio-economic benefits are derived from marine resources for coastal dwellers.

Dr. Alan T. Critchley is a Research Fellow, Verschuren Centre for Sustainability in Energy and Environment, Cape Breton, NS, Canada. Began his career in Portsmouth UK, graduated and moved into studies on the invasive seaweed Sargassum muticum. After a post-doc in the Netherlands he made his way to an academic post at Univ. KwaZulu Natal, Pietermaritzburg studying sub-tropical seaweeds off the east coast. Another move was made to the University Witwatersrand where his first interests in commercial seaweeds were ignited with Taurus Chemicals.  After some time he moved to the Univ. Namibia, Windhoek to work in an academic and consultancy roles at the Multidisciplinary Research and Consultancy Centre. This then lead to a giant leap into the commercial world of (tropical) carrageenophytes and (temperate) alginophytes at Degussa Texturant Systems, Baupte, Normandie, France. More recently, he found his way to the Verschuren Centre via a small medium enterprise in Nova Scotia where he led the research group for onland cultivation of seaweeds for food and wild exploitation of an intertidal fucoid for animal feed and plant products. His current passion is phyconomy and particularly tropical seaweed phyconomy.

Dr Anicia Q. Hurtado is the Chair of the Integrated Services for the Development of Aquaculture and Fisheries (ISDA Inc.), an organization of past and present scientists of SEAFDEC-AQD. She finished her Doctor of Agriculture (Phycology) at Kyoto University, Kyoto, Japan in 1988 as a Monbusho scholar.

She worked closely with seaweed farmers as consultant of international funding agencies like WB-IFC, ADB, USAID, AusAID, GTZ, Cargill, ZSL, local agencies like PDAP, and government agency DA-BFAR in the pursuit of sustainable seaweed farming from lab-sea-based nurseries to field cultivation. She is the lead Editor of the Book – Tropical Seaweed Farming Trends, Problems and Opportunities: Focus on Spinosum and Cottonii of Commerce published by Springer Nature in November 2017. She was involved as the Developing Country Partner (Phil.) of the GCRF-UKRI Global Seaweed* Project, a 4-year project (Oct 2017- Dec 2021) on the ‘Sustainability of Seaweed Aquaculture in the Developing Countries’ at the University of the Philippines Visayas, Miag-ao Iloilo.

She is a member of the UK International Peer Review College since February 2018 to March 2023 as a reviewer of Proposals submitted for possible funding by UKRI-GCRF. She is one of the members of the European Algae Biomass Association (since Oct 2020) with a VIP status for her significant contributions to the algae sector, a clear recognition of work in promoting the sector. She has written several scientific papers published in peer-reviewed journals from micropropagation, farm management, disease mitigation to colloid characterization of Gracilaria and Kappaphycus. Likewise, she is a book chapter contributor to some algal books. She is also a regular reviewer of manuscripts submitted to peer-reviewed journals like Algal Research, Journal of Applied Phycology, Aquaculture, Aquaculture Research, Journal Marine Policy and Botanica Marina, to name a few.
She was an invited Plenary speaker at ISAP Congress in Sydney, Australia (2014) and Nantes, France (2017) and several mini-symposia, attended several seaweed symposia as oral and poster presenter, and speaker to local and international seaweed webinars. She was a member of the local Organizing Committee (Scientific Programme) of the 16th and 21st International Seaweed Symposium in Cebu, Philippines (1998) and Bali, Indonesia (2013), respectively.

Dr. Iain Charles Neish is a Canadian phyconomist, marine biologist and businessman who has worked with seaweeds in aquaculture systems since 1965. He followed the lead of his father, Arthur C. Neish, who played a role in development of seaweed cultivation in Nova Scotia, Canada. Since 1977 most of Iain’s career involved seaweed farm development and factory installations in the Philippines, Malaysia, and Indonesia. He has also worked in the Americas, Africa, and India. More than 25 years of this work was conducted while Iain was working as consultant (then employee) of Marine Colloids (later FMC Corporation; then DuPont, now IFF) until 1996. During that time, he was project manager for seaweed farm development and for construction of the world’s first factory that made semi-refined carrageenan (SRC) in Cebu City, Philippines. From 1996-2015 Iain undertook projects with various international organizations including IFC, GTZ, USAID, AusAID FAO, ILO and UNIDO and he also undertook seaweed-related projects with several private companies. He is currently engaged with innovative seaweed business ventures in Indonesia in his role as a director of PT Sea Six Energy Indonesia and as an advisor to PT Sumber Tanaman Samudra (STS) and PT Jaringan Sumber Daya (JaSuDa.net). He is active in developing adaptive marine phyconomy for red seaweeds in tropical ecoscape villages. He lives with his Indonesian family in Bali and his field work is mainly on, under, and around the Bali Sea.