Algaculture in the news

Just the basics please...

Algaculture is  the cultivation of algae.  Algae fall into two main categories.  Microalgae and Macroalgae.    You may be surprised how many of items you use daily basis that contain algae. 
Macroalgae is a broad area that is made up mostly from what people would call seaweed.  While they are harvested wild for both commercial and industrial purposes, there are few examples or large scale cultivation although they do exist.

Edible seaweeds have gained popularity in recent years as people have discovered their many nutritional benefits.  Nutrient density varies from species to species but many would say that seaweed has the best micro-nutrient bang per gram of food.  In addition to the many uses for food production, seaweed has also developed a great following as an industrial fertilizer and nutritional supplement, especially in the petfood industry.

Microalgae can often be referred to as phytoplankton.  While smaller in scale in some regards, micro algae blooms can cover square kilometres given the right environment.  Used industrially for fertilizer, chemical feedstocks, pharmaceuticals, and more recently algal oil or algal fuel, we are just now starting to realize the full potential of micro algae.