re: seaweed hitting FL; any agro tech people in here?

[Gato Moteado]

i keep seeing the 5000 mile seaweed floating mass story on the news. it's hitting FL now and piling up on the beaches.

don't they make some organic fertilizers out of seaweed? is this type of seaweed suitable for making organic fertilizer? if so, why aren't agro companies rushing to harvest that stuff?

[Hugh_Lebowski]

1. Found this article on possible uses being investigated by Mexican authorities

https://www.raconteur.net/sustainability/sargassum-seaweed-business/

[Gato Moteado]

3. great article....

....looks like i was right on regarding the fertilizer....and it's also used for rust inhibitor for pipelines and for a cream for cosmetic products.

they should be harvesting that stuff just off shore to get it before it hits the beaches.

[ProfessorGAC]

4. May Be The Silicates In Seaweed

Silicate have long been known to form iron/silicate complexes that form a stable mineral layer that reduces water or dissolved oxygen contact with unoxidized steel. Thus, a much slower corrosion rate.
They've been used in industrial cooling towers for quite some time to keep cooling water lines from rusting & tower and heat exchanger surfaces from fouling.
Algae & seaweed are loaded with silicate.
On the fertilizer side, seaweed contains both inorganic phosphate salts & organophosphates, both of which are important for annual plant crops like corn, soybean, wheat, etc. Also, most bean plant need lots of phosphorus as do many nuts.
So yeah, there are sound uses for this algae.
Not sure about the pharma use. To my knowledge, alginate used in that application is mostly "farmed" in bubbler tanks and may be all the supply they need.

[PortTack]

2. Ya..desatan is so caught up in himself...guess it doesn't matter that it's hurting tourism with

Beaches being out of commission.

[malaise]

5. Yes but please remember this stuff contains arsenic

so it should not be used on or near food or fruit crops.

Add

How much arsenic is in sargassum?

Total arsenic concentration varied between 24–172 ppm DW, exceeding the maximum limit for seaweed intended as animal fooder (40 ppm DW) in 86% of the samples.

[Gato Moteado]

6. oops....not good