The idea of using seaweed to make an anti-wrinkle cream may strike some people as just a load of bladderwrack. Not so, according to the University of Galway researchers who are setting up Ireland's first commercial seaweed farm. It goes into production early next year in Ardbay in Connemara and has an initial crop target of 10 tonnes in 1998.
The university's Martin Ryan Institute has secured funding worth £107,000 from the Marine Institute to set up the farm and carry out other seaweed research.
The researchers will grow asparagopsis armata on the farm, a red-branched seaweed which looks somewhat like a fern. When it is harvested and dried it will be shipped out to a French company, Algues et Mer, which is developing a range of anti-wrinkle cosmetics based on the product.
The manager of the university-based Irish Seaweed Industry Organisation, Mr Chris Hession, is careful to point out that claims about the beneficial effects of the seaweed have not been scientifically proven. But he points out that the French have used seaweed for years in "algotherapy" beauty treatments. In Brittany, resorts which offer the seaweed equivalent of "le health-farm weekend" are popular. Some life insurance companies offer discounts to clients who avail of such treatments.
The seaweed will be grown on ropes which will lie near the surface of the water, to avail of the maximum amount of light. Unlike land-based vegetables, the researchers hope to harvest four or possibly five crops a year. They are directing their efforts towards improving rope cultivation techniques.
Three other seaweed research projects at the university are also directed at the vast untapped potential of the industry, particularly as a food source.
The traditional industry on the west coast involves the harvesting of some 40,000 tonnes of feamainn bhui (knotted wrack) which is dried, milled and exported to Scotland. It is then used to make alginates, food additives which are found in ice cream, lowfat butter substitutes, cheesecakes and a range of other foods. It appears as €400 on food labels.
This traditional harvest, although it provides an important source of income for coastal families, represents only a fraction of the industry's potential here, according to Mr Hession. The worldwide seaweed industry is now worth $4 billion a year, with exponential growth in recent years in Asia.
The Japanese in particular are keen to buy good, clean, Irish "sea vegetables" grown in unpolluted Atlantic waters. One project at the University of Galway which hopes to tap this potential is investigating ways of growing alaria. The seaweed is highly-prized in Japan, where it is known as wakame. Another project is looking at ways of cultivating dulse (dilisc) for food, and making it more palatable for the domestic market.
Yet another one aims to grow porphyria, the most valuable marine crop known, with a shop sale value of £120,000 per tonne. Known as sushi nori in Japan, where it is used to wrap raw fish, its cultivation employs 35,000 people in Japan and demand far exceeds supply. It is a healthy food with very little fat and high amounts of vitamins.
If the project is successful, Irish-grown sushi nori could soon be winging its way to some of Tokyo's most exclusive sushi bars.