Authors: E MarinhoSoriano
Publish Date: 2016/05/18
Volume: 29, Issue: 2, Pages: 665-671
Abstract
Harvested by coastal populations for centuries seaweeds have played an important role in the economy of a number of countries In Brazil they occur along the coastline but are more diversified and abundant from the northeast to a portion of the southeast coast Historically the seaweed industry in Brazil is based on seaweed harvesting of natural beds This practice continues to this day in a number of coastal communities in Northeastern Brazil Since the 1960s species of the genera Gracilaria and Hypnea have been collected in the intertidal zone for extraction of agar and carrageenan Maximum production was achieved in 1973–1974 a period in which the country exported around 2000 t annually dry weight to Japan Later 1977–1979 there was a sharp drop and annual exports fell to 250 t dry weight In 1981 Brazil exported only 150 t of dried seaweed for agar extraction Between 1990 and 2000 overexploitation decline in a number of agarophyte populations poor quality low price and lack of a socioeconomic policy led to the almost total disappearance of this industry in Northeastern Brazil Seaweed harvesting on natural beds is currently in decline and the population that depended on this resource had to migrate or convert to other economic activities such as fishing aquaculture and underwater tourism However the promising results obtained in pilot projects Gracilaria and Kappaphycus show that Brazil has significant potential as a seaweed biomass producer
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