History
Seaweed utilization is not new to Māori it has been traditionally used for centuries, nor is it new to our community.
Seaweed utilization is not new to Māori it has been traditionally used for centuries, nor is it new to our community.
Seaweed gathering has played a major role in our community dating back to the 1940’s when Pterocladia (Agar) was first commercialized where local children from Raukokore school collected and dried seaweed as part of the world war 2 efforts. Our great grandmother was one of those children and she continued collecting and diving for Agar throughout her adult life.
You could say nearly every Whanau (Family) in our community at some point has collected seaweed over the generations or knows of Whanau that have had a stint on collecting seaweeds to supplement incomes or been involved in community research projects over the years.
2 major local community seaweed operated research projects have been conducted in Waihau Bay creating employment for locals in an area where opportunities and employment can be scarce.
The two seaweed species researched was Pterocladia and Ecklonia Radiata which we lead and operated a local team investigating the environmental impacts of harvesting Ecklonia Radiata from the wild over a 9 year period with the vision to create stable employment and income. The concept was during rough weather harvest from the shore and on calm days you could harvest from your rotational underwater micro kelp farm.
In 2005 we were Pterocladia agents for the East Coast for a company based in Tauranga that turned out to be the same buyer that purchased Agar from Great nanny years ago.
PUBLICATION
Great Nanny's Newspaper Clipping
Seaweed in general has been utilized traditionally in many cultures for 100’s if not 1000’s of years and only now in the 21st century is the western world acknowledging it’s nutritional and medicinal benefits.
It’s a staple diet in Asian countries eating a wide variety of seaweed species for various health reasons and traditionally, globally seaweed is huge and farmed seaweed contributes to the economics of many local communities for their survival. Ecklonia Radiata has been developed into sea health products since the 1970’s. NZ is behind the 8 ball in regards to a seaweed industry as it is still in it’s infancy stages with potential to benefit rural coastal communities on so many levels if managed appropriately. NZ seaweed sector is currently managed under various management systems dependant on seaweed species. Currently Ecklonia Radiata is under moratorium and restricted to beach cast only with a few pilot research studies being conducted on artificially farming on ropes.
We believe working with nature to be a ecological and economical viable option of farming Ecklonia Radiata seaweed for rural coastal communities.
As climate concern grows globally our unique seaweed species Ecklonia Radiata has the ability to help tackle climate issues in the marine ecosystem on Kaimoana (Seafood), kelp forests and water acidification that could be all negatively impacted from warming oceans. Regenerative farming has the potential at a community level to help mitigate and address some of these issues that are really important in protecting all our Taonga (Treasured) marine species, historical fishing grounds and overall marine health for future generations. Alone it’s not a golden ticket, we all need to do our part globally to have a positive impact on climate change.
With the abundance of carbon dioxide released into the atmosphere daily Kelp has the ability to absorb more carbon dioxide than most land plants which is vital for contributing to addressing climate change and ocean acidification within the marine environment.
