The Green Sea, Ocean Forests

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Seaweed requires two specific aspects to survive; the presence of seawater (or partially saline brackish waters) and sufficient light to maintain photosynthesis. Another common attribute (although not seaweeds absolutely require it) is a firm point of attachment, -rocks or coral. Some can attach to sandy ocean floor in calmer waters, but some seaweeds are entirely free-floating forms. These types of seaweed with their gas-filled sacs occupy an available niche and thus, do not compete with the common ‘anchored’ types.  Sargassum is a well-known variety of seaweed that employs the gas sacs for buoyancy.

It Makes Nice Macramé Material

Seaweed can be braided into ‘ropes’ for projects such as this.

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Hot and spicy, cool and tangy, -and it looks really sexy, too! This itty-bitty skirty thang if on vacation in a swank Caribbean hotel room would look awesome on my wife! (But don’t count on me ever posting any images of her wearing something like this as she would be modeling it for my private consumption only!)

Seaweed Farming

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Grown commercially for human consumption, medicines and for fertilizers, seaweed is a very valuable natural resource. It has so many valuable uses and is renewable. A truly ‘green’ resource.

Can One Eat Seaweed?

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YES! I am very fond of certain types of edible seaweed, particularly a pickled salad type (as depicted above) that I can buy at the St. Lawrence Market by the waterfront and other places here in downtown Toronto. I love it! This is one of the ’safe to eat’ types. But other types, while ‘edible’, come with health risks.

The Canadian Food Inspection Agency, (CFIA) warns that consumption of a type of imported seaweed called “Hijiki” should be avoided due to abnormally high levels of inorganic arsenic. While most seaweed types contain some naturally occurring arsenic, Japanese Hijiki seems to have levels of inorganic arsenic that are much higher than levels deemed safe. A single serving can exceed safe levels of ingested arsenic. Hijiki seaweed are usually sold at the restaurant and wholesale level, and is normally eaten with other foods such as fish and vegetables, and in soups. But to be clear, this is not the same type of seaweed used in the wrapping of sushi rolls.

Consumption of seaweed with naturally occurring arsenic is less problematic but studies have linked organic arsenic with ailments such as gastrointestinal effects, anemia of the blood and liver damage.

So Why Risk It?

Well, apart from it tasting really good, Japanese folklore mentions health and beauty benefits to eating Hijiki, and attributes thick, black and lustrous hair of the Japanese women and men to the regular consumption of small amounts of Hijiki seaweed. Even the Japanese though, recommend limiting the frequency and amount consumed for the reasons stated.

Seaweed Convenience Snack

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Seaweed even comes in convenience serving snack-packs, apparently popular with the Japanese. Eating seaweed is an acquired taste to be sure. I have had this dried type and not sure if I really liked it as much as the pickled relish type, -which I adore! The cool seaweed salad is moist, salty, a bit sour and has a slightly umami (savory) texture when you bite and chew it, almost indescribable but very pleasurable. If you have ever smelled the sea, you will recall that smell instantly with one whiff of a bowl of seaweed salad. You will need to floss your teeth afterwards though. It is a bit stringy. You have been forewarned.

Sushi Wrapped in a Seaweed

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Everyone loves sushi. At least everyone that I know. Sushi refers to the type of rice though, not the fish used (and many sushi forms are meat-less.)

Other Uses For Seaweed

Seaweed can be used as fertilizers, and research is being done on seaweed for use as biofuels to meet our energy needs and gain independence from unreliable and pricey foreign oil and all the political turmoil over it’s allocation.

Biomedicine and the pharmaceutical industries are finding ways to use alginate (a seaweed product) as wound dressings, the manufacture of dental moulds, adhesives and more. Agar, produced from seaweed derivatives is widely used as culture mediums. Carrageenans are widely used in the food industry in just about every product you can name from soups to ketchup, cottage cheese to sour cream to beer. It makes mayonnaise stick to the knife and allows ketchup to be squeezed from the bottle and peanut butter more spreadable. It is truly a wonder product of the ages. Unlike hydrogenation of oil and fats to meet the desirable qualities in foods which seems to be very harmful to human health, seaweed derivative products do not seem to have any untoward effects or contraindications. Only benefits.

Seaweed is also a major source of the element iodine, necessary for normal thyroid function and the prevention of the acute deficiency disease goiter. It is asserted that seaweed may be a curative agent for other diseases such as arthritis, tuberculosis, seasonal maladies such as influenza (“flu”,) and worm infestations. Research is finding new and novel ways to reap the benefits of seaweed for the benefit of mankind.

Church of the Holy Cetacean?

Naw… it’s just a stained glass window.

I just liked this stained glass image; -it has just about everything in it that one can hope for. Seaweed, kelp, fish, shellfish, snails, lobsters; -it’s all there! Let’s eat!

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