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This food additive is the dehydrated and ground product prepared from different species of kelp; Macrocystis pyrifera, Laminaria digitata, Laminaria saccharina, and Laminaria cloustoni. Giant kelp is one of the fastest growing plants in the world. When conditions are good, kelp can grow two feet per day! Giant kelp prefers water temperature in the 50-65 degree (F) range. Kelp occur at and below low-tide level in cool temperate regions throughout the world. They are a group of large brown seaweeds that live on the rocky sea bed as far down as sunlight penetration will allow. The plants often grow together in large numbers to form dense forests, usually composed of a single kelp species. A giant kelp plant can live up to six years. The plant is continuously pushing up new fronds to the surface, while the older fronds break off. Reaching lengths of more than 100 feet / 30 meters, it is the largest marine algae.
The rainforest of the ocean
The kelp forest has a high production and very high biological diversity. Kelp forests are among the most productive and species-rich ecosystems in the world. Kelp plants create a structural complexity throughout the water column that provides habitat for many kinds of fish, invertebrates, and other algae. This makes the kelp forest an amazing place to scuba dive. If coral reefs are said to be the cities of the ocean, the kelp forests have to be the rain forest of the ocean. In the shadows within the kelp forest hundreds of species of fishes and invertebrates ply their trades. The kelp forest also offers a great place to grow offspring. Many vulnerable larvae of fish are spending their formative months in the kelp forest instead of having to face the dangers of the open ocean. Just as in the rain forest on land, the kelp forest houses different species at different levels. While some fish thrive under the canopy, other animals make their lives further down in the aquatic forest. Various predatory snails and gaily coloured nudibranchs graze on the stem and the kelp leaves. Within the labyrinth of the kelp forest many shrimp, crabs, sea stars and anemones also find their food and housing. Scientists have counted up to 100.000 life forms on a single kelp.
Kelp harvesting
Kelp harvesting takes place in several countries around the world. The harvesting of kelp for manufacture of food additives and agrochemical products is a significant business in Asia, Europe and parts of North America. Giant kelp has been harvested off the southern California coast for more than 90 years. In the 1970's, yearly harvests of more than 170,000 tons supported a California kelp industry worth $40 million. Also Norway is harvesting kelp on a large-scale base. 170,000 tons are harvested on the Norwegian west-coast every year. Kelp harvesting is undertaken by tug-sized custom-built vessels with open holds the size of large caravans. Kelp harvesting is managed on a rotational basis, ensuring that each area is harvested only once every 4 years to allow regrowth of the plants. The kelp dredge itself resembles a huge, iron garden rake, 3m wide and with elongated spiked teeth, which is carried along the sea bed on raised skis. The weight of the dredge as it is pulled forward rips dozens of kelp plants from the rock, holdfast and all, which are then caught between the teeth. At the end of a harvesting run, the dredge may have been drawn 50-250m along the sea bed, and have over a tonne of plants hanging in a compact mass from its teeth. The process at the factory begins with the harvested seaweed being thoroughly washed in sea-water to remove sand, silt, shells and small stones. Rotary drum dryers are used to dry the seaweed, to be processed into seaweed meal.
Resource management
Kelp harvesting is not without criticism. There has been and is in progress several studies to reveal the impact of commercial harvesting. Kelp harvesting impacts on invertebrate, sea bird and other marine mammal populations has not been satisfactorily investigated. Invertebrates, of all the groups of species that rely on kelp forests for their habitat, may be the most affected by kelp harvesting. In Norway the Institute of Marine Research (IMR) started a long term project in 2003 to investigate the effect of kelp harvesting. According to IMR only about 0,3 % of Norway's kelp are harvested, but up to 40 % are eaten by sea urchins. Nevertheless, disappearing kelp forests may contribute to the depletion of fish stocks, as the kelp forest is a nursery for juvenile fish, and also major feeding grounds for blue water species. Less fish also could mean fewer sea birds. It will take some time before this study and others around the world can give satisfactory answer on weather commercial kelp harvesting is sustainable or not.
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