Latest Seaweeds Stories

LAKE MARY, Fla., Aug. 5 /PRNewswire/ -- Health benefits from marine plants and other ocean life have been documented and promoted throughout the nutritional industry for years. Like most industries, trends emerge and botanicals or superfruits garnered huge market penetration for a few years, but now consumers are turning back to extensively studied natural products including marine bioactives, like Fucoidan and Fish Oil. A polysaccharide found in brown algae, Fucoidan has been studied for...

LAKE MARY, Fla., June 1 /PRNewswire/ -- The leading daily Fucoidan supplement, LIMU ORIGINAL(TM), is now available in a convenient two-ounce pouch as the LIMU ORIGINAL(TM) SHOT. LIMU, the recognized marketplace leader of Fucoidan-based products, launched the new packaging as a part of their brand transformation initiatives. The company has introduced several Fucoidan products into the marketplace, focusing on the marine bioactive's antioxidant, cardiovascular, energy and weight management...

The kelp forests off southern California are considered to be some of the most diverse and productive ecosystems on the planet, yet a new study indicates that today's kelp beds are less extensive and lush than those in the recent past.The kelp forest tripled in size from the peak of glaciation 20,000 years ago to about 7,500 years ago, then shrank by up to 70 percent to present day levels, according to the study by Rick Grosberg, professor in the Department of Evolution and Ecology and the...

France's northern coast is dealing with a build up of large amounts of putrefied green algae releasing poisonous fumes blamed for the recent death of a horse and the collapse of the rider, AFP reported.Local authorities have declared parts of the coastline off-limits, as they are currently unable to get rid of the decomposing seaweed that has washed up on shores in more than 80 communities across Brittany.Green groups have blamed intensive farming for producing nitrates that feed the...

All along the California coast, stretching from Los Angeles to San Francisco, a species of rapidly-growing sea kelp from Japan has begun taking over the coastline and spreading quicker than authorities can contain it.The aggressive seaweed, known to scientists as Undaria pinnatifida, was first detected in the area in May when a local biologist noticed the marine plant clinging to piers and boats in a San Francisco Bay yacht harbor. "I was walking in San Francisco Marina, and that's when I saw...

Scientists in San Francisco said a team of divers has been recruited to rid marinas of an exotic form of fast-growing seaweed. The scientists said the kelp, Undaria pinnatifida, is native to Japan and China and was first discovered at the San Francisco Yacht Harbor and the South Beach Harbor in May, the San Francisco Chronicle reported Thursday. The species can grow an entire inch in a single day, said experts with the Smithsonian Environmental Research Center satellite lab at San Francisco...

The origin of the massive green tide of algae that nearly wrecked the Beijing Olympics sailing regatta has been discovered by scientists, BBC news reported Wednesday.  Satellite images divulge evidence that swift development of farmed seaweed nearly 200km down the coast is the cause for the colossal algal bloom. As the green tide drifted closer to the regatta city of Qingdao, it multiplied in size, so much so that it is regarded the largest ever recorded in the entire world.  It was...

Southern California Edison (SCE) today announced completion of the largest environmental project of its kind in the United States - a 175-acre artificial giant kelp reef off the coast here. With the placement of 120,000 tons of rock on the ocean floor, the project is expected to produce the nation's first sustainable artificial kelp forest attracting many species of coastal fish and invertebrates dependent on such underwater habitats for shelter and food. "This reef project is a blueprint...

By Paul David Lampe, The Oakland Tribune, Calif. Jul. 8--It's brittle, slimy, green and invading Alameda's Bay Farm Island shoreline. It's not "Swamp Thing," but it's not supposed to be in Bay's water. It's the non-native alga known as Ascophyllum nodosum. "It's just nasty," said Betsy Wells, a UC Davis graduate student studying Predation Dynamics of Invasive Invertebrates in the San Francisco Bay. Monday morning, Wells along with 10 volunteers -- federal, state and university employees...

Contaminated seaweeds in Sydney Harbor could be threatening the small animals that feed on them, according to a new study revealing that the harbor's seaweeds have the world's highest levels of copper and lead contamination.Up to 75 percent of the offspring of small crustaceans that feed on a common brown seaweed, for example, are killed when they are exposed to copper at levels found in some parts of the harbor, UNSW laboratory and field experiments have shown.The UNSW study sampled seaweed...