Getting to Know Dulse (a Little Better)

I​n this video, courtesy of the Hatfield Marine Science Center, Dr. Chris Langdon gives a brief tour and description of The Coastal Oregon Marine Experiment Station’s dulse production and research efforts.

Dulse is a nutrient-dense, bright red marine alga that grows from Alaska to California. It has been well documented due to the bacon-like flavor of one specific variety when fried. The high glutamic acid level gives it its meaty taste.

Dulse also grows very quickly in recirculating aquaculture tanks, which means that it could be part of the solution to feeding our global population.

“We started growing this for abalone, as an abalone food,” says Dr. Langdon, “and the abalone loved it and grew faster than anyone had reported in the scientific literature.”

Now the researchers have taken their dulse cultivation to the next step: growing indoors on panels, under artificial light. “The cost of lighting now, with LEDs, has dramatically declined,” he says. “And so, it’s feasible now to grow dulse using not just natural light, but also artificial light.”

That technology has already been applied to a company in Hawaii: Big Island Abalone Corporation. “They grow 10 acres of dulse a year and send two million baby abalone to Asia for sale,” he says. “We’ve started looking at this dulse as a food for the future.”

All rights reserved. Permission required to reprint articles in their entirety. Must include copyright statement and live hyperlinks. Contact david@algaeplanet.com. Algae Planet accepts unsolicited manuscripts for consideration, and takes no responsibility for the validity of claims made in submitted editorial.

Seagriculture EU 2024
AlgaeMetrics

Subscribe

EABA AlgaeEurope23
Hire Robin Coles Technical Writer

Breaking-News

  • November 27, 2023: Australia’s first high-level organization to serve the commercial seaweed industry officially launched in Canberra on November 16, 2023. The Australian Sustainable Seaweed Alliance (ASSA) represents ten corporate members across six states and was launched to advance environmentally responsible farming and production, strategic research and development, and scientific and biotech-related commercialization. READ MORE...
  • November 20, 2023: A research team from IIT Gandhinagar, a leading technical institution in India, has found that beads made from a combination of sea algae, salt, and nanoparticles can be used to remove dyes from wastewater pollution created in the dye and chemical industries. READ MORE...
  • November 17, 2023: Isis Central Sugar Mill, 300km north of Brisbane, Australia, will soon be home to ponds growing algae fed by the mill’s wastewater. The mill will harvest the carbon dioxide created when they burn fiber left over from crushing cane to make electricity and use the nutrients in the wastewater to feed the algae, which is intended for food and fuel. READ MORE...

A Beginner’s Guide