When the Finnish botanist Peter Forsskal made the first collection of Red Sea seaweeds during an expedition to South Arabia in 1763, he likely had no idea of their rich vitamin and mineral content. In fact even today, countries like Djibouti that depend on food imports, do not properly utilize the bounty that the Red Sea has to offer.
Some seaweeds produce unique phycocolloids with innumerable uses as gelling, thickening, emulsifying and stabilizing agents in cosmetics, textile, pharmaceutical and food products industries. Seaweed colloids are present in toothpastes, shaving creams, body creams, hair lotions, perfumes, medicinal syrups, salad dressings, bakery products, ice creams, fruit and other beverages, agrofertilizers and livestock feed to name a few. On the beaches of Djibouti, phycocolloid rich seaweed can be found in abundance, neglected because their virtues are largely unknown.
Djibouti offers ideal habitats for harvesting seaweed varieties that have industrial, agricultural and medicinal applications. These are characterized by an extensive continental shelf, clear water for good light penetration and many intertidal lagoons, which provide dynamic water currents for favourable seaweed growth.
Long-term changes in sea temperatures due to climate change are bringing about more auspicious conditions for the proliferation of algal blooms. Warmer waters and greater ocean acidity broadens the seasonality of seaweed growth, and expands their range into different climates. Moreover, increased salinity in freshwater ecosystems can also induce their spread to lakes and rivers. While this can be a harmful phenomenon in the case of toxic algal species, in Djibouti seaweed farming represents an uncharted economic opportunity.
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