Seaweed Week in Bremerhaven

From 27 to 29 June, Bremerhaven will become the meeting place for experts from around the globe with an interest in marine algae. Seaweed for feed and food applications, offshore cultivation, and seaweed biorefineries are just some of the topics on the agenda of the 11^th International Seaweed Conference EU “Seagriculture”, which will be held on 28 and 29 June at the Atlantic Sail City Hotel. The opening presentation on “Applied macroalgal research at the AWI: From land to sea and back” will be given by Prof Bela Buck, Head of Marine Aquaculture at the Alfred Wegener Institute, Helmholtz Centre for Polar and Marine Research (AWI). Other invited speakers from Europe, the Americas and Asia will report on their innovations and research activities, while also comparing notes with the other participants.

There will be a workshop at the AWI on Monday and Tuesday (27/28 June), which will bring together experts and stakeholders from across Europe to develop new strategies and recommendations for the sustainable establishment of a pan-European centre for genetic resources on algae strains. “The human population continues to grow, the demand for sustainable foods is on the rise, and the algae industry is going to need clearly organised seed banks in order to expand and keep pace with this new demand. Accordingly, we need to preserve the biodiversity of macroalgae. My vision is that someday we’ll have seed banks for macroalgae just as we already have for wheat, barley and all other agricultural products,” says AWI biologist Dr Laurie Hofmann, explaining what motivated her and her colleague Dr Inka Bartsch to host the workshop.