After several years of working in a significantly smaller space, head researcher Dr Marie Magnusson says she welcomes the ability to expand the research operations into the 1000-square metre facility.
The site gives her and fellow researchers the opportunity to grow a wide array of seaweed and algae from nursery to harvestable stage, and intensify research work on multiple end uses.
A key focus of the researchers’ work has been sea lettuce (ulva), an annoying seasonal seaweed that regularly clogs Bay of Plenty beaches stacking up on foreshores in stinking green layers over summer (see Farmers Weekly, June 23).
But rather than just tangling around surfboards, it is possible cellulose extracted from the seaweed may one day be an ingredient in surfboards.
Magnusson is optimistic research work on extracting the lettuce’s cellulose will eventually deliver commercially usable products.
“We have a student working in conjunction with us and NIWA who has started looking at making composite materials that would mix the cellulose with polylactic acids. Depending upon the quality of the cellulose, it could be possible,” she said.
The facility has 12 4,000-litre fully recirculated growing ponds and 12 1000-litre ponds, split 50:50 between saltwater and freshwater.
The freshwater ponds enable the scientists to nurture algae and they are studying the role freshwater algae can play in the bioremediation. This includes cleaning up wastewater in municipal sewerage schemes and run-off from contaminated sites or dairy farm effluent water.
“The protein content of such algae also means there could be uses there as an additive to stockfeed, and we will be also studying its digestibility for humans as a dietary additive,” she said.
The scientists are also studying how the sea lettuce could be combined with aquaculture in a closed loop system.
“The sea lettuce requires carbon dioxide to grow, while fish breath carbon dioxide out and require oxygen, so the two could be combined in a system quite beneficially,” she said.
Taking only two to three weeks to grow to harvestable size makes the sea lettuce an appealing crop, and Magnusson is optimistic the team will have moved from the big tanks to full ocean trials within a year.
In its least processed form, the lettuce could be grown as a feed source for some fish species and for paua.
Bio-refinery processes mean it could also be utilised as stock feed additive and a nutraceutical ingredient.
Sea lettuce has also shown to enhance plants’ immunity against pests and diseases, offering the potential as a non-synthetic treatment.
Earlier work in Australia has also shown some positive health benefits in rats from consumption of a similar species of seaweed.
The University of Waikato’s coastal marine field station at Tauranga is the centre piece for the university’s new aquaculture major, offered at the university’s Tauranga campus.
