The Balinese have collected the ocean’s greenery for hundreds of years. Called rumput laut, the ferny blades of seaweed or “sea grass” wave like transparent aquatic foliage and have the appearance of feathery mermaids’ tresses or meticulous Art Nouveau patterns. Ocean gardens that at low tide look like gigantic underwater botanical gardens.
The word seaweed is actually a misnomer. A weed is a plant that spreads so profusely it can harm the habitat where it takes hold, whereas everything about these delicate marine plants and algae – their cultivation, harvesting and consumption – is refreshingly green Fortuneplay, clean and healthful. The government does all it can to promote this exportable, profitable, labor-intensive, nonpolluting and non-seasonal industry.
The sea grass producing regencies of Bali are Klungkung, Badung and Buleleng. The most successful cultivation sites are the narrow straits between the three southern Penida Islands across the Badung Strait, i.e. the islets of Nusa Lembongan, the adjacent island of Nusa Ceningan and on the north coast of Nusa Penida in Klungkung district. Huge coastal areas of these offshore islands are covered in farmed seaweed.
Ocean gardening is effective in alleviating overfishing and offers diversification of employment to include women and children in planting and harvesting rather than drawing people away from the fishing industry. Since seaweed gardens must be protected from petrol-based pollutants, motorized boats are restricted. Thus these waters are a major attraction for snorkelers and divers for their astoundingly rich diversity of 247 species of coral and 562 species of reef fishes, part of the Coral Triangle.
Shrines populate corners of the gardens. On the side of the roads the traveler sees different types of seaweed drying, large parcels of it wrapped up in tarps in yards and men carrying tangled, soggy brown-green clumps of seaweed balanced at each end on a bamboo pole on their shoulders. The backs of old people are stooped from decades of seaweed farming. Children can be seen tying seaweed nets and helping their parents after school. Lured by higher paying jobs, fewer and fewer are taking up the profession.
The Economics of Seaweed
As global competition for resources is intensifying on an increasingly crowded planet and places to grow crops are running out, large-scale seaweed farming is on the threshold of taking off. To meet the international demand for refined and semi-refined seaweed products, the industry already produces tens of millions of tons every year across 44 countries and is worth billions of dollars.
Though well-established government-supported commercial production in Indonesia began only in 1980, in recent years the industry has flourished. Seaweed farming on Bali has resulted in higher incomes for several hundred families and serves as backup should something happen to impact the tourism industry, the main income earner. Tourism is flourishing in Nusa Lembongan as are more attractive jobs like tour leading that doesn’t have the stigma of a laborer.
Over the past five years, seaweed harvests have been declining due to changes in weather patterns and seawater mixing with fresh water that causes diminished growth. The Office of Marine and Fisheries of Bali Province recorded that ocean grass production in the second quarter 2016 decreased compared to the same period last year. In the latest figures available, from January to June 2015 the production was 57,375 tons, while the same period this year it was only 51,659 tons. (One ton is 907 kilos.)
The monthly production of a 70 square-meter seaweed farm can be anywhere from 200 kg to 400 kg, earning anywhere from Rp500,000 to Rp800,000 per month. The farmers of Nusa Penida and Nusa Lembongan sell the seaweed not directly to main buyers but to middlemen, so they receive less than the product’s true market value. The harvest is sent first to Surabaya, then exported to large international markets in Japan, Taiwan, Singapore, Hong Kong, France and Denmark for processing.
Despite 1,000 years of seaweed cultivation in Asia, it remains a labor-intensive industry. The work is very tedious and a speedy and reasonable return on investment is difficult. In the dry season, seaweed may not grow normally and much of it can die before being harvested.
It takes a family of five to maintain one-quarter of a hectare, producing about 20 tons of dried seaweed per year on average.
Traditionally, the reefs belong to the village, making it difficult for farms to be owned by outsiders. Most of the seaweed farms are owned by village cooperatives. One are (10 m X 10 m) of sea gardens costs around Rp5,000,000, with some farmers owning as many as ten are. Buying and selling farms is done without formal title. Any disputes are handled by the village council (banjar).
Uses of Seaweed
From the homely seaweed one can extract expensive and valuable products for use in the cosmetics and food production industries. Seaweeds are macroalgae and their tiny, unicellular cousins are called microalgae. Two kinds of seaweed are grown in Bali, the small red-brown pinusan or Spinosum and the large green kotoni (Eucheuma cottonni). One kilo of dried fast-growing brown Spinosum nets between Rp2800/kg and Rp5000/kg. The longer growingCottonni species can fetch up to Rp12,000/kg but ties up the land for 30 days.
Seaweed — or more respectfully, sea vegetables or sea greens — is a greener alternative to many other food additives. After seaweed is dried and processed into a powder called carrageenan, it’s used as an ingredient in plastics, cosmetics, animal feed and dozens of food products from breads, jellies, beers, hotdogs and hams to noodles, chocolate milk, ice cream and condiments. Both kinds are used in agar-agar, a vegetable gel-like thickening agent used in cooking.
Besides its occasional and innocuous appearance in a salad bowl, seaweed as food can be a tough sell. You can eat it, but it’s an acquired taste. Though rich in nutrients and useful as an emergency food source in times or drought or famine, the thick leaves of Bali’s varieties are not suitable for fine dining dishes. It is not as edible and sought after as is the finer seaweeds of Japan. To remove the salt, Bali seaweeds must be boiled first until it turns white.
Seaweed is also used to produce iodine and vitamin supplements. Seaweed is used as a fertilizer to grow potatoes in Ireland. There is also a worldwide effort now to turn the centuries-old seaweed industry into a major source of environmentally friendly biofuels that have more energy and less emission than fossil fuels.
Cultivation Methods
Seaweed is farmed in picture-perfect sea shallows that are clean and not subject to strong currents or extreme fluctuations in water temperature or salinity. A relatively fragile product, the farms remain covered in water at low tide, the reefs acting as natural protection from strong waves. During long summer days, sea currents gently flow over the fern-like blades as they ripple and sway, capturing nutrients and storing up sugars.
All cultivation and harvesting takes place underwater. Stakes are first driven into the sandy ocean bottom and then strung with crisscrossing plastic ropes to hold the seaweed shoots. The ropes form a rectangle around 2.5 by 5 meters square. Fifty of these rectangles make up a 625-square-meter area; 16 squares occupy a hectare. A 100 square meter area of cultivated seaweed costs only Rp500,000 to established and can generate as much as Rp1,1 million, doubling the amount of investment.
Twine is impregnated with millimeter-sized seaweed embryos then wound around the ropes. Most farmers prefer to replant buds from their own crop because buying new seaweed seedlings is costly. A knot of katoni seeds runs around Rp15,000 while a knot of Spinosum seed is Rp5,000. For a 70-square-meter plot, 200 knots of seeds need to be planted. In an effort to increase production, Bali’s Office of Marine Fisheries provides seaweed seeds.
Each type of seaweed has a different growth cycle. There are two harvest periods either every 15 days or 35 days. The brown variant grows in 15 days. The other type takes over a month to grow. Seaweed can only be cultivated at low tide and is cropped by hand. Car tires are sometimes used to carry the harvested seaweed into shore. Farmers rise in the middle of the night to work under the light of lamps until dawn.
Environmental Impacts
Sea farming tends to preserve the culture and fabric of the community more than the hard tourism industry. It has continued to be harvested through political uncertainty, upheaval and national economic disarray. Algae cultivation also helps to preserve coral reefs by increasing diversity in places where it has been introduced and also provides an added niche for local species of fish and invertebrates in an area, increasing the production of herbivorous fishes and shellfish.
The kelp forests of the ocean store carbon, create habitat in the intertidal world and produce enough oxygen in this “Amazon of the Seas” that rival the rain forests. Marine scientist claim that seaweed farming cleans up pollution from fish farms. Growing algae doesn’t compete with agriculture for water, fertilizer or land. In some countries, sewage can even be used to feed algae. Seaweed grows more quickly than land plants and turns sunlight into chemical energy five times more efficiently.
But like everywhere in Bali, the Penida Islands are faced with the modern conundrum of tourism versus preservation, balancing the environment with the needs of the community who want a better life for their children. Environmental damage has been inevitable. Seaweed farms can cause changes in patterns of sedimentation, water movement, erosion, depletion of nutrients and alteration of natural habitat. Some seaweed farms have been set up on top of the coral reefs or adjacent to reefs which can have ecological impacts due to the shading of corals.
Starting around 2005, tourism development on the three Penida islands dramatically accelerated and over time has negatively affected the seaweed industry. Sea gardens have been polluted and abandoned as a result of cultivation areas being used to moor boats transiting between Sanur and Nusa Lembongan. Due to the rapid growth of tourism, escalating levels of chlorine pollutes the water surrounding the three Penida islands.
Increasing development has also reduced the area of beachfront on which to dry seaweed. New villa owners do not want seaweed farms on their doorstep encroaching upon their sea views. But young people who don’t choose to follow in their parents’ footsteps pose by far the biggest threat of all. Distracted by social networking and attracted to the Western lifestyle, they prefer to work in the more profitable tourism industry that promises better pay and more glamorous work opportunities.
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