Palmaria palmata, commonly known as ‘dulse’ or ‘søl’ in Norwegian is a well know red seaweed that has relatively high value as a human food product. There is considerable interest in growing the species throughout Norway, Europe and other countries worldwide, and Nofima has been investigating the specific opportunities in the north of Norway.
Research at Nofima has focused initially on protocols for maximizing the spore release and utilization from seaweed collected in the north of Norway. Optimal protocols have now been defined for P. palmata in the north of Norway and work is continuing to develop techniques for commercial seeding onto ropes.
Novel techniques and growing systems for growing P. palmata have also been explored. These have focused on g rowing P. palmata in discharge water from land-based finfish facilities in the north of Norway. Seawater was monitored and collected from a large land-based RAS salmon smolt facilit y on the island of Kvaløya in northern Norway. A series of trials were conducted to test the capacity of P. palmata to grow in discharged water from these facilities. These included trials at various inclusion rates of discharge water to find the optimal growing conditions. The results showed that approximately 50% inclusion of discharged seawater was optimal. Further trials showed the influence of varying salinities on the growth of P. palmata . The water analysis during these trials also allowed the calculation of production capacity figures for P. palmata based on discharge rates from land-based RAS facilities. This presentation presents the results of these trials and discusses the potential to commercialize such activities in the north or elsewhere in Norway.