Edible Seaweed – Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution Edible Seaweed Humans have eaten seaweed for centuries—pickled, dried, and raw—adding a deep savory flavor known as umami When farmed, seaweed improves water quality and absorbs excess carbon Some varieties provide as much protein as meat, eggs, dairy, and soy
Pressing and drying seaweed - Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution To dry seaweed, simply arrange it on anything from trays to cookie sheets to screens You can also dry large kelp by hanging them over railings or on laundry lines Place them in a warm room, in the sun, or in a warm oven These dried seaweeds can later be re-submersed in salt water to be studied
How do you solve a problem like Sargassum? Tons of rotting seaweed on beaches can have widespread economic consequences, deterring tourists and inflicting on local communities the cost of ongoing cleanup and disposal Also concerning are the related cardiovascular, neurological, and respiratory problems
2025 will likely be a ‘major’ seaweed year, experts say 266 Woods Hole Road, Woods Hole, MA 02543-1050 Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution is a 501 (c) (3) organization We are proud to be recognized as a financially accountable and transparent, 4-star charity organization by Charity Navigator
Harnessing the ocean to power transportation In the not-so-distant future, seaweed might provide biofuel to power planes, trucks, cars, and ships The technology to harness the power of seaweeds is very much in development, and WHOI researchers are at the forefront of this exciting new venture The idea is to transition the primary source of biofuels from land-based crops to fast-growing kelp—that is, to shift the energy sector from
Aquaculture - Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution Aquaculture is the farming in fresh and saltwater environments of aquatic animals or plants principally for food Fish, mollusks, crustaceans, and kelp are a few examples
Seeding the future - Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution To address one of the kelp industry’s biggest bottlenecks, a research team led by WHOI research associate David Bailey and WHOI engineers Robin Littlefield and Ben Weiss collaborated with WHOI’s Lindell Lab to develop an automated underwater seaweed seed-string deployment device
Study reveals dramatic decline in historic sargassum populations, with . . . Woods Hole, Mass (Dec 5, 2025) -- A new study published this week in Nature Geoscience has uncovered a dramatic decline in long-standing populations of the seaweed Sargassum in the North Atlantic’s Sargasso Sea and Gulf of Mexico, and this shift could have significant ecological consequences
Bryozoans - Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution Bryozoans Most people mistake bryozoans for seaweed--and it's no wonder These tiny animals often colonize by branching out into shapes that look more like spaghetti than living animals Bryozoans are made up of colonies of individuals, called zooids If you look at colonies through a magnifying glass, you can see openings in the geometric patterns they form It is inside each of those