Pond culture of seaweed Sargassum hemiphyllum in southern China

The seaweed Sargassum hemiphyllum is widely distributed throughout the coastal waters of Asia and has high commercial value. In recent years, its natural biomass has declined due to over-exploitation and environmental pollution. To seek for a feasible way to culture this seaweed efficiently, we designed a simple long-line system in a shrimp pond for the culture during winter, and the growth and nutritional composition of the seaweed were examined. Results show that the culture system was durable and flexible allowing S. hemiphyllum to grow vertically off the muddy bottom of the pond. Although the length of pondcultured S. hemiphyllum was inhibited by water depth, the weight-specific growth rate ((1.65±0.17)%/d) was nearly three times higher than that of wild plants ((0.62±0.19)%/d). The crude protein (6.92%±0.88%) and ash content (21.52%±0.07%) of the pond-cultured seaweed were significantly lower than those of the wild plants (9.38%±0.43% and 26.93%±0.07%, respectively); however, crude fat (1.01%±0.04%) was significantly higher than that of the wild plants (0.87%±0.02%). In addition, the nutritional composition of both pond-cultured and wild S. hemiphyllum was comparable to or even higher than those of other common seaweeds being used as food and/or aquaculture fodder. Future studies shall be focused on the impact of environmental parameters on its growth and nutritional composition.