First of its kind seaweed nursery training course launched in Oban

A training programme focused on seaweed nurseries has been held in Oban, which the Scottish Association for Marine Science (SAMS) describes as the first of its kind in the UK.

The course was delivered through the association's commercial arm, SAMS Enterprise, under the Seaweed Academy initiative, the UK's only dedicated seaweed industry facility, which offers education and business development support for this growing sector.

The training programme covered the practicalities of nursery establishment, biosecurity and selective breeding, and was designed to meet a skills gap identified by the industry, SAMS said.

A total of eight places were offered on the course, which were fully filled by participants from a range of related sectors, including potential farmers, academic researchers and those already operating nurseries, from the UK and Ireland, and as far afield as Portugal.

“There has been a lot of interest in this course, which we devised based on industry demand," said Jenny Black, project manager at the Seaweed Academy.

“We have run our Seaweed Academy courses for the past three years, but there was no training available that got into the detail required to allow people to establish their own nursery – a crucial stage of seaweed cultivation."

“Using expertise from our research at SAMS, as well as our own nursery staff, we’ve been able to offer a comprehensive course that will hopefully boost this part of the seaweed farming value chain," she added.

One of the participants, Beth Marshall, of Câr y Môr, Wales’ first regenerative seaweed and shellfish farm, said she had "learned a lot to take back to Wales with me."

"For example, it’s clear that biosecurity and taking time to do things are key to the success of a seaweed nursery. I ran a nursery before, but without much experience, so it’s great to see how the experts do it and learn where I was going wrong before! We will be setting up a new nursery at Câr-y-Môr, which we hope will support new seaweed farms in Wales," Marshall said.

The course was developed with support from the Michael Uren Foundation and WWF-UK, with some of the places funded by scholarships from WWF-UK and Highlands and Islands Enterprise (HIE), as well as the UK's Department of Agriculture, Environment and Rural Affairs (DAERA) and Ireland's Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine (DAFM).

SAMS Enterprise said it intends to make the seaweed nursery training an annual fixture, with content updated in line with the organisation’s ongoing research.