Jamaica Gleaner

Tap sargassum’s marketing potential

-

THE EDITOR, Sir:

I BECAME acquainted with sargassum back in the 1970s as a biology student at my alma mater. We learnt of this seaweed by mere coincidenc­e. Our tutor, an Indian expatriate, taught us some things that were not on the syllabus.

We learnt of sargassum vulgare as a most annoying seaweed. Today, we have a much more open understand­ing of this fastgrowin­g plant. Members of the tourism fraternity are alarmed about ways to deal with this deadly nuisance.

THE OPPORTUNIT­Y

We have got to be creative to engender a mechanism to deal with this mind-boggling seaweed. We can cease the opportunit­y to use it as a fertilizer to use in the agricultur­al industry. If we could be just creative and embark on a path that will richly reward us, we would have saved millions. If we could devise a method of gathering the seaweed and drying it for animal food purposes or as a manure we would have profited greatly from these ventures.

Tons of sargassum is being washed to shoreet. We could put our best bet on the profitabil­ity of this weed in securing a future for many generation­s to come. PARIS TAYLOR paristaylo­r82@hotmail.com Greater Portmore

 ??  ??

Newspapers in English

Newspapers from Jamaica