We all know about the use of seaweed in making sushi, but seaweed growers are hoping to claim a much broader sector of the food market. An Israeli company is offering new 'gourmet seaweed' products. The blurb reads: "Our seaweed lines are perfectly suited to the modern, busy European lifestyle as they are presented in convenient, easy-to-use formats and bring a fresh, sea-breeze aroma..." the company goes on to suggest seaweed can be added to flavour pizza sauces! But the most unusual use of seaweed as an ingredient would have to be in Seaweed Pie. Seaweed contains a gel which acts as a natural thickening agent, like gelatine. In Canada, Seaweed Pie is made by boiling the seaweed to extract the gel, adding this to sweet whipped cream, piling the mix onto a sponge cake and garnishing the top with strawberries, raspberries or blueberries. You can try the pie at the Irish Moss Centre, Miminegash, Canada. Who's going to give it a go?

Mike Bossley is a keen seaweed spotter (although he prefers it to be called marine algae – arguing that the word ‘weed’ implies something unwanted). Mike took this gorgeous shot of  the luminescent seaweed, Dictyota, while snorkelling near Adelaide: "This is a very fragile marine algae which quickly loses its luminous colours after it washes up on the beach, so I thought people might be interested in seeing what it looks like alive," he says.

These squidgy white things washed up in hundreds of clumps on Glenelg Beach, Adelaide, in November last year. It turns out they are the eggs of the Southern Calamari (Sepioteuthis australis).  This is an important commercial species, growing to about 30cm long and found in southern Australian waters from Brisbane to Perth. These cephalopods spawn in very shallow water, which is why their eggs are often found washed up on the beach during breeding season.

Henley Beach, devoid of tunicates

No colonial aschidians for two months now. Was it all just a fantastic dream?

Clues to reef recovery
A study from the US identifies chemicals produced by seaweeds that inhibit coral growth - results could be used to help increase fish numbers and regrow reefs.

Seaweeds to retreat polewards as seas warm
An important blog by Adelaide University's Corey Bradshaw about the damage that climate change does to seaweed communities as the oceans warm and acidify. Reposted from ConservationBytes.com

Sea grapes, not sour grapes
I was out ‘seaweeding’ this morning – do you like that phrase? – and I couldn’t resist photographing these two beauties. Other pix of them are already in the gallery on this website, but these were such magnificent specimens they just had to be shared. There’s been a strong south easterly (onshore) wind blowing in the last day or so, making conditions excellent for seaweed collecting (oops – I should say ‘spotting’ as we all know it’s illegal to collect seaweed).

This first one (above) is Scaberia agardhii – is a weirdly alien looking plant matching its name. Close-up, it's covered with scabby knobby little warts but to me it's a thing of beauty. Just as well the latin name is descriptive, as like many seaweeds, it doesn’t seem to have a common name.  I thought this guy was pretty substantial (about 50cm long - see 5c piece in the image for scale) but other specimens can grows up to 2 metres long! It’s a native seaweed which thrives in fast moving currents, and grows right round from the mid-west coast of WA, along the southern Australian coast as far up the east coast as Sydney.

The second seaweed is our old friend Hormosira banksii, the 'Neptune’s Necklace', bubbleweed or sea grapes. You'll have seen a much smaller version in rock pools around the Australian coast, but each bobble on this bugger can be up to 2 cm across. I suspect that this specimen, because of it’s large size, is a free-floating variety, unattached to substrate and free to sail the ocean currents.

Neptune’s necklace is one of the few seaweeds with its own Wikipedia page – fame indeed for a humble brown marine algae. The bubbles contain a gas which helps the seaweed float to the surface to find sunlight. The plant is, of course, named after that old explorer/naturalist/self-funded retiree, Sir Joseph Banks.