Let's make seaweed one of your 5-a-day!

NUTRIENT-RICH FOOD COULD END STRUGGLE TO FEED HUMAN POPULATION

- MIKE LOCKLEY

T'S the season of the sea, of days spent walking on hot, golden sand to a soothing soundtrack of tumbling waves.

I must go down to the seas again. Probably Llandudno because I like the pier. Maybe Rhyl because it has an exceptional Wetherspoon pub.

And during those walks across shale and sand I'll encounter clumps of seaweed, brown and untidy, perhaps smelly.

You have encountered the stuff and not given the maritime mess a second thought. You've not pondered, "what variety is that?" You've certainly not collected the washed-up weed for a snack.

But seaweed - like the nettles I waxed lyrical about a few weeks ago - is a vital, life enhancing, plant. Sorry, I meant multi-cellular algae. It's not a plant and therefore a weed by name only.

Yet we know almost nothing about it, except the fact it makes beaches look untidy.

It provides vital shelter for seals, crabs and starfish. Seaweed is a crucial part of the marine food chain: crustaceans eat it, small fish eat the crustaceans, bigger fish eat the smaller fish, birds and larger predators eat the bigger fish. And, yes, the tangled clumps on shorelines include varieties that are not only edible, but very tasty. It's also a lot safer to forage for seaweed than fungi because none of Britain's species are poisonous, although some make for unpleasant dishes.

The good news is, our seas are rich in the algae and they contain six per cent of the globe's entire seaweed stock.

The bad news is, research has revealed seaweed, though still plentiful, is suffering through climate change. We just don't know how badly.

An SOS-Save Our Seaweed - campaign is gathering pace.

We have 644 species, ranging from microscopic phytoplankton to vast underwater forests of kelp. They grow at the bottom of deep waters, they thrive in rock pools.

Here's a thought...