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Comment by vjk800 | Hacker News Reader

I've thought about harvesting and eating seaweed which is basically everywhere near my home village. I've never heard of anyone eating it and I've been wondering why. How would I go about figuring out if a particular species of seaweed is edible or not (Google doesn't seem to help me in this)?

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It is my understanding that all seaweed is safe to eat, but many taste bad. Water quality is a greater health concern than species.

Here is some information: https://gallowaywildfoods.com/an-introduction-to-seaweed-for...

Simply because your local water might not be safe due to dumping sewage. If your local shellfish is safe to eat your seaweed will be too.

Check your water first.

> figuring out if a particular species of seaweed is edible or not

And whether the water is clean enough for it to be safe. Good luck though!

You got to find a local foraging group or just knowledgeable individual. If it's edible someone is eating it. But practical foraging is dominated by local concerns like microseasons, regional land/industrial history, soil & water quality etc.

For those in the Bay Area - Kirk Lombard author of The Sea Forager's Guide to the Northern California Coast (at least used to) do some guided tours harvesting flora and fauna of the Norcal coast. Enjoyable and informative. Here's the book

https://www.seaforager.com/book

Are there any “domesticated” marine plants? Seems like an opportunity.

Interesting question. They are called Sea Vegetables. But they do need seawater. Now seawater aquariums are a thing so it should be manageable to "farm" those.

Seaweeds are commercially farmed around the world. Korean "nori" (or "gim") export amounts to $600M per year.

> Are there any “domesticated” marine plants?

A few. Marine upper plants are very rare, but red algae are harvested. There are several cultured marine Protists (I wouldn't say domesticated, but this is debatable) and also aquatic Cyanobacteria.

China grows most of them. Japan or Korea also.

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