Successful seaweed harvest operation on the North Sea

2022-06-27

The Wier&Wind project has successfully completed the first automated harvesting operation on its seaweed pilot installation on the North Sea. The fully automated harvesting machine was developed and built by partner Murre Technologies, installed on the mussel ship YE32 and tested on the Offshore Test Site under the watchful eyes of the partners The Seaweed Company, UGent, North Sea Farmers and a number of visitors. The “Easyfarm” machine has a unique approach where it is lifted overboard and deployed over the operational seaweed growing system. This way, no removal or modification of the seaweed growing system is required making it a potentially much easier and faster harvesting operation. The test demonstrated that the seaweed can indeed be successfully and swiftly harvested when the seaweed system is lifted just above the water line with almost all of the seaweeds removed and of good quality. As such, this constitutes a successful demonstration of the Wier&Wind seaweed farming concept. Seeding, seaweed cultivation and growth on net-substate as well as mechanised harvesting. All in offshore conditions similar to the wind farms in the Dutch and Belgian North Sea. Succesfully bringing all pieces of the puzzle together into a functioning production system is an important milestone for the Wier&Wind project but also for the European seaweed sector. Please get in touch with one of the Interreg Vlaanderen- Nederland Wier&Wind project partners if you would like to know more.

On September the 1^st, the Wier&Wind partners will host an event in Scheveningen on the lessons learned in this project. If you are keen to join this closed event, please get in touch with North Sea Farmers.

All the projectpartners are: