Introduction
Seaweeds denote thousands of species of macroscopic, multicellular, marine algae, such as Chlorophyta (green) ,Rhodophyta (red) and Phaeophyta (brown) (1, 2). Importance of seaweeds in provision of ecosystem services are known, for example species such as kelps provide essential nursery habitat for fisheries and other marine species and thus protect food sources (3); species of algae, play a vital role in capturing carbon, producing up to 50% of earth’s oxygen (4). The practice of cultivating and harvesting seaweed is known as Seaweed farming (5). Management of naturally found batches of seaweeds mainly conducted in its simplest form and full controlling the life cycle of the algae in most advanced form of farming (6). Widely cultivated seaweed taxa are Eucheuma spp., Saccharina japonica, Sargassum fusiforme, Gracilaria spp., Pyropia spp., Undaria pinnatifida andKappaphycus alvarezii (1). Seaweeds are farmed for different applications, for example Gracilaria is farmed for agar production; Eucheuma and K. alvaraezii are farmed for gelling agent (carrageenan); while the rest are for food (7, 8). China, the Philippines, and Indonesia are the largest seaweed producers, others include Zanzibar (Tanzania), Japan, North Korea, South Korea, and Malaysia (9). The improvement of economic conditions and the reduction of fishing pressure and overexploited fisheries are among the advantages of seaweed cultivation (10).
Overall global production of farmed aquatic plants have been observed to increase by more than 60% from 1995 to 2016 and is dominated by seaweeds while as of 2014, seaweed contributed only 27% of all marine aquaculture (11). Seaweed farming is a carbon negative crop, with a high potential for climate change mitigation (11). A great diversity of compounds exhibiting a broad spectrum of biological activities are currently produced from seaweeds hence attract attention of biotechnological interest (12). Bioactives from marine organisms has shown capabilities such as antiviral, anti-tumor, anti-inflammatory, and anti-lipedimic,which creates the burning need for management options for a sustainable approach to their use (13, 14). Seaweed farming in the WIO has great benefits to communities and should be encouraged as it provides nutrients, medicine and income to societies. Also, knowledge of the health and commercial benefit of seaweeds should be given to the community to increase their utilization and thus production.