By: Staff Writer
August 12, 2022
A Biotech-company sees opportunities in Sargassum seaweed invasion and ready to “scale up,” on $250,000 lend to build capacity to process four tonnes a day to save Caribbean beaches.
The Sargasssum seaweed crisis has ratcheted up with more islands showing the effects of the mysterious algae. A study – “Outlook of 2022 Sargassum blooms in the Caribbean Sea and Gulf of Mexico” report from the University of South Florida’s Oceanography Lab says that over 24m tons of Sargassum were found across the Atlantic in June, compared to 18.8m tons in May.
“In the past five or six years we tend to see more and more Sargassum than five or six years ago,” said Chuanmin Hu, a professor at the University.
Joshua Forte, founder and CEO of Red Diamond, told Caribbean Magazine Plus that this is a “pretty huge opportunity, but it’s still the limitations and working within the resources that I currently have. But yeah, it’s definitely a big opportunity.
“We’re working to be able to capitalize on it as much as possible. I look at whole with the strategy of how we work and how we could branch out to the other islands as effectively as possible.”
Mr Forte has a processing system that allows him to turn Sargassum into various types of organic and biologic agrochemicals, like fertilizers biostimulants and crop protection products as well as soil amendments.
His operation is o Barbados where he has made a name for himself as the Sargassum Entrepreneur, where others have seen the seaweed as a problem he sees it as a huge opportunity to feed the Caribbean.
Mr Forte also said: “To scale up production for Barbados as well as another Caribbean island would take about $250,000 US. We are in talks with several investors and we’re still working on several other product developments as well.
“I’m trying to coordinate with a couple of the other agencies in the UNDP (United Nations Development Programme) and one or two private entities as well that’s working on stuff along the lines of the harvesting component to have that be a lot more efficient.”
Discussions with the UNDP is still in the “early stages,” but once he gets the financing he needs he assured us that “we will be moving full steam ahead,” as private investors have stepped up and pledged to invest the $250,000 as a starter.
He added: “Right now we do about two tonnes. With the $250,000 our operation here is not going to expand so much but it’s more about efficiency, but we will be able to do about four tonnes per day.
“Well, actually were looking at, as a possibility, to get the facility running on a 24 hour basis. So we will be able to do two sets and then it will really come down to managing the storage capacity.
“What we’ll be looking at to the other island is not a whole other facility but having the primary processing stages done there and then sending what we need here in Barbados to be finished.”
The Caribbean needs to move full steam ahead on ridding itself of the Sargassum invasion as it is choking the marine life as well as it is making the beachfront unattractive to beachgoers. A Caribbean without healthy beaches is useless.
Some cities have tried to clean up the seaweed, but it can be expensive and can cause beach erosion. In 2019, the Parks Department in Florida said they spent an estimated $45m dollars removing Sargassum from a 15-mile stretch of beaches in Miami-Dade County.
There are studies looking into renewable ways to convert the seaweed into natural fertilizer, but more research is being done to find long-term solutions. But Mr Forte is working getting rid of Sargassum now and processing it to feed the region, all he needs is the help to get it done.