Three new species of seaweed discovered in the Bay of Bengal, the prospect of Blue economy for Bangladesh awaiting

-Sadia Noor Portia

More than 300 years ago, China, Japan, the Philippines, Australia, Indonesia and many countries around the world focused on the maritime economy. At present, 4.3 billion people of the world are getting about 15-16% protein from marine fish and plants.

After the establishment of the Bangladesh Oceanographic Research Institute, a new dimension has been added to the seaweed research. Later, the Seaweed Research team has been created to conduct research on seaweed.

Abu Sayed Mohammad Sharif, a senior scientist at Bangladesh Oceanographic Research Institute, said that at the beginning of the work with seaweed, identifying species with previous data was a difficult task. Although there are many seaweeds in the 1,18,813 square km. area of the Bay of Bengal, they were neglected in the past.

So far 84 species of seaweed have been identified. Of these, 3 new species of seaweed have been discovered in the Bay of Bengal. These are included in the Rhodophyta, Chlorophyta and Phaeophyta groups. Pictures of these seaweeds will be published from below and above the water in a catalog form.

Besides fulfilling the food and nutrition needs of the indigenous people, these will be used as the raw materials of various industries including pharmaceuticals and cosmetics.

It has huge international demand so by exporting these, thousands of crores will be earned annually. It will make the country’s economy stronger.

Out of the 84 seaweeds identified by the Seaweed Research Team, 50 species of seaweeds are sold at high prices in various countries around the world.