62 



Dr. Neushul. We had an international seaweed symposium at 

 Santa Barbara a couple of years ago where we had invited experts 

 from all around the world. We had about 900 attendees and there 

 was a Department of Energy representative who did attend those 

 meetings and, as far as I know, did listen to some of the presenta- 

 tions. 



Mr. Studds. You say they have been doing this in Japan since 

 the 18th century? 



Dr. Neushul. That is correct. 



Mr. Studds. That is probably considered primitive in the Depart- 

 ment of Energy. I assume that the sole purpose or the principal 

 purpose of the Japanese and Chinese production is for food? 



Dr. Neushul. Yes, that is correct, although they are interested 

 in biomass energy production and did form a study group which 

 came and visited this country, I believe, last year or the year 

 before. 



Mr. Studds. You introduced them to the giant kelp, did you? 



Dr. Neushul. No, I didn't talk to them. 



Mr. Studds. I assume that was a large part of their purpose, 

 from what you said. 



Dr. Neushul. I guess so. I know this happened but I didn't meet 

 any of the representatives of that study group. 



Mr. Studds. The California harvest you say is 160,000 wet tons. 

 What is that used for primarily? 



Dr. Neushul. The principal product of this is for alginates, 

 which are used as emulsifying agents in all sorts of things ranging 

 from cosmetics to beer to paints and pharmaceutical products, and 

 so on. 



Mr. Studds. The same product that comes from our Irish moss. 



Dr. Neushul. Yes, very similar. 



Mr. Studds. And we don't even satisfy the domestic demand for 

 that. 



Dr. Neushul. No, we don't. At the present time we are importing 

 kelp from Argentina and South Africa and other places. 



Mr. Studds. What accounts for the drop off, according to your 

 graph, in the last few years of the California kelp production? 



Dr. Neushul. I am not really sure. It could be a climatalogical 

 thing since these are wild populations. In the open beds, that is, 

 the ones shown at the bottom of the graph, it could be from 

 overharvesting. 



But since the harvesting takes only about 10 percent of the total 

 production it is pretty hard to say that overharvesting is damaging. 



Mr. Studds. You heard Dr. Ryther testify before you at the end 

 of his testimony. He injected something of a note of caution as to 

 not go too fast. I detect a great deal more enthusiasm on your part 

 than on his for ocean biomass in the near future. 



Dr. Neushul. I agree fully with what Dr. Ryther said. I think by 

 caution he is talking about a broadly based program where a 

 number of options are considered. I would be a little bit more 

 enthusiastic and proceed perhaps a bit more rapidly. 



Mr. Studds. Did you hear the testimony this morning from the 

 Department of Energy? 



Dr. Neushul. Yes, I did. 



