July 1951 • COJMIRCIAL FISrlSRIiiS REVIEW 49 



Sweden 



TWO RUSSIAI^I STSAJA TRA1«LER3 LAUNCHED : The first two of four Russian steam 

 trawlers being built in Sureden have been launched in the latter country, states 

 the Kay 16 issue of Fiskaren . a Norwegian fishery periodical. Each vessel is 180 

 ft, long, will have a speed of 11.7 knots, and is equipped with a fish-meal plant 

 and canning equipment. A i^^-man crew will be carried. 



United Kingdom 



FROZEK FISH EXPORIB IKCHSASS ; '^uick -frozen fish exports by Grimsby and Hull 

 finas recently have shown a marked increase, both in hard and soft currency areas, 

 according to the May 26 issue of The Fishing News, a British fishery periodical. 

 The increases noted are particularly for exports to Australia, Israel, and the 

 United States. 



British fishery firms believe that this trade will continue to increase. 



* >«< % it< * 



P;JU3TRIAL POimTlALITIES ^ BROW SEAWEED ; Early in the 1940' s, the British 

 L'inistry of Supply established three factories in Scotland for the production of 

 certain types of non-inflammable camouflage material from seaweed. There are now 

 six British firms producing chemicals from brown and red seaweeds with a value of 

 £750,000 (USf2,100,525) per annum, according to an article in the May I95I issue 

 of a British pharmaceutical and fine chemical trade paper. The Manufacturing Chem- 

 ist , abstracted by a member of the American Embassy in London, 



The seaweed is generally harvested by hand, although some work has been done 

 on the development of a mechanical harvester and the extension of collecting fields 

 and processing techniques. Estimates place the amount of available littoral sea- 

 weed at 180,000 metric tons, with an additional 4,000,000 metric tons of economi- 

 cally harvestable seaweed existing below low-water mark. Studies of industrial 

 potentialities are based on an estimate of 1,000,000 metric tons (net weight) per 

 year. 



As early as 1721, seaweed was used in Scotland for the production of various 

 chemicals, beginning with sodium carbonate for the soap and glass industries and 

 shifting in about I860 to iodine and potassium salts. As the production of these 

 salts from other sources developed, the industry became inactive until about I934 

 when a corapany was formed to produce alginates from seaweed. 



Alginic acid is now the only chemical commercially produced from brown sea- 

 weed. Kannitol, laminarin, and fucoidin are other products also being investiga- 

 ted by the Scottish Seaweed Research Association, which is studying the possibili- 

 ties of seaweed Industrial develop ment . 



NOTE: ALSO SEE COMMERCIAL FISHERIES REVIEW . FEBRUARY 1951, P. 72. 



