Seaweed Farming in Bali

Seaweed farming

Traditional seaweed farming can still be found in some areas in Bali, Nusa Penida, Lembongan and in Kutuh village in the South. Major usage of this type of Carrageenan tropical seaweed (Eucheuma Cottoni) is widely utilized in the food industry such as agar agar. Thatched bamboo huts where sea farmers work, lined up along the beautiful white sandy beach, one of Bali’s “secret” beaches. Although the areas south of Nusa Dua have been transformed into touristic villas and hotels thus casting aside many traditional sea farmers, the pristine coastal village of Kutuh towards Timbis with its lovely cliffs have been spared and today protected for sustainable living. These villagers are poor and due to their poverty stricken land, many have switched to cultivating the local seaweed to earn their living and some have been working for more than twenty years. Depending on the planting and harvesting which can be daily, the villagers would come spend the day in their working huts, replanting and harvesting seaweed in shallow water mostly in the morning and towards late afternoon at low tide.