Horizon Seaweed

Happy Halloween to the seaweed community, from everyone at Horizon Seaweed! 🎃 🎃 🎃 🎃 🎃 🎃 🎃 🎃

Our latest article in the Our Coast series is now up on horizonseaweed.com! https://lnkd.in/esSygdcQ This post is on our harvest site at Keiss on the east coast of Caithness. Most of the foreshore is flat, providing a lot of area for seaweed to grow. It's a 200m walk to reach the low water mark of spring tides in parts. It has an excellent degree of exposure - not too rough, not too sheltered - that allows a range of species to thrive. The ruins of Keiss Castle overlook the northern end of the site and coastal defences installed in WWII can be found on the sandy beach to the south. We also cover the approach we took to estimate the volume of seaweed on the site when we brought Keiss into licence nearly ten years ago. Calculating the biomass of seventeen different species over several miles of shoreline is no easy task. The first two in the Our Coast series were sites on the north coast of Caithness: Ness of Duncansby (https://lnkd.in/e84FhFdg) and Brough (https://lnkd.in/eqikkZRm). #seaweed #harvest #wild #marine #survey #Caithness #Scotland

Our latest Species Spotlight article is available to read now at https://lnkd.in/exGXvNFU - this one focuses on the magnificent red seaweed dulse (Palmaria palmata). Dulse is one of the few species found in the North Atlantic that has name recognition thanks to traditional and emerging applications. Indeed, it has many names: dillisk or duileasc in Irish Gaelic and söl or søl in Scandinavian languages. Our blog provides insight into harvesting dulse. The season is in full swing, with another autumn spring tide currently keeping the team busy. We actually harvested our 400th batch of dulse last month. This is more than any other species we have produced, because we will often split teams across different sites to maximise intake of this small but highly prized seaweed. Read our post for more! #dulse #palmaria #seaweed #wild #harvest #speciesspotlight #insight

Horizon Seaweed is pleased to announce that we have opened a new funding round. Our aim is to secure new investors aligned with our mission to be Europe’s leading seaweed supplier. Access our deck right now via the Angel Investment Network: https://lnkd.in/eJgMjgXQ (account required to view full pitch). Alternatively, send our team an email at info@horizonseaweed.com for deck and financials. Go to our website (www.horizonseaweed.com) to find out about the variety of species we offer and our expertise on producing high quality seaweed for a range of B2B markets.   #seaweed #invest

We are fortunate to be enjoying stunning weather here in the north of Scotland this week: we might be the warmest part of the UK today! Feeling like the last moments of summer. This fine weather comes with high air pressure, which usually has two important benefits for seaweed harvesting: calm seas and lower water heights. This is also coinciding with the current supermoon, which is when the moon is closest to the Earth (known as lunar perigee). The small extra gravitational pull helps to create very strong tides. The combined effect of the high pressure and spring tide mean that the height of low water will be close to chart datum in the coming days (0.0m) - very exciting for us seaweed harvesters! This may be the peak week for dulse picking, with long exposures of the low shore and even the opportunity to venture down into the subtidal. Daylength reduces after September and starts to constrain the harvests over the rest of autumn. To corrupt a familiar idiom: let's harvest dulse while the sun shines! #seaweed #dulse #harvest #wild #tide #supermoon

It is August and that means it is time to start the dulse season! Our harvest team have made a big push during the strong spring tides this week in the far north of Scotland, with incredible results... Monday: New all-time record for single dulse harvest! 💪 Tuesday: Monday's new record broken! 💪💪 Wednesday: Tuesday's new record broken! 💪💪💪 We recently implemented some changes and it's great to see such a transformational shift in harvest volumes. Onwards and upwards! #seaweed #dulse #harvest #wild #organic

Our latest Species Spotlight is available to read now at www.horizonseaweed.com... this time featuring channelled wrack (Pelvetia canliculata). This upper shore species is often overlooked and has a story worth telling. Some might think we have gone a bit 'wrack heavy' with our first three subjects of the Species Spotlight series. However, I feel that these are seaweeds are sometimes lumped together, to the extent that people don't appreciate what solutions each can provide. While there are many similarities (for channelled wrack, the mineral content is broadly similar to Fucus species), there are interesting differences to highlight. The fatty acid content is a great example. We worked with the Environmental Research Institute in Thurso, part of UHI, to analyse nutrients in eight of the species we produce in Caithness. Uthman Badmus, PhD did a great job on the analysis, finding that channelled wrack had the highest fat content of those tested. It actually contains oleic acid (which you'll know from olive oil) and omega-6 fatty acids (including essential linoleic acid). Read our blog to find out more! https://lnkd.in/ewc6Zwfy #seaweed #wrack #Pelvetia

Our third article in our Species Spotlight series is now up on www.horizonseaweed.com (https://lnkd.in/ewc6Zwfy). Following on from our blogs on spiral wrack and toothed wrack, our latest post is on a related brown seaweed: channelled wrack (or Pelvetia canaliculata). This species is found at the top very top of the intertidal zone, which means it is the first seaweed you find when walking down onto the shore. Channelled wrack is a small seaweed at just 10-15cm long, which makes it slow to harvest. The high wet-to-dry yields help compensate to harvest cost. Interesting components in this species are of particular interest in cosmetic applications, with anti-ageing, moisturising and regenerating properties reported. #seaweed #wrack #Pelvetia #sustainable #harvest #insight #cosmetics #speciesspotlight

The Horizon Seaweed team is pleased to announce that we are under new ownership. Caherush Enterprises Limited acquired the assets of New Wave Foods Limited on 19th June 2024. The director and owner is Evan Talty, who is one of the founders of Wild Irish Seaweeds (https://lnkd.in/gtneau6W). With over 15 years’ experience in the global seaweed market, Caherush Enterprises expertise will ensure Horizon Seaweed can achieve our vision of a flourishing seaweed supply business from our base in Wick in the far north of Scotland.   All of the Horizon Seaweed staff have transferred to the new company, with Peter Elbourne moving to the position of CEO. We look forward to embracing the exciting new opportunities ahead for Horizon Seaweed. Further information is available on our website:   https://lnkd.in/gQ-nn8Wi #seaweed

🌿 June 4th is International Seaweed Day! According to the internet, today is also: 🐕 - Corgi Day (as in the royal dog breed!) 🐃 - International Ungulate Awareness Day (that's mammals with hooves!) 🍍 - Pineapple Day (self explanatory) 🛒 - Shopping Cart Day (really!?!) Here's hoping #seaweed stands out from the crowd today! p.s. where's our seaweed emoji?!?! Leaves don't cut it 😀