Abstract

Substantial amounts of Macrocystis and Lessonia are traditionally harvested and exported from Chile as raw material for alginate. Because of intense mariculture of abalone (Haliotis ssp.), herbivorous molluscs that feed on brown kelps, pressure on local populations of Macrocystis and Lessonia has increased to critical levels within the past 5 years, strongly supporting efforts to produce algae maricultured biomass. Here, we present our results on the development of new techniques for large-scale kelp mariculture in Chile. We have abandoned the traditional technique of direct spore seeding onto inoculation lines. Instead, we used gametophyte cultures that were manipulated to enter gametogenesis and to produce synchronous batches of 104-10 5 embryos. Juvenile sporophytes were cultured under permanent aeration and agitation, floating unattached in contamination-free glass bottles up to 10 L, plexiglass cylinders and 800 L greenhouse tanks. When holdfast initials were formed at a size of 8 cm, the sporophytes were spliced into Nylon rope fragments and transferred to the sea. Twelve months after initiation of gametogenesis in the laboratory, Macrocystis pyrifera attained 14 m length and 80 kg fresh weight m-1 line in the sea. For Lessonia trabeculata 6 months after gametogenesis initiation, 0.25 kg fresh weight m-1 was attained in the sea. © 2005 Blackwell Publishing Ltd.