With our community so close to the coast, people in the Hebrides regularly cross paths with the wide variety of nautical life. What you may not know is that 50% to 80% of all the life on our planet can be found in marine ecosystems. For businesses and communities that make a living on or […]
By: Jean-Pierre Brien, Projects Director, Europe Life in a rural island community is a unique and rewarding experience. The proximity to nature and close communal bonds with your neighbours is unimaginable for most people who call big city centers home, after experiencing it first-hand I wouldn’t trade it for anything. However, the fact that this […]
By: Jean-Pierre Brien, Project Manager at Uist Asco. I’ve been thinking about the role of a company in a small community lately as I have now been living in North Uist for almost 4 years. I work at Uist Asco, a seaweed processing and harvesting operation, that’s located in North Uist in […]
By: Charles Alexander Cameron The collection of seaweed and the manufacture of “kelp” was at its height around 1815 and was a significant source of income to the local landowners and to the crofters who collected the seaweed and paid their rent with it. Minerals extracted from the seaweed were used for various processes, including […]
Seaweed has long been part of the crofting and rural lifestyle in the Outer Hebrides, rural Ireland and rural Canada. It has been widely used to turn the rocky, wind swept, infertile shores into small oases where residents used the seaweed to grow their own food to sustain their families. Later, as seaweed-based industries emerged […]