Islanders of Cuaming will soon have more areas for seaweed farming.

This, after a team headed by Provincial Agriculturist Lizaq Quirog, accompanied by a dive master, conducted an underwater survey and data collection in the seawaters of Inabanga.

Aside from Quirog and Provincial Agriculture Office personnel, Bohol Provincial Fishery Office, Fisheries Improved for Sustainable Harvest (FISH) Project and divers rounded up the team. They explored five areas, namely: northeast and southeast of Cuaming Island, Southeast of Cuaming Island, East of Cuaming Island, Northeast of Babag Islet and East of Magcalingao Islet.

Fishery technicians Elvissa Anunciado and Tian Cempron served as their local guides.

The team took water parameters like temperature, current, turbidity, depth, salinity and topography.

Seaweeds or guso in shallow waters make for the collection of debris that might choke them, making them vulnerable to environmental stress and climate changes.

However, BFAR and PAO in demonstration trials conducted found that the seaweeds planted in deep seawaters showed positive results.

This underwater exploration will pave the way for additional hectares of suitable sites for deep sea seaweeds farming as Bohol’s current direction is to establish 24,000 hectares of seaweed plantation to sustain the production of biofuel as proposed by Biolsystems Co., Inc, an investor from South Korea.

The data will be consolidated and analyzed to form part of the scientific basis for the site selection for the massive production of seaweeds.