A Reading Path Down a Rabbit Hole: Seaweed Women of Rameshwaram
Selected conversations, interviews and profiles about the women harvesting seaweed in Southern India
Profiles and interviews
- The Rise and Fall of a Commercial Seaweed – and a Community’s Fortunes With It (Written by Monika Mondal, published by the Science: The Wire India on March 25, 2023)
- The world’s fastest-growing source of food (Written by Meenakshi J, published on BBC on December 15, 2020)
- The Indian villagers growing ‘eco-miracle’ seaweed to boost livelihoods and cut carbon
- Socio-economic assessment of seaweed farmers in Tamil Nadu - A case study in Ramanathapuram District (research paper, s: Ramani Narayanakumar, M. Krishanan, published on October 2013 in the Indian Journal of Fisheries)
- Successful Seaweed Harvests Empower Women in Coastal Villages in Tamil Nadu (on Amma, May 6, 2024)
- In-depth view of the Erode Bhavanisagar Centre for Sustainable Aquaculture
- Living Off The Sea: Seaweed Harvesting at India’s Southern Tip (on India Water Portal, written by Dr. Vikram Aditya and Aditi Sajwan on June 12, 2025)
- Women show the way as India pushes ‘eco-miracle’ seaweed (in Arab News, written by AFP on October 28, 2021)
- Seaweed farming helps women become independent in southern India
Quotes & images
“Kappaphycus alvarezii is an important source of carrageenans – which are used in a variety of foods, such as a stabilising agent in dairy products. Industrial products like chocolates, ice creams, packaged food, toothpaste and even medicines, to name a few, utilise this jelly-like agent.”
“But the discovery of large quantities of dead seaweed deep in ocean-floor sediments has shown that when seaweed dies, much of it is swept out to the ocean, eventually sinking to the seafloor where its carbon is locked-up in sediments. As a result, seaweed cultivation has been identified as a carbon sink that could help mitigate climate change”
