Blooming good results
Researcher, Eoin Gillespie, told Tom Kennedy that there is a lot to be gained by harvesting algal blooms.
Eoin Gillespie, and above, algae are an important part of the ocean’s phytoplankton. Below, algal blooms showing up in satellite images like this one captured by NASA’s Aqua in 2006. an established practice. “This is being done at a fairly large scale using lights, polythene bags and temperature control.” The cultures are seeded from carefully selected strains, and as Eoin explained, researchers are spoiled for choice. There are many different types of algae around the Irish coast, many of which have not yet been described. Often, the substances that are of most value to us are the chemicals produced in response to stress. When cultured on an industrial scale, imposing stress, can bring up the yield. Science has always been important to Eoin. “At home I was always watching programmes about science,” he said. How did that go down? “Rather well,” he remarked. “My father is a laboratory technician.” Eoin is interested in algae, but, as he explained, his first love is chromatography. This is the analytical technique that reveals the detailed chemical composition of any sample, and in this case, the samples are coming from algae. As a technique chromatography has come a long way in the past few years, and Eoin first became hooked on it while studying science at DCU. At college, he said, the focus was on fundamental science, and while he found this satisfying, his real wish was to begin applying this knowledge. Through the IRCSET Enterprise Partnership Scheme, Eoin realised that ambition. Working on algae could keep Eoin busy for a long time to come, but as he remarked, “chromatography is always going to be my first call.”
A
s satellite views of the Atlantic show, blooms of algae, produced by explosive growth of these tiny single celled organisms, are quite common. There are many species of algae, some producing the red tides that are a worry to shellfisheries, but others are a potential source of food and chemicals. At Letterkenny, Eoin Gillespie is among those working on algae at the Institute of Technology. “They do a lot of marine research at Letterkenny,” he said, and algae are of big interest, and not just because of their high growth rate. Compared to their body mass, said Eoin, algae produce a very high amount of oils. “These are fatty acids, and they range from short chains to more complex forms such as Omega 3.” “People often eat fish for these oils,” he said, “but the fish don’t actually makes these oils, they come from algae.” So, why not go to the source direct, and this indeed is what the researchers at Letterkenny aim to do. “Our interest is in cutting out the middle-man,” said Eoin. This is just one of the benefits that we can expect to get from paying more attention to algae. “People are looking at them for possible bio-diesel production, and at the moment, algae are being cultivated to provide feed for fish and shellfish hatcheries.” The fact that algae can bloom, also means that it is relatively easy to grow these organisms in bulk. For fish farm feed, this is already
SCIENCE SPIN Issue 47 Page 15