I talked recently with a consultant who specialized in food sovereignty and security work and they didn’t see the industry as fully developed as mariculture for muscles and clams. Seafood Processing facilities are wary preparing it for market and prefer to stick to what they know. Allegedly there was only a single grower in my state who was reliably turning a profit without major subsidies. Perhaps its more developed in Europe and this is less applicable.

Also, seaweed is at the bottom of the food chain -> lots of biomass supported by the ecosystem, less chance of accumulating anything toxic.

“Europe produces 0,2% of algae in the world,” he said. "But we import 500 million worth of algae every year.

Yup. I like seaweed, but most of the seaweed I like comes from Asia. Transporting it from far is not a smart move.