Abstract

                                It is well known that sea-weeds are valuable as manure for agricultural crops besides the importance of certain varieties as food and as raw-materials for the extraction of agar agar. In Madras Presidency sea-weeds are washed ashore on the coasts of Palk-Strait and Gulf of Mannar during the period from May to October. The chief varieties of sea-weeds washed ashore are: Gracillaria spp., Sargassum spp., and Turbinaria sp. Though accurate statistics of the quantity of sea-weeds washed ashore are not available at present, it may be of interest here to point out that the quantity of sea-weeds washed in the jurisdiction of the three Fish Curing Yards, Sethubhavachathram, 1945) Idinthakarai and Ovari, during the year (July, 1944 to June 1945) amounted to 120 tons. This will indicate a comparative idea of the abundance of sea-weeds washed ashore in the Coast line, from Pt. Calimere to Cape Comorina distance of about 250 miles.

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