Seaweed industry is important in several countries including Malaysia, Japan, Indonesia, and the Philippines. The seaweed, Kappaphycus is widely used in a variety of food products as an excellent nutritional supplement. There are several stages in producing raw Kappaphycus for industry such as cultivation and harvest. Most of these steps follow a traditional way which has been practiced from one generation to another. As seaweed is part of the main ingredients in many final produce, its processing must incorporate cleanliness and quality aspect. Therefore, a focus on Halal is of utmost importance. Halal is a concept that stresses on shariah law and ensuring the utmost quality which benefits most producers especially in food and supplement products. However, the knowledge of Halal is still limited in marine production including seaweed. The seaweed process has gone through numerous stages yet none of them has been checked on its
Halalness aspect. This study is to deliberate on the aspect of Halalness for each stage involved, including cultivation and harvesting. To achieve this, observations and literature search were performed and findings showed that there is lack of hygienic practices in handling seaweed production. Therefore, conjoint initiatives among university-industry-government are needed to enhance the value proposition of the seaweed production as it complies with the concept of Halalness. This will contribute towards the development of Halal ecosystem from seed to harvest of quality seaweed production.
In the Kota Kinabalu coastal area, the episodic occurrences of harmful algal bloom (HAB) species had been reported more than a decade ago. But, the time of the occurrence and factors contributing to the occurrence are still inadequately understood. To fill the gap, a study using 4 years field data from 2007 to 2010 was conducted. Cell densities of two HAB species, physicochemical parameters such as temperature, salinity, pH and dissolved oxygen together with rainfall data, wind data and general influence of ENSO episodes were taken into account to identify the most probable factors that trigger the occurrence of HAB species in the Kota Kinabalu coastal waters. From the analysis, C. polykrikoides blooms after 1 to 2 days of rain and significantly high nutrient concentrations were recorded during the blooms. Other physicochemical parameters were almost the same during the bloom and non-bloom events. Climate phenomena like ENSO (El Niño Southern Oscillation) affected the occurrence of P. bahamense var. compressum and C. polykrikoides. P. bahamense var. compressum occurred during El Niño due to high salinity and no blooms were recorded during La Niña. This indicates that unusual climate condition suppressed the bloom formation. The results gained from this study provide important information in managing HAB species particularly in the Kota Kinabalu coastal area.