 The Caribbean Regional Fisheries Mechanism, CRFM and the New Zealand Institute of Plant and Food Research are embarking on a project entitled, Sargassum Products for Climate Resilience in the Caribbean. It is aimed at mitigating the economic and environmental impacts of Sargassum influx in St Lucia and other affected Caribbean countries through the creation of inclusive value chains from Sargassum biomass. Communities along the east coast of St Lucia have been particularly impacted by the Sargassum. A team from the New Zealand Institute of Plant and Food Research along with representatives from CRFM visited St Lucia last week for consultations with stakeholders who have been working with Sargassum or are interested in working with it. Sarita Williams-Peter is St Lucia's Chief Fisheries Officer. These individuals did a phase one initiative where they took samples of Sargassum throughout the Caribbean and they took a look at the chemical composition of the Sargassum. What's in the Sargassum? What's there that could be beneficial for food, etc. So they broke it down into its basic parts to know what's there, what's possible, what's the nutritional content, etc. Are there anything toxic, etc. The Chief Fisheries Officer stated that following this initial phase, researchers came up with ideas on how the Sargassum seaweed can be used based on what's in it. They narrowed down their first 23 options into three basic options but even more two, particularly for the Caribbean and that is to use the Sargassum as fertilizer and as building material. So what they did is they came to St Lucia and they're going to a few other Caribbean countries to find out what is the situation in the country, who are the possible partners or entrepreneurs that will be interested in taking on that technology to further with it and the interests of the country. And you can imagine St Lucia is very interested in looking at the use of Sargassum for commercial purposes. In light of this, meetings were headed the parliamentary representative of the worst affected communities, Fisher 4 Cooperatives and some entrepreneurs to help conceptualize how the Sargassum can be used in a beneficial manner. From the information unit of the Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries, Food Security and Rural Development, I'm Ryan O'Brien.