48 SEP TEMBER 2022 • WORLD AQUACULTURE • WWW.WA S .ORG minutes for lunch and leaving the machine running unattended was guaranteed to result in a colossal train wreck and ending the drying process for that day. The dried sheets fell off the pads and passed through a metal detector, to ensure no metal contamination from the machine was embedded in the sheets. The sheets then entered an adjustable nori sheet counter that made batches of nori sheets for packaging, from 10 to 200 sheets per package. The nori stacks were placed into cardboard boxes for storage or roasting. The nori sheets had to be roasted before being sent to market. Coastal Plantations, Inc. made a small roaster from a discarded airplane meal warmer, more for demonstration than for producing marketable sheets. There was only one nori dryer in the western hemisphere (in San Diego) that was used to roast raw sheets shipped in from China or Korea. We sent our raw nori to this facility, where it was packaged for market. The Zen of Nori Sheet-Making In Japan, nori sheets are produced from December to March and sold at a bi-weekly auction run by Nori Goyami, a federal agency. Highly valued government graders inspected the boxes of nori sheets and gave them a rating that determines their value. During the 1990s, nori sheet values ranged from about US$0.01 to the Emperor grade of US$1.10 per sheet. Given that an average nori sheet maker/dryer could produce 14,000 sheets per hour one could see the economic potential of producing even lower-grade nori. Most ranged in at US$0.030.05, and these were marketed in the West. Among the factors included in the grading were size, thickness, holes, color, smell, texture, reflectability (shininess), taste, contaminants and solubility. Given the naivete of the Western market, CPI was just hoping to produce a sheet that could be comparable to those found in the Western markets. Nearly infinite variables affected the production of a good sheet. That is not an overstatement. The quality was affected first by the condition of the nori plant before it was harvested. The nori nets were spread horizontally on the surface, and covered many hectares. As I approached the system, I allowed the boat to drift among the nets, and let the nori “talk” to me. Healthy nori plants produce defenses that prevent diatoms from growing on their surfaces, so they are clean. The color should be rich, purple/ black, no paleness, 20-25 cm long (Fig. 7). The smell should be similar to a roasted nori sheet; I couldn’t think of anything comparable; if it smells the same as low tide, then there is trouble. Most often, the plants were challenged, even in the excellent growing conditions in Japan. Sunlight intensity and duration, rain, cloud cover, nutrient swings of too much or too little nitrogen, water temperature, water movement, flotsam and other seaweed contamination, single cell algae blooms, benthic diatom contamination, disease and fungal infections were only some of the factors that disrupted nori growth. One factor I did not have was the danger of volcanic eruptions; one scientist in Japan took considerable time to explain to me the lengths they had to go to protect the crop from certain “clouds.” Because of translation issues, it took me several days to determine what kind of cloud he was referring FIGURE 10. Sheet maker/dryer. FIGURE 11. First run sheet on bottom, later run sheet on top.
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