Lamor's innovative solution boosts productivity and safety in the Maldives

Challenge

The traditional method of harvesting seaweed is slow, inefficient, and in some cases dangerous for divers, hindering productivity and safety. The old way to harvest seaweed for food is for divers to swim to the sea floor and cut the plants by hand. The plants either float to the surface on their own or need to be carried, where they are collected on board a vessel.

This method is slow, inefficient and in some cases dangerous for the divers. A seaweed farmer in the Maldives wanted a better solution and contacted Lamor to find another solution.

Solution

Lamor’s GTA pumps are submersible Archimedes screw pumps. They were developed with the idea of being a multi-purpose pump to be used in oil spill response activities, emergency offloading of oil, tank cleaning, pipeline maintenance or sludge removal. However, the Maldives entrepreneur and Lamor wondered if these versatile pumps could be used for harvesting seaweed. This was not in the engineers’ minds when they designed the GTA pumps, but they soon realised this could be a perfect application.

The pumps’ smooth pumping action and easy flow was created to not emulsify oily water, but it also would not damage fragile seaweed. The compact pumps were constructed with light, seawater resistant aluminium – weighing from 25-49 kilos (55-108 lbs.) – and could be easily manoeuvred by divers on the sea floor. The GTA pumps have a cutting knife fitted on the inlet to slice ropes or other debris in oil spills, but that knife could also cut seaweed.

The GTA pumps were designed with the high criteria required for emergency response operations, but these qualities also made the pumps perfect for other applications we never even considered originally, like harvesting seaweed, says Fred Larsen, Executive Board Member at Lamor.

Impact

The Maldives seaweed farmer was able to dramatically increase his productivity and efficiency by using a Lamor GTA pump. Safety was also improved, as divers did not have to remain submerged for such a long time. The repurposing of the pumps presents a new and innovative way to harvest seaweed, potentially revolutionizing the seaweed farming industry.