Rathlin to supply kelp to Japan after Fukushima

A small island off the north coast of Ireland has emerged as an unlikely potential supplier of edible seaweed to Japan — a country whose own stocks have been hit by the Fukushima nuclear disaster.

A mother and son team from Rathlin are trying to exploit the gap in the market caused by the contamination of the waters around the ruptured reactor.

Kate Burns and her son Benji McFaul are growing thousands of tonnes of kelp on ropes that extend out from the shoreline into the sea.