Farming of eucheumatoid seaweeds is a widespread, promising activity and an important livelihood option in many tropical coastal areas as for example in East Africa, Western Indian Ocean (WIO). Compared to other types of aquaculture, seaweed farming has generally low impact on the environment. Nonetheless, there are potential direct or indirect negative effects of seaweed farming, such as introduction of alien species and changes in local environmental conditions. Although farming has been practiced in this region during several decades, the knowledge concerning the actual environmental impacts from faming non-native eucheumatoid haplotypes and consequently how to manage farming activities to mitigate those is highly limited. In this review, we provide a summary of the current scientific knowledge of potential direct and indirect negative environmental effects linked to eucheumatoid seaweed farming such as alterations of benthic macrophyte habitats and loss of native biodiversity. Furthermore, we highlight knowledge gaps that are of importance to address in the near future, e.g., large-scale ecosystem effects and farms as potential vectors of pathogens. We also provide a number of feasible management recommendations to be implemented for a continued development of environmentally sustainable seaweed farming practices in the WIO region, which includes spatial planning of farms to avoid sensitive areas and farming of native haplotypes of eucheumatoids instead of introduced specimens.

在许多热带沿海地区，例如在东非、西印度洋 (WIO)，种植类海藻是一项广泛而有前景的活动和重要的生计选择。与其他类型的水产养殖相比，海藻养殖对环境的影响普遍较小。尽管如此，海藻养殖仍存在潜在的直接或间接负面影响，例如引入外来物种和当地环境条件的变化。尽管几十年来该地区已经进行了农业生产，但有关著名的非本地 eucheumatoid 单倍型的实际环境影响以及因此如何管理农业活动以减轻这些影响的知识非常有限。在本次审查中，我们提供了当前科学知识的摘要，这些科学知识与类海藻养殖相关的潜在直接和间接负面环境影响，例如底栖大型植物栖息地的改变和原生生物多样性的丧失。此外，我们强调了在不久的将来需要解决的重要知识差距，例如大规模生态系统影响和农场作为病原体的潜在载体。我们还提供了一些可行的管理建议，以便在 WIO 地区继续发展环境可持续的海藻养殖实践，其中包括对农场进行空间规划，以避免敏感区域和种植原生单倍型的 eucheumatoids 而不是引入的标本。