The experiments took place at Flame

The experiments took place at Flamenco Bay, 390 km north of Coquimbo, under the authority of Cultivos Marinos Flamenco S.A. Company (26‹34Œ40 S; Fig. 1). Transfers of juvenile sporophytes to the sea were conducted by two methods. For the first (indirect) method, the initial cultivated ropes (3 mm o) were tied around 2-m nylon support lines (10 mm o), as mentioned by Gutierrez et al. (2006) for the same species in southern Chile. For the second (direct) method, the initial 3-mm o cultivated ropes were divided into units of 2 m in length and placed directly into the sea without a nylon support line. For both types of cultivation, the ropes were placed vertically along the surface of the sea, each separated by 1 m, in an arrangement similar to a long-line cultivation system. The ropes were transferred to the sea monthly from May (autumn) to October (spring) 2007. Every month, 20 ropes were prepared and transferred to the long-line system for each type of cultivation (indirect and direct). Every 30 days, all ropes were retrieved from the sea and weighed individually (wet weight) in order to record the total biomass (kg m.1; n=20). In addition, one individual sporophyte was randomly selected from each rope (n=20) and the maximum length (cm) recorded. The final lengths and total produced biomass were analyzed separately using two-way ANOVA in order to evaluate the effects of both systems and the time of cultivation (month of seeding). Prior to the analyses, the data were tested for normality and homoscedasticity. Any differences were then examined using the Tukeyfs post hoc
test.