Controversy in Cobscook
Acadia seaplant truck, boats, and harvesters offloading rockweed at Lubec. The harvests have recently been controversial. Debate centers around the harvest's sustainability, the role of rockweed in the ecosystem, and increased demand for the resource. Acadia Sea Plants photo
“This is the one fishing industry I’ve been involved with where we’ve had the opportunity to create regulations that are pro-active rather than reactive. The Maine Seaweed Council (MSC) spearheaded the campaign to place current rules, focusing on rockweed landings data and the establishment of the Seaweed Management Fund, on the books in 2000,” said Lee Hudson, president of the Maine Seaweed Council.
“Commercial rockweed harvesting is not an emerging fishery, it’s not uncharted territory. There has been commercial-scale rockweed harvesting worldwide for over 70 years, and along the coast of Maine for at least 40 years,” said Hudson.
World markets for rockweed exist in 70 countries. Rockweed differs from other seaweeds because it is harvested as a value-added commodity for use in agricultural products, and is indigenous to the intertidal zone.
In Maine (2008) 11,681,312 wet lbs. of rockweed, valued at $233,894 ex-vessel, were landed by 58 active rockweed harvesters, with the largest rockweed landings in Washington and Lincoln Counties. (DMR statistics).
The 2008 combined Maine seaweed landings (all species) totaled 12,251,425 wet lbs., $369,508 ex-vessel value, with 76 active seaweed harvesters reported. Maine seaweed landings were unrecorded before 1964 and reporting before 2000 was voluntary.
Rockweed flourishes in intertidal zones, fanning out in dark canopies. It is prime habitat for periwinkles, crabs, invertebrates, and a feeding source for various species, and therefore a critical component of the ecosystem. Sea urchins live in subtidal kelp, not intertidal rockweed.
Supporters of a rockweed harvesting moratorium – some of whom support a complete moratorium on all seaweed harvests – include groups and individuals.
The Maine Rockweed Coalition (MRC) supports a harvesting moratorium, until research examines the full effects of harvesting upon on the ecosystem. Intertidal seaweed forms a protective barrier between land and sea.
Cobscook Bay Fishermen’s Association members worry rockweed harvesting will adversely affect restoration projects for their scallop fishery.
The environmental director for the Passamaqoddy supports the proposed moratorium, as do concerned land owners, including Quoddy Regional Land Trust, Tide Mill Farm, and owners of a combined 20 miles of waterfront on Cobscook Bay. Deeds state ownership extends to the low-water mark – the intertidal rockweed harvesting zone.
The Maine Rockweed Coalition, headed by Robin Hadlock Seeley, Shoals Marine Laboratory at Cornell University and UNH, maintains that harvesting devastates critical multi-species habitat, that Canadian processors should stay out of Maine, and that harvesters are guilty of fishing down the food chain. www.rockweedcoalition.org
“We shouldn’t consider a moratorium on one of the very few sustainable fisheries in Maine,” Hudson insists. “It is impossible to study the effects of harvest if you can't harvest.” Data indicates the rockweed resource is resilient. Nevertheless, the stereotyping of rockweed harvesters as irresponsible cowboys has circulated into the mainstream, giving them an undeserved black eye, say some.
“If you take research that’s been done and ‘cherry-pick’ it, you can make it look like anything you want,” said Hudson. “In testimony before the legislature I’ve heard everything from ‘there’s been no research done’ to the questioning of widely accepted statistical methods.”
Members of Maine’s Seaweed Council say information provided by those outside their industry is wildly inaccurate and is the cause of many arguments.
In 2008 and 2009, a contingency of harvesting moratorium supporters, seaweed companies and the DMR, cruised Cobscook Bay to see firsthand the results of harvesting. According to Lee Hudson, “They were unable to locate areas in the bay which were reportedly over-harvested. No citations and only one warning – harvesting in an off-limit area – were issued in either year.”
The MSC believes Dr. Jill Fegley’s work was taken out of context and used to fuel arguments supporting a harvesting moratorium. Though Fegley now works with North Carolina Coastal Reserve & National Estuarine Research Reserve, her ties to rockweed research remain strong. As a Maine Sea Grant legislative fellow and doctoral candidate, Fegley worked with Dr. Robert Vadas of UMaine’s Marine Biology Dept. researching rockweed for 12 years.
Research funding sources included Maine/New Hampshire Sea Grant Program and Maine's Seaweed Management Fund. This work included policy and management development for rockweed. Senator Olympia Snowe commended Fegley’s work, nominating her for NOAA’s Walter B. Jones Award.
“There is no indication any immediate or significant threat exists to the resource or habitat that justify the need for a moratorium on rockweed harvesting.” wrote Fegley in Commercial Fisheries News (6/09). Robin Hadlock Seeley later published opposing views in CFN. (March, 2010.)
In 1995, Maine’s Seaweed Industry established their own council. Founding member, Susan Domizi, said their membership of 22 includes researchers, harvesters, DMR associates, small and large scale companies and processors who work closely with the DMR.
The MSC’S Harvesters Guide- lines to Maine Seaweeds states, “any form of harvesting, regardless of method of harvest, should undergo careful scrutiny to verify that it is an environmentally concerned, ecological and sustainable method.”
Marine Biologist, Dr. Raul Ugarte of Acadian Seaplants, LTD., NB Canada, and MSC member, assisted the DMR in developing management plans, which includes scientific data on stocks, and assessment methods that employ satellite and aerial photography.
Ugarte’s work established the sector management model adopted by the MSC in 2005, and now sanctioned by the DMR, which supports improved management, including monitoring. For 2009 harvest plans – www.maine.gov/dmr
North American Kelp Company has harvested for 30 years out of Waldoboro. Hudson said, “If they weren’t harvesting sustainably, they’d be out of business by now.” Robert Morse of North American Kelp recently offered $5,000 to support further research on resource assessment, utilizing updated satellite technology. Current assessment methods include satellite and aerial photography, each with ground-truthing.
In February 2010, the Rockweed Research Symposium was co-sponsored by the MSC, Maine DMR, and Sea Grant. Representatives of the rockweed industry, research community and public resource managers met to address issues.
Plans were established to summarize what is known about the rockweed resource: ecology and habitat, effects of harvesting on the marine environment and other species, socio-economic impacts of rockweed harvesting, and identifying research priorities.
“We are fellow fishermen not outsiders, as dependent on our ability to harvest rockweed as our fellow fishermen are to catch shellfish, lobsters and periwinkles,” said Hudson.
“Why does all our energy have to go into battle rather than science? It’s like combating fiction,” groaned an MSC member. A familiar phrase repeated at fisheries meetings throughout the entire industry.