F R O M   T H E   C R O W E ’ S   N E S T

Coexistence Through Cooperation



The recent decision by the Maine Supreme Court regarding rockweed in the intertidal zone may be less than the final word on a debate that has been going on since 1641. The decision, which says rockweed, like trees on the land, are the property of the upland landowner, leaves plenty open to debate.

Not a tree, rockweed is an organism that gets sustenance from the sea and the sun. It holds onto rocks to remain in its habitat — the intertidal zone. The debate in court revolved, somewhat bizarrely, around whether or not rockweed was a fish. The law in Maine for centuries has stated that the intertidal zone, though private, is in the public trust and open to public access regarding fishing, fowling and navigation.

No one ever believed rockweed would take a baited hook, could be taken with a 12 gauge or rowed back to shore.

The State of Maine has allowed individuals and corporations to harvest rockweed with a permit. Landowners and others have long complained that some harvesters were unsustainably leaving too little of the rockweed attached to the rocks. Residents of Ireland have made the same complaint about Acadia Seaplants, Ltd. of Canada.

As international industrial-scale demand for rockweed for fertilizer and animal feed has increased, companies have sought to harvest more sections of the Maine coast.

The plaintiffs in Ross v Acadia Seapants, Ltd. mounted a very expensive legal effort. Three years in court with a top-shelf Portland and Washington D.C. law firm against a wealthy international corporation could mean having to sell quite a bit of rockweed from their Pembroke lot.

The funding of the lawsuit is less about sustainable harvests than about public trust commons versus private property. Backing privatization and the Maine court case were groups like the Property and Environment Research Center, (PERC) and the Pacific Legal Foundation. They describe themselves as free-market environmentalists and private property boosters — the environment as commodity. The deep-pocketed Environmental Defense Fund helped fund and facilitate the privatization of the groundfish resource through catch shares and tradable groundfish quota.

Will corporate agreements with landowners exclude small-scale rockweed harvesters? Shared public responsibility for the commons has a very long and successful track record in human history.

Maine lobstermen recently petitioned to be included in the process that is laying down aquaculture property lines on traditional lobster bottom. Coexistence through cooperation.