Rockweed Armageddon? Listen to scientist Robin Hadlock Seeley speak and take questions on the threat to our intertidal seaweed forests from increased mechanized harvesting & lack of no-take areas.

Conservationists and Maine's seaweed industry are clashing over whether to leave natural rockweed forests uncut in the intertidal zone off protected private shores - when the landowner wishes so - or to allow all rockweed forests along the Maine coast to be open to harvest under state regs. Things are coming to a head. Info www.rockweedcoalition.org 

Below listen to eminent conservationist  and academic researcher Robin Hadlock Seeley speaking at the February 4, 2015 meeting of

 the Friends of Penobscot Bay in Belfast, Maine.

     Robin  describes rockweed, its harvest & use, how the Maine Department of Marine Resources won't manage it  to conserve fish and shellfish habitat,&what the Maine Legislature may do. Then takes questions from FOPB and from several members of the seaweed processing industry!  All recordings are downloadable mp3s.
RECORDINGS  (MP3S)
* Robin Hadlock Seeley presentation 15 minutes
* Question & Answer session Part 1. 4min 15sec
* Q&A Part 2. 4min 15sec
* Q&A Part 3. 4min 23sec
* Q&A Part 4. 5min 7sec
* Q&A Part 5  5min 42sec

Maine seaweed harvesting bill Legislature hears for and against

Audio of speakers.On March 20, 2013, the Maine legislature's Marine Resources Committee heard three and a half hours of testimony on LD 585 An Act To Require the Development of a Statewide Approach to Seaweed Management. 

Summary: "This bill...directs the Commissioner of Marine Resources to develop a fisheries management plan for a consistent approach to the management of seaweed harvesting throughout the State and to report to the Joint Standing Committee on Marine Resources no later than January 31, 2014."

Audio recordings of  speakers at the LD 585 hearing (mp3s). 

See misspelled names? Send corrections to coastwatch@gmail.com

* Introduction by bill sponsor Rep Winchenbach 2min 7sec

* Rep Catherine Cassidy 5min 14sec

* DMR Commissioner Pat Keliher 6min 57sec

* Dennis Damon 14minutes

* Tom Abello The Nature Conservancy 2min 38sec

* Jeff Romano, MCHT  3min30sec

* Jeff Erhart 6min 40sec

* Raoul Ugarte Acadian Seaplants 7min 53sec

* Brian Beal UMaine 12min 31sec

* Bimbo Look 5min 32sec

* Robert Morse 8min 22sec

* Max Vinal 1min 15sec

* Doug Wood 12min 38sec

* Nancy Prentiss  13min 28sec

* Ivy Frignoca CLF 5min 10sec

* Sonny Beal 3min 32sec

* John Huff 1min 50sec

* Tom Boutureira 10min 3sec

* Karen Robbins 2min 55sec

* Carl Ross 9min 45sec

* Richard Hoyt, Fundy Audubon 2min

* Betsy Brown 3min 2sec

* Robin Hadlock Seeley 17min 22sec

* Herb Wilson, Colby College 4min 50sec

* Susan Denizi 5min

* Pete Bixler 2min 56sec

* David Myslawoski 7min 43sec

* Larch Hansen 8min 2sec

* Sebastian Belle MAA 1min 48sec

* Tolof Olson 3min 37sec

* Sara Rudman Seagrant to End 2min 16sec

END OF PUBLIC HEARING