Maine Coast News FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE US government bans cutting of seaweeds in three coastal wildlife refuges on Maine coast. PETIT MANAN NATIONAL WILDLIFE REFUGE. The US Fish and Wildlife Service today permanantly banned the harvest of seaweeds at three National Wildlife Refuges on the Maine coast. The announcement, which comes as commercial harvesting pressure intensifies on Maine’s wild seaweeds, has the effect of prohibiting rockweed cutting from the intertidal zones of the Moosehorn National Wildlife Refuge and Petit Manan Wildlife Refuge in eastern and midcoast Maine, and Rachel Carson National Wildlife Refuge in southern Maine. See maps of the three refuges where intertidal rockweed cutting is prohibited, at: http://www.penbay.org/refugemaps.html maps "This letter is to alert seaweed harvesters about specific regulations that protect vegetation, including rockweed, on National Wildlife Refuges in Maine." the agency wrote. "Be aware that seaweed harvesting on refuge lands in Maine is a violation under this regulation." See agency letter at http://www.penbay.org/Rockweed1.html The agency's action ends the commercial harvesting of rockweed (Ascophyllum nodosum) at more than thirty federally owned islands along the Maine coast from Casco Bay to Cobscook Bay, as well as a dozen mainland refuge sites. Supporters of the agency decision say that it will protect important wildlife habitats along the Maine coast from a rapidly growing seaweed harvest industry. “The federal government’s decision to enforce prohibitions on rockweed harvesting in coastal wildlife refuges is an important step in providing areas of protection for seaweed which play an important role in coastal wetlands and marine ecosystems.“ said Robin Hadlock Seeley, a marine ecologist at Cornell University and coastal property owner in Maine. Alarmed by the recent increase in planned harvests in Cobscook Bay and elsewhere in Maine, a loose confederation of researchers, conservationists, and fishermen requested that the Maine Dept. of Marine Resources put a moratorium on commercial rockweed in Cobscook Bay last summer, citing uncertainty about the impact of commercial harvesting of seaweeds on the ecology of Cobscook Bay, and on the Bay’s productive commercial fisheries. DMR did not grant a moratorium, and current state regulations do not limit the amount of seaweed harvested from any area, nor do they set aside any conservation areas protected from seaweed harvesting. In Maine, coastal property owners, including the federal government, have property rights over the seaweeds that inhabit the adjacent intertidal areas, the zone between the high and low tide lines, but seaweed harvesters do not traditionally ask permission before cutting the seaweeds. Rockweed is the dominant intertidal seaweed of Maine's coastal zone, and plays a critical role in coastal ecosystems of the Maine coast. These seaweeds can reach a length of 4-5 feet overall. The plants lie flat upon the rocky shore at low tide, rising into the water column with the incoming tides. At high tide, ducks, shorebirds and fish forage in the thick rockweed canopy. At low tide the flattened seaweed covers the rocky shore, protecting numerous organisms from the drying and heat of the sun. Rockweed harvesters use long handled blades or, increasingly, vacuum pumps and rotating blades, to cut the algae,leaving a stump about a foot long. Sold primarily as a livestock feed additive, rockweed fetches about $26 dollars per ton at the dock. While rockweed and other seaweeds have long been harvested by hand by individuals along the Maine coast, the entry of large companies (US and foreign) into the picture has increased the amount of cutting dramatically, with more than one hundred seaweed harvesters licensed this year. "It is critically important to our fisheries and to the natural ecology that large areas of natural rockweed forest continue to thrive along along Maine's coast," said Ron Huber, executive director of Penobscot Bay Watch, a coastal oversight group. "The federal government has taken the lead on protecting this very important habitat. We hope that Governor King follows the lead, and protects rockweed living in Maine's state coastal parks and other state properties.” Huber noted that his organization, in collaboration with Northern Wings, a conservation pilots' association, will now begin aerial oversight of rockweed forests surrounding federal coastal refuge islands. "We expect that the cutters will respect the federal government's decision to protect these areas." he said. “But you never know." The July 23rd letter announcing the new policy was signed by Stan Skutek, manager of Petit Manan National Wildlife Refuge. ### USEFUL LINKS: * The Maine Rockweed Page website: http://www.geocities.com/rockweedinfo/home.html * Penobscot Bay Watch Seaweed Monitor http://www.penbay.org/seaweed.html * Northern Wings http://www.northernwings.org * Petit Manan National Wildlife Refuge http://northeast.fws.gov/me/pmn.htm * Rachel Carson National Wildlife Refuge http://northeast.fws.gov/me/rhc.htm * Moosehorn National Wildlife Refuge http://moosehorn.fws.gov/ * Rockweed Harvesting Laws http://www.geocities.com/rockweedinfo/Legal.html * Fishermen's Voice article on Rockweed Harvesting http://www.penbay.org/seaweedfv52k1.html * Maine State govt on ecolgy of Rockweed http://www.penbay.org/rockwfunction.html * Acadian Sea Plants ( buyer of rockweed cut in Maine) http://www.acadianseaplants.com END Penobscot Bay Watch: People that care about Penobscot Bay HTTP://WWW.PENBAY.ORG ----------------------------------------------------------------- Fundy Forum listserver is dedicated to providing a forum for Bay of Fundy Issues. 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