Rockweed Legislation

Image: screenshot of the state map for the Cobscook Bay Rockweed Management Area, Dec. 2024

BACKGROUND:

Here is a history of past bills in the legislature which have tried to grant rockweed companies the legal right to take unlimited amounts of rockweed habitat, unfettered by property rights.

There have been two types of bills:
1) bills attempting to overturn private ownership of the intertidal zone:
In 2019: LD 1316, LD 1388;

In 2023: LD 851;

2) bills attempting to declare rockweed beds part of the public trust (or, a fish – an animal – like shellfish):
In 2019: LD 1323;

In 2024: LD 2003

Since 2013, we have successfully fought all of these bills, which would have severely weakened rockweed habitat protection.

It appears likely that in January 2025, there will be similar bills to defeat.

We will be ready to defend the value of rockweed for commercial fisheries, for wildlife, and for our climate.

The Cobscook Bay Rockweed Management Area law (2009)

In 2008-09, Cobscook Bay residents, fishermen, biologists, land trusts and others succeeded in getting a special rockweed management law passed for Cobscook Bay.  The Cobscook Bay law of 2009 adds critical protections for rockweed, but only in Cobscook Bay.

Image: screenshot of the state map for the Cobscook Bay Rockweed Management Area, Dec. 2024

Many supporters of this new law for Cobscook Bay believed that state law and agency regulations to date had utterly failed to conserve this valuable fishery and wildlife habitat. Many still believe that by the time we realize we are at a point where rockweed is no longer serving its critical function as essential fishery habitat, and habitat for wildlife in decline, the tipping point will have been reached. Rockweed grows too slowly to be easily restored once damage to the habitat is done.

Rockweed’s (Ascophyllum) slow growth rate is one reason it is not farmed commercially, as kelps (Laminaria, etc.) are.

Figure courtesy: National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration

LD 585 of 2013: An attempt to repeal the Cobscook RMA Law

In 2013, LD 585 was proposed in part to repeal the Cobscook Bay Rockweed Management Area law.

One local fisherman who testified in opposition to LD 585 said:  “We caught baby lobsters in the rockweed right up to the last time we went snorkeling two years ago…They need protection, and the protection of the rockweed is perfect. I don’t understand why people don’t understand this.”