News

Recent NEWS and OPINION (2024, click image for original link)

PRESS RELEASE
18 April 2024
Contact: Robin Hadlock Seeley, 207-216-5999
TITLE: New study questions claim that rockweed recovery after harvest takes just one year
Pembroke, Maine
A team of graduate students and professors at the University of Maine, working with rockweed industry partners, concluded in a scientific paper published in 2023 that Maine rockweed beds recover their biomass lost to harvest in just one year.
A new critique (https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jembe.2023.151984) casts doubt on this conclusion. This critique appears in the Journal of Experimental Marine Biology and Ecology and was authored by Robin Hadlock Seeley (certified Senior Ecologist), Sarah Hardy and Nancy Prentiss (Emeriti faculty, University of Maine at Farmington) and Walter Adey (Emeritus Scientist, Smithsonian Institution).

Featured News

News

OCTOBER 2022:

Maine Rockweed Coalition Scientist Receives Nrcm Conservation Leadership Award” For Her Work To Ensure The Protection Of Rockweed”

April 8, 2022. Interview: Protecting Rockweed To Advance Ecological Justice

Dr. Robin Hadlock Seeley in the Temple of Understanding’s Eco Justice series. She discussed the effort to protect rockweed in the context of ecological justice.
The Temple of Understanding has been advocating for environmental justice for more than a decade, walking the talk about Interfaith values and our climate emergency. Dr. Seeley is a board member and co-founder of the Maine Rockweed Coalition.

March 2022

Past Years' Rockweed Articles

2021:

  • PODCAST: “Rockweed: underwater forest or industrial commodity?” Down to Earth, the Planet to Plate podcast
  • ARTICLE: “Lawsuit seeks ruling on beach ownership” Quoddy Tides 14 May 2021, p. 2
  • ARTICLE: ‘All other life exists within their shelter’: Protecting the irreplaceable value of Maine’s rockweed ecosystems. The Maine Monitor

2020:

  • ARTICLE: “Enforcement Issues with SJC Ruling for the Rockweed Industry” Machias Valley News Observer.

2019:

  • ARTICLE: “Clash along bucolic Maine coast erupts over rockweed” Washington Post; indicates industry’s desire to get back into court over rockweed ownership; foreshadows the 2021 lawsuit against rockweed landowners for exercising their First Amendment rights to contact law enforcement when rockweed was taken without their permission. “A bad presentation in court before is what snatched this away from us,” he said, referring to the case decided by Maine’s top court. “It would be great if this ends up back in court.”
  • ARTICLE: “Maine’s top court rules you can’t pick seaweed without a property owner’s permission” Bangor Daily News
  • ARTICLE: “Maine’s Supreme Court Says Companies Don’t Have The Right To Harvest Rockweed On Private Property” Maine Public
  • ARTICLE: “Maine Supreme Court Decides Seaweed Is a Plant, Not a Fish” jdsupra.com

2018: (prior to the 2019 Maine Supreme Court decision)

  • ARTICLE: “How seaweed connects us all: An unlikely debate about rockweed brings together Rachel Carson, marine biology and Maine’s supreme court” Smithsonian magazine
  • ARTICLE: “A fish called Rockweed” Hakai magazine
  • Washington Post:  “Along Maine’s northeastern coast, seaweed stirs an international controversy”
  • Maine Public radio piece:
    “Homeowners and scientists clash with companies over harvesting of seaweed in Washington County”
  • Bangor Daily News:
    “Seaweed harvesting in Down East roils homeowners, scientists”
  • MaineBiz:
    “Rockweed harvest continues to provoke debate”
  • Quoddy Tides:
    “Rockweed harvesting continues to stir debate around Cobscook Bay”
  • Quoddy Tides:
    “Concerns, questions raised at rockweed harvesting forum”
  • MaineBiz:
    “Mechanical rockweed harvesting sparks concerns on Deer Isle”
  • Macleans (Canada):
    “In Maine, a court battle over slimy fortunes”
  • Island Ad-vantages: (April 2018)
    “Residents hear about rockweed harvesting along the coast”

2017

2016