Fishing The Fly Scotland Forum

Derek Roxborough

Inshore woes
« on: 27/08/2018 at 11:49 »
there's a company planning for the Mechanical  harvesting of Kelp, 30,000 tons/yr. not much fun for seatrout that feed round our coasts, another nail in the coffin of conservation? supposedly they can harvest this sustainably,sheesh! Derek Roxborough

Hamish Young

Re: Inshore woes
« Reply #1 on: 27/08/2018 at 19:02 »
I grew up on Ardnamurchan and as a 'lad' helped the local crofters with things as diverse as chopping wood, peat cutting, bag netting and lobster potting.... but there was also the seaweed harvest.
Some might not be aware of it, but seaweed has long been used as a soil improver by crofting communities (and elsewhere, I'm sure).  We also used to harvest kelp and bladderwrack on spring low tides and heave it up onto an old trailer towed by an equally old grey fergie tractor - it was hard work but the company and scenery made up for the graft.  Some folk didn't do it, but the old skipper I worked with macerated/mulched the seaweed and added it after ploughing the soil in late autumn to improve it for the next season - turns out seaweed contains all sorts of useful stuff (nitrogen, potassium, phosphate etc) in 'just the right amounts' to be useful.
Before I head too far down 'Nostalgia Street' let me bring this back to the amounts that were taken by the crofters. It was sustainable, influenced by the availability of manpower to achieve the task, the weather and what crops were in mind for the following season.  The old skipper always reminded me that we should take what we needed and no more.
Sadly I suspect and fear that the harvest of 30K tonnes of seaweed is not sustainable (trust me, a tonne of seaweed is a bloody sh1tload when you see it :!), it's not good for the marine environment and is arguably a chunky nail in conservation as Derek suggests.
I'm sure I saw a petition about this somewhere....................
H

Derek Roxborough

Re: Inshore woes
« Reply #2 on: 27/08/2018 at 20:25 »
I used to hand cut seaweed for Scottish alginates through the 70's, if we were lucky we could get 6 tons on a spring tide, other tides weren't always suitable,cut with a sickle it was hard back breaking work,I can't see how the mechanical bit can be sustainable? Derek Roxborough

Hamish Young

Re: Inshore woes
« Reply #3 on: 27/08/2018 at 21:58 »
....I can't see how the mechanical bit can be sustainable?
As I said Derek, me neither - it cannot be  :X7

Rob Brownfield

Re: Inshore woes
« Reply #4 on: 28/08/2018 at 09:40 »
I would like to read the story to see what is being proposed.

Anyone with half an interest in gardening will know of the properties of sea weed (Kelp), and it's been commercially harvested for many years elsewhere.

However, my understanding is  that commercial Kelp harvesting is done by hanging "seeded" ropes in a suitable flow, and leaving them to grow. Once mature, the ropes and kelp are hauled aboard, and the process starts again (on rotation of course).

If this is the case, and its done on rotation, the additional kelp forests will be a benefit to wildlife. Where one set of ropes and fronds are removed, the fish etc will still have others in the area to move to.

Cass did her dissertation on the bio-accumulation of Arsenic in marine plants, particularly those fed to sheep on the Western Isles. One of the issues she came across is that it is illegal to remove living marine plants from rocks and the shore. She could only use washed up material...hence us getting up early on stormy days and trekking down to the beach to collect "sea weed" before it was too far gone. The smell of gently rotting kelp in the bath tub is not one I wish to repeat :)

So, although the crofters etc have an age old "permission" to harvest, I would like to think commercial harvesting of wild kelp would still be illegal, too difficult and too costly and that the artificial kelp forests as used elsewhere is what they are proposing.


Derek Roxborough

Re: Inshore woes
« Reply #6 on: 28/08/2018 at 20:05 »
Thanks Hamish,I heard it on the Radio one morning,but it is Kelp dredging not cultivation, and remember your sea trout smolts feed round the coast when they go to sea, the sustainable bit reminds me of the Guy trying to get the Golf course at Embo, he actually says he can enhance the area and the nature there, even God doesn't design golf courses :z8  Derek Roxborough

Hamish Young

Re: Inshore woes
« Reply #7 on: 28/08/2018 at 20:42 »
I believe Rob was talking about cultivation over harvesting Derek  :z16

Bob Mitchell

Re: Inshore woes
« Reply #8 on: 29/08/2018 at 08:49 »
There used to be a seaweed factory in North Uist near loch Eport when I was a boy but went burst.
The word dredging is my problem. Having seen the sea bed dredged before I am dead against it. Everthing is ruined.
Bob.

Rob Brownfield

Re: Inshore woes
« Reply #9 on: 29/08/2018 at 10:25 »
Ahhh..dredging is evil...  :mad

Derek Roxborough

Re: Inshore woes
« Reply #10 on: 29/08/2018 at 16:36 »
I believe Rob was talking about cultivation over harvesting Derek  :z16
Yes Hamish I did mention that, :X2 Derek Roxborough

Derek Roxborough

Re: Inshore woes
« Reply #11 on: 29/08/2018 at 20:12 »
BBC Alba today had a bit on the harvesting there are 12 sites earmarked on the Islands and mainland, they are looking for 50years of planning, it's a firm called Bio Polymers and mechanical harvesting of 30,000 tons
per year but it didn't say that this was the total or that this was what would be harvested from each designated sites, but that it would be environmentally sustainable?, sheesh! Derek Roxborough

Bob Mitchell

Re: Inshore woes
« Reply #12 on: 12/10/2018 at 15:20 »
Environmentally sustainable is that not what was said about salmon farming a number of years ago.
Bob.

Andy MacArthur

Re: Inshore woes
« Reply #13 on: 12/10/2018 at 17:14 »
The important term in all of this is the ‘mechanical’.

I can’t see it being anything other than destructive and, for that reason, it’s already being vehemently opposed in the areas where it is proposed.


Derek Roxborough

Re: Inshore woes
« Reply #14 on: 12/10/2018 at 21:05 »
I wonder how this proposal is going to sit with the proposals for Marine protected areas?we had a seaweed factory locally, but it went about 50 years back, I think the product was too expensive at the time, it was being sold for fertilizer, when I was cutting , it was wrack we were cutting, going to Scottish Alginates at Keose on Lewis, done by hand it was sustainable, I wonder how sustainable this kelp proposal will be?
Derek Roxborough

 




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