MAINE MONITOR • August 12, 2023
The Maine Marine Patrol is bringing charges against four individuals in connection with alleged illegal rockweed harvesting in Washington County, in what a state official said are the first prosecutions for illegally extracting the hotly contested resource in recent memory. Rockweed, a brownish algae found close to shore throughout Maine, forms a veritable underwater forest. It’s “not only a foundational species, but a keystone species, and an ecosystem engineer,” said Dr. Robin Hadlock Seeley of the Maine Rockweed Coalition. It supports biodiversity, with over 100 animals feeding on it or using it as a nursery — including lobsters, scallops, and a host of fish like pollock, cod and herring.