MAINE PUBLIC • April 25, 2024
A study on rockweed recovery released last year by a UMaine graduate student and professors is being challenged by other marine researchers. The study found that rockweed biomass recovered from harvesting in just one year. Dr. Robin Hadlock Seeley, a retired marine ecologist and co-founder of the Maine Rockweed Coalition, said her team found flaws in how the study was designed and how the data were analyzed. Dr. Elliott Johnston, the UMaine study's author, said he believes the critics misunderstand the objective of his study, which was based on irregular, patchy cuts, and the outcomes of those varied harvests was the point of his research.