Storm brews over seaweed

Storm brews over seaweed


David versus Goliath battle looms over licensing rights

Áine Ryan

GOVERNMENT must ensure the rights and livelihood of hundreds of seaweed harvesters from Erris to Clew Bay, whose way of life is being threatened by large bio-technology companies bidding to take over the traditional industry.  That is the view of scores of seaweed harvesters who have already mobilised, with groups being formed right along Mayo’s coastline. Indeed, one recently-formed group, Clew Bay Seaweed Association (CBSA), warned yesterday it will implement a ‘co-ordinated group response to any application for rights to exclusively cut seaweed grown’ in the area around the bay, which is a Special Area of Conservation (SAC).
Harvesters in Blacksod also met last Friday night, as part of a series of meetings facilitated by Sinn Féin Councillor, Rose Conway-Walsh.
Speaking to The Mayo News yesterday (Monday), Cllr Conway-Walsh said: “There is so much ambiguity about who has rights to the foreshore, I am asking Minister Alan Kelly not to grant any licence until the legalities and individual’s rights have been clarified. I understand the issue is already before the Attorney General, and we urgently need clarity on a possible conflict of rights if a licence is granted to a company for a foreshore area that an individual landholder has had traditional access to and has engaged in seaweed cutting.”   
Meanwhile, the CBSA, which held its second meeting in Newport last week, has objected ‘to the injustice of selective implementation of licensing legislation’ and the fact that the Government is considering the granting ‘of an exclusive licence to one operator’. This, they say, compounds an injustice that fundamentally undermines a traditional industry that has provided employment along coastal areas of Mayo, and the entire west coast, for centuries.  
A CBSA statement explains that: “Longstanding unlicensed harvesting activity has resulted in the development of a traditional industry which now has no rights. The unlicensed harvesting of seaweed is of a significant scale.  The simultaneous consideration of a huge, exclusive license to one operator compounds this injustice and this, in our view, will carry unacceptable risks to public order when the applicant’s employees enforce new licensed rights on traditional cutters.”
Independent Councillor Michael Holmes stated that the rights of seaweed harvesters to cut and sell seaweed in a competitive marketplace must be protected against the threat of a monopoly.
According to Councillor Holmes, traditional seaweed harvesting rights - which date back hundreds of years and are included as a clause in the deeds of many people’s land - will be wiped out if this licence is granted.
“It appears that if this exclusive licence is issued, anyone who wants to harvest seaweed in Mayo will have to get permission from the license holders and would have no option but to sell to them regardless of the price that they are being offered. That potentially creates a very unhealthy, uncompetitive situation where one company gains a monopoly over a very valuable natural resource,” he said.
At the recent meeting in Newport, at which the Clew Bay Seaweed Association was established, Councillor Holmes urged everyone to apply to for an individual licence and said he would push for seaweed harvesting to be included on the agenda at an upcoming County Council meeting.

Licences
In a constructive move, the CBSA plans to explore management systems and strategies with Government agencies in order to develop ‘a sustainable harvesting plan for Ascophlyllum nodosum and other seaweed varieties in the Clew Bay area’.
The organisation believes that the licensing of the resource to one company ‘with no proven record on managing a resource of this size, is an unacceptable risk to the wellbeing of the bay and the surrounding community’.
Last week, The Mayo News revealed that Kerry company BioAtlantis Teo had made an application to seek a ten-year exclusive licence to harvest Clew Bay seaweed, which, reportedly, has the second-largest such reserve around the coast.
This would involve cutting 12,900 tonnes of Ascophyllum nodosum each year and, according to the biotechnology company, would lead to 20 full-time jobs. Such jobs were traditionally held by individual harvesters from right around Clew Bay.
The closing date for objections to the BioAtlantic application is January 30. Eight other companies have made such applications to the Department of the Environment for similar licences to harvest along areas of the coastline from Malin to Mizen Head.  
These bids to take over the huge resource come just months after UdarΡs na Gaeltachta, on behalf of the State, sold its seaweed processing company, Arramara Teoranta, to Canadian company, Acadian Seaplants’ for an undisclosed sum. Expressing concerns about the privatisation of the industry at the time, Independent MEP Marian Harkin said the transaction had been ‘shrouded in secrecy’.   
At the time of the sale last May, a former CEO of Arramaara Teoranta, Tony Barrett, told newspapers that Acadian Seaplants Ltd (still trading as Arramara Teoranta) was using its new subsidiary as ‘a proxy to harvest from North Mayo to North Clare’.