'This has to be halted in its tracks' - West Mayo Cllrs oppose application

A concerted campaign to oppose seaweed harvesting in Clew Bay took centre stage at Monday's Westport-Belmullet Municipal District meeting.

As was previously reported by The Mayo News, a foreshore application that prompted a viral petition opposing large-scale seaweed harvesting along the west coast ― including concerns in Mayo ― has now been marked “withdrawn” on the Government’s website.

However, a separate seaweed harvesting application for the Clew Bay area was received by MARA in October 2024 and is soon due to go to public consultation.

The issue was raised by Achill-based councillor Paul McNamara, who sought clarity from Mayo County Council whether or not an application to harvest in Clew Bay had been received by the council.

He said that he and other councillors had received numerous correspondence about fears that a corporation would come in and get rights over the shores and start getting seaweed.

READ MORE: Petition against west coast seaweed harvesting based on outdated information, says Arramara Teoranta

Query referred

Seamus O'Mongáin, Head of Westport-Belmullet Municipal District, committed to refer the query to MARA, the regulatory body for licensing.

“We in Mayo County Council are not aware or in the Marine section [of such an application]”, he told the meeting.

Cllr McNamara stated that “I wouldn't like to think that a corporation or a company from outside Mayo would come in and take over all our seaweed rights along our coast.

“This will totally disempower our local seaweed cutters. If a corporation came in harvesting, the amount of seaweed it produced would have a serious impact on our shoreline landscape.”

He was supported by Cllr Sean Carey, who said the farming community had harvested seaweed for generations.

Questioning the legality of a company getting a licence, Cllr Carey said that the landowner has the right to the high water mark.

Cllr John O’Malley stated that “it would be awful wrong. It would be terrible wrong for that to happen, and for anybody to be granted the license to take over the shores around Clew Bay.
“From Newport, up to Carrowholly, there are a lot of local people who live off cutting seaweed. It’s an off farm income from them. Some of them have paid their mortgage with it. We can’t take that away from these people.”

READ MORE: 'A solo run based on gossip and innuendo' - Mayo family hit out at local councillor

Predicting uproar, he said that “there'll be awful trouble if that should happen because of a total of total objection to it.”

He queried who the company would propose to cut the seaweed, if they were granted a licence. “They want to send in all kinds of people, we don’t know who would come in to cut seaweed, we don't know where they’d be from. Certainly, it won’t be the local Irish people at all.”

Hard labour

Cllr Gerry Coyle observed the hard labour involved in hand harvesting seaweed and said that “whoever cuts it with the hook deserve what they get, it is the most slavish way.”

He speculated that the companies applying for the seaweed harvesting licences may use boats and he suggested that perhaps the locals could cut it and sell it to a company in future.

However, the official application from the company behind the Clew Bay application have stated that the seaweed will be sustainably hand harvested.

Noting, the potential wider ecological implications for people who make their living from winkles, he told the meeting he got his first economic lessons from picking winkles. He realised then that hard work always pays off.

Cllr Chris Maxwell compared it to turf cutting and said that it would take away part of people’s livelihoods.

“We have to stand up to this and halt it. This has to be stopped because it’s just not right.”

The seven councillors were at one in opposing such a move and a letter will go to MARA confirming that the councillors from the Westport-Belmullet MD wholeheartedly object to any such license, that these rights remain the license of the locals and the hundreds of people from Galway and Mayo right around that have worked this for decades and centuries.

Funded by the Local Democracy Reporting Scheme