Harvesting Rock Weed [Passamaquoddy Bay, Bay of Fundy]

During our morning kayak today, we passed fishermen raking seaweed called Rock Weed (Ascophyllum nodosum ) out of the water near the shoreline and into their boat.  When we returned 2 hours later, they were still at it, and their boat was low in the water, loaded with the seaweed that was mounded to above the edge of the boat..

Rock Weed is a large, brown alga that attaches to rocks on the bottom of the sea floor in the inter-tidal zone and grows tendrils toward the surface.  The seaweed has oval shaped air bladders along its stalks to allow the tendrils to float.  At low tide here, the weed is exposed on the rocks along the shoreline.  You see it everywhere.

 

The fishermen sell their haul to a company in Canada that grinds it up and sells it as an alternative vitamin supplement for beef cattle and dairy cows.  The fishermen told me that cattle gained more weight and cows produced more milk with this natural seaweed supplement than they do with vitamins and hormones!  They also recommended the weed itself as a fertilizer on our garden. 

So we have some drying on the grass out front of our motor home to take home with us