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The harvesting of seaweed in Maine dates back to prehistory, but seaweed collection has developed into a sizable industry at a time when population growth and property values along the Maine coast have rapidly increased. With the increasing interest in commercial seaweed harvesting in Maine, questions related to ownership, access, and resource stewardship need to be resolved, according to John Duff, director of the Marine Law Institute in the Law School.
With funding from Maine Sea Grant, Duff is asking questions that explore Maine’s current laws regarding rights to seaweed in the intertidal zone, that is the beachfront above the tidal line, in terms of property rights. Should seaweed be considered private property or is it a natural resource under stewardship of the state? Should harvesters be required to get permission from landowners?
Seaweed, a term that includes a range of species with differing structures, is used as a fertilizer, as a thickener in puddings, ice cream and other foods, and as a food itself. In addition, it can be used as a filtration device for cleaning nitrogen-loaded waters. At aquaculture sites, for instance, seaweed grows heavily and quickly, accelerated by the excess of nutrients which it cleans from the waters as it grows. Its many uses give the industry good potential for growth, and advances in technology enable mechanical harvesters to harvest more seaweed more quickly and from greater areas of the intertidal zone. But there are inherent conflicts between the interests of harvesters and of coastal landowners, and Maine's unique property laws recognize private property interests in the intertidal areas.
In most states the intertidal area is held by the state rather than by private property owners, Duff says. Legal precedents on the conflict are few. In an 1861 Maine case, Hill v. Lord, the Maine Supreme Judicial Court considered seaweed a "profit in the soil" and indicated that the owner of property upon which seaweed grows is also the owner of the seaweed. But seaweed does not root itself in the soil like trees or crops. Though it attaches itself in soil, it derives nourishment from the water. Under Maine law, a coastal property owner may own the intertidal land but does not own the water that flows over that land. Should these distinctions make a difference in determining who owns seaweed growing in the intertidal zone? Duff asks.
Duff, who joined Maine’s School of Law faculty in 1999, formerly directed the Mississippi-Alabama Sea Grant Legal Program at the University of Mississippi School of Law. He earned his J.D. from Suffolk University, an LL.M. from the University of Washington, and an M.A. from the University of Mississippi. The Marine Law Institute is dedicated to analysis of legal and policy research on ocean and coastal resource issues.
The results of this research, which Duff plans to publish in a law journal, could serve as foundation questions for subsequent work.
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