Seaweed dredging
Another highly damaging exploitation of the sea and seabed has been brought to our attention by Ian Clark of Whitby. This time it is not seabed dredging for aggregate but commercial dredging of the seabed for seaweed, now ongoing in Norway.
A copious explanation including two videos and links to further information is to be seen by going to http://stopptt.no
Further to this exploitation, information on a similar damaging practice comes from Mike Bruton, who tells us that Falmouth Docks and Cornwall Council are wanting to dredge up (and relocate ?) much of the protected MaerlMaerl Maerl is a collective term for several species of red seaweed, with hard, chalky skeletons. It is rock hard and, unlike other seaweeds, it grows as unattached rounded nodules or short, branched shapes on the seabed. Like all seaweeds, maerl needs sunlight to grow, and it only occurs to a depth of about 20m. beds in the SACSAC Special Areas of Conservation to allow super liners to enter Falmouth port and harbour to permit the entry of super-liners. Maerl is calcified seaweed.
The fine detail on this may be found by a Google Search using the keywords ‘Falmouth Harbour Maerl’
