Roman poet Horace was overly concerned about money and clueless about the value of algae.   

Declaring that “Noble descent and worth, unless united with wealth, are esteemed no more than seaweed,” he lacked knowledge of and appreciation for a very important commodity. 

Seaweeds have a long history of significance in culture, trade and industry. Indigenous people have long used algal resources for food and medicine before, during, and after Horace was disparaging seaweed. American colonists also found function and financial benefit from the abundance of algae in the ocean and on the shore, employing it for agriculture, insulation of homes (called banking the foundation), covering boats for the winter, stuffing mattresses, and for animal fodder, among other creative employments. 

Scituate, Massachusetts was a place where riches were found from seaweed. Known at one time as the Irish Riviera, it was a town to which immigrants from Ireland flocked to escape the potato famine and participate in the lucrative mossing industry. Collection of Irish moss, a seaweed valued as a thickener and gelling agent, continued right up to the late 1990s. The Scituate Historical Society’s Maritime and Mossing Museum celebrates the trade and people involved in making their living through mossing. 

Collecting seaweeds is on my mind after last week’s northeaster deposited a bunch of biomass on our Island beaches. Many varieties washed up, including rockweed, sea lettuce, Irish moss and other species, including eel grass, which is a vascular plant rather than a seaweed. 

Calls went out to collect the washed-up seaweed and pickups were seen being loaded with the brown, red, and green stuff. Gardeners know the value of this commodity for fertilizing gardens, enriching soils, adding minerals and micronutrients, and creating rich teas for plants. 

Being a manager and protector of natural resources, and an avid forager and hunter/gatherer, I wondered about the law, sustainability and ethics of this collecting. I researched and learned a lot. 

Harvesting has been a tradition and is legally protected, though it is controversial in some case law. The Public Trust Doctrine is the principle that states that natural and cultural resources are preserved for public use and that the government owns, protects and maintains these resources for public use. With tideland resources, most states give rights to the public at the high-water mark.

However, in Massachusetts, the Colonial Ordinance decrees that private lands extend to the low-water mark, with the exception of public use for fishing, fowling, and navigation. 

To make a long story short and to save you from reading pages of legalese: the collection of seaweed from the shore is not protected under the fishing, fowling and navigation exception. However, in one case, lawyers who were clearly not scientists tried to argue that it met the fishing exemption -- and lost their case. It is settled law that seaweed on the shore is privately owned, so permission is needed to collect it on private property. 

Ecologically speaking, seaweeds provide food, shelter, habitat and shoreline protection, and generally should be left in place during normal conditions. State regulations provide for its removal during algal blooms and other seaweed accumulation events. In certain seasons and conditions (think shorebird breeding periods), removal is regulated and permits may be required from multiple state and local agencies. 

With the current abundance and time of year, remember to ask for permission rather than forgiveness if you plan on collecting on private property. Otherwise, be like the seaweed before it landed on the beach: go with the flow and collect to your heart’s (and garden’s) content.

Suzan Bellincampi is islands director for Felix Neck Wildlife Sanctuary in Edgartown and the Nantucket Wildlife Sanctuaries. She is also the author of Martha’s Vineyard: A Field Guide to Island Nature and The Nature of Martha’s Vineyard.