Another extractive industry gets the go-ahead

SEAWEED ASSET: Sea-Right Investments managing director Roger Beattie has high hopes for a New Zealand bladder kelp industry.

This time it's seaweed.

The Government, in its hunger for extracting as much as it can from the environment and turn it into cash, has given the go-ahead to the harvesting of kelp from along our coasts.

This is, in my opinion, an extremely short-sighted and retrograde step to take. The gathering of beach-thrown sea weed was already a restricted activity but that is now small change compared to opening up the live beds for commercial exploitation, as has just occurred.

From the Times:
"Seaweed has been added to the fisheries quota management system for the first time, potentially opening the door to a major new industry."
"Until now bladder kelp, which can grow more than 50 metres a year, could be collected only if it washed ashore or, with a special permit, harvested in small quantities.


"Yesterday's announcement follows years of lobbying by companies to allow commercial harvest of seaweed, while conservationists argued it was an important part of the marine system which should be left alone. "

Left alone indeed, but it seems the advice of the conservationists has been disregarded.

"Roger Beattie, managing director of Christchurch's Sea-Right Investments, said New Zealand's huge coastline and the worldwide market for seaweed meant the industry could be worth "hundreds of millions of dollars a year".

My question is: How much of this harvested kelp will become food for cows?