Foraging
does not stop at the shoreline. There are many valuable plants available
for harvest at low tide. Seaweed
harvest and cultivation is a billion dollar a year industry in Japan.
Seaweeds are cultivated and harvested commercially in Maine,
Massachusetts, California, Oregon and Alaska. Most commercial harvest in
Alaska at present involves seaweed with herring roe attached for export to
Japan. The harvest of these seaweed species is regulated in Alaska.
Seaweed harvesting for personal use is permitted virtually without
restriction. Permits would be required for commercial seaweed harvest.
Not only are
seaweeds sources of industrial chemicals used in products from food to
paint, they are also very nutritious vegetables growing in popularity in
the U.S. The main concern with seaweeds
for food is the purity of the area in which they are harvested, which is a
perfect selling point for
seaweeds from Alaska's pure, clean coastal waters.
