THE SEAWEED RESOURCES OF EASTERN CANADA

Canada occupies a special place among the world producers of seaweeds, mostly because it ranked first, from approximately 1950 to 1970, as a producer of the red alga Chondrus crispus (Irish moss), historically the first source of raw material for carrageenan extraction. However, seaweed harvesting along the coasts of the Maritimes is not a long-standing tradition, except in the case of Palmaria palmata (dulse), which has been harvested along the Bay of Fundy (especially on Grand Manan Island) for more than a century (even if the start of this cottage industry is difficult to date precisely). This chapter will focus on the seaweed industry on the Atlantic (East) Coast of Canada, the Pacific (West) Coast industry being treated in a separate chapter by S. Lindstrom. Along the East Coast, the emphasis will be on the Maritimes, which include the provinces of Prince Edward Island (PEI), Nova Scotia (NS) and New Brunswick (NB) (Fig. 1). The two provinces of Québec, and Newfoundland and Labrador are omitted, even though they have been the subject of numerous surveys, exploratory missions and reports, because no significant industry is presently operating there, except the sporadic harvesting of Laminaria sp. (kelp) in Québec (along the St. Lawrence Estuary and the Baie des Chaleurs) which was estimated at 500 wet tons (WT) in 1994 (Bodiguel 1995), and the harvesting of Ascophyllum nodosum (rockweed) and Laminaria sp. by a few small companies in Newfoundland.