Topic: Seaweed

[lincsyokel2]

is it legal to collect seaweed off the beach below the high water mark ? Ie is it worth driving 40 miles to the coast with a trailer to fill it ?

[goodlife]

Umm..I thought anybody can collect seaweed if it is 'loose' ...like if it is collected on beach by the tide.
But I suspect there is regulations for harvesting as 'live' plants. I'd be suprised if it is legal. :-\

[lincsyokel2]

Umm..I thought anybody can collect seaweed if it is 'loose' ...like if it is collected on beach by the tide.
But I suspect there is regulations for harvesting as 'live' plants. I'd be suprised if it is legal. :-\

Well thats what i was thinking. If its washed up on the beach surely its flotsam and jetsam, and can be taken.

[goodlife]

I just had a quick google..sounds like you need to be the owner of the land/beach to be able to harvest sea weed bellow high water mark or the land owner promision to do so...and it is harvested by cutting it off and leaving stump where the plant can regrow again and no permanent damage is done to envinronment. And...even if you are the owner..you need to know if there is any restriction place on the area..could be conservation issues.
And...if you are able to harvest then the havested area musn't be over cut..there have to be rotation within the area and cutting spots.
The loose stuff are 'freely' collected and usually nobody don't object ..but there might be issue again with the land owner and there maybe a regulars that use certain areas. Be careful you are not stepping on anybody's 'toes'.

[vitruvius8]

between the high water and low water belongs to the crown !!!! had problems in the past digging bait !! now resolved. i collect seaweed all the time as i am only 20 yards from the sea. Strangley there are only 3 things you can legally do on a beach, navigate, fish and fishing related activities. donkey rides, sunbathing etc are actually illegal!! but who is going to act on it ! This law goes back to the magna carta and has never been changed !! the british legal system at it's best !!
at the end of the day i don't think anyone will object to you taking a bit of seaweed!

[lincsyokel2]

between the high water and low water belongs to the crown !!!! had problems in the past digging bait !! now resolved. i collect seaweed all the time as i am only 20 yards from the sea. Strangley there are only 3 things you can legally do on a beach, navigate, fish and fishing related activities. donkey rides, sunbathing etc are actually illegal!! but who is going to act on it ! This law goes back to the magna carta and has never been changed !! the british legal system at it's best !!
at the end of the day i don't think anyone will object to you taking a bit of seaweed!

In common Law (as opposed the Statute rules) you have irrevocable rights. These include:

Piscary: the right to fish ponds on common land
Turbary: the right to cut peat for fuel
Estovers: the right to collect firewood (no thicker than your thumb)
Grazing: The right to graze horses
Pannage: the right to turn out domestic pigs in a wood or forest, in order that they may feed on fallen acorns, beechmast, chestnuts or other nuts


Now ive never seen a common law rigfht to take seaweed, its a new on on me. The foreshore is the land between the high water mark and the low water mark, and 60% of it is owned by the Crown, and not common land,, so if there IS a Common Law right to gather seaweed, itll be on the proportion of the 40% that isnt privately owned, ie that foreshore in the hands of councils.

The upper limit of the foreshore is clearly defined in Halsbury’s Laws (4th edition) Vol. 8, paragraph 1418, which describes the foreshore as "land between high and low water mark, the right being limited landwards to the medium line of the high tide between spring and neap tides". This landward limit to the shore (also referred to as the foreshore or seashore) is commonly referred to as the Mean High Water Mark.

Theres certainly the right of Ripary, the right to acces water among those who possess land about its source.

Ill do some more digging. Common Law isnt laid out out in nice neat documents, its buried in millions of court cases in the ones that set precedence and  title, and it can take ages to work out stuff.

[lincsyokel2]

I found this,. most interesting:

Buckley J’s judgement in Brinkman v. Matley [1904] 2 Ch 313 at 315 states "When the sea recedes and the foreshore becomes dry there is not, as I understand the law, any general common law right in the public to pass over the foreshore. There are certain limited rights". For example, the Courts have held that there is no right to cross the foreshore to exercise their right to swim or bathe in the sea (Blundell v. Catterall (1821) 5 B&Ald 268, and Brinkman v. Matley [1904] 2 Ch 313), or to hold meetings or deliver sermons (Llandudno Urban District Council v. Woods [1899] 2 Ch 705) or to place chairs on it (Ramsgate Corporation v. Debling (1906) 70 JP 318) or to go there to gather seaweed, even though there is a public right to take seaweed floating in the sea (Hove v. Stowell (1833) Al & Nap 348 (IR)). The above activities are considered to be tolerances in the UK (see below - although some of these activities are recognised as a right in certain of the United States).

At common law, there is undoubtedly a public right to take fish from the tidal waters around the Kingdom. This common law right extends from the outer limits of territorial waters of the sea to all inlets and the tidal reaches of all rivers and estuaries, Adair v. National Trust (1997 judgement of Girvan J) reviews the complicated nature of the limited public rights over the foreshore (referred to in Brinkman v. Matley, see above), and how the public right to fish in tidal waters is usually extended to include the collection of fish including shellfish on the exposed foreshore when the tide is out. Girvan quotes the following sources:

Hall’s "Essay on the Rights of the Crown and the Privileges of the Subject in the Seashores of the Realm" (2nd Edition, 1875) states: "As the public right of fishery cannot be enjoyed without making use of the seashore for egress and regress or for other essential conveniences which the fishery requires in order to be carried on with effect, the use of the seashore, for all purposes essential to the enjoyment of the right of fishery necessarily accompanies such right. ... The catching of shellfish on the seashore ... would seem to constitute an integral part of the public right ... The fishery for lobster, crab, prawns, shrimps, oysters and various other shellfish ... is carried out in every fishing village on the coast and is one very useful and valuable branch of the fishing trade. The catch of these fish is, therefore, part of the public (right)."

[tim]

Whatever the rights or not, & despite having been brought up to harvest seaweed, I do not think it valuable enough to justify the effort planned.

[lincsyokel2]

Whatever the rights or not, & despite having been brought up to harvest seaweed, I do not think it valuable enough to justify the effort planned.

Well, looking at the cost of seaweed feed (about £40 for 5 litres retail), as long as you can bring back a trailerfull, and make a barrel of concentrate, it might well be. Ive done some test on seaweed tea, its magical stuff, and Seaweed and Comfrey Tea may well be rocket fuel for plants. It'll cost me £12 worth of diesel to fetch a five foot by three foot trailer full back, and that much will make (I reckon) about  50 gallon concentrate, which at the above price is worth about £400.

[Ellen K]

One of the old boys on our site (RIP) used to fetch seaweed when he visited his sister on the coast then chuck it on his plot like manure.  Apparently it worked really well though you can't see it rotting down too readily.

So you would getting a small load of (probably high quality) soil improver for the cost of moving it.  If it were me, I would give it a go just to see what it did though I agree with the poster who said that it's probably not cost effective.  But if it was all about cost, we'd buy veg off the market at shutting up time and not do the plot at all.

[Ellen K]

Have you decided LY-2?

[tim]

Having relied on it in Jersey pre-war, I'm prepared to accept that it's all worthwhile - it's just that I've gone beyond the age when I could convert the weed into something more useful than fly-harbouring heaps!

[Kleftiwallah]

I have collected seaweed from Monmouth beach Lyme Regis after contacting the Harbourmaster,  it's only good manners.      Cheers,    Tony.

[Digeroo]

We used to have a Danish member of A4A who always spoke very highly of the advantages of seaweed.   I also thought it was what gave Jersey Royals that particular flavour.  It us supposed to add flavour to tomatoes as well.

I think if I was never the sea I think I would give it a try. 

What happens to the salt?

[lincsyokel2]

The theory is you wash it first, to wash the surface salt off.

One of the points of seaweed is it takes in sodium, magnesium and pottasium salts from the seawater,  plus other trace elements, which makes plants go like a bomb.

Yes, you can chuck it down on the ground and dig it in, but is better to mash it up in a tea and concentrate it, then you can control use a bit better, and  i plan to do that but 50/50 with with comfrey to make Comfrey And Seaweed Super Plant Rocket Fuel, slogan "50ml is the equivalent of having 50 horses pooing on your plot"  :D.

Just waiting for the council drones to send there usual expected non-committal automated nil-initiative response. I hope i dont have the same uphill battle that i did when i asserted my right of estovers.

[tim]

A wee bit before our day, but gives the flavour??

Takes one back to when we packed the Toms in 'chips' - & the tissue colour showed the quality - pink, pink & white, blue, blue & white etc.

http://members.societe-jersiaise.org/sdllj/vraic.html

[lincsyokel2]

A wee bit before our day, but gives the flavour??

Takes one back to when we packed the Toms in 'chips' - & the tissue colour showed the quality - pink, pink & white, blue, blue & white etc.

http://members.societe-jersiaise.org/sdllj/vraic.html

"Work by F Woodland Toms, Jersey's Official Analyst for over 40 years, shows that dried vraic is three to four times as effective as a fertiliser than the fresh weed."

Because it concentrates the nutrients. Like making tea.

QED.    8)


*EDIT*

Ah now theres a point, you might need a licence to take a car and trailer on the beach.

[tim]

Just keep it away from the neighbours while it's drying?

[flitwickone]

i have amix of seaweed comfrey, manure ,and rhubarb leaves rotting in 5 gallons of water im leaving it in a container to next spring then im bottling it

[betula]

Would put a mask on when you do open it LOL :o