Perry harvester defends role in rockweed industry

PERRY – Tim Sheehan, like most people in Washington County, wants to make a living.

The Perry man owns Gulf of Maine on Route 1 and works as a subcontractor for Acadian Seaplants of Dartmouth, Nova Scotia, a rockweed harvesting company. Sheehan’s company specializes in collection of live marine algae and invertebrate animals from the Gulf of Maine and sells them to researchers and schools, according to its Web site.

A former marine biology teacher at Woodland High School in Baileyville, the father of four has had several jobs since he quit teaching – the latest as a rockweed supervisor for a section of Cobscook Bay right outside the back door of his business. He has been working for the company since last summer.

Sheehan has been accused of being part of a business that is destroying the bay.

Everything has an impact on the environment, Sheehan counters. “I am concerned when I see dump trucks going past my Route 1 location all day long spewing diesel,” he said.

He defends the harvesting company.

“This company, Acadian Seaplants, has done the research … and they have the data to show that what they do is sustainable and it works,” he said. “When we’re cutting this sea grass as you will and the work has been done that says the sea grass will keep coming back and it won’t harm things, I want to be a part of that.”

Sheehan said the rakers do not harvest all of the rockweed in a particular sector and may take as little as 5 percent of the biomass.

The harvest started in May.

Sheehan and his team of 20 rakers, including college students and locals, paid the Department of Marine Resources – $50 for resident, $200 for nonresident – for harvest permits. “The company compensates the harvesters for the licenses,” he said.

Sheehan has heard some of the local concerns about the harvesting, including the loose rockweed floating in the bay.

“If you are mowing the grass, you will see grass trimmings. We are out there mowing the grass,” he said.

The rockweed harvesting supervisor said he has been operating on the bay for the past 15 years. “There has always been floating rockweed in the bay,” he said. “How much, I don’t know, and I doubt if anyone else knows.”

He said there are more floating rockweed pieces at the Pembroke Town Launch where the company unloads its product. “There is definitely a lot more rockweed floating there on the boat ramp, and I am embarrassed by it,” he said.

Sheehan said he would like to see his company or Acadian Seaplants “mitigate” the problem at the boat launch. “It is bad [public relations],” he said.

But there is a cost to everything, Sheehan said. When a local man crushes cars, metal and dirt are left on the road. “Can we put up with a little floating rockweed in the bay to put some people to work? This crew here is renting houses and buying their gas. So there is some economy here,” he said. “In a year or two, if it appears to me this is having an adverse effect, I won’t be part of it. I want it to run smoothly, I want it to be sustainable and I want to be proud of what we do.”

The Perry man also has come under criticism for hiring more college students than residents.

“They may not be local locals, but they need to make money as well,” he said.

Sheehan’s team did include rakers from Pleasant Point, Alexander and Baileyville.

In the first week, he said, that group of rakers harvested more rockweed than the entire crew did last year in one week. “We are somewhere about 1,000 tons [for] my crew, which would be 1,000 bags of seaweed,” he said. “I think the total allowable catch for the whole bay was about 7,000 [tons], and that is conservative and that is staying out of closed areas.”

Sheehan said he was proud that his business employs people. “We are making it here where other people have tried and failed. I think that’s pretty good,” he said.

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