ABSTRACT
A “pilot” seaweed harvest was authorized by the government of British Columbia in 2007. It was focused on beaches close to the small semi-rural communities of Deep Bay and Bowser at the south-eastern entrance to Baynes Sound. The adjacent area of Baynes Sound continues to be subjected to a continually expanding shellfish industry that supplies approximately 50 percent of British Columbia’s total shellfish aquaculture production. A democratically-derived Official Community Plan, within the administrative boundaries of the Regional District of Nanaimo on Vancouver Island, includes guidelines for the management of shoreline areas. The foregoing comments documented the economic and ecological value of seaweeds and the potential impacts of harvesting. It is suggested that the appropriateness of a new industry on the east coast of Vancouver Island that would remove seaweeds from locations that currently support diverse natural and cultured organisms, often with links to sustainable and economically-important fisheries, is questionable and not supported scientifically.
