Proposals have been lodged with the States to bring into effect the Aquatic Resources Law 2014, which was passed five years ago.
If approved, the new rules would limit the daily amount of seaweed, depending on the species, that can be harvested for ‘recreational’ and commercial purposes.
It would also introduce a licensing regime for commercial gathering and ban mechanical harvesting. There would be no restriction on the collection of sea lettuce and storm-cast weed species.
The law would repeal and replace the ‘Loi sur la coupe et la pêche des vraics’, which was passed in 1894 and prevented year-round collection of seaweed.
The 19th-century law restricted the time at which seaweed could be harvested on Jersey’s beaches to between 1 February and 30 April between sunrise and sunset from Monday to Saturday.
Environment Minister John Young, in bringing the proposition, said: ‘In 2013 it was recognised that the laws managing the exploitation of seaweed were no longer in step with current utilisation of the resource.
‘It was decided that an update to the legislation was required, and this came about in the form of the Aquatic Resources (Jersey) Law 2014.’
Deputy Young’s proposition says: ‘Currently, seaweed harvesting is practised by a small number of individuals and cottage-industry-scale businesses which utilise seaweeds (both cut and gathered from the strand-line) for a range of culinary, agricultural and body-care products.
‘These draft regulations will allow for the year-round management of both recreational and commercial seaweed harvesting, with individual species/families of seaweed being subject to appropriate daily bag limits.
‘Certain species will have a bag limit set at zero to prevent exploitation, and others such as sea lettuce (ulva) and storm-cast weed (vraic de venu) will have no limits placed upon them.
‘Commercial harvesting will require a licence, for which a fee has been set in line with the existing scallop permit scheme.’
The proposals are due to be debated on 10 September.
