Einar Sandes presentation was statistics on fish and seaweed catches http://www.rafisklaget.no/portal/page/portal/NR

Jens Wathne spoke about tracking seaweed harvesting trawlers    http://www.fiskeridir.no/fiske-og-fangst/elektronisk-rapportering

– there has been a great deal of controversy about this with all kinds of accusations from environmental organizations and individuals but no one was able to present a good enough case until we filmed a trawler fishing illegally – in spite of a great deal of prevarication and attempts to get the case dropped we continued.  We finally got the case through after filming a policeman telling us how difficult it was to get a decent prosecution, that the maps were on paper and not in the trawlers – and that the trawlers used paper charts anyway so they could not be all that precise over their position.  Our video shows 4 landmarks in line and the trawler on the wrong side with his gear out.  It is immensely difficult to position a ship from land accurately.   From the west coast – Trondheim – southwards the coast is divided up into harvesting areas.  Each is allowed to be harvested for 1 year then it must be allowed to recover and harvesting begins again in 4.  Our prosecution (the first in Norway) took nearly 2 years.

The picture underneath is of Ole Damm Kvilhaug announcing tracking of all taretrawlers at the meeting.  Essentially he said he was very happy that this has come about as it will stop a good deal of speculation and trouble. http://www.google.no/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&frm=1&source=web&cd=2&ved=0CDAQFjAB&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.fiskeridir.no%2Fcontent%2Fdownload%2F26875%2F243286%2Fversion%2F1%2Ffile%2Fole-damm-kvilhaug.pdf&ei=5lZJUr_eGMPl4QSE-YA4&usg=AFQjCNFkHAVE14E6n5WrKo7oN7CwbtUiiQ&bvm=bv.53217764,d.bGE

Unfortunately it is not the ais system we had hoped for and is completely under the control of the fiskeriedirektoratet and the taretrawling skippers themselves with no public oversight.

The day was finished off with a remarkable tasting of various seafood preparations made with seaweed – by the cooks at Stokke Sjøsenter.  While this in no way excuses the mass seaweed harvesting currently ongoing on coasts worldwide it is clear that this is excellent food.

This lecture was Presented by Nils T
. Hagen

What i found most interesting was the mechanism of the natural control of sea urchins, it appears there there are several, and that they are functioning. The main mechanism is by a nematode worm. We tried to find out information about this from Theirry Chopin in Canada (who is one of the worlds experts on seaweed http://www2.unb.ca/chopinlab/lab/present/thierrychopin.html  ) 2 years ago, but got nowhere – we still have a lot of unanswered questions about the mechanisms involved, it is clear they wont be answered in the present climate. One rather worrying feature of this problem is the experimental use of quicklime to control the predation – worrying because it might negatively effect the predacious (parasitic) nematode population – we understand there is also a predacious gastropod and that might be effected  – but then this is not our job, we have professionals for that.

There were no clear answers  –  did manage to find out that it has not happened because of taretråling (in some areas) and that nobody knows quite why however as the area (trondheim to lofoten) has only just recovered it seems dangerous to allow taretråling in the area.  There are reports which state that there is often a population explosion shortly after taretråling. http://uin.no/Ansattsider/nth.aspx

This lecture was Presented by Nils T. Hagen

Much of the information presented at the meeting  was about the opening of harvesting north of Trondheim – this is a contentious issue as this large area has been the subject of a plague of Sea urchins for many years, in fact the devastation was so much that there was simply not enough seaweed to warrant harvesting until recently.

From a private discussion with a representative of the miljødirektoratet https://www.miljodirektoratet.no/ they had presented no objections to opening this area for harvest as they have no negative information.  During our conversation it was clear that they had no information about my documents ( downloaded from the internet)  and  their contents in fact they were surprised, VERY.

What impact it would have had on their decision though is something else.   They were given a number of printouts.

Several times during the meeting i pointed out that this meeting was about tarehøsting in Norway – NOWHERE ELSE – there seemed to be no awareness at all of what is happening elsewhere  or even that our oceans are connected– of the negative consequences of harvesting in other lands – even little of the negative consequences of seaweed cultivating – there is an annual slick now  some 30,000 square kilometres in area in the yellow sea  due to a problem associated with cultivation.   http://ir.yic.ac.cn/bitstream/133337/3513/1/World’s%20largest%20macroalgal%20bloom%20caused%20by%20expansion%20of%20seaweed%20aquaculture%20in%20China.pdf

Why is it important that Norway should think about the bigger picture?  Norway has the largest amount of Laminaria Hyperborea apparently in the world – as I mentioned at the meeting it removes approximately 480 tons of nitrogen per 20 square kilometres (our marine biologists kept on pointing  out that there is over 50 million tons on the Norwegian coast – nearly 6,000 square kilometres – however no one at the meeting, in spite of frequent requests from many present – could tell us how they arrived at this figure)– harvesting it, disturbing it over such a wide area is going to have an effect – particularly as the gulf stream runs alongside the coast.  (how do I know this?? http://www.thecrownestate.co.uk/media/358662/initial_environmental_consideration_of_large-scale_seaweed_farming.pdf Sure you have to read quite a bit to find it, but its there alright)   That means that well over 100,000 tons of nitrogen are removed annually from the sea by just our seaweed – worldwide seaweed binds over 30 million tons of co2

Svein Håkon Lorentsen presented more work on the negative impact of taretråling on skarv or cormorants

– apparently it is considerable and it also effects the eggs there not being enough food – I have written to Mr. Lorentsen concerning the Thiamine issue and sent links to the main document, but received no reply https://www.pnas.org/content/106/29/12001.full  Why Ornithologists are not very concerned about this report I don’t know – feedback from Lennert Balk (main author of the Thiamine report)indicates this.

• I was unable to ask Mr.Lorentsen about this at the conference but in the end it did not really matter –
• Reading this should set off alarm bells – it certainly did with me.
• I have contacted many organizations such as the uk RSPB https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Royal_Society_for_the_Protection_of_Birds the Norwegian ornitologisk forening https://www.birdlife.no/organisasjonen/english.php  and marine protection groups concerning this – a great deafening silence is the result but I know the documents are being read.

The introduction to the meeting was given by Terje Sørvik https://no.wikipedia.org/wiki/Terje_S%C3%B8rvik

Essentially he said that the meeting was being held to address concerns about the impact of taretråling and in general seaweed harvesting and a much deeper concern that not enough was known about the consequences.

The next Talk was given by Henning steen – a great deal of information about the seaweed laminaria hyperborea – the one that is being harvested by the seaweed trawlers – one surprising bit of information was that some of the seaweed was dated at nearly 20 years of age

Henning Steen https://www.imr.no/om_havforskningsinstituttet/ansatte/s/henning_steen/nb-no

No mention of ecological consequences but a great deal of video of the seaweed forests

Before and after harvesting –

19 and 20th September Johan Breivik and I – Bertram Sømme from Stopptt, attended a meeting about Commercial seaweed harvesting on the Norwegian coast in Trondheim hosted by Nord and Syd Trondheim Fylkeskommune and others

Present were some 60 people from the major state marine biological organizations – from the Fiskeriedirektoratet – from the Kommune (councils) up and down the country – from the Miljødirektoratet – the environment agency and from the seaweed harvesting industry including Fmc, Algea, the Taretråwler skippers and perhaps the most important of all several very concerned private citizens.

Why important? Because these citizens are deeply worried that there is not enough knowledge about the consequences of the industry – that the signs that there is something wrong are being ignored.  These are ordinary people who are prepared to spend several thousand Kroner and their time to let their voice be heard and to find out more. (one could say it was the job of the others to be present)

This is clear indication of the concern the public has over this issue and its  not being addressed.

The meeting was held in the very splendid Clarion Hotel in Trondheim – full of vast open spaces and artworks – a impressive demonstration of wealth and status –

We asked the organizers of the conference if we could present a little video we had made – we were told we could – but as events turned out there was some confusion – fair enough it was not a good video. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iHkAMGAQf1I but then you can make  your own mind.

However the national television was there – NRK  – they got the video so it is entirely possible that it will get a far bigger audience. However as always they left before the fireworks began.

The message we (Stopptt) got from the meeting was clear – our little organization is having an impact – out website and blogs are carefully read and scrutinized by the taretråling industry – private individuals and many others – we know this, because we were told this at the meeting (we  have a counter on our old site http://stopptt.com/ it currently reads 38,000)   –

The attitude of some marine biologists present was disturbing to say the least

On the surface this has a number of results but one clear one is that  we should be extremely worried about our oceans and the knowledge that is not being distributed, discussed or followed through  –  It is not right that the type of work Stopptt does should be left up to individuals such as us, but it is clear no one else is going to do it.

I would to make one last point  – quite a few scientists have been in contact and have collected papers.  Thank you for that.

Due to the video footage we took at the meetings we should be able to do a comprehensive report in the next few days, but it is quite a task connecting names to faces. It would be useful if there was some feedback (particularly concerning inaccuracies)- I have disabled comments here but you can contact me on stopptt@stopptt.com – finally there is only one form of bad publicity and that is no publicity – negative comments are welcome.

The meeting about Seaweed harvesting in particular Taretråling was most interesting – in spite of reams of rather irrelevant facts nobody fell asleep – in fact I would say that everyone paid a great deal of attention over the 2 days.

My video recorded a great deal – probably not to use in a later video but more as an aide memoir – my report is going to be rather long, but I will say this –  some of the scientists present exhibited a form of behavior which clearly demonstrates their fear of information over which they have no control.  To demonstrate this in public is pretty extreme, at its best it makes them look foolish and at the worst immature.  I made my point with their help!

This meeting was for the leaders and representatives of the counties, I think they learnt a good deal about the system and how it works.  I hope and trust they are in no way satisfied by this performance, in fact a little disturbed.  My intention and hope  is that they will find out for themselves – hopefully a full report will be here tomorrow.

I will also offer a little apology – for my theatrics at the end of the meeting.

This is our latest video on Taretråling or seaweed dredging.  It details important documents (each snip has a link at the top of the page where the document can be seen in its entirety) and asks a number of fundamental questions.

We asked the havsforsknings institut some of these questions and in spite of a maximum of 21 days wait for a reply have received none. We also asked a Scottish university engaged in seaweed research if they knew anything about Thiamine deficiency related bird die offs – they had never heard of this.

It seems that there is a surprising lack of knowledge in the marine biological world about factors which could be of considerable importance when making decisions about the safety of such issues as commercial seaweed harvesting or even cultivating.

Meeting in Trondheim on Taretråling on the 19 and 20th September.