Searching the internet reveals a great many surprises – one of the most surprising things is that the clear evidence against seaweed dredging as damaging to the environment and even to the health and well being of our seas.  Surprising because none of the major players seem to be aware of these documents freely available, but perhaps that is not an accident.

http://www.thecrownestate.co.uk/media/358662/initial_environmental_consideration_of_large-scale_seaweed_farming.pdf

This is a feasibility study of farming seaweed off the coast of Scotland – it also mentions some of the surprising chemistry of our Laminaria hyperborea.

It seems the reason why seaweed is packed with iodine is because it is a weapon against attack – a poisonous bitter substance.  When the stalks are damaged it is released – so are some other very surprising chemicals.  This adds strength to the idea that our birds and sea mammals are suffering from a definitive lack of seaweed in the food chain or their diet.  So perhaps that is the cause of this worldwide die off.

Surprisingly enough it also mentions this

This is from the Crown estate document – it mentions 480 tons of nitrogen per 20 square kilometres of seabed removed by Laminaria hyperborea – so there is supposed to be 6,000 square kilometres of this on the Norwegian coast so that works out at roughly 144,000 tons of nitrogen removed from the sea per year – i assume that the figures for other chemicals would not be far from that.  The gulf stream brushes along the Norwegian coast – would that amount  not being removed mean that other coasts are  being enriched.  Could that be why they are  so many harmful algal blooms?

This paper seems to raise enormous amount of questions.

But one thing is becoming crystal clear – the Norwegian people are being fooled by the assurances and work of the bodies supposedly overseeing this and fmc biopolymers comes from a group of companies who are in receipt of record fines for environmental pollution, fraud, price fixing cartels and the production of one of the most damaging chemicals to wildlife and nature, in fact one of their chemicals responsible for the decimation of Africa’s wildlife and they are entrusted with the health of Norway’s seas.

It has been recently drawn to my attention that there has been a huge die-off of birds and marine mammals in parts of the world.

In Sweden it was eventually discovered that the birds lacked the amino acid thiamine

https://www.pnas.org/content/106/29/12001.full

So I contacted a Swedish professor Lennert Balk engaged with studying the effects of thiamin deficiency – when I suggested that there is a possible link between this and seaweed being removed from the environment he said that thiamine in the environment comes from plant matter – so there could definitely be a connection.

http://www.su.se/english/research/research-news-archive/unravelling-the-mystery-of-dead-elk-in-southern-sweden-1.137132

Recently I spotted a large auk swimming in the boat harbor here at hustadvika – its behavior was very listless – it did not seem to have very good coordination – the next day it was dead – out to sea a small auk swam up to our boat, I leant over the side and picked the bird up in my hands – it had very poor coordination and died an hour later – I just cover a very small area. Is this happening along the coast?

THIS IS WHERE SEAWEED IS HARVESTED ON THE NORWEGIAN COAST

According to FMC biopolymers seaweed does not grow north, or south of this area in sufficient quantities to warrant harvesting. So the entire coast of Norway where seaweed grows is subject to seaweed harvesting.

In February I started catching cod with blackened and discolored livers – I sent pictures and samples to mattilsynet – they asked me to take them back saying that they did not have the competence to analyze them, they also added that nifes did not either.

This is a normal cod liver

Severely damaged liver from a cod caught at hustadvika

This is a different liver – can you spot the difference?  Mat tuilsynet can’t, nor can Marine biologists at Nina https://www.nina.no/

This is the homepage for nifes: http://www.nifes.no/forskning/

Now it appears that crabs caught by a salmon farm have black insides and are polluted with cadmium –

https://www.tv2.no/a/4056073

it just so happens that the salmon farm belongs to a Norwegian government minister Lisbeth Berg-Hansen
.

By protecting the industry’s capitalizing on the nature on the Norwegian coast the state is protecting the interests of powerful individuals – this is fine if the consequences were simply that they got rich – but it is not as simple as that – sooner or later the bill must be paid and that will be by everyone.

https://www.independent.co.uk/environment/climate-change/5000000000000-the-cost-each-year-of-vanishing-rainforest-2096367.html

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2296882/Chiles-crimson-tide-prawns–Mystery-millions-dead-shrimp-washed-ashore-turning-beach-bright-red.html

Dead shrimps washed ashore – presumably poisoned

This is all very unscientific – I’ve been repeatedly told not to use anything unscientific or that cannot be verified – for instance there is no scientific proof that seaweed trawling damages the environment – or so the seaweed trawling industry tells us repeatedly and those who want to believe do so.  However I say the opposite should be happening – even the industry itself says there is not enough research on the long term effects of commercial seaweed harvesting on the ecology – there are major changes in the ecology of the sea – these events are not natural/normal – these coasts are being constantly harvested for seaweed – does not seaweed clean the sea, the same as plants on land???

Here is a little piece from an article from FAO the food and agriculture organization in the 80s about harvesting in Chile.

Essentially it says that some forms of seaweed have been decreasing in value due to fish eggs.  Possible solutions are to change the ph of the water so they are no longer attractive to the fish – other methods such as removing the fish altogether are not commercially viable.

The paper is here http://www.fao.org/3/P8253E/P8253E01.htm#ch1.2

Probably the biggest hazard facing the marine ecosystem in Norway, if not the world is seaweed harvesting – as we know seaweed removes many dangerous chemicals, including carbon dioxide and it is an oxygenator – it is also the home for an amazing number of creatures including many of our most important food animals – from the map in the previous post it is clear that the entire Norwegian coast is being harvested.  The information on this is in the hands of qualified marine biologists.

I asked Henning Steen who gave the first lecture at the Runde taretråling conference,  if the predation of sea urchins had anything to do with taretråling – he replied nothing at all – I then asked him if taretråling had ever been undertaken in the areas where sea urchins were causing problems – he replied that taretråling had no connection with sea urchin predation – This was in the conference hall with a full audience.

From the video on the Henning Steen lecture at Runde.

Another lecture was on the problems caused to seabirds by taretråling – i was able to read the paper later it was by Svein -Håkon Lorentsen among other authors

Essentially part of the document said that taretråling does have an impact on Sea urchin numbers – and here is the proof to show it.

https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0006320710002363

The Fiskeriedirektoratet has been receiving papers from us on seaweed harvesting worldwide – and other related information – when we asked them why we were of importance to them we were told that they had no other source – we then said surely you have a research department – we were told that it was run by Henning Steen –

So we did a little research into Mr. Steen – and this is what we found.

It appears he is responsible for the development of Taretråling on the Norwegian coast – and monitoring and establishing new areas to harvest.

Strangely enough we also found out that many of the directors of Fmc biopolymer come from the fiskeriedirektoratet and the havsforskning institut – so let’s be clear on this – there are very close ties between the industry and the regulatory bodies – very.

This is the area where seaweed harvesting on the Norwegian coast is allowed.

This is from the Fiskeriedirektoratets website   https://kart.fiskeridir.no/

South of this area there is limited growth – if this is due to previous overharvesting we do not know.

North of the area we have information that there is little seaweed due to the predation of sea urchins.  We have information that seaweed harvesting can lead to this.

There is supposedly strict regulation of this – we found that there are forbidden areas – we felt that as there was no monitoring of the activity of the trawlers we should do some – the resulting prosecution took over 18 months to go through the courts despite attempts to block the process and procrastination by the police – we understand that one of the policemen concerned is under investigation by another force.  We have video evidence.

Today I filmed the seaweed dredgers in Hustadvika – they are now scraping the sides of the bay.

Having coffee with a friend an hour or so later his daughter came rushing in to say that the Farstad River was full of dead fish and the mattilsynet were down by the river in  force.  I wondered why i had seen such a large group of people.

The river is tidal at the lower end.

About 3 weeks ago we contacted the Mattilsynet about fish with damaged livers – we were told it was normal – we also contacted marine biologists at Nina who said the same.  We spoke to the fiskeriedirektoratet who told us this was definitely not normal.

So now salmon, trout and other fish have been found dead in one of the rivers leading to Hustadvika bay – the liver samples i delivered to the mattilsynet i was asked to remove as they did not have the competence to analyze them.

Nor did Nifes.  Mattilsynet said.

http://www.nifes.no/index.php?page_id=&article_id=4063&lang_id=1

Johan and I have just been down to Ålesund to see Ole martin Sorthe, the leader of the møre and romsdal fiskelaget.

http://www.proff.no/selskap/m%C3%B8re-og-romsdal-fiskarlag/%C3%A5lesund/oppf%C3%B8ringer-uten-bransjetilknytning/Z0I4164O/

We were met quite cordially and offered coffee by OM Sorthe.

I wanted to present the information we had found on the state of the seas and the documents relating to the taretråling we had with us – I think Mr. Sorthe has reached his full interest level in Taretråling a long time ago and much preferred swopping yarns with Johan to listening to more facts, figures and papers.

But none the less in the hour long meeting – without coffee – he was presented with a nice binder, complete with videos and documents and did listen to some of the documents i presented to him even though he was keen to show his lack of interest  by rolling his eyes, sighing heavily and looking at the ceiling.

Is it going to go anywhere?  That i cannot say but we have presented information beyond heresy and possibly sown a seed.

Normally the fishing trips I undertake from Hustadvika lead to catches in the 20 to 30kg region – this is about 3 to 5 times a month.  So the fishing is generally good.

Since before Christmas the cod have been turning up with black livers – the taretrawlers have been I the area that long.

The previous trip took me out to all the places I normally fish and nothing, not even a bite
.

Yesterday I went some 12 kilometres out – fishing all the way and not even a bite – finally I got to the most famous mark in the area and had 1 fish.  Others are remarking the same.

There is some activity on long lining but that is very limited.

So yes definitely taretråling is removing our fish.  The question is – will they come back?

Many people have told us they have seen the taretrawlers fishing illegally, miljøvernforbund has told us they have tried to get  several cases under way but have been unsuccessful.

We have succeeded.  the case took over a year – during this time we were visited on 2 occasions by the police asking us if we were sure of our facts – both times we told them, don’t ask us – look at our pictures and videos.

Over a year passed, finally we asked permission to call the police to find out what was happening.

We recorded the conversation and sent it to the authorities – the case quickly came to a conclusion and we were told that the policeman concerned was under investigation by another force.

Fmc biopolymers and 2 taretrawler skippers got a fine.  Not very much but it made them guilty of a crime – that actually by dictionary definition makes them criminals.

https://www.thefreedictionary.com/criminal

Speaking to the Kristiansund paper Tidens krav (https://www.tk.no/) today we were told that FMC biopolymers said that it would criminalize them if they were made to fit ais satellite tracking to their boats – that is so  their position can be verified at any time. Hmm they’ve been found guilty of illegal fishing – they have been found guilty of a crime – that by dictionary definition makes them criminals –

They also said that if they were made to fit ais then all other boats of a similar size should have them too.  I rather think that the only boats that should by law have tracking are those involved in activities that require exact positioning – now i wonder what boats that would refer to?

We believe that if the true situation was revealed by the press about taretråling in Norway then like in other lands it would be stopped very quickly.