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Beach-cast biomass and commercial harvesting of a non-indigenous seaweed, Mazzaella japonica, on the east coast of Vancouver Island, British Columbia

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Abstract

As the number of seaweed introductions continues to grow globally, the beach-cast collection of non-indigenous macroalgae has become increasingly common for both esthetic and commercial reasons. These harvests and their effects, however, are poorly characterized in the literature. Since 2007, the British Columbia Ministry of Agriculture has been issuing licenses permitting the commercial harvest of beach-cast Mazzaella japonica, an introduced red algae, on eastern Vancouver Island. A 900 tonne quota was approved for the 4.2 km harvest region in 2014/2015, and was increased to 1500 tonnes for the 2015/2016 season. The objective of this study was to provide the first documentation of: (1) beach-cast seaweed accumulation, (2) depositional dynamics, and (3) the proportion of biomass removed within the harvest region. At peak biomass, we recorded 1586 tonnes of beach-cast seaweeds within the harvest region and up to 1.33 tonnes per meter of shoreline in areas of greatest accumulation. This biomass was highly transient and largely disappeared from the region in late December of both harvest seasons, likely as a result of longshore drift. On average, the commercial harvest removed less than 16% of the available biomass each week. These findings contribute to the limited literature on beach-cast harvesting, helping to inform management practices at both a local and global scale. Furthermore, they provide an important record of M. japonica’s abundance and distribution in the harvest region, which has previously been limited to anecdotal information.

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Acknowledgements

Thanks to Dr. Kylee Pawluk for sharing her knowledge of Mazzaella japonica’s ecology within Baynes Sound and Ramona de Graff for her knowledge of forage fish and their distribution in the harvest region. We would also like to thank the license holders and the harvesting crew for their time and co-operation as well as Wayne Sparanese and Gary Caine with the Ministry of Agriculture for their support.

Funding

This research was funded by the British Columbia Ministry of Agriculture, as part of the project “Monitoring of drift seaweed and harvest: Central Strait of Georgia”. J.J. Holden was supported by a Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council–Canada Graduate Scholarship (Master’s Program).

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Author notes

  1. Jessica J. Holden and Brian C. Kingzett contributed equally to this work.

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Biology, University of Victoria, Station CSC, Victoria, British Columbia, V8W 3N5, Canada

    Jessica J. Holden, Francis Juanes & Sarah E. Dudas

  2. Centre for Shellfish Research, Vancouver Island University, Nanaimo, British Columbia, V9R 5S5, Canada

    Brian C. Kingzett, Shaun MacNeill & Sarah E. Dudas

  3. Department of Geography, Vancouver Island University, Nanaimo, British Columbia, V9R 5S5, Canada

    Wes Smith

  4. Department of Biology, Vancouver Island University, Nanaimo, British Columbia, V9R 5S5, Canada

    Sarah E. Dudas

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  1. Jessica J. Holden
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Correspondence to Jessica J. Holden.

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Holden, J.J., Kingzett, B.C., MacNeill, S. et al. Beach-cast biomass and commercial harvesting of a non-indigenous seaweed, Mazzaella japonica, on the east coast of Vancouver Island, British Columbia. J Appl Phycol 30, 1175–1184 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10811-017-1321-1

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