{"id":655362,"date":"2026-08-25T09:06:09","date_gmt":"2026-08-25T09:06:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/655362\/"},"modified":"2026-08-25T09:06:09","modified_gmt":"2026-08-25T09:06:09","slug":"whos-behind-the-seaweed-harvesting-applications-covering-over-14000-hectares-of-irelands-coastline","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/655362\/","title":{"rendered":"Who’s behind the seaweed harvesting applications covering over 14,000 hectares of Ireland’s coastline?"},"content":{"rendered":"

MORE THAN 14,000 hectares of Ireland\u2019s coastline have been proposed for seaweed harvesting, with 12 applications submitted to the maritime regulator, MARA.<\/p>\n

These applications come from just four companies, which are looking to Ireland\u2019s coast as the global seaweed industry booms.<\/p>\n

But this rapid commercialisation has raised concerns among traditional harvesters, environmentalists and local communities, who argue that private companies shouldn\u2019t be allowed to harvest seaweed for commercial profit.<\/p>\n

Seaweed has many uses, including in the cosmetic and beauty industry, such as seaweed baths, and in agriculture as fertiliser.<\/p>\n

It also has a growing use in the food and retail market, due to its high nutritional value and perceived health benefits.<\/p>\n

A study from the Dutch government in 2022 suggests that the commercial seaweed market could reach \u20ac22 billion globally by 2028.<\/p>\n

The Journal Investigates has also separately revealed that MARA is investigating multiple claims that illegal seaweed harvesting is taking place in special areas of conservation<\/a>.<\/p>\n

But the difficulties of catching harvesters in the act to verify whether they hold the correct licence have left regulators struggling to determine who exactly is responsible.<\/p>\n

EU rules state that commercial harvesting activities in special areas of conservation must be regulated and licensed to protect the local habitats.<\/p>\n

MARA has confirmed that licence applications for seaweed harvesting are currently paused due to capacity issues at the agency and that none have been determined yet.<\/p>\n

A spokesperson for the agency told The Journal Investigates they expect \u201cindividual licence applications will advance in the fourth quarter of this year or early next year, subject to any legislative or policy changes\u201d.<\/p>\n

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Companies seeking harvesting licences<\/p>\n

One of the largest licence applications comes from seaweed harvesting company BioAtlantis, which has applied to MARA to \u201csustainably hand harvest\u201d seaweed in Clew Bay, Co Mayo \u2013 a special area of conservation \u2013 covering an area of 93 square kilometres.<\/p>\n

The company plans to harvest 11,018 wet tonnes of seaweed every year from the site.<\/p>\n

This is close to a fifth of the almost 51,000 wet tonnes of seaweed planned to be harvested from every commercial application currently before MARA.<\/p>\n

All but one of the 13 applications MARA has received to date have come from private companies.<\/p>\n

They include eight applications from Arramara Teoranta, which was bought by Canadian multinational Acadian Seaplants in 2014.<\/p>\n

All of Arramara Teoranta\u2019s applications for seaweed harvesting are located in Galway, and if granted, they plan to harvest more than 24,000 wet tonnes of seaweed across almost 3,000 hectares.<\/p>\n

This rapid commercialisation of Ireland\u2019s seaweed industry has sparked community pushback.<\/p>\n

A petition addressed to the Minister for the Environment, Darragh O\u2019Brien, calling for large corporations to be prevented from harvesting seaweed was signed by more than 21,000 people.<\/p>\n

Environmental campaigner Saoirse McHugh told The Journal Investigates that traditional harvesters have faced industrialisation even before these commercial applications, owing to the pressure of competing in a global marketplace.<\/p>\n

She added that she feels the debate should be \u201cmore than just who has the right to harvest seaweed\u201d and should consider the environmental impact of harvesting.<\/p>\n

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Seaweed, McHugh said, \u201cis brilliant for mitigating and slowing down coastal erosion\u201d, it serves as a nursery for fish, keeps coastal waters clearer and acts as a carbon sink. She added:<\/p>\n

\n

The value of seaweed is more than just how much somebody can be paid for it.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Even though some of these applications were submitted towards the end of 2024, none have as yet been determined.<\/p>\n

A spokesperson for MARA said the reason for this was that they must \u201cprioritise applications in line with national priorities, including critical state infrastructure and renewable energy projects\u201d.<\/p>\n

They added that \u201cthere is a complex legal and property rights environment associated with the harvesting of seaweed in Ireland.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Journal Investigates<\/p>\n

Reporter: Conor O\u2019Carroll<\/strong> \u2022 Editor: Noel Baker<\/strong> \u2022 Social Media: Cliodhna Travers<\/strong> \u2022 Main Image Design: Lorcan O\u2019Reilly<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"MORE THAN 14,000 hectares of Ireland\u2019s coastline have been proposed for seaweed harvesting, with 12 applications submitted to…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":655363,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[73],"tags":[79,18,440,1878,19,12312,17,113304,2354,277014],"class_list":["post-655362","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-business","tag-business","tag-eire","tag-environment","tag-galway","tag-ie","tag-investigates","tag-ireland","tag-mara","tag-mayo","tag-seaweed-harvesting"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@ie\/117155357515124856","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/655362","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=655362"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/655362\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/655363"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=655362"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=655362"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=655362"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}