A television news item last week, as well as recent written articles, got our attention since it was all about seaweed, something with which all Maine folks, and others, are familiar. Boaters deal with it all the time, especially kelp, which gets wrapped around propellers. Swimmers don’t like it, either in the water or on the rocks on the edge of the shore. It’s probably safe to say that for most of us, it’s never been much more than a nuisance.

A few years ago, we watched a seaweed collector at work in Linekin Bay, cutting it free from the rocks and ledges and loading it on his vessel to later be transferred to waiting dump trucks for sale where we know not, although we were told it was a lucrative business.

Now, it appears some ingenious folks are either currently farming, or plan to farm, seaweed and apparently the concept has a lot going for it. It’s relatively easy to find waters suitable for the project, and unlike so many things today, it is good for the environment, improving the water quality. The faster any farmed item is ready for market, the better, and seaweed grows rapidly, sometimes by as much as 15 feet over the winter. We already have at least one “seaweed farm’’ right here on the Damariscotta River, off Walpole, and as we understand it, the seaweed will be sold as food. With a reported 3,500 kinds of seaweed worldwide, several are supposed to be good eating, including sugar kelp.

We’re not too sure how soon Americans will catch on to eating seaweed in some of their food products but we can look to the Asians as leaders since they have been using seaweed in their diet for years. We remember 10 or 15 years ago when this newspaper carried a small advertisement offering seaweed locally for human consumption. We don’t know how popular it was, or what kind of customers the advertiser attracted, but we do know that at that time, the benefits of eating seaweed were being touted by some folks who were sold on its health benefits.

Seaweed is being promoted as a healthy source of food which could be produced inexpensively, almost anywhere, and feed the hungry around the world. 

Perhaps Maine has a whole new industry in its future.