Grand Manan dulse season worst ever, say pickers and sellers
CBC
Sandy Flagg has been in the dulse business on Grand Manan for 54 years and he's never seen a worse season.
Flagg, who operates Roland's Sea Vegetables, estimates this year's sales to be about 20 per cent of what they are normally.
In fact, things are so bad, he hasn't sold a single leaf of the edible seaweed to the mainland. All of his sales this year are at his roadside stand near Dark Harbour.
Pointing to his empty shelves, Flagg said they're usually full this time of year. Earlier this week, the only dulse he had for sale were a few 57-gram plastic bags of it.
Flagg and local dulse pickers agree that the problems are many — all culminating in the worst dulse season most can remember.
The main issue is what's called grey leaf, although it's more of an unappetizing greenish-brown colour. Scientists say it's likely an algae or sediment on the purple leaves of the plant.
"Tthere's a certain amount of it in all of the dulse every year," Flagg said. "But it's just a matter of picking out three or four leaves."
This year, however, the harvest is about 90 per cent grey, he estimated — far too much to pick out. That's why he hasn't been able to sell it in bulk as usual.
While Flagg said it's perfectly safe to eat — and two seaweed scientists agree — consumers don't want it.
What little he has been able to put on the shelf this summer is accompanied by signs warning of the low quality.
Steven Bass has been picking dulse for 51 years, starting with his family when he was 10. He's never seen anything like this year's season.
Bass works a longer dulse season than most, starting in March and picking into October, and he usually picks thousands of kilograms of first-quality dulse each year. This year, he's only managed to pick about 90 kg of the coveted deep-purple variety. The rest has been grey leaf.
This year's product has not been close to his or his customers' standards.
"So I've told my customers that until I can harvest quality dulse that I consider to be good, I won't sell it."
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