Irene Dundas has harvested black seaweed throughout her entire life. She was close to Kake as she was a kid and close to Ketchikan when she was an adult. The harvest occurs in May, when the seaweed is precisely the proper size. Dundas and other family members take a boat trip to a specific rock that is away from the shore. It has to be low tide to allow them to pull the seaweed from the rocks.
“When you’re grasping it by the handful it appears as if you’re grasping an entire strand of long, thick black hair” Dundas said.
The black seaweed can be found in areas that are more dangerous. It requires nutrients that are derived from a lot of moving water.
Dundas collects around 50 gallons of seaweed to share with friends and family. The process is long, and involves dry seaweed to small pieces.
“It’s kind of crunch like popcorn,” she said. “But it’s flavor is similar to the black seaweed is used in sushi. It’s exactly that taste. So delicious.”
The seaweed that is wet is placed into pillowcases, then sets it outside on tables for drying. In 2021 and 2022when she became aware that there was something wrong.
“The seaweed that I gathered was very distinctive and strong, strong scent,” Dundas said. “There there was discoloration. It was the lighter green hue. I thought it was an a bit more metallic flavor to it.”
In order to find good seaweed this season she spent long hours on a boat close to bordering the Canadian border. Her harvests from the past were thrown away.
“I was shocked and extremely, very angry,” said Dundas. “I was naive about of what was going on.”
Keolani Booth is also concerned. He gathers black seaweed from the waters off to Metlakatla and on the southern Prince of Wales Island.
“This time, however, barely saw any harvest,” he said. “I usually distribute lots of seaweed to community members who can’t leave. But I was allowed to give a tiny amount, and it was kind of sad because, you know that some of them are dependent on me to get them seaweed throughout the season.”
Booth believes that black seaweed could be similar to a canary in a coal mine, warning about what might be the result of climate change.
“It’s extremely difficult seaweed to grow,” Booth said. “It’s extremely sensitive, and you can see that in the ocean’s open it’s the precursor of everything else that is more robust within the sea.”
The Metlakatla tribe received an award to begin researching the issue a couple of years ago. This research is still ongoing. In the last month Dundas as well as Booth presented their findings at a gathering in Juneau that was held by the Sealaska Heritage Institute. Researchers and harvesters debated what to do.
Jennifer Clark from Vancouver brought Jennifer Clark from Vancouver brought a Western science-based perspective. She is employed by the company that produces kelp, and has studied the impacts of changes in the climate on seaweed in her Ph.D. In a postdoctoral study she collaborated in collaboration with Indigenous groups from the central region of British Columbia about black seaweed disappearing in the area.
“In the year 2016, we’re nearly entirely absent from the shoreline of the intertidal,” she said.
Clark’s study connected the disappearance to the massive hot water mass located in Clark’s research linked the disappearance to a massive hot water mass in Northern Pacific known as The Blob. In 2014 and 2015, The Blob moved from the Gulf of Alaska down to California. Then came more warmth due to El Nino which raised seawater up to 2 degrees, sufficient to destroy the seaweed that was black.
“These temperatures are sort of unique,” said Clark. “They only cause disruptions to the life cycle and disruptions to the intertidal zone, and most of the seaweeds you see are subtidal intertidal, which means they’re experiencing radical changes in their environment.”
She discovered that black seaweed was unable to survive temperatures above 64 degrees. As temperatures fell during the time following the Blob along with the El Nino double whammy, BC’s seaweed began to grow back. But not in the way it was before. Clark does not know whether the black seaweed issue in Alaska was also impacted through The Blob – she says it will require more study. However, she is aware that any black seaweed has issues to face if climate predictions are true.
“I think that if it were constant, as the case if we increase 2 degrees by 2050, I believe that’s the projected increase of about one-and-a-half degrees the chances are they’ll not be as resilient, and they’ll exist as long as they can, until completely destroyed,” Clark said.
Rosita Worl is president of the Sealaska Heritage Institute. She believes that seaweed is essential for many communities within and around Alaska since it’s traded and shared.
“Black seaweed is very significant to us not only as a source of food and also because of its cultural aspects,” Worl said. “It’s similar to glue that helps to hold the community through our shared patterns of sharing. Also, it has spiritual aspects. The black seaweed is used to distribute and consumed in our ceremonies.”
Sealaska Heritage Institute is creating a harvester-led committee and scientists to begin investigating the issue. They’re also documenting the historic methods of harvesting and the changes it has undergone in the past few years.
They hope the research will aid them in determining whether there’s a way to help save the black seaweed.
