City of Sumerside
The Summerside City council commissioned a study by Island Water Technologies on their existing seaweed issue and the possibilities of using seaweed in another value-added capacity such as organic fertilizer or bio-fuel.
As per Summerside chief administrative officer Bob Ashley
“The (Island Water Technologies) study is virtually complete. It needs to be formally received by council.”
“The next step is to gather some good data over the summer. It will be things like measuring the quantity of seaweed that comes up on shore.”
“The basis for this whole thing, or the purpose of this whole thing, is to try to establish some scientific confidence about the cause (of the seaweed),” Ashley said.
Seaweed collection
“A lot of people make assumptions, but we believe that some of the assumptions are erroneous about when and where it’s caused.”
“If we have some real hard facts to work with we can then move from the science to the technology – which kind of technology can we use to remediate the situation.”
Once this information is received and analyzed it could be used to help determine if there is a beneficial use for the seaweed.
“It would be a basis for something like that – for modification of the seaweed either as a biofuel or a fertilizer or some other practical application,” Ashley said.
“But we need the information first. We need the data first.
Eel Grass
“The reason we’re going into more depth with it is because the consultants that we hired in the fall didn’t have a lot of time before winter set in and neither did they have the time to sit there every day and measure things like thee way we’re going to do this summer.”
