Dulse, the food from the sea that wasn't seafood
Wet weather on Grand Manan Island, N.B., meant supplies of the seaweed snack were low
Grand Manan Island, a part of New Brunswick, produces much of the world supply of dulse, a seaweed harvested from the ocean at low tide.
"Rhodymenia palmata is an edible seaweed," explained CBC reporter Bill Curtis on Aug. 25, 1973. "Many consider it a great delicacy, only they know it by its more popular name: dulse."
The Latin name of the plant has since been changed to Palmaria palmata.
On the New Brunswick island in the Bay of Fundy, about 100 people on Grand Manan made a living of foraging dulse from the rocks it grew on.
A good haul
According to a 1979 article in the Globe and Mail, "Grand Mananers love it for its tangy salt taste and eat it much as others eat potato chips."
Good dulse pickers could make about $70 a day, or about $400 in today's dollars.
But in 1973, the process of preparing it for market could go no further than the harvest stage. Unfavourable weather meant there wasn't a long enough window of time for the seaweed to dry in the sun.
"I would say about four ton was gathered, and that was all lost," said dulse dealer Leroy Flagg. "It rotted, spoiled."
In a good year, dulse was available to the consumer for about 20 cents for a one-ounce package.
About a quarter of the year's harvest had been lost, estimated Flagg. Another quarter wasn't even picked because of the dismal chance of enough drying time.
'I love dulse'
"Normally the island ships up to 100,000 pounds of dulse a year to all parts of North America," said Curtis. "This year there will be a shortage, except perhaps in Grand Manan itself."
And that was a relief for Flagg.
"I eat an awful lot of dulse," he said. "I eat it about every day of the year. I love dulse."
