Miminegash is in danger of losing its title of Irish Moss Capital of the World.
“There’s no Irish Moss on the west side this year. None at all,” proclaimed Ronnie Costain, operator of Oceanside Seaweed in Miminegash.
Most of the moss his company bought this year came from the north side.
“We had a pretty good run of furscelleria. The moss, we didn’t buy a whole lot,” Costain said.
It’s a similar story for moss on the wharf at Miminegash where Maritime Sea Products is based.
“It’s the first time since 1967 that I didn’t buy Irish Moss in the harbour of Miminegash,” Maritime Sea Products operator Audie Murphy stated.
He said he bought raked moss on the Island’s west side just one day this year. By comparison, he bought raked moss for three weeks out of Tignish. Much of the Irish moss arriving at the two plants in Miminegash and at Shea Seaweed in Anglo was harvested off beaches, following storms.
Dexter Shea, owner of Shea Seaweed, is looking forward to “a nice little breeze” to push more Irish Moss onto beaches. Of the three Irish Moss buyers in West Prince, Shea is the one with the most room remaining in his contract. He also had the biggest contract, 10 containers, down from 12 last year.
Shea said he lowered his expectations this year because the two Miminegash plants were operating again. Neither had seen much activity last year.
The scarcity of West side Irish Moss has given rise to a furscelleria market for Oceanside. Costain said he bought more furscelleria than moss and has now filled his contract for that seaweed, commonly referred to locally as fu-fu. Furscelleria is harvested by fishing boats and sold wet for six cents a pound. Irish Moss sells for 12 cents wet and 44 cents a pound dry.
“It’s not like she used to be,” acknowledged Murphy who recalls years when his plant shipped 35 to 40 containers of moss.
He shipped the last of the five containers in his contract Wednesday, but is buying until the end of the week “on spec” in hopes of getting sale for a sixth container. Costain would not disclose how many containers he is shipping, but said his buying season will likely wind down next week.
Shea expects to be open a while longer.
