New management strategies and monitoring programs have since been developed in both provinces. Only time will tell whether these will be sufficient to protect the rockweed beds and ensure a sustainable harvest. In the headlong rush to expand the harvest, the fact that rockweed is an important living part of coastal ecosystems has too often been ignored. The rockweed beds of the Fundy coast are rich in marine life. The cool, wet, protective blanket of vegetation left when the tide goes out, prevents the intertidal animals from drying out or baking in the hot sun.
Few animals eat the healthy, adult rockweed plants.
The beds seem to be a critical nursery area for many species of fish, including several commercially important ones such as pollock, herring and flounder. They eat the abundant small animals hiding amongst the rockweeds and grow rapidly. Seabirds also forage in the rockweed, seeking these small fish. Two years later, when they are about 30 centimetres long, they move off into deeper water to begin their adult life. Seabirds and waterfowl are also attracted by the other prey available amongst the rockweed throughout the year.