
Raul Alejandro Ugarte
Director of Resource Science,
ACADIAN PLANT HEALTH
Raul has 40 years of experience in seaweed field studies, including cultivation, ecology and resource management. He joined Acadian Seaplants in 1995 and has been responsible for the resource science at the company ever since. At Acadian Seaplants, he has developed an extensive stock assessment and monitoring program to evaluate, on an annual basis, the biomass and condition of the resource Ascophyllum nodosum (Rockweed) along almost 3,000 km of intertidal covering the company's leases in Atlantic Canada. The Resource Science group has also developed and maintained a regular research program to evaluate the population dynamic of Ascophyllum nodosum. Scientific monitoring of the resource in the Atlantic region of Canada has been ongoing for 27 years. Raul also conducts collaborative studies with scientists from local universities in Canada, Maine, USA, and in Europe, to evaluate the impact of the harvest. These extensive observations of the resource and the intertidal zone in Atlantic Canada has resulted in the publication of numerous peer-reviewed publications in leading international science journals.