Projo — Seaweed collector’s arrest revives age-old debate on R.I. beach access

Scott Keeley displays a sample of Irish sea moss, which he was collecting before he was confronted by a security guard hired by private landowners on the Charlestown shore. [The Providence Journal / Kris Craig]

By Brian Amaral — When Charlestown resident Scott Keeley went to the beach on a sunny Sunday recently, he thought he had state law on his side: the Rhode Island Constitution says he’s allowed to collect seaweed along the shore, and, he believes, nothing in it prevents him from sitting down to shake out the sand from his haul.

But a private security guard hired by nearby beachfront property owners had little interest in his arguments about rights under Article 1, Section 17, Keeley said. The paper copy Keeley had printed out didn’t work, either.

And when the South Kingstown police officer showed up, things really went “pear-shaped,” Keeley said. The officer, too, told him that the area parallel to the stretch of private homes on Charlestown Beach Road was private property and that he had to move along, he said.

Keeley disagreed, but he didn’t want to get arrested, so as he prepared to leave and bent down to pick up the bag of seaweed, he saw another “really nice chunk” on the ground and picked that up too.

A video with tens of thousands of views on Facebook shows what happened next: The officer arrested Keeley for trespassing. Keeley really did want that seaweed, but he also was there to make a point and launch a protest.

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