The blue boats owned by Acadian Seaplants, boats that carry fresh-cut rockweed out of Washington County’s Cobscook Bay, are not as numerous as they were three years ago. Still, tensions are high among property owners who object to the company’s harvest of seaweed near their homes. These homeowners are hoping that a pending court case will settle the question of who controls the intertidal zone. The dried rockweed that has washed ashore in Lubec crunches and pops beneath scientist Robin Hadlock Seeley’s feet as she inspects mounds of vegetation, which scientists refer to as Ascophyllum nodosum.