Will AS pick up the fact that collecting wild products is theft if it is for commercial gain and that they need a licence to do so ?

I hope so, although they have enough on their hands with the sandalwood fiasco

I expect production gave them a list of "natural" ingredients they had to pick from, with the boat already laid on and the licence bought.

Any evidence for this? After all the show has done similar in series 1 with the elderberry jam (complete with spider )

I think there is some sense here...I would have thought anything below the high tide mark belongs to the crown estate...for about 12 miles I think, then anything above high tide mark (which might include seaweed!) would belong to whoever owns that land...local authority/ private person etc

it was only 300g they were after

300g is quite a lot of dry seaweed.

They were doing it under Lush's supervision, and Lush uses large quantities of seaweed in several of its products and is very eco-conscious anyway, so I'm sure they must have the necessary licenses in place.

(LOVELY products by the way - I'm a total Lush junkie!)