2022 alumni Stories - Sea Forest - Telstra Best of Business Awards

Healthier outcomes for our planet

Seaweed probably isn’t the first thing that comes to mind when considering innovative ways to drive agricultural productivity and sustainable change. But that’s exactly what the team at Sea Forest is using in its bid to create cleaner and healthier outcomes for the planet.

The world's largest supplier of Asparagopsis products

This remarkable enviro-tech company is the perfect blend of advanced science, manufacturing, and commercialisation, carving out its own industry sector. Put simply, Sea Forest is focused on the cultivation of Asparagopsis seaweed, a common seaweed native to the waters of Tasmania. Demonstrating its vision for continual innovation, the Australian-founded company has more recently designed ways to successfully grow the seaweed on land.

Sea Forest uses the seaweed to produce an Asparagopsis feed supplement for livestock which, when included in very low quantities as a feed supplement, has been scientifically proven to reduce methane production by up to 98 percent.

After years of dedication to research and innovation, Sea Forest is the first and largest supplier of Asparagopsis-based products in the world and is using science and technology to pioneer the development of a new and environmentally positive industry for Australia.

Seaweed farming has a positive indirect impact through environmental capture. Unlike other seafood, it does not require feed. Through photosynthesis it sequesters carbon dioxide (CO2), much like trees, and cleans the water that contains it by capturing nutrients. Seaweed also plays an important role in de-acidifying our oceans through carbon capture.

Helping reduce carbon emissions

With support from the Awards program, Sea Forest’s short-term goal is to ramp up annual production to over 1,000 tonnes of dried seaweed feed product and has now secured an 1,800-hectare marine lease based in Triabunna, Tasmania, that is licensed for seaweed cultivation.

Sea Forest is currently deploying optimised marine farming infrastructure, and estimates that this level of production will result in 400,000 tonnes of carbon dioxide equivalent (CO2e) – the equivalent of 100,000 cars being removed from the road, each year.

Sea Forest is 2022 Telstra Best of Business Awards Embracing Innovation and Promoting Sustainability National Winner.

We hope to facilitate the growth of the Australian food manufacturing sector by becoming a world leader in producing environmentally friendly, sustainable, and high-quality sources of protein. Our unique farming and processing methodologies will establish Sea Forest as a global leader and exporter of products, equipment, and technology.