Sea Forest

Seaweed certainly 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.

This remarkable enviro-tech company personifies the perfect marriage of advanced science, manufacturing, and commercialisation, carving out its own industry sector altogether. 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 per cent.

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.

Sea Forest has been recognised as the 2022 Telstra Best of Business Awards Embracing Innovation and Promoting Sustainability National Winner.

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 in the process of deploying optimised marine farming infrastructure, and its estimates suggest that this level of production will ultimately result in the avoidance of 400,000 tonnes of Carbon dioxide equivalent (CO2e) annually – the equivalent of 100,000 cars being removed from the road.