Seaweed farms
Seaweed is a rapid absorber of CO2, and is a beneficial food for people and livestock.
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Seaweed grows much faster than land plants, and seaweed farming is taking off in Australia! Learn more about Sea Forest and these other initiatives.
Sea Health Products
Seaweed scientist Jo Lane and her family hand harvest seaweed to make health and beauty products in Tilba Tilba, NSW. They are now setting up a seaweed farm in Eden, so they can expand the products they make.
The Seaweed Research Group, University of the Sunshine Coast
The Seaweed Research Group helps communities, governments and businesses identify opportunities where they can develop and cultivate seaweed to improve the economy, environment and communities.
© Institute of Marine and Antarctic Studies
The following two exciting restoration projects are bringing important habitat back to Sydney waters - while absorbing and storing carbon along the way.
Operation Crayweed
Crayweed once formed dense underwater forests on reefs all along the Sydney coastline. But crayweed disappeared from Sydney’s waters in the 1980s because of the city’s poor sewage treatment. This meant creatures such as fish, seahorses, abalone and crayfish lost their underwater forest homes.
Operation Crayweed volunteers collect washed-up crayweed on the north coast and bring them down to Sydney Harbour to transplant.
A/Professor Adriana Verges, from the Sydney Institute of Marine Science and UNSW, says crayweed provides ‘one of the most productive ecosystems.’ You can help bring back these ecosystems by buying an underwater tree or volunteer with Operation Crayweed.
Operation Posidonia
Posidonia australis is a slow-growing seagrass that makes extensive underwater meadows. These meadows are home to many creatures including fishes, octopuses and seahorses. But a soccer field worth of seagrass is lost every 30 minutes, mostly because of boat moorings. There’s a risk the meadows may be extinct from some NSW estuaries in the next 15 years. Operation Posidonia is transplanting the seagrass back into NSW waters to combat this loss, particularly in old mooring scars. Environmentally Friendly Moorings (EFMs) are slowly replacing traditional block and chain moorings. Find out more about these moorings.
For more on global seaweed farming, check out 2040 and Project Drawdown.
