When PIP Magazine asked me a series of questions for their Q&A section - is synthesized a lot of things that customers often comment on or ask about. So I thought I would reshare my thoughts that PIP magazine triggered....
1. Can you tell us a little about yourself and the journey that led you to working with seaweed?
I’m a marine ecologist by training, and I’ve spent most of my life trying to understand the role of the ocean in nutrient cycles around the planet — not just as a fascinating place, but as a living system that supports planetary health and our own survival.
My early work was in coastal ecology, looking at how nutrients, algae, seagrasses and marine life are all connected. Over time, I became increasingly interested in the idea that seaweed could be more than something we study in the ocean. It could be something we cultivate with purpose — to capture nutrients, improve food systems, create new ingredients, and reconnect human health with ecosystem health.
That journey eventually led me to create PhycoHealth, which is really the practical expression of decades of science, curiosity and persistence. It is about bringing seaweed out of the tidepool and into everyday life.
2. What first sparked your fascination with seaweed, and when did you realise its potential extended beyond marine science?
Seaweed became the focus for me during my Masters research in Sri Lanka, where I was measuring ecological processes linked to one of the biggest challenges of the 21st century — the disruption of the nitrogen cycle.
I was looking at how coastal systems could reduce over-fertilisation through microbial processes, shellfish filtration and seaweeds. What became so obvious was that seaweeds were doing something extraordinary. They were capturing excess nutrients, helping restore oxygen and pH, and turning what the land was losing into new life.
That was the spark. Seaweeds are a kind of living lung and regeneration machine, using light, carbon, nitrogen, phosphorus and ocean minerals to build complex molecules — omega-3s, amino acids, vitamins, fibres and extraordinary gels.
Once I saw that, I couldn’t unsee it. Seaweed was a platform: food, fibre, medicine, fertiliser, biomaterial and a tool for restoring balance to nutrient cycles.
3. PhycoHealth sits at the intersection of human health and environmental health. How did the vision for the business evolve?
The vision evolved from a very simple but difficult question: how do we make ecological systems with seaweed viable as a business?
I realised I needed to create something people could touch, taste, use and benefit from in their everyday lives. So I started asking: could seaweed be good for people and good for the planet at the same time? And if so, which seaweeds?
That led me to screen seaweeds around Australia, looking for species that could do both. We started from the environmental side — using seaweed cultivation to capture nutrients that would otherwise become waste or pollution. But what became so exciting was that the seaweed was not just cleaning water. It was creating beautiful, functional ingredients.
PhycoHealth became the way to translate that science into products people can actually use every day. It is not just about selling seaweed. It is about showing that regenerative systems can make things that are desirable, delicious, useful and deeply relevant to modern life.
4. For readers who are new to seaweed as a food, what makes it such a remarkable ingredient from both a nutritional and sustainability perspective?
Seaweed is remarkable because it is such a powerful nutritional gap-filler. It lives immersed in the mineral world of the ocean, bringing diversity back into diets that are often built from a very narrow set of land plants.
It is nutrient-dense, but also light-footed. Seaweed does not need roots, woody stems or anti-gravity structures in the way land plants do. In many ways, it simply grows nutrition — minerals, trace elements, fibres, plant proteins and marine omega-3s at the base of ocean food chains.
It also requires no farmland, no freshwater irrigation and no synthetic fertiliser in the way many conventional crops do. When cultivated well, seaweed sits within water and nutrient cycles rather than fighting against them.
That is the beautiful idea: waste becoming nourishment. It places us, as humans, back into the cycles of life on Earth.
5. Australia isn’t traditionally known for seaweed consumption. What challenges have you faced in introducing Australians to seaweed as an everyday food?
The biggest challenge is familiarity. Many Australians know seaweed through sushi, but they don’t necessarily think of it as something to put in muesli, chocolate, crackers, soups, smoothies or skincare.
So part of our job has been cultural translation. We are not asking people to suddenly eat large sheets of seaweed if that feels unfamiliar. We are showing how seaweed can be incorporated into foods people already love — in small, delicious and practical ways. We had to make seaweed feel normal from the beginning.
There is also a perception challenge. Some people think seaweed will taste fishy or strange, but good seaweed ingredients can be savoury, mineral-rich, subtle, creamy or even chocolaty depending on how they are used.
Every ingredient has its role. We love garlic, but not many people bite into a whole raw clove. Seaweed is the same. Sometimes it brings flavour, sometimes minerals, sometimes fibre, and sometimes it simply does its quiet functional work in the background.
6. You’ve spent decades researching and advocating for marine-based food systems. How has public awareness and acceptance changed during that time?
It has changed enormously. When I first started talking about seaweed as a serious food and biotechnology platform, it was often seen as niche, eccentric or very futuristic. I think many people probably thought I was slightly mad.
Unless you can see the invisible power of seaweed at a molecular and ecological level, it can be hard to understand why it matters so much. It has taken decades of research to slowly reveal that opportunity.
Now, people are actively looking for foods and materials that are regenerative, climate-smart and nutritionally meaningful. There is also much more awareness that the ocean is not just a place to extract from, but a place we need to understand, restore and work with intelligently.
The exciting part is that people can hear the bigger story and then directly take part in it. Seaweed is no longer just a curiosity. It is becoming part of a much bigger conversation about the future of food, health and regeneration.
7. Seaweed farming is often described as one of the most sustainable forms of food production. What role do you see it playing in the future of regenerative agriculture and food security?
I see seaweed playing a huge role, but nothing is a silver bullet. It needs to be part of a much more diverse and resilient food future — one that connects land and sea more intelligently.
One of the reasons seaweed matters so much is that it can use what agriculture often loses. Excess nitrogen flowing from land into waterways is one of the great planetary challenges of our time. Seaweed can capture those nutrients and turn them into food, fibre, fertiliser, skincare ingredients, biomaterials and other useful products.
It also helps address several sustainability pressures at once. Seaweed does not need farmland or freshwater irrigation. In our systems, it grows extremely fast, meaning it can produce nutrition using far less space than many land-based crops.
For regenerative agriculture, seaweed is exciting beyond human food. Seaweed extracts and gels can support soil health, plant growth and microbial systems. In many ways, the gut microbiome and the soil microbiome are part of the same story.
8. What have been some of the biggest lessons you’ve learned from building a business in an emerging industry?
One of the biggest lessons is that being early is both exciting and difficult. In an emerging industry, you often have to build the science, the supply chain, the products, the market and the language all at once.
I’ve learned that persistence matters, but so does translation. It is not enough to have good science. You have to help people understand why it matters in their everyday lives — and that includes customers, collaborators and investors.
Science often works by saying, “we need to know more before we can be certain.” Business often requires you to prove value much earlier. That tension has been one of the hardest parts. We have had to turn decades of research into products, revenue and real-world traction, because that is often the best way to show people the opportunity is real.
I’ve also learned that values are not a marketing layer. They have to be built into how you grow, process, package, communicate and make decisions.
9. What are some simple ways Pip readers can incorporate seaweed into their diets and daily lives?
Start small and make it easy — think “an apple a day”, but in a seaweed way.
For gardeners, adding seaweed to the soil is a no-brainer. If someone does not want to go down the path of eating seaweed, they can still bring it into their life through the garden.
But as food, it can also be very simple. Pull down a pack of muesli in the morning. Stir a little Phybre into a smoothie, yoghurt or cereal. Sprinkle Phukka on avocado toast. Use seaweed pasta just like any other pasta. Even seaweed salt can be a simple way to bring natural iodine and ocean minerals into the diet.
Beyond food, seaweed can be part of skincare, gardening and home rituals. It is a beautiful ingredient because it connects so many parts of life: nourishment, skin, soil, water and care.
10. What excites you most about the future of PhycoHealth and the growing seaweed movement in Australia?
What excites me most is that I no longer feel alone in this journey.
My staff are as motivated as I am. Our customers are sharing stories of nutritional, gut and skin recovery that are genuinely inspiring. We also have more than 1,500 shareholders who have chosen to back this vision, and that purposeful alignment between our customers, shareholders and team is what keeps me going.
I am also encouraged that government is beginning to recognise the opportunity. Australia has extraordinary coastlines, brilliant scientists, innovative farmers and a growing appetite for regenerative solutions. We don’t need to copy old industrial models. We can build a seaweed industry that is ecological, ethical, scientifically rigorous and genuinely useful.
For PhycoHealth, I am excited by the way our work is expanding — from food and gut health into skincare, agriculture and biomedical materials. The seaweed movement in Australia is still young, but it has enormous potential. I feel like we are at the beginning of a much bigger story — one where the tide starts to turn toward regeneration.