Seaweed Study underway

Recently, Food & Fibre Gippsland’s Elena Nauta joined the Deakin University Blue Carbon Lab team on the University’s Lady Bay work-boat as they surveyed seaweed species, environmental conditions, and growing locations in the beautiful Gippsland Lakes.

This survey work forms part of a wider feasibility study being conducted by Deakin University that aims to map the seaweed species growing in the Gippsland region, and understand the local species and environmental conditions that may support commercial scale seaweed cultivation.  

Food & Fibre Gippsland is aiming to assess the viability of seaweed farming as a valuable future industry for the Gippsland region. This work is part of the Smart Specialisation Program in collaboration with the Latrobe Valley Authority.

Gippsland, with over 600km of coastline and a vast network of lakes and waterways, in addition to an established aqua-cultural industry, could potentially be a prime location for the development of a commercial seaweed industry in Victoria – the problem is that there’s very little information on which species of seaweed actually grow in the region, and limited data on the environmental conditions needed to support seaweed growth locally.  

The Deakin team are experts in Victorian seaweed species and ecology, and are aiming to fill in these knowledge gaps by getting out into the field and collecting data through cameras and water quality analysis, as well as seaweed samples to identify and analyse in the laboratory.

These findings will form the backbone of evidence supporting the potential development of a future Gippsland seaweed industry, and we’re excited to share them with you and keep you updated as the project progresses.  

If you’d like to find out more about the project or get involved, please email Elena at elena.nauta@foodandfibregippsland.com.au.