Learn more about The Ocean Age Walk & Talk, Barcelona, 1st Nov 2026

Too many proven ocean solutions never make it past the pilot stage. Stewart Sarkozy-Banoczy wants to fix that by replicating what already works: getting tested solutions into many ports, cities, and projects at once, with the funding to match.

Stewart’s bio:

Stewart Sarkozy-Banoczy works at the intersection of ocean leadership, innovation, investment and storytelling, with 15+ years advancing resilience and “precovery” across public and private sectors. As CEO and Managing Director of the World Ocean Council, he brings leaders together to drive practical, regenerative solutions for a resilient blue economy. He is also Co-Founder of Okhtapus and O Lab, connecting innovators, enablers and funders “from reef to roof,” and founder of Precovery Labs, where creativity and visual storytelling help turn ideas into impact. Stewart is a mentor, educator, and advisor, as well as a sailor, swimmer and professional photographer.

Timestamps:

00:00:00 - Introduction
00:01:08 - “Turdles”
00:04:15 - Wastewater as the forgotten piece of the blue economy
00:08:05 - What decentralised wastewater treatment looks like
00:15:40 - Precovery and the disaster, rebuild, repeat treadmill
00:21:15 - Blue Mind and why access to water should not be a privilege
00:30:15 - Why so many proven ocean solutions stall at the pilot stage
00:40:25 - The three hearts of Okhtapus: innovators, enablers, and funders
00:43:25 - How a port finds and buys a solution
00:51:10 - Why Okhtapus is not an accelerator, and how it makes money
01:01:20 - The World Ocean Council’s new strategy
01:05:50 - Tomorrow Blue Economy and the Walk & Talk event in Barcelona

Useful Links & Resources:

Stewart Sarkozy-Banoczy on LinkedIn
World Ocean Council: Website, LinkedIn, and Instagram
Okhtapus: Website and LinkedIn
Tomorrow.Blue Economy World Congress
The Ocean Age Walk & Talk
Turtles, not Turdles, Stewart’s article for the Ocean Sewage Alliance
Blue Mind by Wallace J. Nichols

Get in touch with The Ocean Age’s host Fed DeGobbi on LinkedIn, X or by emailing directly at fed@oceanage.co

Please send in your feedback: what do you want to hear more or less of? Any suggestions? Would love to hear what you think!

Here is a link to get more information about The Ocean Age Walk & Talk and join the waitlist.

Episode Intro:

California is in its deepest drought in 1,200 years, and Robert Bergstrom reckons that without the ocean the state would have to depopulate. He spent decades building desalination plants the traditional way: on land, pumping seawater up, pressurising it, and pushing salty brine back out. Now he is sinking the membranes 450 metres down and letting the ocean's own pressure do the work for free. No high-pressure pumps, no marine life caught in the filters, and a far weaker brine.

Robert's bio:

Robert Bergstrom is the founder and CEO of OceanWell, a Californian water technology company building subsea desalination. He has worked on desalination since 1996 and came into water from a career in finance. He founded Seven Seas Water, growing it from two people in a pickup truck into a business that built and operated plants across the US Virgin Islands, the Bahamas, and other Caribbean islands. He retired in 2012, then came back to solve the problem he had spent his career working around.

OceanWell was founded in 2019 with Charlie McGarraugh and Michael Porter. Its pods sit roughly 450 metres below the surface, where natural hydrostatic pressure drives reverse osmosis instead of high-pressure pumps. Each pod is about the size of an upright school bus and can produce up to a million gallons of fresh water a day. The company raised an $11m Series A backed by Kubota, is developing Water Farm 1 in California's Santa Monica Bay with a group of regional water agencies including Las Virgenes Municipal Water District, and has signed an MOU with Eau d'Azur to develop a demonstrator off Nice.

Timestamps:

00:00:00 - Introduction
00:00:53 - Why the water crisis is getting worse
00:01:56 - Atmospheric thirst and what one degree does
00:04:49 - California's deepest drought in 1,200 years
00:08:15 - Thirty years in water and building Seven Seas Water
00:09:54 - What desalination actually is, from thermal to reverse osmosis
00:13:22 - Brine, marine life, and the cost of pressurising water
00:21:02 - How OceanWell differs: using the ocean's own pressure
00:28:21 - Pods, umbilicals, and what a water farm looks like
00:33:59 - Serving 10% of the Los Angeles area, and who buys the water
00:45:17 - Permitting, and regulations written for older technology
00:58:35 - The Colorado River, water wars, and water exchange

Useful Links & Resources:

The Ocean Age Walk & Talk - Link to join the waitlist

Robert Bergstrom on LinkedIn

OceanWell: Website, LinkedIn, Instagram, and YouTube.

Get in touch with The Ocean Age's host Fed DeGobbi on LinkedIn, X or by emailing directly at fed@oceanage.co

The Ocean Age Podcast is edited by Nebojsa Lešević. Sarah Carpenter and Giulia Leanza are our research assistants.

Please send in your feedback: what do you want to hear more or less of? Any suggestions? Would love to hear what you think!

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Here is a link to get more information about The Ocean Age Walk & Talk and join the waitlist.

Ralph’s bio:

Ralph Chami is the CEO and Co-Founder of Blue Green Future and Rebalance Earth. He spent 25 years at the International Monetary Fund, most recently as Assistant Director, before turning his focus to valuing living nature as an asset class. His work, which puts a financial value on the ecosystem services provided by whales, elephants, seagrass, mangroves and forests, has been featured at TED, in the Financial Times, National Geographic, the New York Times, and on CNN. He is the recipient of the 2024 MadBlue Five Oceans Award and holds a PhD in Economics from Johns Hopkins University.

Timestamps:

The Ocean Age Walk & Talk - Link to join the waitlist

00:01:10 - Introduction: Ralph Chami 

00:02:10 - Ralph Chami sharing his early passion for music

00:04:17 - The whale encounter that changed everything “before 2017” and “after 2017”

00:05:20 - Building a model to estimate the economic value of whales’ carbon capture

00:09:30 - Fertilising, another unknown ecosystem service provided by whales 

00:13:15 - How wrong incentives completely alter the true value of whales 

00:16:00 - Telling the story of whales and elephants as natural assets with Fabio Bergonzi

00:18:15 - Seagrass and Carlos Duarte’s marine ecology insights

00:19:05 - More living entities that provide valuable services for free

00:22:05 - The fallacy of the current system which ignores planetary boundaries

00:24:40 - From valuing extraction to rewarding the preservation of living things

00:27:00 - Seeing the intrinsic value of nature can make for a better future

Useful Links & Resources:  

The Ocean Age Walk & Talk - Link to join the waitlist

Ralph Chami on LinkedIn.

Blue Green Future: Website, LinkedIn and YouTube. 

Get in touch with The Ocean Age's host Fed DeGobbi on ⁠⁠LinkedIn⁠⁠, ⁠⁠X⁠⁠ or by emailing directly at fed@oceanage.co

The Ocean Age Podcast is edited by Nebojsa Lešević. Sarah Carpenter and Giulia Leanza are our research assistants. The show notes for this episode were produced by Cecilia Bombonato.

Please send in your feedback: what do you want to hear more or less of? Any suggestions? Would love to hear what you think!

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As the founder of BioMara, a marine biotech startup based in Scotland, Jay Dignan is dedicated to transforming regenerative seaweed into functional and healthy B2B ingredients for the food and wellness industries. His professional journey began in New Zealand and includes a diverse range of experiences, from deep-sea salvage and working with Tibetan yak wool to media mergers and acquisitions.

Jay has over two decades of cross-disciplinary experience as a founder, CFO, and strategic consultant. His self-described "squiggly" career path was complemented by an MBA from a UK university. He is passionate about seaweed's potential to contribute to a sustainable future and help feed the world. Jay is focused on finding synergies among researchers, innovators, investors, and business leaders to help realise the promise of the seaweed industry for a healthier planet and healthier people.

Timestamps:

00:00:00 - Intro 
00:01:44 - Jay's Background and “Squiggly” Career Path
00:06:50 - The Importance of Diverse Experiences
00:10:33 - The Role of an MBA in an Entrepreneur's Journey
00:14:03 - The Tibetan Yak Herder Experience
00:20:31 - The Challenges of the Western Seaweed Industry
00:24:54 - Frustrations Faced as an Ocean Entrepreneur
00:34:25 - The Founding of BioMara and Its Business Model
00:41:02 - Developing and Validating the biorefinery System
00:43:43 - Understanding BioMara's Core Products
00:46:40 - The Potential of Fucoidan in Human Health
00:54:19 - Lessons from the Ashwagandha and Manuka Honey Markets
00:58:55 - The "Health by Stealth" Approach
01:09:18 - The Process of Building a Founding Team
01:12:54 - A Call to Action for Food and Nutraceutical Companies

Useful Links & Resources:

Jay Dignan on LinkedIn

BioMara’s website: Food & Wellness. Products: Seafibrex & Thalivra & Revyntra

BioMara on Linkedin

Biomara’s White Paper on Fucoidan 

Scientific paper by BioMara’s team with an overview of fucoidan, its applications and extraction technique.

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Get in touch with The Ocean Age's host Fed DeGobbi on ⁠⁠LinkedIn⁠⁠, ⁠⁠X⁠⁠ or by emailing directly at fed@oceanage.co

The Ocean Age Podcast is produced by Charlotte Raffo and edited by Nebojsa Lešević. Sarah Carpenter and Giulia Leanza are our research assistants. Eliana Caragia manages Distribution and Engagement. 

Please send in your feedback: what do you want to hear more or less of? Any suggestions? Would love to hear what you think!

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Harry Wright is the Founder and Director of Bright Tide. Harry studied law and practised in the private sector for ten years. It was there he saw the potential to harness the ingenuity and resources of the private sector to help solve global conservation issues, inspiring him to launch Bright Tide. Harry has extensive knowledge of conservation issues, international law and social entrepreneurship, regularly giving lectures and leading workshops for both the private and education sectors. Harry is also the founder of The Conservation Project International, senior board member of Back2Business International, Advisor at Oceanovation, Trustee at the Seahorse Trust and a board member at the United Nations Westminster Association.

Check out ⁠⁠Inside Seaweed Newsletter⁠⁠! Just one short email per month, no spam and you can cancel at any time. If you'd like to give it a try, head over to ⁠⁠insideseaweed.com ⁠⁠

Timestamps:
00:00:00 - Intro
00:01:00 - Harry's Background and Current Work
00:02:22 - The Reality of Entrepreneurial Success
00:04:45 - Transition from Law to Environmental Focus
00:10:46 - The Role of Legal Advice in Entrepreneurship
00:12:02 - Balancing Profit and Environmental Impact
00:14:10 - Successful Business Models in Seaweed and Blue Economy
00:17:00 - Common Success Factors in Seaweed Businesses
00:20:11 - Potential of Seaweed in Environmental Impact
00:22:38 - Overview of Bright Tide and Its Services
00:27:05 - Support Needs for Entrepreneurs in Seaweed Industry
00:34:03 - Regenerative Farming and Its Importance
00:37:07 - Link Between Aquaculture and Regenerative Farming
00:44:30 - Investment Landscape in Seaweed Industry

Useful Links:
 
Harry Wright on ⁠⁠LinkedIn⁠.
Bright Tide: ⁠⁠Website⁠⁠, LinkedIn, Facebook, Instagram and YouTube.
The Regenerative Farming Accelerator Programme

Events:

• Bright Tide Venture Showcase at Barclays' officers on 24th May 2024 in Canary Wharf, London 
• Groundswell - The Regenerative Agriculture Festival: 26th-27th June 2024

Sponsors:

Alvan Blanch:  Website, Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and LinkedIn
 

Get in touch on ⁠⁠LinkedIn⁠⁠, ⁠⁠Twitter⁠⁠, Instagram or by emailing me directly at fed@insideseaweed.com - Please send in your feedback: what do you want to hear more or less of? Any suggestions? Would love to hear what you think!

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This episode covers all things wild harvesting, as I am joined by Peter Elbourne from SHORE Seaweed.

We took a very insightful deep dive into the advantages and disadvantages of wild harvesting and looked at the differences when compared to seaweed farming. Peter’s extraordinary experience allowed us to go into detail and discuss both the technical/operational side (e.g. access to different species, site selection, etc.) and the differences in terms economical and business management aspects (e.g. costs, product development options, competitive advantage). We also looked at the possible role of wild harvesting for the future of the industry, with particular focus on sustainability.

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Check out the ⁠Inside Seaweed Newsletter⁠! Just one short email per month, no spam and you can cancel at any time.

Would you like to get a super short email from me every month, with three actionable insights for your seaweed business? I will search the seaweed industry for the most important lessons, the most useful conclusions and relevant actions, condensed into a half page that I will share with you, each month. It's easy to sign up and just as easy to cancel. If you'd like to give it a try, head over to ⁠insideseaweed.com ⁠

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Useful Links:

Peter Elbourne on LinkedIn
SHORE Seaweed's website
SHORE on Instagram
SHORE on Twitter
SHORE on Facebook

Peter Elbourne's bio:

Peter Elbourne is Managing Director of Supply and Operations at New Wave Foods. Trading as SHORE Seaweed, the company is a leading harvester, farmer and processor in Scotland. They supply organic seaweed direct to businesses for a wide range of applications and create innovative food products under their breakthrough retail brand SHORE. Peter trained as a marine biologist, completing his BSc at Bangor in North Wales and his PhD at Newcastle. He worked in community sustainability projects over a number of years. A consultancy project on business development led to the original idea to process seaweed in 2012. He began working full-time on seaweed in 2015 when the company was founded. He lives in the Highlands, roughly in between the company’s wild harvest sites in Caithness in the far north of Scotland and their farm site in Argyll on the West Coast.

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Inside Seaweed's host is Fed DeGobbi, get in touch on ⁠LinkedIn⁠, ⁠Twitter⁠, or directly via ⁠email⁠. Please send in your feedback: what do you want to hear more or less of? any suggestions? Would love to hear what you think!

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Vincent Doumeizel is Senior Adviser on the oceans to the United Nations Global Compact as well as director of the Food Programme at the Lloyd’s Register Foundation. Author of a new book titled "The Seaweed Revolution" which officially launched in the UK in May 2023, Vincent has in recent years devoted himself to promoting a food revolution and environmental solutions based on sea resources, especially seaweed. He also played an instrumental role in the creation and development of the Global Seaweed Coalition.

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Check out the ⁠Inside Seaweed Newsletter⁠! Just one short email per month, no spam and you can cancel at any time.

Would you like to get a super short email from me every month, with three actionable insights for your seaweed business? I will search the seaweed industry for the most important lessons, the most useful conclusions and relevant actions, condensed into a half page that I will share with you, each month. It's easy to sign up and just as easy to cancel. If you'd like to give it a try, head over to ⁠insideseaweed.com ⁠

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[1:40] Book launch of The Seaweed Revolution at the National History Museum in London.

[4:00] Goals and expectations for the book and its unexpected impact so far.

[11:30] Lessons and takeaways from researching and writing this book.

[15:00] European culture and the West's lost connection with seaweed and the ocean.

[19:50] Why is nobody making money from seaweed, yet?

[25:55] Adjustments and contingencies to put in place when starting a seaweed business.

[27:45] Biorefining as key path toward profitability.

[32:15] How to collaborate within the framework of the Global Seaweed Coalition.

[38:50] Licencing issue and lack of science as biggest obstacles for the industry.

[42:00] Seaweed application in the food industry: a model that could work for Europe.

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Useful Links:

Vincent Doumeizel on LinkedIn and Twitter

United Nations Global Compact: Website, LinkedIn⁠, ⁠Twitter⁠, ⁠Facebook⁠ and ⁠Instagram⁠

Global Seaweed Coalition : Website, LinkedIn, Twitter, Facebook and Instagram

Lloyd's Register Foundation: Website⁠, ⁠LinkedIn⁠, ⁠Twitter⁠ and ⁠Facebook⁠

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Inside Seaweed's host is Fed DeGobbi, get in touch on 

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Is the era of automation and AI coming to the seaweed industry?

I try to answer this question in my conversation with one of the pioneers of automation and mechanisation in the sector.

Here is a short trailer of this episode: click here

Among the many topics discussed on this episode, here are some that you might find really interesting:

• New technologies to disrupt the seaweed industry
• Principles and strategies behind a serial entrepreneur and how products and services are brought to market
• Seaweed stabilisation and secondary processing 
• Automation and mechanisation in seaweed farming 
• Using data and AI to reduce risk and operational cost whilst increasing the quality and quantity of the biomass
• Drastically reducing the time required for obtaining a seaweed farming licence
• The learnings from experiencing the war in Ukraine

It has been an absolute eye opener for me to hear the insights and thoughts Morten shared during our chat, I hope you will enjoy it.

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Check out the ⁠Inside Seaweed Newsletter⁠! Just one short email per month, no spam and you can cancel at any time.

Would you like to get a super short email from me every month, with three actionable insights for your seaweed business? I will search the seaweed industry for the most important lessons, the most useful conclusions and relevant actions, condensed into a half page that I will share with you, each month. It's easy to sign up and just as easy to cancel. If you'd like to give it a try, head over to ⁠insideseaweed.com ⁠

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Useful Links:
Morten Kroslid on Linkedin
Sirputis: Website, Linkedn, Facebook and Insagram
SoftSeaweed: Website and LinkedIn

Morten Kroslid's Bio: 

Morten Kroslid is CEO of Sirputis, a company providing equipment for seaweed cultivation and processing. He is also Co-Founder of SoftSeaweed, a software solution developed to make seaweed farming businesses more sustainable and profitable. Morten studied Business and Economics in his native Norway and went on, over the years, to become the founder or co-founder of more than 20 start-ups in several different countries. In the last few years he's focused on innovation aimed at enabling the growth of the seaweed industry globally.

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Inside Seaweed's host is Fed DeGobbi, get in touch on ⁠LinkedIn⁠, ⁠Twitter⁠, or directly via ⁠email⁠. Please send in your feedback: what do you want to hear more or less of? any suggestions? Would love to hear what you think!

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This episode is part 2 of a special series recorded as I was travelling across Argentina and Chile, connecting with ocean founders, entrepreneurs, experts and activists.

My guest today is Catalina Cendoya, whom I met when I visited a marine conservation organisation called Por El Mar (literally translates to "For the Sea"). Por El Mar coordinates projects across Patagonia, including, for example, rewilding subantarctic kelp forests in Tierra del Fuego and working on the conservation of a biological corridor off the coast of Argentina that includes 5 major marine species: sharks, orcas, whales, sea lions and dolphins.

Catalina, or Cata, as everybody calls her, specifically is the Director of the Global Salmon Farming Resistance, which is the group behind the campaign that resulted in the ban of open-net salmon farming in Argentina, and it is now (as the name suggests) a global network. 

It was a really open and honest conversation, looking at all the different perspectives on the matter. And it was a nice way for me to get out of my bubble and challenge my own assumptions.

So if you’re up for the challenge, please enjoy!

Catalina's Bio:

Catalina feels at home by the coast, close to the sea, surrounded by nature. That deep sense of belonging has shaped her path, leading her to join The Global Salmon Farming Resistance (GSFR) in 2022. In 2023, she became the Director.

She holds a degree in Political Science, driven by a commitment to creating meaningful change in people’s lives. She has worked in government roles supporting people in vulnerable situations and studied in Germany, where she learnt the language and was inspired by a culture deeply rooted in environmental care.

As Director of the GSFR, Catalina leads the alliance’s actions and works with the team to shape strategies that protect the ocean from the harms of industrial salmon farming.

Timestamps:

00:00:00 - Introduction to The Ocean Age and Guest Introduction

00:02:04 - Catalina Cendoya's Background and Journey

00:05:15 - Por el Mar and the Campaign to Ban Salmon Farming in Argentina

00:10:06 - What Is Open Net Salmon Farming?

00:12:58 - Environmental Impacts: Pollution, Disease, and Escapes

00:21:12 - Social and Economic Challenges for Local Communities

00:27:05 - Consumer Awareness and Norway's Marketing Success

00:31:00 - Can Salmon Farming Be Made Sustainable?

00:42:49 - Economic Arguments: Norway, Chile, and Tourism

00:49:10 - The Problem with Regulation and Certification Schemes

00:58:06 - Salmon vs Other Protein Sources: A Comparison

01:04:36 - Alternative Ocean Economies and Other Fish Species

01:06:12 - Global Movement: Key Victories and Milestones

01:09:48 - The Power of Global Collaboration with Local Solutions

01:13:45 - Vision for the Future and Resources to Learn More

Useful Links & Resources:

Catalina Cendoya on LinkedIn

Por El Mar: Website, LinkedIn

The Global Salmon Farming Resistance (GSFR): Website, LinkedIn

Get in touch with The Ocean Age's host Fed DeGobbi on ⁠⁠LinkedIn⁠⁠, ⁠⁠X⁠⁠ or by emailing directly at fed@oceanage.co

The Ocean Age Podcast is produced by Charlotte Raffo and edited by Nebojsa Lešević. Sarah Carpenter and Giulia Leanza are our research assistants. 

Please send in your feedback: what do you want to hear more or less of? Any suggestions? Would love to hear what you think!

Send us Fan Mail

Here is a link to get more information about The Ocean Age Walk & Talk and join the waitlist.

Getting the science right turns out to be the easy part. Catarina Ricca trained as a biotechnologist and spent years in the lab before crossing over to the commercial side of the business. At Ínclita Seaweed Solutions she takes seaweed-based active ingredients into cosmetics, an industry with long buying cycles, gatekeepers at every stage, and firm ideas about what a product should look and smell like. This is a practical walk-through of how that market actually works and what it takes to get an ingredient into it, with many of the tactics being transferable to many other B2B go-to-market strategies. 

Catarina's bio:

Catarina Ricca is Business Development Manager at Ínclita Seaweed Solutions in Porto, where she has led the commercial side of the business since 2023. She trained as a biotechnologist at the Escola Superior de Biotecnologia of Universidade Católica Portuguesa and holds an MSc in Technology, Science and Food Safety from Universidade do Porto. She started her career in the lab, running yeast cultures in the beverage industry, before moving into genetics and preclinical work, then crossing over to the commercial side selling genetic tests to hospitals.She then spent thirteen years in software, mostly SaaS, doing business development and product management.

Ínclita was founded in 2018 as the first spin-off of CIIMAR, the marine research centre at the University of Porto. It develops seaweed-based active ingredients using green extraction methods and a biorefinery approach aimed at zero waste, starting with cosmetics and expanding into nutraceuticals, pet care, food, and biostimulants. The company reports five patents submitted, full traceability from sea to factory, and opened its own biorefinery in Portugal in 2026.

Timestamps:

00:00:00 - Introduction
00:02:29 - Deciding at fifteen to become a biotechnologist
00:20:24 - The three-hour conversation that led to Ínclita
00:23:50 - What Ínclita does and why it started with cosmetics
00:26:27 - Building a second revenue stream through co-development
00:38:45 - The emerald green extract nobody would buy
00:43:23 - Rebuilding the roadmap around colour and scent
00:49:21 - The green premium and who ends up paying for it
00:58:05 - Why distributors will carry most of the revenue
01:07:46 - Formulators, marketing, and the people who sign the order
01:26:21 - Pastéis de nata and the small things buyers remember
01:46:43 - A call for unity across the seaweed industry

Useful Links & Resources:

The Ocean Age Walk & Talk - Link to join the waitlist

Catarina Ricca on LinkedIn

ISS - Ínclita Seaweed Solutions: Website, LinkedIn, and Instagram

Derek Sivers on the CD Baby order email Fed mentions: The most successful email I ever wrote

Derek Sivers' book Anything You Want

Ínclita at Cosmetorium, Barcelona, 21 and 22 October

Get in touch with The Ocean Age's host Fed DeGobbi on LinkedIn, X or by emailing directly at fed@oceanage.co

The Ocean Age Podcast is edited by Nebojsa Lešević. Sarah Carpenter and Giulia Leanza are our research assistants.

Please send in your feedback: what do you want to hear more or less of? Any suggestions? Would love to hear what you think!

Send us Fan Mail