Transcription of Marine Plant-Based University with Sea Health Products:

Alissa Miky: Hi all, thank you so much for joining the Marine Plant Based University and today we have a wonderful guest, Jo. Jo, could you please introduce a little bit about yourself?

Jo Lane: Hi Lisa, thank you for having me. Great to be here to talk all things seaweed. I am a Screen scientists. I did my undergrad in marine science and then a post-grad in environmental studies and worked in marine conservation roles in government for a long time, and then got quite interested in Habitat and seaweed and just was processing a permit for a seaweed company on the south coast of New South Wales and didn’t realize that 10 years later, I would buy that actual business.

Jo Lane: I am the owner of a seaweed business called Sea Health Products, where we hand harvest kelp from local beaches wash it, dry it. process it and create a range of seasonings. So it’s a, it’s a wonderful lifestyle. But then I got Googling and realized all the amazing things that you can do with seaweed, like cosmetics and agricultural feed and pharmaceuticals. I went, wow, I can’t physically collect enough to do all these amazing things. We need to farm it. So that’s what I’m kind of focusing on now is establishing kelp farming in Australia. And we’ve spent the last five years working on the breeding. So we’ve built a laboratory and we’ve, we can now make baby and help, which is great. Beautiful

Alissa Miky: So tell me about your scientific background more because a lot of people in this, you know seaweed industrial. It’s you’re so unique because most of the people in here they just they’re kind of a how to say if they choose as a scientist, they are continue working in that direction.

Alissa Miky: There’s not many people who turn into the business side. So but let me like, you know, I wanted to learn more about what kind of science you did.

Jo Lane: I started doing zoology initially, and then in my second year of uni, I thought I should get some experience and I rang zoos and aquariums and I was really lucky to get a job in a medium sized aquarium in Sydney and that changed my life and opened me up to this amazing underwater world and I fell in love with so I changed my. Study and, and change my life, but, you know, became really fascinated, got into diving. You know, we just, it’s such an amazing underwater world, but at the same time I was. You know, concerned about the threats to the marine environment, what we’re doing as far as plastics, overfishing, habitat destruction, you know, in the ocean, which often, you know, you can’t see, obviously, you know, you look out at the ocean, it’s very peaceful, but you don’t realize what’s going on underneath.

Jo Lane: So that sort of has been my mission. You know, for the last 30 years is to do something that involved protecting or helping the marine environment. So yeah, I did a range of government jobs and also worked for, you know, non. Government organizations or not for profits. And now I feel like having my own business gives me a better opportunity to have a voice and to do something that really aligns with all of these values of doing something positive for the marine environment.

Jo Lane: If we can grow kelp, it has a positive benefit as it’s growing, but then that actual product, the final product, when we use it in a whole range of different things like fertilizer or bio bioplastics or food, you know, it’s also having. And environmental benefit a second time. So that’s really what

Alissa Miky: Beautiful.

Alissa Miky: Well, by the way, I loved scuba diving in Australia. I’ve been to Sydney, Pass Cairns. So yeah, that’s my, actually my favorite place to dive. But I totally understand if you, if you, if the people are especially, you know, in a, like marine plan sports. People always worry about environments. I totally get it. So then you, why, why, why did you like, you know, buy, you decided to move into the business world? It’s a huge differences, right?

Jo Lane: Oh, absolutely. And like I say, I worked for government and I, I had, you know, really lovely roles working with community and volunteer projects looking after coastal and marine ecosystems.

Jo Lane: But it was just a fortunate incident where I was in between jobs. I had been in Sydney and then come back, so I wasn’t actually working. I was at a coffee shop and I live in a small town. So the front page said beachfront property sells for 6. 8 million dollars. So that’s news in our town. And I read it and I said, that’s the property that the owners…

Jo Lane: of the seaweed business used to have. I wonder what they’re doing with the seaweed business. So I just contacted them and next thing I bought the business with really no clue. It’s not like you cannot pick the company. I know, I know. It just literally fell out of the sky. So, oh not really. I suppose I was obviously always interested in marine stuff. But it’s not very often that a seaweed business just comes up for sale.

Jo Lane: Particularly in Australia because we don’t have any. We don’t have many. So that was 2015. And it was quite a small business, but we had the database of a few health food stores and, and regular customers. And I continued, you know, they were wonderful. The previous owners taught me what to do and how to use the machine and, and all of that sort of thing for, for processing.

Jo Lane: And I just learnt very quickly on the go. We changed the packaging. We. Introduced soaps and shampoo to the range and yeah, we’re learning all the time.

Alissa Miky: Beautiful. So tell me about your brand more details. What kind of product do you have? You, you said that you have kind of a seasoning and what, so what kind of seasoning do you have?

Jo Lane: Yeah. So we, it’s all natural. So we collect the kelp as it rolls in on the tide, get up really early in the morning, which is lovely. You harvest by yourself. Yes, yes, so it’s seasonal. So, in summer, thankfully get up, you know, 4. 35 o’clock, go to the beach, sunrise, dolphins, lovely, kelp rolling in on the tides, collect it, wash it, bring it back to the property and hang it out on racks to dry and then we mill it to either the granules or the powder and then we have a range of Seasoning.

Jo Lane: So we have a smoked range, which we got a gold medal for. It’s very nice. We smoke it for seven or cold smoke it for seven hours with Australian red gum wood chips. So that has a really nice, unique flavor. I have another one with chili, like a furikake mix. Another one that is with native finger lime, which is very nice on seafood and Asian products.

Jo Lane: Laksas and curries and, you know, it’s all very, very tasty. So that’s our seasoning range and then we’ve got a couple of soaps and shampoo and a, and a like a soak, like a bath bag, or you can use it in, in a wash. But yeah, I’ve got loads of ideas of new products and as you know, you know, it’s very versatile.

Jo Lane: You can, you can do lots of things with it. So I’d like to develop, you know, a seaweed salad. It’s something that we’re working on. And then, you know, other things in, in cosmetics as well. And I’ve partnered with somebody who makes a beautiful hand cream. So, you know, it, it, it’s exciting, but the problem that I’m facing right now is the way that we harvest.

Jo Lane: It’s seasonal, it’s quite inconsistent, a little bit unreliable and demand is definitely increasing. And so it’s very difficult to, to keep up with demand and to, as well as to, you know, in. introduce these new ideas that I want to

Alissa Miky: So every finished product company has the same issue. What’s, how can we, you know, control the quality?

Alissa Miky: Because, because as you know, seaweed’s volatility, the quality volatility is so huge. If you harvest on a warm day or the cold day, the, the characteristic is going to be completely different. I totally understand that. So my company’s solution is we actually correct the specific seaweed from Chile. Japan, Indonesia and one more secret country and we mix in in a certain way to make the same quality.

Alissa Miky: That’s why we can make a medical capsules in Japan. But so I totally understand if you just if you need to use a one specific seaweed from the one specific area. Yes, that’s gonna be a huge headache. I totally understand that. But other quality issue, what was your biggest challenge? I think you already go through a lot of a big challenge, but what’s the most biggest challenge?

Alissa Miky: I wanted to hear, I wanted to listen to that.

Jo Lane: So I, I, like I said, I Googled, I went, wow, we can do all this, we need more. I looked what’s happening globally and kelp farming is happening in over 50 countries. So I received a Churchill fellowship or a scholarship and I traveled to 12 countries or Korea, Ireland, Scotland, Norway, Faroe Islands, US, Canada, to look.

Jo Lane: I had been to Japan previously. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. So I’d been to Japan in 2015. Yes, exactly. But Korea was, there was a symposium on in 2019, the International Seaweed Symposium. So we started off there, went on a field trip and learned a lot. And then I came back thinking, yes, let’s get kelp farming happening in Australia, because at the moment we have no kelp farms.

Jo Lane: And part of that reason is because no one had really done enough research or there wasn’t funding into the research to understand our unique species. So obviously the seaweed species here. Are different to the species in the Northern Hemisphere. So the one I’m interested in is what’s behind me. It’s called Eclonia radiata.

Jo Lane: It’s very it’s found from, you know, Queensland, Northern New South Wales, all the way around to Western Australia, Geraldton. It creates. Habitat for the Great Southern Reef, and it’s important in so many ways for, you know, a whole range of other animals, abalone, rock lobster, and, and habitat for lots of, lots of fish as well as tourism.

Jo Lane: But it is declining. It is declining. In particularly where I am, we have urchin barrens, we have warming oceans, so that’s a, that’s a real problem. So when I went to start the farm, we needed seed stock. And we didn’t have it. And there was, you know, not a lot of researchers that had been working on this species.

Jo Lane: So we tracked them down. We worked with them. We built a of just looking under a microscope. We have now, you know, worked out the life cycle, being able to get the reproductive tissue from the wild, grow it in our lab. Grow little baby eyelash size kelp and, you know, put that, we’ve done a trial, we put that out in the ocean and got it to grow.

Jo Lane: So that’s very exciting. I feel like a proud mom. We’ve got it from the wild and then, you know, got it to reproduce. So that’s great. And now the next challenge, the very big challenge in Australia is the regulatory approval process for getting a marine lace. To, to grow it for agriculture. So in Australia, we have, you know, different states and each state has different regulations.

Jo Lane: So I’m working through that at the moment. So we’ve, I thought the biggest challenge would be the, the life cycle side, but we’ve managed to leave that. And now the next step is getting support of getting, you know, getting a farm.

Alissa Miky: Wow, that’s amazing. I talked to so many scientists, but not many scientists already made this cycle yet.

Alissa Miky: Because as you know, there’s so many mystery in the seaweed. So I would love to like, you know, talk in person and learn from you more. Because seriously, I thought I already talked about like, you know, seven or six organizations about this. Everybody was just concerned. So most of the solution in the States right now is just taking off the sea urchin.

Alissa Miky: Of course, sea urchin is one of the part that the seaweed is, seaweed amount is declining. However, it’s not only that. In Japan, we already, we also found that the The fishes are also eating tons of seaweed. That’s why there’s one team, they, every day, they, you know, they take off this sea urchin, but they finally found that the most biggest effect in, in that area was not the sea urchin, not just the sea urchin, but also the fish eating.

Alissa Miky: So, but, so like, we are just doing a kind of a, how to say Not the, the deep solution, but your scientists, you know, experience is a huge solution. That is beautiful. I would. Yeah, definitely. Let’s talk in a different way, because today I would love to listen to your more story, your success. So let’s focus on that, but definitely you wanted to learn from me.

Alissa Miky: So I’m so excited with that. So let’s move on to the next contest because otherwise we’re going to spend more time here. So again, you have a lot, you, you’re so unique. So you grow the seaweed from the really, really scratch. And now you’re doing a product right now. So then what’s going to be your, your future dream?

Alissa Miky: What do you want it to do? What do you want it to be?

Jo Lane: Well, I think that this is a problem for a lot of people in seaweed businesses is focus, because you get so excited. Oh, we could go and we can make a skincare company and we could, you know, expand our range and we can do this and we can get different species.

Jo Lane: So it’s actually honing in on what. What you have the capacity to do in, you know, in a, in a day in 24 hours or in five years or whatever, what is it that you can actually achieve? And I think that’s part of my problem. I do get a little bit sidetracked and excited. All these amazing possibilities and different things that I want to achieve.

Jo Lane: But my goal. And my motivation and my passion and my drive is to do something that impacts our marine ecosystems. I am very concerned about our declining kelp forests. And now that we’ve, you know, now that I have this knowledge, I, you know, I do feel a sense of responsibility. So whether it’s in restoration, whether it’s in farming, whatever the path of least resistance is going to be.

Jo Lane: Regarding regulations, I want to put kelp in the water in Australia, and I want to improve habitat, and I want to, you know, make it, make a small impact or as big as I can as my, as an individual, to do something Something positive. I want to work with other communities, and I want to raise awareness of issues impacting the marine environment.

Jo Lane: I’m really concerned about climate change, and I think, as are a lot of people, but I feel That, you know, this is something that I can do. This feels like it’s a hopeful solution. It’s not the solution. It’s part of a bigger solution, but this feels like, you know, I can actually do something that feels like I can contribute and make a difference.

Jo Lane: So that’s my driver. That’s what I want to do. I feel really proud that we’ve been able to. persist and understand the breeding and get to that stage of being able to breed it. We can keep them alive, you know, in a, in a red room situation. So we can keep that seed stock. We don’t have to go back to the wild.

Jo Lane: We can keep seed stock from different locations. We can use that for future research. That’s really. You know, I don’t know how that looks as a business model, but you know, that’s, that’s what is driving me. And I, I do believe that, you know, you have to, in business, it’s too hard if you’re not following your true path.

Jo Lane: So I think, you know, that’s what I’ve found is what’s motivating me. That’s what gives me joy. And I feel hopeful that it’ll fall into place. Beautiful.

Alissa Miky: Well, as a comp, as a, you know, CV biotech startup founder, I, I also have a same struggle. I’m always like, you know, wanted to explain about the people of the CV benefit because I lost my family by the diabetes, my, you know, far relatives by the diabetes.

Alissa Miky: And as you know, most of the country has a lot of issue with the medical qualities or the medical cost. And so I, you know, in Japan, but we are lucky that we found that the seaweed are good for diabetes. We already have a medical result in Japan. So that’s why I decided to tap into this market. I’m so glad that people finally understand about the benefit on the same time.

Alissa Miky: But I’m also curious about the demand versus supply because already. because of the groma worming, too much sea urchin, and like so many fish is eating, and there’s some or the the sea otter numbers is decreasing. There’s multiple reasons why the seaweed is like, you know, gone quickly. So I’m definitely on the same page, and I would love to support your activity.

Alissa Miky: So For the last question, I wish I had more time to talk with you, but there’s already only one more question I can do right now for the last question. Could you please say could you please like, you know some, you know, pass any message for the listener of this podcast.

Jo Lane: Sure, just learn as much as you can about seaweed, support, eat it learn about it, where, it doesn’t matter what species it is or, you know but yeah, if you want to know more about what’s happening in Australia and, and my journey, it’s seafieldproducts.com.au.

Alissa Miky: Beautiful. Thank you so much Jo. Bye bye all. Thank you. Great to meet you.