In August, David Skaith, Mayor of York and North Yorkshire, swapped his usual diary for a life jacket and stepped aboard Bright Blue. SeaGrown Directors and Co-founders, Cpt Wave Crookes, and Prof Laura Robinson, hosted him; one for the sea and one for the science. Joined by Ana from our science team, along with Jake S, Jake H, and Jamie from the marine team, we headed out to sea and gave him the full picture of Project SeaSwell.
He had come to see what our crew sees day in and day out: the Kelpedo™ Marine Recovery System, our patented units growing seaweed and shellfish in the open North Sea. Close up, it is a peaceful sight: Kelpedo moving with the swell. But it is the whole of Project SeaSwell in miniature, years of offshore growing, about to find a second life on land.
Wave and Jake walked the Mayor through the operations. "We've been growing seaweed on our Kelpedo™ units for years," he told him. Laura and Ana took him through what will happen to the seaweed next: onshore trials with the Biorenewables Development Centre, exploring its potential as a biostimulant to support regional farming, alongside separate work with expert partners to produce low-carbon ingredients for food. These are early days yet: trials are under way, with results still to follow.
The visit came through the Mayor's Carbon Negative Challenge Fund, which backs projects working towards York and North Yorkshire becoming England's first carbon-negative region by 2040, a target set and led by the region and its Mayor. Project SeaSwell is our direct, co-funded response to that ambition: our seaweed actively absorbs carbon and drives nutrient uptake offshore, and we are maximising its effect once it reaches dry land. The project has already brought new trainee crew and scientists into the team, providing new opportunities and supporting the local economy.
Projects like this build week on week, and this one already has momentum: new units in the water, new crew finding their feet, and now a Mayor who has seen it for himself. We were glad to have him aboard, and gladder still for what comes next.
You can read the York and North Yorkshire Combined Authority's own account of the visit here, including a video from the day, and find out more about Project SeaSwell on our own pages.
