When Jo Lane bought the Sea Health Products kelp business in 2015 she revelled in watching the golden kelp come in to be harvested.
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"It is quite beautiful coming in on the waves at sunrise and sometimes we see whales and dolphins so it is a lovely job," she said.
Her product range has expanded from processing kelp for health supplements to award-winning gourmet products as well as soap and shampoo.
It is a very versatile product and Ms Lane would love to develop new products but for now she is in a holding pattern due to a reduction in kelp because of sea urchins.
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Vast stretches of urchin barrens
They are estimated to have destroyed half of the kelp forests on nearshore rocky reefs along the southern coastlines of NSW and are becoming problematic in Victoria and Tasmania.
"We have almost stopped going to the beach because it is demoralising as there is no kelp there," Ms Lane said.
"That will affect our small business but it will be a bigger impact on the rock lobster and abalone industries" because they cannot survive in the moonscape-like urchin barrens.
Kelp seed bank
In recent years however, Ms Lane and her husband Warren Atkins have learnt how to develop a kelp seed bank by collecting the kelp's reproductive tissue and growing it in their lab in Tilba Tilba.
The operation's high success rate and scale means they can contribute to future restoration projects.
Ms Lane has collaborated with Wally Stewart's Joonga Land and Water Aboriginal Corporation in an application to "get involved in restoring kelp habitat down here, as well as establish kelp farming on the South Coast".
Keen to look after sea country
Mr Stewart said a survey in 2020 of 67 of his people who are regular fishers along the South Coast had identified the problem and they wanted to do something about it.
He said he has been working with a marine scientist at the NSW Department of Primary Industries in Jervis Bay "and we have put together a plan using science and black fella's science.
"We have got some money from the state government and have also made a submission to the Marine Invasive Species Inquiry to keep our divers working to look after sea country," Mr Stewart said.
"If it is really bad we may be looking at a GoFunding page to eradicate these urchins but with the new government we are hoping to build a relationship and work closely with DPI to have a say in managing our waterways."
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