Beyond Seaweed as Superfood: Knowledge, Innovation, and Alternative Value Chains in the Blue Economy
Seaweed has emerged as a key component of contemporary blue economy strategies and is increasingly promoted as a sustainable "superfood" capable of addressing environmental, economic, and food security challenges. Alongside food production, seaweed is being explored for applications in pharmaceuticals, cosmetics, bioplastics, biofertilizers, and other bio-based products. While these developments are often presented as inherently sustainable, growing scholarship has questioned who benefits from the expansion of seaweed economies, whose knowledge informs innovation processes, and how value is distributed across emerging seaweed supply chains.
About the project
This project explores alternative seaweed value chains beyond food production through a place-based study of entrepreneurial innovation. The research focuses on Seaweed Sisters, a women-led initiative working at the intersection of seaweed, coastal practice, and water sports culture. The project uses an existing seaweed-based wetsuit glide medium prototype as a case study to investigate how entrepreneurial actors contribute to innovation within the blue economy and how different forms of knowledge shape the development of new seaweed applications.
A key practical motivation for this work emerges from lived experience in freediving and water sports. Putting on wetsuits, especially in colder conditions or during repeated training sessions, can be physically demanding and often requires the use of lubricants or “wetsuit glide” products. These are commonly derived from conventional shampoos or conditioners, and in some cases non-biodegradable synthetic products are used. Such products can be uncomfortable for the skin, potentially damaging to wetsuit materials over time, and may introduce avoidable environmental impacts into marine environments.
In response, Seaweed Sisters has developed a working prototype of a seaweed-based wetsuit glide medium, formulated using seaweed-derived ingredients and xanthan gum. The intention is to create a more skin-friendly and environmentally considerate alternative that supports ease of wetsuit use for a broader range of water sports practitioners, including surfers, freedivers, and open-water swimmers. Early testing also suggests potential secondary benefits for skin irritation associated with saltwater exposure, such as rash or chafing.
Research questions
Rather than evaluating the commercial viability of this product, this project uses the prototype as an entry point to examine broader questions of sustainability, knowledge production, and value creation within emerging seaweed economies.
The project addresses the following research questions:
- Whose knowledge informs the development of innovative seaweed-derived products?
- How do small-scale entrepreneurs contribute to diversification within emerging seaweed value chains?
- Who benefits from the development of alternative seaweed applications beyond food production?
- How are sustainability claims understood and evaluated by stakeholders involved in seaweed innovation?
- What can be learned from embodied, practice-based innovation in coastal and water sports contexts?