🧑‍🎨🪸 Welcome to Part 2 of our conversation for HoldFast! You’ll like this episode if you’re curious about the thermal tolerance of kelps and a vision of the near future from a molecular ecologist, if you want a first-hand account of managing a coral restoration project during a cyclone, if you find the word ‘hydrocommons’ alluring.

We hear from Leza Howie, Josephine Johnson and Nicole Steenhoff, three WA-based artists who have organised the HoldFast exhibition in Walyalup (Fremantle). We hear stories from Norway from Dr. Antoine Minne, dip into coral restoration with Research Director of WAMSI, Dr. Jenny Shaw, and - last but not least - we get an insight into asparagopsis (beyond the methane story!) from Tom Puddy, managing director of SeaStock.

Find out more about HoldFast here. Subscribe for updates or support the podcast at quietnightin.substack.com. You can find and contact me @seaweed.people. Donate to support the making of this show at buymeacoffee.com/seaweedpeople.

Links to guests and other stuff in this ep:

Leza Howie - artist

Nicole Steenhof - artist

Josephine Johnson - artist

Dr. Antoine Minne

Gecokelp Project - Kelp forests in the anthropocene

White Rock - short film by the Great Southern Reef Foundation

Bodies of Water, Human Rights and the Hydrocommons - Astrida Neimanis

SeaStock

SeaStock’s Asparagopsis red pigment

This episode was recorded and produced on Gadigal & Bidjigal Country. I acknowledge and pay respects to First Nations people and their elders past and present as the ongoing custodians of Sea, Land and Sky Country.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

🧑‍🎨🪸 This conversation is SO full of seaweed people I had to split it into two episodes. You’ll like this part if you’re interested in kelp forests growing on ancient coral beds, Scottish seaweed mythology, seaweed robots and trumpets, biobanking, how kelp makes babies, and stories about connecting scientists with communities and artists.

We hear from two artists - Leza Howie and Josephine Johnson - who along with Nicole Steenhoff have organised the HoldFast exhibition in Walyalup (Fremantle) WA. Also joining us are molecular ecologist Dr. Antoine Minne and Research Director of WAMSI, Dr. Jenny Shaw.

Find out more about HoldFast here. Subscribe for updates or support the podcast at quietnightin.substack.com. You can find and contact me @seaweed.people. Donate to support the making of this show at buymeacoffee.com/seaweedpeople.

Links to guests and other stuff in this ep:

Leza Howie - artist

Josephine Johnson - artist

Dr. Antoine Minne

Abrolhos islands

Ecklonia brevipes

Dr. Jenny Shaw - Research Director, WAMSI

Seeing Change: A photographic story from Abrolhos fishers

The Nuckelavee (Scottish mythology)

The Tangie (Scottish mythology)

Posidonia Australia: Prototype for Listening - Catherine Higham

This episode was recorded and produced on Gadigal & Bidjigal Country. I acknowledge and pay respects to First Nations people and their elders past and present as the ongoing custodians of Sea, Land and Sky Country.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

This one’s for early risers and big dreamers, those of you into kelp restoration fans, clothes made of seaweed, imagination, snorkelling and a fire by the beach, if you’re interested in how Indigenous Knowledges and ceremony can connect coastal communities, or how corporates can invest in the ocean 🌅🧶

Sea the Weed is a collaboration of organisations reforesting 70 hectares of once destroyed Phyllospora Comosa ('Crayweed') along Sydney’s coastline. Throughout 2025, friends Arthur Little and Brenden Newton from AIME have been running a monthly program of sunrise, ceremony and seaweed, drawing human attention back to nature and ‘looking sideways’. We recorded this one at Malabar beach, after a beautiful swim with the reforested crayweed.

Find dates and more info on the AIME website here. You can find and contact me @seaweed.people. Subscribe for updates or support the podcast at quietnightin.substack.com. You can find and contact me @seaweed.people. Donate to support the making of this show at buymeacoffee.com/seaweedpeople.

Links to other stuff in this ep:

AIME - mentoring & the Imagi-Nation hub

Operation Crayweed (also listen to episode 2 with Adriana Verges)

Abyss Scuba Diving

Making a Hoodie Podcast with Sea the Weed

The Grey Space podcast with Brenden Newtown

AIME’s Imagine film

The seaweed hoodie (+ the Regenerators website)

PYRATEX innovative textiles Seaweed fabric

Become a shareholder of the ocean (deck)

This episode was recorded and produced on Gadigal & Bidjigal Country. I acknowledge and pay respects to First Nations people and their elders past and present as the ongoing custodians of Sea, Land and Sky Country.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

You are going to love this conversation if you dream of spending a week greeting the sun with seaweed songs, having seaweed baths after saunas, if you’re into seaweed tattoos, if you’re a student or a teacher and you wanna go diving, and generally if you’re into the idea of regenerating underwater forests 🤿🛀🏽

Along with the team and communities behind Love Rimurimu, Zoe Studd is doing all of these things. Zoe is the Co-Founder and Executive Director of Mountains to Sea Wellington Trust, where she manages both marine and freshwater education programs and citizen science programs, working with schools and communities in Aotearoa New Zealand. We talk about starting kelp restoration projects in schools, regenerating coastlines with science and cultural knowledge, and running a kickass seaweed festival.

Follow the Love Rimurimu project here and on their socials. Subscribe for updates or support the podcast at quietnightin.substack.com. You can find and contact me @seaweed.people. Donate to support the making of this show at buymeacoffee.com/seaweedpeople.

Links to other stuff in this ep:

Seaweeds of Wellington (video ID)

Mountains to Sea Wellington

Experiencing Marine Reserves community program

New Zealand approves first special permit to remove kina barrens

Project Baseline Wellington

Kelp Forest Alliance website (or listen to Episode 11 with Aaron Eger)

Green Gravel Group

Love Rimurimu’s Seaweed Restoration Toolkit

Seaweed Fest 2025

Hot tubs, seaweed soaks & saunas in Ireland

This episode was recorded and produced on Gadigal Country. I acknowledge and pay respects to First Nations people and their elders past and present as the ongoing custodians of Sea, Land and Sky Country.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

This episode is for you if you’re wondering what the heck is going on across the sea for our friends in the US, if you’re into citizen science and communities coming together to protect kelp, and if you like a good ocean film 🌊🍿

Blue Frontier is a US-based organisation that’s been building solution-oriented citizen engagement for 20 years, to protect oceans, coasts and the human and wild communities that depend on them. We’re joined by Blue Frontier’s David Helvarg and Natasha Benjamin to talk about people-powered conservation, the seaweed rebellion and their new film Sequoias of the Sea, which documents a community of fishermen, tribes and scientists working to restore a kelp habitat devastated by a warming climate.

Find out more about Blue Frontier here and follow the film Sequoias of the Sea here. Subscribe for updates or support the podcast at quietnightin.substack.com. You can find and contact me @seaweed.people. Donate to support the making of this show at buymeacoffee.com/seaweedpeople.

Links to research, projects and stories touched on in this ep:

Sequoias of the Sea film (US)

Blue Frontier - website

Rising Tide - Blue Frontier’s podcast

Jared Huffman (“Kelp Congressman”)

White Rock film by the Great Southern Reef Foundation (Australia)

The Australian Urchin Taskforce

The Golden Shore: California’s Love Affair with the Sea

Kelp Forest Challenge

The Seaweed Rebellion

This episode was recorded and produced on Gadigal/Wangal Country. I acknowledge and pay respects to First Nations people and their elders past and present as the ongoing custodians of Sea, Land and Sky Country.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

This one’s for you if you’re an artist, or a scientist or conservationist wanting to communicate in creative ways, and if you love the deep sea, the Great Barrier Reef and Kate Bush 🪸💎

Kirsty Kross is an eco-feminist Australian artist currently based in Oslo, Norway, whose work is about finding ways of connecting diverse groups with issues around the climate crisis, often by embodying a vibrant coral trout. We talk about deep sea mining, mesopotamian deities, which countries are two-tit countries and a seaside collaborative opera performance 📣🪼

You can find Kirsty at her website or on Instagram @kirstykrosss. Subscribe for updates or support the podcast at quietnightin.substack.com. You can find and contact me @seaweed.people. Donate to support the making of this show at buymeacoffee.com/seaweedpeople.

Deep sea mining links & stories touched on in this ep:

Greenpeace AU petition to ban deep sea mining ahead of international ISA meeting in July 2025

Pacific Blue petition to ban deep sea mining

Blue Peril short film

New battleground in critical minerals race is on Australia’s doorstep

What We Know About Deep-Sea Mining — and What We Don’t

Analysis of the implications of deep seabed mining for the global biodiversity framework and the sustainable development agenda (WWF report)

Immortal jellyfish!

National Treasure at Woollahra Gallery, Redleaf

The Cult of Atargatis and Transgender Priestesses

Jack Halberstam on Queer Failure, Silly Archives and the Wild

This episode was recorded and produced on Gadigal/Wangal Country. I acknowledge and pay respects to First Nations people and their elders past and present as the ongoing custodians of Sea, Land and Sky Country.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

This one’s for you if you’re into nudibranchs, sea grapes, solar power, butterflies, citizen science and tongues with teeth(!?) 🌱🐛

Nicole Mertens is a marine ecologist with a passion for sacoglossans, a science communicator and the Nature Stewards Coordinator with the Victorian National Parks Association. Nicole is passionate about using citizen science as a platform for evidence-based conservation, and helping people connect with their local environment.

You can find Nicole and the VNPA team here and on socials @vicnationalparks.

Subscribe for updates or support the podcast at quietnightin.substack.com. You can find and contact me @seaweed.people. Donate to support the making of this show at buymeacoffee.com/seaweedpeople.

Links to research, projects and stories touched on in this ep:

Seaslug census Facebook group (Australia)

iNaturalist - sacoglossans of Victoria (good pics)

Nudibranchs - videos + freaky facts

Shaun the Sheep internet famous nudi

Keep your head: the self-decapitating sea slugs that regrow their bodies – hearts and all

Solar-powered sea slugs

VNPA ReefWatch citizen science programs

This episode was recorded and produced on Gadigal/Wangal and Larrakia Country. I acknowledge and pay respects to First Nations people and their elders past and present as the ongoing custodians of Sea, Land and Sky Country.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.