Those heading to Arctic Norway to explore the northern lights should look down as well as up – peering into the icy fjords through a new outdoor, exhibition showcasing kelp restoration efforts around Tromsø. 

On January 9th, 2026, the unique exhibition at the Sørsjetéen jetty in Tromsø was officially opened, inviting locals and visitors to explore the vibrant underwater world with stunning photography by Clément Brun, Ann Cools, and Liga Sirava which documents the journey from barren seabed to thriving kelp forest.

For decades, northern Norway has faced a dramatic decline in kelp forests, up to 80% of the kelp forests have disappeared over the last 50 years, largely replaced by urchin barrens. These ecosystems are vital for biodiversity, carbon sequestration, and fisheries. Ocean Green is tackling this challenge with a large-scale, sustainable approach that combines research, innovation, and citizen science.

“Kelp loss is a global problem, and here in northern Norway, the scale of decline has been dramatic,” says Dagny-Elise Anastassiou, Chief Impact Officer at Ava Ocean and Ocean Green project lead. “What we’re doing with Ocean Green is creating a sustainable solution that not only restores biodiversity but also supports fisheries and carbon capture—delivering benefits far beyond the ocean.”

The exhibition showcases the transformation made possible by volunteers from Rissa Citizen Science, who have been diving into the fjords to remove sea urchins by hand. One side of the jetty remains untouched, while the other bursts with life - kelp, shrimp, fish, and sea slugs—illustrating how quickly nature can rebound when given a chance.

“This exhibition is a way to thank the volunteers who made this possible,” says Delphin Ruché, founder of Rissa Citizen Science. “By reducing urchin density, we’ve created space for kelp to return, bringing back an abundance of marine life.”

Beyond restoration, Ocean Green is exploring how to use the harvested urchins, while working toward a circular economy that benefits coastal communities like Tromsø.

The exhibition is free and open to the public, offering a rare glimpse into the Arctic’s underwater jungles.

https://www.google.com/maps/place/Ocean+Green+kelp+restoration+exhibition/@69.6442329,18.9542758,17z

Ocean Green exhibition opens in Tromsø: A window into kelp restoration 

The investment is made through a private placement where Wilstar Innovate and the Birkeland family join as new owners. Parts of the capital raise were completed earlier this autumn together with existing shareholders led by Norselab, Hofseth International and Cinus.

“These are investors with a deep understanding of the ocean, challenging fisheries and with long-term investment horizons. For us this is as much about expertise and collaboration as it is about capital,” says Stian Tennfjord, Chair of the Board of Ava Ocean.

Wilstar Innovate is an impact investment company based in Oslo and owned by the Awilhelmsen Group. Awilhelmsen was founded in 1939 and is a Norwegian family-owned company with strong roots in maritime activity and a long term investment perspective.

“Ava Ocean combines new technology with respect for nature and marine resources. This fits well with our ambition to invest in solutions that create long term value at sea,” says Jean Guillaume Marquaire at Wilstar Innovate.

The Birkeland family, based in Austevoll, has long experience in Norwegian fisheries and they see strong potential in the northern areas.

“Since the 1980s we have been interested in the scallop fishery in the Barents Sea. What Ava Ocean has achieved with its technology and fishery so far is very exciting. We strongly believe in the project and look forward to being part of the journey,” says Arne Birkeland.

“Norselab has believed in Ava Ocean’s ability to fundamentally change how we harvest from the seabed since the company reopened the Arctic scallop fishery after more than 30 years of closure. We are very pleased to welcome Wilstar Innovate and the Birkeland family on the continued journey. Ava Ocean now has NOK 150 million in backing and a new harvesting vessel planned for 2026. Just as important is the deep industry insight the new investors bring which will be key as the company scales internationally,” says Maria de Perlinghi, Partner and Chief Impact Officer at Norselab.

Ava Ocean has developed a patented and award-winning harvesting technology that allows scallops to be harvested from the seabed in a gentle and efficient way. This technology enabled the reopening of the historic Arctic scallop fishery in the Barents Sea in 2023 after a more than 30 years ban on traditional dredging.

The company is currently converting a new vessel, the Ava Pearl, and plans to return to active fishing during spring 2026.

“It is great to have both Wilstar Innovate and the Birkeland family on board as we prepare to restart fishing. We have shown the potential of the harvesting system and are now working with investors who share our vision, understand the industry and know what it takes. This is an exciting next phase for Ava Ocean,” says Øystein Tvedt, Group CEO of Ava Ocean.

Ava Ocean is raising up to NOK 150 million in new capital and welcomes Wilstar Innovate AS and the Birkeland family as new shareholders. The funds will be used for the next phase of development of the company’s scallop fishery in the Barents Sea and for future international growth.

Wilstar Innovate and Birkeland invest in Ava Ocean and non-invasive Norwegian scallop fishery 

The Ocean Green project is all about the restoration of northern Norway’s kelp forests, which have been lost at a massive scale over the past half century. It is estimated that some 80% of the region’s kelp forests are gone – largely replaced by urchin barrens. The Ocean Green goal is to remove enough of these native urchins to reset the natural balance and allow kelp to return.


Around the coast of Norway, different species of kelp grow up to four meters in length, in waters where they can still get the sun in order to photosynthesise. This means that kelp take in CO2 – and release oxygen. They also play a vital role in local biodiversity as well as delivering a surprising number of other benefits.


Because of ecosystem services role that kelp plays, we have to look at its loss as a big picture issue.

Why kelp is important: multiple ecosystem services

When a kelp forest is lost, it is not just a local, physical loss. Because kelp provides such a range of ecosystem services – from nursery grounds to coastal protection, support for fisheries and more – when kelp forests disappear there is a knock-on affect across each of these ecosystem benefits.

A healthy kelp forest is a vibrant, diverse ecosystem. NIVA – one of Ocean Green’s research partners – 

describes kelp forests as ‘among the most ecologically and socioeconomically important habitats on the planet.’


In Norway, the contribution of kelp can be shown in the astounding numbers of species supported by kelp forests – including commercially important fish and species on the red list. An established kelp forest supports other forms of microalgae and seaweeds, while at the invertebrate level, these marine forests boast densities of more than 100,000 individuals of snails, crustaceans, molluscs, brightly coloured marine worms and other invertebrates per square meter.


Moving up the food chain, kelp forests provide habitat, nursery grounds and food for larger species: red-list species like the Atlantic coastal cod as well as commercial species such as cod and pollock, which play an important role in Norway’s economy. These fish in turn support other, larger predators such as seals and seabirds.

Being the wonderplant that it is, kelp does so much more than provide a safe habitat for fish and other species. 

, sequestering CO2 and depositing it at the bottom of fjords and in the deep sea.


Research shows that Norwegian kelp forests bind an estimated 18 million tonnes of CO2, with around 1.8 million tonnes of CO2 exported and stored in coastal and deep-sea sediments each year. ‘If the remaining overgrazed kelp forests recovered in response to improving environmental conditions and restoration actions, a one-off binding of 12 million tonnes of CO2 within living biomass would be achieved,’ wrote NIVA in a 2021 report. ‘This would also increase the annual deposition in coastal and deep-sea sediments to around 3 million tonnes of CO2.’


Coastal defence, nutrient recycling and more

In addition to its contribution to biodiversity and carbon sequestration, kelp plays a stabilising role in its waters. This includes creating acting as a coastal defence system by creating a drag that serves to reduce wave size – which in turn protects coastal lands by reducing erosion.


Kelp also improves water quality by absorbing excess nutrients and pollutants and, though its process of photosynthesis, it increases pH levels, reducing the acidity of surrounding waters – something that further benefits marine life.


What happened to Norway’s kelp forests?

A number of factors have contributed to northern Norway’s kelp forest loss but key is overfishing, which has reduced the numbers of urchin predators like wolffish and crab. This in turn allowed native green sea urchins to spread unchecked as they overgrazed kelp. Even if the urchins are removed and kelp returned, without reestablishing their natural predators as well, the risk of overgrazing remains. NIVA says that marine protected areas or no-fishing zones across areas of restored kelp forest, coupled with quota reductions for known urchin predators, would ‘facilitate predator recovery and maintain low urchin abundances to sustain restoration efforts’. In southern Norway, climate change and warming waters appear to be bigger factors in kelp loss, according to the Norwegian Blue Forests Network.

Kelp loss is not a Norwegian problem but a global issue. Where the problem is caused by too many urchins – an issue itself driven by multiple factors including overfishing and climate change – urchin barrens replace kelp forests. These urchins have traditionally been removed by hand – a time and labour-intensive process that is used by volunteers who go into the water with Rissa Citizen Science, Ocean Green’s citizen science partner.


The Ocean Green plan is to develop a harvester that can remove urchins from much larger areas, much faster. Basing the technology on Ava Ocean’s gentle scallop harvester, the new urchin-removal system will speed up kelp restoration: for kelp to return, urchin density must come down from more than 30-plus per square meter to around just two urchins per square meter. Once that is achieved – and maintained – kelp can reestablish itself with remarkable efficiency.

‘Despite the challenges in removing urchins en masse, kelp makes an excellent target for restoration,’ explains Dagny-Elise Anastassiou, chief impact officer at Ava Ocean and management lead for the Ocean Green project.


‘We know the cascade effect that a healthy kelp forest delivers – from serving as a nursery to multiple species to providing shelter to larger predators. We know how kelp protects the coastline and captures carbon. At the same time, we have seen firsthand – through the work of Rissa CS – just how fast kelp can reestablish itself given the chance. And how quickly fish and other species return too. And that is the ultimate goal of Ocean Green: to tip the balance back in favour of kelp – which would in turn deliver widespread benefits to the local ecosystem.’


She also points to the dual economic focus of the project as a marker of success. ‘We are not just looking to clear urchins from the seabed. We are looking to harvest them and turn them into an economically viable fishery, with 

our science partners working hard to uncover new, urchin-derived products

. This circular-economy approach is designed to ensure the long-term sustainability of our regenerative restoration project.’


Healthy kelp means healthy waters – but these vital forests have been disappearing around northern Norway

Norway’s underwater rainforests: why kelp matters

In the cold waters around Tromsø, volunteers are restoring kelp forests by hand. They dive in to take photographs, monitor species and to remove sea urchins one by one. It is slow work. It is also essential. More than eighty percent of Northern Norway’s kelp forests have disappeared as urchin numbers have increased and predators have declined. The same pattern is seen in many places across the world. When kelp is eaten down, the seabed is left bare and almost nothing grows back on its own.


This local challenge is part of a global story. 

Ocean Green was created to address it at scale.

 The project brings together science, technology and community involvement to restore kelp forests and rebuild ecosystems that have been lost.


The newest step in this work is also the most surprising. It is a small activity that feels almost like a game. It is calm, simple and strangely addictive. It is called the Urchin Density Challenge.

Rissa Citizen Science has launched the challenge through the 

, which has been developed by designer Philip Redecker. Anyone anywhere can now take part in the research happening in Tromsø. You are given a photograph of a small frame placed on the seabed. Your task is to count the urchins you see inside the square. That is all. Yet each count becomes part of an important dataset used by researchers at the University of Tromsø. These data help them follow changes in the restoration areas over time and understand when kelp is able to return.


Delphin Ruché, founder and director of Rissa Citizen Science, describes it this way:
‘The Urchin Density Challenge takes citizen science to the next level, inviting people around the world to document biodiversity changes in areas where volunteers are restoring kelp forests.’


Some images show many urchins. Others show none. Sometimes a bright starfish appears. Users begin to recognise patterns. They learn what a barren looks like and what recovery looks like.

Ocean Green brings together advanced engineering and hands on monitoring. Ava Ocean is adapting its gentle seabed harvesting system so that urchins can be removed at scale without harming the seabed. NIBIO, NIVA, Hofseth Biocare and Akvaplan niva are studying 

new uses for the harvested urchins, from food and fertiliser to enzymes and biomaterials

. Together they are working to build a circular value chain that supports long term restoration. The project is part funded by Norway’s Green Platform and is endorsed by the UN Ocean Decade.

But citizens remain at the heart of the work.


Dagny Elise Anastassiou, Ocean Green project manager and Chief Impact Officer at Ava Ocean, explains why:
‘We made citizen science a core part of this work because people matter. Many ocean issues stay invisible and are easy to ignore. When people are part of the process, projects are more likely to become long term solutions.’


She adds:
‘The app is easy to use and fun. Some photos show lots of urchins, others none, and suddenly colourful starfish appear. It is quite addictive.’

The challenge builds on a wider programme of outreach. Volunteers in Tromsø meet every month to take photos, monitor species and help reduce urchin density by hand. A new permanent exhibition will open on the town jetty in January. It shows the shift from urchin barren to recovering kelp forest in the water below. Schools across Northern Norway have also taken part in screenings of 

, a visually rich documentary by Ismaele Tortella, followed by discussions about predators and ecosystem change.


Together these activities help make the invisible visible. They give people a direct view of the problem and the solution. They build a shared understanding of what is happening below the surface.

The app requires no training. A few minutes is enough. Yet the data collected supports real science and contributes to a growing body of international knowledge. It shows where kelp may return and how quickly. It helps researchers understand how restoration works over time. Anyone can take part. Schools. Organisations. Families. Individuals.

Ocean Green invites the public to join the challenge and become part of the story.

 The work is serious, but the entry point is light and accessible. A simple count. A global contribution. A small step towards bringing kelp forests back.


The story behind the launch of the Urchin Density Challenge

Introducing “urchin sudoku”: gamification of citizen science

How do you map a sea floor for kelp restoration? How do you accurately map the impact of urchin removal or monitor the return of biodiversity?

At Ocean Green partner akvaplan-niva,Pierre Priou – a researcher specialising in active acoustics – has been doing something new: adapting a technique used to map the ocean floor, to look at whether the substrate is sandy or rocky for example, to also look at kelp and turn data into a map of the water column.

‘The novelty here is that we are using a small, autonomous vessel together with a type of sonar. or multibeam echosounder, to map kelp forests,’ he explains. ‘Most of these instruments were designed to map the seafloor but here, we are not only looking at the sea floor but also what is going on above, in the water column. This has not been done a lot – and in particular not from an autonomous vessel.’

The autonomous vessel in question is an Otter, an un-crewed, multi-beam seabed mapping device, which Priou has been using to gather data for the first test site of the Ocean Green project. There, a harvester developed by Ava Ocean will remove large numbers of native urchins in order to help restore a more natural balance in the water that allows kelp forests to return.

Northern Norway has lost some 80% of its kelp forests over the last 50 years, partly due to an over abundance of native urchins, which have become prolific in the face of fators including predator overfishing and climate change.

‘The Otter was originally developed to map the sea floor,’ explains Priou. ‘What we’re doing here using it to record sea floor data, but also what's going on in the water column. That is something new. When we send sound into the ocean, we get everything that's in the water column – fish, plankton, the seabed and some noise as well,’ continues Priou, who came to the project from a background in fish and acoustics. ‘It is more complicated than this but usually, the sounds you don’t want are discarded and the data is used to map the sea floor. We want to use it to also monitor the return of kelp.’

Because there currently isn’t much kelp around Tromsø, where the Ocean Green project is taking place, Priou explains that he has been mapping areas that are mostly urchin barrens – but is also developing the tools and analysis methods to manage kelp in the future. ‘I'm trying to find some areas where there is some kelp, so that we can work on the methodology and have an idea of what to expect when we begin to see the restoration we expect.’

So far, the Otter has mapped – and Priou has reported on – an area around 700m by 1 km. ‘The goal is to map kelp – to create maps of the density of returning forests.’ To do this, he sent the Otter into areas that volunteers have restored by hand. ‘We send sound into the ocean and get a raw output from the instrument that covers everything in the water column. The first step is then to clean this data, to remove unwanted echoes.’

Capturing density from the echo sounder is not straightforward, he explains. ‘The way we usually evaluate density is through extremely fine-resolution imagery, where we could almost count single kelp.’ In reality though, he says this is not doable because of the simple fact that kelp moves in the water column and even an air bubble within the forest can impact the echo. The solution ‘is to take a small volume and study the echo within that, meaning that this back scatter would become representative of kelp. It requires some careful work.’

The size of the data set also poses a challenge. ‘It is a gigantic data set – probably the largest I've worked with. We’re talking about several hundreds of gigabytes.’ At the moment, that data is just point data – depth and coordinates – but Priou sees potential to develop it in a lot of different visual ways – including the possibility of 3D mapping.

Because what Priou is doing is relatively new, it is also being backed up by the work of human divers. At the pilot area, this has been done by Camilla With Fagerli and the team from niva, another Ocean Green partner. They have been conducting ‘ground truth’ research designed to assess the accuracy of the echo data – to ‘estimate or detect the kelp forest and the biomass of the kelp when the harvest is done,’ she explains.

Having been to both the pilot site – where an overabundance of urchins means there is no longer any kelp – and a restored site, Fagerli talks about how drastically different the two areas are. ‘It’s two very different environments. In the area where we will test the harvester, we were diving with a frame that we put out every second meter for 60 meters, counting everything we saw – and it was urchins, maybe a few snails, maybe some blue mussels and nothing more. It's not very diverse. It's very heterogenic with quite a high density of sea urchins and it was a quick count.

‘The day after, we did this same thing in the small area where volunteers have restored the kelp forest. Even though it's only 18 months since the first kelp returned, it's already very different. We dived for just six frames but it took two hours to record every species we saw.’

New method for autonomous echo sounder offers scientists alternative view into the water column – as well as the sea floor

Ocean Green scientists adapting ocean floor mapping to track kelp restoration 

Heggstad’s vast experience comes from both the maritime industry and fisheries, most recently as the MD for Maritime Partner AS, a producer of specialised vessels from 6 to 22 metres. In addition, he has been MD for shipping and fishery company Volstad Shipping as well as managing director and Chair of Nils Sperre.

No stranger to Ava Ocean’s vision, Heggstad has followed the company from the start and was an early-stage member of Ava Ocean’s board of directors.

Heggstad says: “I have believed in this company from day one, and I am excited to join the team. Ava Ocean has a fantastic mission, and I look forward to being a part of building this company into a game changer in the seafood industry. The potential of the company and its technology is quite unique.”

Øystein Tvedt, Group CEO of Ava Ocean says: “We are so happy to welcome Torstein to the Ava Ocean team, where his strong leadership and unique experience in the industry will be a fantastic addition to our company. Ava Ocean is on a mission to reinvent how we harvest seafood from the seabed, and having Torstein on board in this next growth phase of the company is a real advantage.”

Heggstad will be based at Ava Ocean’s headquarters in Ålesund, Norway, and will oversee the completion of the rebuild of the company’s new vessel and build the fishery team ahead of recommencing harvesting operations in 2026.

Gentle scallop harvesting technology reopened fishery after 30 years

In 2023, after a more than 30-year hiatus, Ava Ocean reopened the Norwegian fishery for Arctic Scallops in the Barents Sea, thanks to its award-winning, non-invasive seabed harvesting technology. The company is currently refitting its new vessel and will recommence the fishery in Q1 2026.

Ava Ocean has appointed Torstein Heggstad as its Managing Director for Fisheries, expanding the management team and bringing extensive experience and know-how to the Norwegian seabed technology and seafood company’s next phase.

Ava Ocean appoints Torstein Heggstad as new MD of Fisheries

When director and wildlife cinematographer Ismaele Tortella moved from Italy to Norway, it was in pursuit of an encounter with a wolffish, an apex predator that lives in the kelp forests of the north. When he got there however, he found a problem: urchin barrens.

His documentary, 

, tells the story of Tortella’s move to Northern Norway and his dive into the world of urchin removal and kelp restoration – all with the elusive wolffish in mind.

That documentary, with support from Ocean Green partner Rissa Citizen Science, is being shown at the 

 in October. After the screening, which seeks to highlight how Northern Norway’s kelp forests have been replaced by urchin barrens – and what is being done to bring these essential habitats back to life – underwater cameraman Tortella will join Rissa CS director Delphin Ruché for a talk with the audience.

The Stone Biter really puts the spotlight on kelp, highlighting just how vital these beautiful forests are to Norway’s waters, says Dagny-Elise Anastassiou, chief impact officer at Ava Ocean and project lead for Ocean Green.

‘We talk so much about the urchin barrens and there’s so little kelp left in some places that you do need to bring the focus back to why we’re doing this – and that is to restore Northern Norway’s hugely important kelp forests,’ she says.

As well as showcasing the wonder of a returning kelp forest, Anastassiou points to the cumulative effect a documentary like this can have. It will also be aired for some 80 students at 

 in October. ‘Ocean literacy is an important element in the Ocean Green project and, along with the hands-on citizen science work that Rissa CS does, documentaries like this really expand our reach, helping even more people understand their connection to the sea.’

The urchin-kelp problem that Northern Norway is grappling with is not unique. From California to New Zealand, along coasts around the world, overfishing of urchin predators has led to an abundance of urchins. These voracious creatures eat their way through once dense kelp forests – leaving barren seascapes in their wake – and this is not the only stressor threatening kelp forests, explains Aaron Eger, founder and programme director at the 

.

‘Kelp faces two main stressors: kelp likes cold water so warming oceans is one problem – either a chronic, slower warming or acute warming, in the form of the sudden heatwave spikes that we’ve seen more often in recent years. Sometimes coupled with that is an over-abundance of sea urchins, which can be caused by the warming water or by a lack or urchin predators often due to overfishing.’

A loss of kelp can even change the way that urchins feed, continues Eger. ‘As they lose kelp, they go from a more passive feeding mode to a more active feeding mode, creating this negative spiral.’

Through the KFA, Eger and his team work towards a number of goals: the KFA connects interested parties involved in kelp research, protection and restoration – from small actors up to national level policy makers – with a goal of shared knowledge and an avoidance of repeated mistakes. It also lobbies on behalf of these underwater forests, working to keep kelp on the radar as much as possible. Eger talks about the alliance’s efforts to get recognition for the kelp problem and how it is working to encourage policymakers to incorporate kelp into their local, regional and national strategies.

At perhaps the most local level, this lobbying comes down to everyday perceptions: ‘many people don’t even know what kelp is. And if they do, they often have a negative perception because maybe it’s washed up on the beach or they touch it as they swim – it’s slimy and they’re grossed out. People don’t know how important kelp is in coastal food webs, local biodiversity, coastal economies.’


Documentaries like The Stone Biter help bring kelp into the spotlight, replacing negative perceptions through the awe and beauty that few get to experience without going into the water. Increasingly though, Ruché and Rissa CS are turning the abstract into something tangible for more and more people, through the citizen science work the NGO does on a regular basis. Taking volunteers into the water around Tromsø, the organisation already restored a very visible area in the city. ‘Because we purposely restored just one side of the jetty, and because of the location of the site – part of a new promenade being created by the city to help reconnect people with the water – people can see the difference that urchin removal makes on their daily walk,’ explains Ruché. ‘On one side it is still an urchin barren. On the other, there is this incredible kelp forest already thriving.’



Rissa CS recently began work at a new site in Telegrafbukta

, which he hopes will expand the opportunities for urchin removal. As Rissa CS’s work has expanded, so too have the number of ‘Kelpers’ that come along to help out. The most recent urchin removal day brought in around 50 volunteers, says Ruché.

Although the objective at these events is urchin removal, he stresses the need to keep the project’s end goal in mind. ‘Kelp restoration is what we’re working towards, even though we spend so much time focused on urchin removal,’ he says. ‘This documentary really showcases kelp and the vital work these forests do as nurseries for diverse species, as carbon sinks and as natural coastal defence systems. It also shows people the beauty of these underwater rainforests.’

It also serves to expand Ocean Green’s literacy goals, he continues. ‘Most impressive to me so far has been the community that we’ve created,’ says Ruché. ‘It’s fantastic to see people come along – some know very little about urchins or kelp, many have never been in the water before. They leave the experience as part of our community and with a far better understanding of what’s happening below the water. This is the kind of ocean literacy we want to spread even further with The Stone Biter.’


Even with teams of up to 50 people or more going into the water to remove urchins, Northern Norway’s barrens remain huge. ‘Hand removal is a great showcase tool, with proven results, but Ocean Green is taking that further. We are using our technology to deliver the largest-scale urchin removal system to date,’ says Anastassiou. And, given the global nature of the urchin-kelp problem, she believes Ocean Green has potential to go far beyond the north.

‘The technology we’re using in Ocean Green is itself adapted from Ava Ocean’s unique gentle scallop fishing methods,’ she explains. ‘And we’re working hard to get an urchin harvester out that can remove these creatures at scale. This is essential if we’re to make any real headway against the many thousands of hectares of urchin barrens in northern Norway, though we also know the problem is about much more than simple urchin removal.

‘Our hope is that the Ocean Green solution could one day help others in their kelp restoration,’ she adds.


Ocean Green partner Rissa Citizen Science brings ocean literacy to life with screenings of new kelp forest documentary from Ismaele Tortella

The Stone Biter: kelp regeneration steps out of the water with new documentary 

‘We’ve been looking at the impact of our urchin biostimulant on lettuce for 67 days now,’ says Abirami Ramu Ganesan, a research scientist with NIBIO, talking mid-April. Her work has a dual focus: on food production and society as well as biomarine resource valorisation – disciplines that come together on the Ocean Green project.


‘What we’ve found is a significant increase in biomass production compared to the control – and compared to a seaweed-based extract as well,’ she says.

The results point to the urchin biostimulant as a highly effective growth enhancer. At the right concentration, the urchin biostimulant performed as well as, and in some cases even better than, the commercial product, though the commercial one was more consistent overall. Such a marked improvement in yield suggests strong potential for scalable, sustainable agricultural applications.

This difference is clear to see from photos of the lettuce Ganesan has been growing in her lab in Bodø, more than 1,000 km north of Oslo – and some 70 km north of the Arctic Circle – where she explains that the team chose lettuce largely because it was likely to grow well in the limited space of the lab.


There is another factor too. Ralf Rautenberger, another research scientist at NIBIO, explains that, up in the north of Norway in particular – where people spend multiple months of the year shrouded in night – the choice, supply and quality of fresh vegetables leaves room for improvement.

‘Here in the north we don’t have any farmer’s markets, for example,’ says Rautenberger, ‘and there isn’t always a huge variety available, so green-leaf lettuce is a great choice for us to work on’.



At the moment, iceberg is one of the more commonly found lettuce options – but it is also one of the least nutritious lettuce varieties. On top of that, there is evidence of a global reduction in the nutrition we get from fruit and vegetables, something that goes hand in hand with the need to find new fertiliser and biostimulant sources. .

‘The range of what we eat needs to be expanded – if only for nutritional reasons. So, if you could introduce a new vegetable for Norwegians to eat, then green lettuce is a good choice,’ says Rautenberger.

It is also a theme tied to much wider issues. There are the sustainability questions around the global fertiliser supply chain as well as the impact of geopolitics here. Russia’s invasion of Ukraine for example, sent global fertiliser and food markets into turmoil, with fertiliser prices remaining high. Diversification is needed, home-grown solutions, derived from a source that needs managing – such as northern Norway’s urchin barrens – presents a great opportunity to tick multiple boxes with a single, spiky pest.


The research to develop biostimulants from the urchins harvested as part of the Ocean Green are still in the early stages with a lot to be uncovered. Ganesan explains, for example, that she is also looking at the shelf life of the biostimulant, which must be reliably stabilised in order to begin thinking about any scale up.

All this has implications that go to the very core of the Ocean Green project. ‘The most important thing is to stabilise the chemical components of the urchin,’ says Ganesan. And that influences the way that these creatures can be harvested as well as how they’re stored on the vessel or how long they can spend between ocean and lab.

This is what the Ocean Green project is all about: bringing funding opportunities that secure longevity for a project developing a new, circular economy with urchins at its core.

For Dagny-Elise Anastassiou, chief impact officer at Ava Ocean and management lead for the Ocean Green project, this latest development comes back to the ‘poetry of the Ocean Green story’.


‘We have Ava Ocean – a fishing company – trying to play its part in correcting something that our industry helped to break in the first place. But it was not just overfishing that damaged our coastal marine ecosystems. Another culprit is runoffs from the agricultural sector, with fertilisers leading to overgrowth of algae that can have potentially disastrous consequences for local biodiversity.

‘By using the urchins from the fishery to offer substitutes for these products, we add value both financially and ecologically.’

Then, there is the circular economy focus of the project.

‘When you remove urchins for kelp restoration, you address the cause but are left with a huge volume of urchins biomass,’ explains Anastassiou. ‘Instead of wasting these urchins, we are turning them into a valuable resource. Being able to produce fertiliser alternatives is one way of applying a zero-waste approach to one of the causes of kelp deforestation. Ideally, if we want the trifecta, the harvested area would be banned from fishing to allow the larger fish to establish themselves. but that’s a whole other Pandora's box in Norway.



Locally produced biostimulant could deliver broad benefits

From sea to lettuce to better nutrition for Norwegians: early tests show biomass boost with urchin derivatives 

Clearing urchins from bigger spaces, watching kelp forests return and bringing fish and other species along as well. These are the things Delphin Ruché, founder of Tromsø-based non-profit Rissa Citizen Science, talks about when asked what his goals are.


And those ambitions are being realised. Ruché, supported by a small army of volunteers, has been working on a 150-meter-long jetty in the city for some time, removing urchins from one side, watching life replace barrens. After success along a jetty in Tromsø, Ocean Green’s citizen science partner Rissa Citizen Science has broken new ground – or new water perhaps – in Telegrafbukta.


The team’s first real expedition at Telegrafbukta, a wide beach and local recreation area, saw nine volunteers join Ruché in removing more than 5,000 urchins, though he stresses that it’s not about the numbers. Instead it is about the return of essential kelp forests, the boost to biodiversity, the science and the community.

Rissa CS work at Telegrafbukta builds on the success it has already had along a jetty in the city, where urchin removal along just one side highlights in stark contrast the difference between an urchin barren and what a returning kelp forest looks like. Speaking to those who have taken part in that restoration, the sense of community really comes through.


‘You go out there and it’s just this really positive experience – almost an antidote to the huge problems we’re facing on climate. Whether you’re in the water or just making waffles, it’s fun and you’re making a difference for your community,’ says Jamie Hollander, an American who was in Tromsø on a Fulbright Norway research scholarship to investigate methane emissions from glacial and permafrost landscapes in Svalbard.


‘I do climate science, I study the carbon cycle and melting glaciers. It’s easy to get lost in the feeling that there’s not a lot we can do. But in getting involved in Rissa CS, you’re seeing the difference as you’re making it. You start to recognise people and develop this feeling that you're working towards something together.’


Ruché says the project simply would not be possible without the volunteers that Rissa CS works with.


‘Lots of people come but it’s not just that,’ he says. ‘People are coming back and this is creating a community with a sense of belonging in sharing this adventure and of having achieved something – and that is fantastic.’


While the purpose of each meet up is urchin removal, the set up makes Rissa CS’ work accessible for all. Hollander did go into the water for example – something she describes as an incredible but challenging experience for her – but ultimately felt her skills were best used on land, in particular at the waffle maker.


Ruché also talks about the many ways people can get involved. There are parents who come along with their kids for example, with Ruché explaining that ‘we use a remote operated vehicle, or ROV, for people who are too young to go in the water, so they can still explore and have fun, they see what the others are seeing in the water.’

But to remove the urchins, some people do have to go into the water. Ruché says there is no need for previous diving experience, with most people freediving or snorkelling close to shore. ‘We have a lot of people who have never been in the water before – they’re not marine biologists, they’re not divers. But they’re curious – they want to see the situation for themselves and to experience being in the cold water.’


There are also some experienced divers in the community. One is Michael Paul Morreau, a lecturer in philosophy at The Arctic University of Norway, and a New Zealander who arrived in Tromsø via the US. He found out about the work Rissa CS does after attending a lecture on Norway’s kelp problem as a representative of a local diving club. ‘We have a very similar problem in New Zealand, caused by over fishing,’ he notes.


Even as an experienced diver, Morreau says urchin removal helps hone your skills: there’s a lot to learn around buoyancy, technique and positioning. And like Hollander, he talks about the community spirit as being a real draw. Everyone has their role, from providing warm drinks to people leaving the freezing fjord to those who help carry gear or, like Hollander, work the waffle grill. Armed with a dry suit, Morreau plays his part, diving in deeper ‘areas where the snorkelers might struggle’.

The urchin-kelp battle is a long fight. Morreau talks of removing maybe 500 an hour ‘or more if I get mad because one pierced a glove,’ he jokes. Ruché has easily removed 1,000 on a quick check up at the jetty without any volunteers to support the work. And the work is constant. As part of the Ocean Green project, Rissa CS represents the consortium’s citizen science work – which includes educating people on the need to restore Northern Norway’s kelp forests and getting them into the water to help in the removal process as well as monitoring biodiversity below water. But more urchins need to be removed – and faster.


‘What’s needed for long-term restoration is a large-scale solution,’ explains Dagny-Elise Anastassiou, chief impact officer at Ava Ocean and project lead for Ocean Green. ‘And this solution must be something that works in shallow waters, that can handle tides and large changes in weather, that can go on uneven, large rocky areas, on bedrock, on sand. At the same time, it must be gentle enough and bring minimal disruption.’


Ava Ocean is currently adapting the technology it developed to gently harvest scallops from the Barents Sea – a fishery closed for 30 years due to over fishing. ‘This technology will allow the scale needed to make a real and lasting difference in the urchin-kelp fight,’ says Anastassiou, ‘though we’ll always need organisations like Rissa CS to keep banging the drum to make sure that people understand just how valuable our underwater ecosystems are.’


Local non-profit is getting people into the water and into kelp restoration

Breaking new water: Ocean Green partner Rissa Citizen Science begins work at new site in Tromsø

Dagny-Elise Anastassiou, chief impact officer at Ava Ocean and project lead for Ocean Green, joined 100,000 visitors, 15,000 participants and more than 60 heads of state in Nice, southern France, for the United Nation’s third Ocean Conference.

Co-hosted by France and Costa Rica, the event closed with a number of pledges the UN describes as ‘ambitious’. These include a European Commission investment of €1 bn to support ocean conservation, science and sustainable fishing, a pledge by French Polynesia to create the world’s largest marine protected area and a commitment from New Zealand to strengthen ocean governance in the Pacific. Elsewhere, a 37-coutry coalition launched an initiative to tackle underwater noise pollution.

But private industry was notably absent from the conversations, says Anastassiou as she shares some quick-fire thoughts direct from Nice.


How would you sum up your UNOC experience?

Positive but logistically challenging. It was amazing to see the enthusiasm: so many people showed up from all sorts of countries, including some incredible speakers. The Crown Prince of Norway spoke at a couple of talks for example – he really showed excitement about the ocean space.

The logistics were a challenge however. The Blue Zone – for governments and accredited organisations – and the Green Zone – an open exhibition space – were a 25-minute-plus walk from each other, in the hot Mediterranean sun. That meant people were often late and my carefully planned schedule didn’t really work.

And even though the speakers were great, it was often the same speech with different terminology. We know about climate change and biodiversity loss and we know we want healthier oceans – but we need bold debate that asks daring questions to talk about why we’re not achieving the change we need.


What would you have liked to see more of?

We definitely need to get private industry involved in these discussions, rather than sidelining voices that are being depicted as part of the problem only. Ava Ocean and Ocean Green is just one example of how the industrial fishing industry can be a force for sustainable change, delivering partnerships with science and bringing innovation to a global food problem, a fishing problem and a marine biodiversity problem.


In the same way that COP is criticised for being too focused on private interest, this conference went too far the other way. Even coming from a firm like Ava Ocean, with a sustainable model that has reopened a long-shuttered fishery, I felt uncomfortable telling people I was from the fishing industry.


We need to find that middle ground that doesn’t involve going in guns blazing. It would be great to see some closed debates, where people can speak freely and know they won’t be quoted – and won’t be attacked on social media. Imagine bringing the frankness of the LinkedIn comments section to the stage instead of a series of panels discussing topics we’re already in agreement on.

There was a quote I heard repeated on probably a panel a day – probably because it really sums up what’s needed: If you want to go fast, you go low; if you want to go far, you go together.


Ultimately the challenges we face in the ocean need private collaboration and innovation alongside governments, NGOs and science. And we need to talk more about what collaboration actually looks like for it to work.


I had the chance to meet the iconic oceanographer and marine biologist Sylvia Earle at an event hosted by the Blue Marine Foundation. She is such a huge inspiration to me, and meeting her in person was a highlight for sure.


How would you sum up the conversations you had with other attendees?


There was definitely interest in Ava Ocean technology but that was backed by scepticism too. It is clearly a struggle for people to equate industrial fishing with sustainable practices – even if we know we need more protein from the ocean.


Where did Ocean Green come into the conversation?


Ocean Green piqued the interest of most people I met. Everyone was speaking about 30x30: the idea of protecting 30% of the ocean by 2030. Ocean green is really unique, in these conversations because it’s one of the few restoration projects that is able to approach the issue with an industry and business case. Our sustainable business model that uses new or undervalued marine resources with the potential for a cascading effect for biodiversity is something that really sparks a lot of interest.


What was the most exciting outcome of UNOC for you?


The European Ocean Pact. It’s the equivalent of the EU Green Deal – but for the ocean. The Green Deal did a lot to unlock funding and make space for innovation. So I’m excited to see how a similar plan for the ocean will translate into action, funding and regulation.


Ava Ocean recently took part in the UN Ocean Conference in Nice, which saw the seafood industry notably absent from discussions and events concerning the future of fishing and seafood. 

"Where are the industry voices?" A UN Ocean Conference summary

The bespoke factory will focus on the onboard production of individually quick-frozen (IQF) scallop meat, delivering an exceptional product from Arctic scallops to the seafood market. The scallops are harvested with Ava Ocean’s award-winning technology in the remote Barents Sea in Norway, making the products truly unique on a global scale.


"Producing scallops in the Barents Sea requires a factory capable of performing under challenging conditions. Our partnership with Optimar aims to develop a solution that not only meets these challenges but also delivers premium-quality, ready-to-eat products that reflect the true value of these uniquely harvested scallops from the Arctic," said Øystein Tvedt, CEO of Ava Ocean.


"We have acquired invaluable insights over the past two years of operation that we are applying to this project. Combined with our unique non-invasive harvesting concept, the frozen-at-sea Arctic scallop meat will stand apart in the market, and efficient, high-quality factory production is essential to providing sustainable premium seafood products that are unrivalled worldwide," Tvedt explained.


Optimar’s Sales Manager for Spain, Miguel Gonzales commented: "Evolving market demands aren’t just challenges—they’re opportunities. Thanks to an exceptional collaboration with AVA’s team, we’ve immersed ourselves in this intricate process, mastering every detail to craft a solution that’s both robust and flexible. Rooted in the company’s deep expertise, our approach transforms complexity into innovation."

Research-driven innovation in seafood processing

as a partner, Ava Ocean has also received 3.6 million NOK (approximately £290,000) in funding from the Research Council of Norway to further develop factory solutions for Arctic scallops in the Barents Sea.

This project, titled “

” (Sustainable, High-Efficiency, Low-Emission Shellfish Processing), is a collaborative effort with Nofima and Sintef, aiming to identify more efficient production methods for scallops that produce lower emissions while improving seafood quality.

“Innovation is something we strive to do not only when it comes to harvesting, but in all aspects of our operations,” says Dagny-Elise Anastassiou, project manager and Chief Impact Officer at Ava Ocean. “We are delighted to be able to integrate a research dimension into the processing aspect of our project, aiming to close technology gaps and find optimal ways of processing scallops onboard for both quality and efficiency.”

Vessel refit underway to continue historic fishery

The development of this state-of-the-art factory is a key component of a vessel 

refit process currently underway at Fiskerstrand Shipyard

 outside Aalesund in Norway. Ava Ocean’s new vessel, previously known as Artemis Arctic and originally a prawn trawler named Ocean Trawler, was sold to Ava Ocean in a trade deal with Maritimt Management in 2024.

In the rebuild, Ava Ocean’s patented harvesting solution will be fitted to the new vessel, and the new factory installed along with several other improvements. Upon completion, the ship, which is yet to be renamed, will recommence the fishery of Arctic scallops in the Barents Sea, which, thanks to the proven non-invasiveness of the harvesting technique, was reopened by Ava Ocean in 2023.




The work to deliver a state of the art factory onboard Ava Ocean’s unique harvesting vessel for Arctic scallops is well underway in Aalesund, Norway.

Ava Ocean partners with Optimar to build onboard scallop factory

In northern Norway, native kelp has been decimated by the march of urchins, a species whose voracious appetite and over-abundance as predators have been over-fished has turned once-kelp-green waters into barrens devoid of their natural biodiversity.

This is the balance that the Ocean Green consortium is seeking to restore. 

 project is a world-first in its scale, scope and ambition, with plans to restore kelp forests over a large scale and for the long term.


“We know that restoring the kelp forests of northern Norway will provide a huge boost to local biodiversity,” says Dagny-Elise Anastassiou, chief impact officer at Ava Ocean, lead on the Ocean Green Project. “We have seen how quickly kelp returns when you clear urchins – and the ocean life comes with it.


“That alone is of huge value but we also know that healthy kelp forests act as a nature-based sea defence system. They offer carbon sequestration. And, by establishing a new urchin fishery to drive a zero-waste, circular economy for clearing urchin barrens, Ocean Green is also delivering social benefits to the communities it serves. These are the kinds of tangible, holistic and long-term benefits that should come with any kind of credit system – be that carbon removal or biodiversity. We should be delivering on all fronts.”

Anastassiou stresses the need for a robust system that makes investment easier and more transparent. “Carbon and biodiversity credits are a real win-win for hard-to-abate emissions – but they must deliver. High-quality credits allow companies to invest in sustainability projects like Ocean Green while also offering an essential funding stream that offers stability and longevity to the projects themselves, allowing them to achieve more over the longer term.”

Nata Tavonvunchai, a sustainability consultant with Across Nature, which works with Ocean Green has been exploring the possibilities of self-reliance that come from the credit system.


The idea of biodiversity credits is quite new, she explains “but they offer something more tangible than the traditional carbon-focus, which is harder to visualise. With biodiversity credits, we’re looking at species count and species diversity. We’re looking at habitat complexity and structure.”


Tavonvunchai talks about the ‘permanence’ of the solutions being offered on the credits market. And this is where the idea of carbon credits 2.0 comes in. “Previously, the focus was really on the carbon, with social or benefits seen as add ons. But the approach should be holistic and broader benefits should come as standard.”

“With the Ocean Green project, what we are really emphasising is the potential for permanence,” she continues. Though incredibly important, the lifespan of a kelp plant does impact its carbon sequestration abilities – with further research still ongoing in areas such as 

the role of kelp detritus in the deep sea

. But, as Tavonvunchai points out, “we’re looking to make sure the biodiversity and social benefits of the Ocean Green project continue. We’re focused on that longevity and that tangibility.”

Carbon credits are essentially a system designed to compensate for unavoidable emissions while companies work become greener. But some critics raise questions about the quality or impact of some of the credits traditionally offered.


Increasingly however, it is being recognised that certain sectors – particularly those with ‘hard-to-abate’ emissions, such as from essential activities – will be unable to meet their net-zero goals without some form of carbon credit system. Tavonvunchai also points out that, because of the newness of biodiversity credits, these novel credits offer an opportunity to learn from past criticisms and deliver an even higher impact.


As the sector matures, moving into areas such as carbon removal as well as biodiversity credits, experts from corporate advisers such as Nasdaq and McKinsey to the 

 agree that the credits system is an essential cog in the global transition – and what is needed now is a new generation of solutions that come with a much broader scope than just carbon.


Anticipated demand for high-quality credits far outstrips what is currently on offer in the carbon market and there is an urgent need for creative, high-quality solutions that deliver across multiple challenges and for the long term. Growing demands from investors – including the world’s largest money manager 

, which has been spearheading biodiversity reporting by its investee companies – is further driving the potential for biodiversity credits as a sustainability solution.

One of the goals of Ocean Green is to become a self-funded project. Ocean Green was awarded NOK 47 million from the Norwegian government Green Platform grant to run for three years but is also looking at how it can open an entirely new fishery to further fund its work.


As Ocean Green works to remove urchins at scale, allowing kelp to return to Norway’s northern waters, scientists within the consortium are looking at economically viable products that can be developed through zero-waste solutions. Those products will help drive the project forward, offering durability as well as a template for others 


Carbon and biodiversity credits offer yet another funding source: “These credits are meant to provide a sustainable, long-term, independent source of financing for projects like Ocean Green,” says Tavonvunchai. The idea is essentially a virtuous circle, where funding from such credits drives the growth of regenerative, carbon sequestering projects that boost biodiversity.

 and (at the time) projected to grow at a compound annual growth rate of 39.4% from 2024 to 2030. There is a huge pot of money with the potential to be funneled into projects that do long-lasting environmental good.


Kelp is something of a wonder plant. From a natural coastal defence system to a foundational species that provides shelter and a place to grow for a myriad of ocean life, these underwater rainforests also serve as essential carbon sinks.

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