Navigating the Future of Marine Bioproducts

It has been great to soak up the rich content and deepen and extend connections here with partners in the Marine Bioproducts CRC – and there is another full day tomorrow 😊

Good to have an intro infused with indigenous perspectives: especially on the importance of respect, acknowledgement and the value of people connecting with each other and working in better harmony with the seas and lands we inhabit.

To move from the upside to the downside, one regular feature that many speakers mentioned causing pain in the sector is regulation: its complexity and inconsistency can cruel opportunities.

Balanced and appropriate oversight is necessary to sustain social licence, but it does need to be well designed. Thankfully there are some better examples in some places – including the aquaculture regime here in SA.

But there is so much more that can impact on people working in this area because they are doing lots of diverse and interesting things, in food, medicine, packaging, climate change and beyond. So they will inevitably cross many regulatory wires. And laws can change from place to place.

I am delighted that a project I have put up to try to make a small positive difference – helping people to navigate that maze – has just been approved, The first phase of this is to ensure it is well scoped: so I am super keen to speak to people in this sector to understand the basic features of their business models and any legal/  regulatory pain they have suffered in their journey. I’ve already got a small bank of stories from many partners. But the more the merrier – so feel free to reach out if you wish.

Special thanks to everyone who has helped me stand this one up including but not limited to Kerinne Harvey Simon Odell Mike Patane Melissa Gregory John Gunn FTSE Justin Coombs Catriona Macleod simon brennan

OK off to dinner soon to do some more networking and listening 😊

hashtag#marinebioconnect24 hashtag#MBCRC #Agrifutures Flinders University