Here is a link to get more information about The Ocean Age Walk & Talk and join the waitlist.

Getting the science right turns out to be the easy part. Catarina Ricca trained as a biotechnologist and spent years in the lab before crossing over to the commercial side of the business. At Ínclita Seaweed Solutions she takes seaweed-based active ingredients into cosmetics, an industry with long buying cycles, gatekeepers at every stage, and firm ideas about what a product should look and smell like. This is a practical walk-through of how that market actually works and what it takes to get an ingredient into it, with many of the tactics being transferable to many other B2B go-to-market strategies. 

Catarina's bio:

Catarina Ricca is Business Development Manager at Ínclita Seaweed Solutions in Porto, where she has led the commercial side of the business since 2023. She trained as a biotechnologist at the Escola Superior de Biotecnologia of Universidade Católica Portuguesa and holds an MSc in Technology, Science and Food Safety from Universidade do Porto. She started her career in the lab, running yeast cultures in the beverage industry, before moving into genetics and preclinical work, then crossing over to the commercial side selling genetic tests to hospitals.She then spent thirteen years in software, mostly SaaS, doing business development and product management.

Ínclita was founded in 2018 as the first spin-off of CIIMAR, the marine research centre at the University of Porto. It develops seaweed-based active ingredients using green extraction methods and a biorefinery approach aimed at zero waste, starting with cosmetics and expanding into nutraceuticals, pet care, food, and biostimulants. The company reports five patents submitted, full traceability from sea to factory, and opened its own biorefinery in Portugal in 2026.

Timestamps:

00:00:00 - Introduction
00:02:29 - Deciding at fifteen to become a biotechnologist
00:20:24 - The three-hour conversation that led to Ínclita
00:23:50 - What Ínclita does and why it started with cosmetics
00:26:27 - Building a second revenue stream through co-development
00:38:45 - The emerald green extract nobody would buy
00:43:23 - Rebuilding the roadmap around colour and scent
00:49:21 - The green premium and who ends up paying for it
00:58:05 - Why distributors will carry most of the revenue
01:07:46 - Formulators, marketing, and the people who sign the order
01:26:21 - Pastéis de nata and the small things buyers remember
01:46:43 - A call for unity across the seaweed industry

Useful Links & Resources:

The Ocean Age Walk & Talk - Link to join the waitlist

Catarina Ricca on LinkedIn

ISS - Ínclita Seaweed Solutions: Website, LinkedIn, and Instagram

Derek Sivers on the CD Baby order email Fed mentions: The most successful email I ever wrote

Derek Sivers' book Anything You Want

Ínclita at Cosmetorium, Barcelona, 21 and 22 October

Get in touch with The Ocean Age's host Fed DeGobbi on LinkedIn, X or by emailing directly at fed@oceanage.co

The Ocean Age Podcast is edited by Nebojsa Lešević. Sarah Carpenter and Giulia Leanza are our research assistants.

Please send in your feedback: what do you want to hear more or less of? Any suggestions? Would love to hear what you think!

Send us Fan Mail

Here is a link to get more information about The Ocean Age Walk & Talk and join the waitlist.

Episode Intro:

California is in its deepest drought in 1,200 years, and Robert Bergstrom reckons that without the ocean the state would have to depopulate. He spent decades building desalination plants the traditional way: on land, pumping seawater up, pressurising it, and pushing salty brine back out. Now he is sinking the membranes 450 metres down and letting the ocean's own pressure do the work for free. No high-pressure pumps, no marine life caught in the filters, and a far weaker brine.

Robert's bio:

Robert Bergstrom is the founder and CEO of OceanWell, a Californian water technology company building subsea desalination. He has worked on desalination since 1996 and came into water from a career in finance. He founded Seven Seas Water, growing it from two people in a pickup truck into a business that built and operated plants across the US Virgin Islands, the Bahamas, and other Caribbean islands. He retired in 2012, then came back to solve the problem he had spent his career working around.

OceanWell was founded in 2019 with Charlie McGarraugh and Michael Porter. Its pods sit roughly 450 metres below the surface, where natural hydrostatic pressure drives reverse osmosis instead of high-pressure pumps. Each pod is about the size of an upright school bus and can produce up to a million gallons of fresh water a day. The company raised an $11m Series A backed by Kubota, is developing Water Farm 1 in California's Santa Monica Bay with a group of regional water agencies including Las Virgenes Municipal Water District, and has signed an MOU with Eau d'Azur to develop a demonstrator off Nice.

Timestamps:

00:00:00 - Introduction
00:00:53 - Why the water crisis is getting worse
00:01:56 - Atmospheric thirst and what one degree does
00:04:49 - California's deepest drought in 1,200 years
00:08:15 - Thirty years in water and building Seven Seas Water
00:09:54 - What desalination actually is, from thermal to reverse osmosis
00:13:22 - Brine, marine life, and the cost of pressurising water
00:21:02 - How OceanWell differs: using the ocean's own pressure
00:28:21 - Pods, umbilicals, and what a water farm looks like
00:33:59 - Serving 10% of the Los Angeles area, and who buys the water
00:45:17 - Permitting, and regulations written for older technology
00:58:35 - The Colorado River, water wars, and water exchange

Useful Links & Resources:

The Ocean Age Walk & Talk - Link to join the waitlist

Robert Bergstrom on LinkedIn

OceanWell: Website, LinkedIn, Instagram, and YouTube.

Get in touch with The Ocean Age's host Fed DeGobbi on LinkedIn, X or by emailing directly at fed@oceanage.co

The Ocean Age Podcast is edited by Nebojsa Lešević. Sarah Carpenter and Giulia Leanza are our research assistants.

Please send in your feedback: what do you want to hear more or less of? Any suggestions? Would love to hear what you think!

Send us Fan Mail

Here is a link to get more information about the Ocean Age Walk & Talk and join the waitlist.

Episode Intro:

Continuing on the quest to find out where the demand is for startups to build in the blue economy. Today we get a big-picture view that identifies three pillars, energy, food, and data, and the opportunities lying within each of them. Tom Pickerell thinks that this is where founders should look, and crucially he thinks that a lot of it can be done by leveraging existing technology. He's been an advisor to government ministers, heads of state, and company CEOs on scaling a sustainable ocean economy, so he's got a well-rounded understanding of the challenges, the opportunities, and what needs to be done.

Tom's bio:

Dr Tom Pickerell is Global Director of the Ocean Program at the World Resources Institute (WRI) and head of the Secretariat for the High Level Panel for a Sustainable Ocean Economy, a group of 19 serving world leaders working to advance a sustainable ocean economy. He is a marine biologist with over 20 years in ocean sustainability, covering fisheries, aquaculture, climate impacts, and policy. He has worked in UK government and at Pew, WWF-UK, the Sustainable Fisheries Partnership, and the Monterey Bay Aquarium's Seafood Watch programme, and he was Executive Director of the Global Tuna Alliance, which grew under his leadership from a handful of UK founding members to 53 members covering roughly a third of the tuna sector. He holds a degree in marine biology, a master's in analytical biology, and a PhD in shellfish genetics.

WRI is a global research organisation working on climate, nature, and people, with over 1,700 staff and offices around the world. Its Ocean Program focuses on ocean-based climate action, sustainable blue food, ocean equity, and ocean finance, and serves as the Secretariat for the Ocean Panel, whose members have committed to sustainably managing 100% of the ocean under their national jurisdiction, guided by Sustainable Ocean Plans. Tom is based in WRI's London office.

Timestamps:

00:00:00 - Introduction
00:01:59 - Tom's role at WRI and the Ocean Panel
00:02:59 - The shift from conservation to food, energy, and security
00:04:26 - The three pillars of demand: energy, food, and data
00:06:22 - Five gigatons of savings using technology that already exists
00:09:20 - Decarbonising shipping and why ports are the bottleneck
00:14:04 - Marine protected areas and the return on investment problem
00:16:23 - The 100% approach: protect 30, sustainably use 70
00:26:51 - Blue foods, overfishing, and the 15% of the catch thrown away
00:28:16 - Getting 100% out of a fish, from Iceland to Namibia
00:37:04 - Seaweed and integrated multi-trophic aquaculture
00:39:26 - Ocean data, the funding gap, and who takes the first risk

Useful Links & Resources:

The Ocean Age Walk & Talk - Link to join the waitlist

Tom Pickerell on LinkedIn.

World Resources Institute: Website, Ocean Program, LinkedIn, YouTube and Instagram.

High Level Panel for a Sustainable Ocean Economy (the Ocean Panel): Website.

The published Sustainable Ocean Plans Tom mentions in the episode: Ocean Panel.

Get in touch with The Ocean Age's host Fed DeGobbi on LinkedIn, X or by emailing directly at fed@oceanage.co

The Ocean Age Podcast is edited by Nebojsa Lešević. Sarah Carpenter and Giulia Leanza are our research assistants.

Please send in your feedback: what do you want to hear more or less of? Any suggestions? Would love to hear what you think!

Send us Fan Mail

Here is a link to get more information about The Ocean Age Walk & Talk and join the waitlist.

Episode Intro:

The blue economy is growing fast. It's expected to reach US$3 trillion by 2030. And if you're an ocean founder, you may be wondering: where is that growth happening? How do I tap into that potential and contribute to positive change? Chris Gorell Barnes from Ocean 14 Capital thinks the biggest opportunity to drive growth is to transition the established, proven businesses to become more modern, digitalised, and sustainable. Plug innovation into what already exists rather than building something new from scratch.

Chris's bio:

Chris Gorell Barnes is a Founding Partner at Ocean 14 Capital, an impact fund investing in the blue economy. Before he moved into ocean investment, he built a career in media and marketing, founding the brand communications agency Adjust Your Set, which he later sold to the OLIVER group, and producing the award-winning documentary The End of the Line, about the global overfishing crisis. He also co-founded the Blue Marine Foundation, a marine charity that creates marine reserves and works to establish sustainable models of fishing.

Ocean 14 Capital backs growth-stage businesses across the blue economy, from sustainable aquaculture and alternative proteins to seaweed and plastics, all guided by UN Sustainable Development Goal 14: Life Below Water. Launched in 2020, its first fund closed at €201 million, making it one of the largest dedicated to the blue economy, with backers including Nestlé, the European Investment Fund, Monaco's sovereign wealth fund, and Skype founder Niklas Zennström. The firm is a certified B Corp.

Timestamps:

00:00:00 - Introduction
00:01:25 - Who Chris is and what Ocean 14 Capital does
00:02:53 - The fund's two themes, food security and marine ecosystems
00:03:23 - Kingfish and the case for land-based fish farming
00:04:47 - Why the real gap is growth capital, not startup money
00:05:46 - Transitioning fish farms off Excel spreadsheets
00:08:38 - Venture fatigue and the shift to growth equity
00:11:33 - The biggest misconception about the ocean
00:12:30 - Why SDG 14 is the least funded goal
00:15:22 - Where investors lose money, insect protein and RAS
00:20:40 - The sales problem holding blue economy businesses back
00:26:23 - Final advice, do your homework first

Useful Links & Resources:

The Ocean Age Walk & Talk - Link to join the waitlist

Chris Gorell Barnes on LinkedIn

Ocean 14 Capital: Website, LinkedIn, and Instagram

Get in touch with The Ocean Age's host Fed DeGobbi on LinkedIn, X or by emailing directly at fed@oceanage.co

The Ocean Age Podcast is edited by Nebojsa Lešević. Sarah Carpenter and Giulia Leanza are our research assistants.

Please send in your feedback: what do you want to hear more or less of? Any suggestions? Would love to hear what you think!

Send us Fan Mail

Here is a link to get more information about The Ocean Age Walk & Talk and join the waitlist.

Episode Intro:

Can marine protected areas be profitable? Most ocean protection runs on government aid and philanthropic foundations. However, Jeremy McKane thinks the only way to make protection permanent is to make it pay for itself. He's the CEO of OCN.ai, and he's building the data infrastructure that lets investors see whether ocean assets are actually performing, turning ocean protection from a leap of faith into something you can actually invest in.

Jeremy’s bio:

Jeremy McKane is the founder and CEO of the Ocean Currency Network (OCN), where he combines over 30 years of tech experience with marine conservation. His career began in tech, and he built OCN.ai, a platform that monitors marine ecosystems and verifies blue carbon credits using real-time data updated every 30 minutes, a major leap from the traditional five-year reporting cycle. Described as a "Fitbit for the ocean," the platform helps unlock revenue through biodiversity and blue carbon credits, with partners including PwC, The Crown Estate UK, and Blue Green Future.

He's also an underwater photographer and installation artist and co-founded Ultramarine on Richard Branson's Necker Island, an initiative focused on protecting 30% of the ocean by 2030.

 
Timestamps:

00:00:00 - Introduction 
00:01:10 - Jeremy McKane’s mission at OCN.AI
00:02:10 - Technology as way of exporting value from oceans whilst preserving them
00:02:30 - What is a digital MRV platform and how it applies to ocean conservation
00:03:20 - What an healthy ocean and marine protection are worth to any individual
00:04:10 - Using the market forces as an answer to value the ocean without taking from it 00:06:30 - Better than ordinary carbon credits, with OCN technology tracking capabilities
00:07:10 - Developing Marine conservation areas as a parenting model: funding the development phase to pass the assets on the markets where they can self-sustain
00:08:10 - Misconceptions about carbon credits, learning from past mistakes to improve 
00:09:30 - Pricing natural resources to bridge the language and understanding and language 00:10:50 - Working within the system rather than against the system
00:12:10 - Technology, AI, and spotting ocean anomalies before catastrophe
00:13:10 - Why risk assessment matters to ocean investors
00:15:10 - The British Virgin Islands pilot, capacity building, and a nature-based economy

Useful Links & Resources:  

The Ocean Age Walk & Talk - Link to join the waitlist

Jeremy McKane on LinkedIn 

Jeremy McKane’s website

OCN.ai: Website

***

Get in touch with The Ocean Age's host Fed DeGobbi on ⁠⁠LinkedIn⁠⁠, ⁠⁠X⁠⁠ or by emailing directly at fed@oceanage.co

The Ocean Age Podcast is edited by Nebojsa Lešević. Sarah Carpenter and Giulia Leanza are our research assistants. The show notes for this episode were produced by Cecilia Bombonato.

Please send in your feedback: what do you want to hear more or less of? Any suggestions? Would love to hear what you think!

Send us Fan Mail

Here is a link to get more information about The Ocean Age Walk & Talk and join the waitlist.

Ralph’s bio:

Ralph Chami is the CEO and Co-Founder of Blue Green Future and Rebalance Earth. He spent 25 years at the International Monetary Fund, most recently as Assistant Director, before turning his focus to valuing living nature as an asset class. His work, which puts a financial value on the ecosystem services provided by whales, elephants, seagrass, mangroves and forests, has been featured at TED, in the Financial Times, National Geographic, the New York Times, and on CNN. He is the recipient of the 2024 MadBlue Five Oceans Award and holds a PhD in Economics from Johns Hopkins University.

Timestamps:

The Ocean Age Walk & Talk - Link to join the waitlist

00:01:10 - Introduction: Ralph Chami 

00:02:10 - Ralph Chami sharing his early passion for music

00:04:17 - The whale encounter that changed everything “before 2017” and “after 2017”

00:05:20 - Building a model to estimate the economic value of whales’ carbon capture

00:09:30 - Fertilising, another unknown ecosystem service provided by whales 

00:13:15 - How wrong incentives completely alter the true value of whales 

00:16:00 - Telling the story of whales and elephants as natural assets with Fabio Bergonzi

00:18:15 - Seagrass and Carlos Duarte’s marine ecology insights

00:19:05 - More living entities that provide valuable services for free

00:22:05 - The fallacy of the current system which ignores planetary boundaries

00:24:40 - From valuing extraction to rewarding the preservation of living things

00:27:00 - Seeing the intrinsic value of nature can make for a better future

Useful Links & Resources:  

The Ocean Age Walk & Talk - Link to join the waitlist

Ralph Chami on LinkedIn.

Blue Green Future: Website, LinkedIn and YouTube. 

Get in touch with The Ocean Age's host Fed DeGobbi on ⁠⁠LinkedIn⁠⁠, ⁠⁠X⁠⁠ or by emailing directly at fed@oceanage.co

The Ocean Age Podcast is edited by Nebojsa Lešević. Sarah Carpenter and Giulia Leanza are our research assistants. The show notes for this episode were produced by Cecilia Bombonato.

Please send in your feedback: what do you want to hear more or less of? Any suggestions? Would love to hear what you think!

Send us Fan Mail

We’re pleased to bring you, over the next few weeks, a series of in-person interviews we recorded at the World Ocean Summit in Montreal at the beginning of March. This first episode is with Emily Charry Tissier, Founder and CEO of Whale Seeker, a company that uses AI to detect and monitor marine mammals from visual data such as drone or satellite images. The data feeds into everything from shipping routes to marine protected area management. Emily also poses a question: ocean technological solutions already exist, they work, and regulators have approved them. So why aren't they scaling? She has a clear view on why. We sat down in a quiet corner of the conference venue, with a view of the city in the background and a full-size whale model hanging from the ceiling, which also explains the occasional whale noises you’ll hear in the background. It was an inspiring conversation in a special setting, and we hope you can catch a glimpse of that atmosphere and energy.

Emily's Bio:

Emily Charry Tissier is a marine ecologist and the CEO and co-founder of Whale Seeker, a company that uses AI to detect marine mammals from drone, aircraft and satellite imagery. With 20 years of experience in coastal and arctic ecosystems, she has built Whale Seeker into a tool used across environmental impact assessment, shipping route management and marine protected area monitoring. She has engaged with international bodies including the IMO and IHO, and works at the intersection of ocean technology and maritime governance. She was named one of the top 100 Brilliant Women in AI Ethics.

Timestamps:

00:00:10 - Introduction: Emily Charry Tissier and Whale Seeker
00:02:24 - What Whale Seeker does and why ocean data matters
00:05:10 - Who pays for ocean data?
00:06:00 - Government and industry mandates
00:08:37 - Dynamic shipping routes and marine life protection
00:09:03 - Working with regulators from day one
00:10:37 - Misconceptions about AI and why they matter
00:13:07 - Are we in an AI bubble?
00:15:05 - Hype cycles in ocean solutions: seaweed, carbon capture and beyond
00:17:19 - Why ocean tech isn't scaling: technology isn't the problem
00:20:44 - The psychology of change
00:22:47 - Ego as a barrier to adoption
00:24:45 - Certified routes: building a community around sustainable shipping
00:26:01 - The economics of whale-safe shipping routes
00:28:54 - Emily’s “Why”

Useful Links & Resources:  

Emily Charry Tissier on Linkedin.

Whale Seeker: Website and LinkedIn.

Emily’s piece on The Journal of Ocean Technology: Innovation without Adoption: The Ocean Tech Bottleneck

Get in touch with The Ocean Age's host Fed DeGobbi on ⁠⁠LinkedIn⁠⁠, ⁠⁠X⁠⁠ or by emailing directly at fed@oceanage.co

The Ocean Age Podcast is produced by Charlotte Raffo and edited by Nebojsa Lešević. Sarah Carpenter and Giulia Leanza are our research assistants. 

Please send in your feedback: what do you want to hear more or less of? Any suggestions? Would love to hear what you think!

Send us Fan Mail

Kate's Bio:

Kate Streather is a documentary researcher with over five years of experience across some of the most respected names in natural history filmmaking, including BBC Studios, Silverback Films, Wildstar Films, and Open Planet Studios. Their credits include Ocean with David Attenborough and Blue Planet III.

Kate brings a rare combination of scientific rigour and production expertise to their work. As a biologist with a First-Class degree in Biological Sciences from the University of Durham, where they specialised in animal behaviour, ecology, and climate change, they bring a depth of understanding to the stories they help tell.

Their hands-on experience spans the full production process, from pre-production and development through to post-production as a core member of edit teams. In the field, Kate has set up and directed a wide range of shoots, including Cineflex, human, macro tank, dive, long lens, drone, and interview, across some of the world's most remote and challenging environments, including Antarctica and West Africa.

Timestamps:

00:00:00 - How Kate Streather’s found her passions 

00:04:10 - Branching into wildlife film making and the opening of new opportunities 

00:08:40 - What it means to work as a scientist in the film making world

00:14:50 - Strengths and struggles of working in wildlife documentaries

00:18:30 - The opportunity to work with Sir David Attenborough in “Ocean”

00:22:00 - What to expect from “Ocean” and what it takes to develop such a project

00:28:10 - Structuring the content in film making: blending science and storytelling 

00:33:20 - Why “no one today has seen a truly wild ocean” and a comparison to the past

00:35:00 - The challenging access to the fishing industry and how to convey difficult images

00:39:00 - How “Ocean” condenses a wealth of incredible experiences around the world

00:47:30 - Adventures on board of a Sea Shepherd’s campaigners boat in Antarctica

00:53:00 - Liberia: election tensions, coastal communities, overfishing and pollution

00:55:10 - More with Sea Shepherd’s cooperating with the Liberian Coast Guard

00:59:00 - The challenges of being a researcher for “Ocean”

01:02:30 - The incredible unbalance between Liberian and Norwegian fishing fleet

01:04:05 - Kate's once-in-a-lifetime experience working with Sir David Attenborough 

01:07:10 - Post-production: editing, archive, fact‑checking, and premiere in London!

01:12:40 - The far-reaching impact of “Ocean” into politics and institutions

01:15:00 - Kate’s motivations and future plans

***

Useful Links & Resources:  

Kate Strether on Instagram, Linkedin

Ocean with Sir David Attenborough, 2025 official trailer

Sea Shepherd's website: Sea Shepherd

***

Get in touch with The Ocean Age's host Fed DeGobbi on ⁠⁠LinkedIn⁠⁠, ⁠⁠X⁠⁠ or by emailing directly at fed@oceanage.co

The Ocean Age Podcast is produced by Charlotte Raffo and edited by Nebojsa Lešević. Sarah Carpenter and Giulia Leanza are our research assistants. The show notes for this episode were produced by Cecilia Bombonato.

Please send in your feedback: what do you want to hear more or less of? Any suggestions? Would love to hear what you think!

Send us Fan Mail

Today we dive into the finance side of the ocean economy because, like it or not, without capital, we won’t be able to make the impact and change we want to see in the world. Finance will be needed to make it happen.

To explore this difficult topic, I sat down with Dr Catherine Jadot, author of the book “How It Doesn’t End”. She’s a fantastic person to talk about this because she’s a marine biologist AND blue-economy finance specialist with over 20 years of experience working with organisations from governments to start-ups.

We didn’t just cover blue finance; we also looked at the psychology of action and the behavioural science behind influencing the positive change ocean founders and innovators want to see.

Catherine's Bio:

Dr Catherine Jadot is a marine biologist and blue economy finance specialist with over 20 years of experience at the intersection of climate resilience, ocean governance, and sustainable development. She advises governments and regional organisations in islands and coastal states on how to design and finance policies and projects that protect marine ecosystems while supporting inclusive growth. She currently leads blue economy and blue finance work for European and international institutions, including multi-country investment facilities, technical assistance programmes, and innovative financing mechanisms for coastal and island regions.

Timestamps:

00:00:00 - Intro 

00:03:15 - Catherine Jadot’s early career amidst the doom and gloom narrative

00:09:45 - The limits of project-level work​ and need for a bigger-picture approach

00:16:15 - Why governments and blue finance are necessary to the ocean economy

00:19:30 - Focusing on solutions​ and writing “How It Doesn’t End”  

00:22:45 - The sources of a new, constructive perspective

00:29:15 - Social experiments to understand everyday climate behaviours​

00:35:45 - The importance of people’s perceptions in changing cultural norms 

00:37:45 - Finding impact investors to share the potential of the blue economy

00:42:15 - Behavioural science insights for ocean entrepreneurs​

00:44:30 - Bankable vs investment-ready projects and mangrove finance examples​

00:47:15 - Financial models: grants, blended finance, public–private partnerships

00:51:00 - ​Finding the right investors: what to do and what to avoid

00:55:45 - The Ocean Startup Blueprint, helping startups moving forward

00:59:30 - ​Learning to identify the impact investors and become investment-ready

01:02:00 - Closing reflections on the approach to ocean entrepreneurship

Useful Links & Resources:  

Catherine Jadot’s book How It Doesn’t End (Amazon, Goodreads)

Catherine Jadot on LinkedIn and Instagram

The Ocean Startup blueprint

Get in touch with The Ocean Age's host Fed DeGobbi on ⁠⁠LinkedIn⁠⁠, ⁠⁠X⁠⁠ or by emailing directly at fed@oceanage.co

The Ocean Age Podcast is produced by Charlotte Raffo and edited by Nebojsa Lešević. Sarah Carpenter and Giulia Leanza are our research assistants. The show notes for this episode were produced by Cecilia Bombonato.

Please send in your feedback: what do you want to hear more or less of? Any suggestions? Would love to hear what you think!

Send us Fan Mail

This is the third and final part of a special series I recorded as I was connecting with ocean founders and experts in Latin America. Each episode is a standalone interview, so if you’ve missed the previous two, that’s absolutely fine.

This time, my guest is Jose Puga, Co-Founder and CEO of ChucaoTech. This is a start-up based in Chilean Patagonia that uses nanobubble technology in aquaculture. Injecting nanobubbles provides oxygen to the fish but is also used to remediate the seabed from the pollution caused by open-net fish farms.

We’ll dive into this innovative and award-winning technology, but we’ll also hear Jose’s entrepreneurial journey, which is a really cool story. A mechanical engineer who was in the world largest radio telescope (working with oxygen masks up at 5000 m or 16000 feet in the Atacama Desert), he moved to the UK as a consultant, to then come back to Chile and start his own business, which was not without some tense and dark moments.

Jose's Bio:

Mechanical engineer, Master of Science in Engineering (Pontifical Catholic University of Chile) and a Master's in Industrial Systems (University of Cambridge, UK). 

With more than 10 years of experience in Chile and abroad in the implementation of various projects and design of products in sectors such as aquaculture, astronomy, mining and consumer products.

Timestamps:

00:00:00 - Introduction to The Ocean Age Podcast
00:00:32 - Guest Introduction: Jose Puga of ChucaoTech
00:02:03 - Defining the Problem in Aquaculture
00:05:48 - Seabed Remediation Problem
00:08:49 - Nanobubbles Explained
00:13:07 - Customers and Market for Chucao Tech
00:23:05 - Jose's Background: ALMA Project in Atacama Desert
00:28:48 - Transition to Cambridge and Product Development
00:35:01 - Founding ChucaoTech
00:42:03 - Pivot to Seabed Remediation Service
00:47:03 - Difficult Moments and Financial Strain
00:49:35 - Advice for Aspiring Entrepreneurs
01:10:23 - Ocean Concerns and Environmental Purpose
01:12:59 - Difficult moment: From 65 to 13 People
01:14:29 - Final Message and Contact Information

Useful Links & Resources:

Jose Puga on LinkedIn

ChucaoTech: Website, LinkedIn

Get in touch with The Ocean Age's host Fed DeGobbi on ⁠⁠LinkedIn⁠⁠, ⁠⁠X⁠⁠ or by emailing directly at fed@oceanage.co

***

The Ocean Age Podcast is produced by Charlotte Raffo and edited by Nebojsa Lešević. Sarah Carpenter and Giulia Leanza are our research assistants. 

Please send in your feedback: what do you want to hear more or less of? Any suggestions? Would love to hear what you think!

Send us Fan Mail

This episode is part 2 of a special series recorded as I was travelling across Argentina and Chile, connecting with ocean founders, entrepreneurs, experts and activists.

My guest today is Catalina Cendoya, whom I met when I visited a marine conservation organisation called Por El Mar (literally translates to "For the Sea"). Por El Mar coordinates projects across Patagonia, including, for example, rewilding subantarctic kelp forests in Tierra del Fuego and working on the conservation of a biological corridor off the coast of Argentina that includes 5 major marine species: sharks, orcas, whales, sea lions and dolphins.

Catalina, or Cata, as everybody calls her, specifically is the Director of the Global Salmon Farming Resistance, which is the group behind the campaign that resulted in the ban of open-net salmon farming in Argentina, and it is now (as the name suggests) a global network. 

It was a really open and honest conversation, looking at all the different perspectives on the matter. And it was a nice way for me to get out of my bubble and challenge my own assumptions.

So if you’re up for the challenge, please enjoy!

Catalina's Bio:

Catalina feels at home by the coast, close to the sea, surrounded by nature. That deep sense of belonging has shaped her path, leading her to join The Global Salmon Farming Resistance (GSFR) in 2022. In 2023, she became the Director.

She holds a degree in Political Science, driven by a commitment to creating meaningful change in people’s lives. She has worked in government roles supporting people in vulnerable situations and studied in Germany, where she learnt the language and was inspired by a culture deeply rooted in environmental care.

As Director of the GSFR, Catalina leads the alliance’s actions and works with the team to shape strategies that protect the ocean from the harms of industrial salmon farming.

Timestamps:

00:00:00 - Introduction to The Ocean Age and Guest Introduction

00:02:04 - Catalina Cendoya's Background and Journey

00:05:15 - Por el Mar and the Campaign to Ban Salmon Farming in Argentina

00:10:06 - What Is Open Net Salmon Farming?

00:12:58 - Environmental Impacts: Pollution, Disease, and Escapes

00:21:12 - Social and Economic Challenges for Local Communities

00:27:05 - Consumer Awareness and Norway's Marketing Success

00:31:00 - Can Salmon Farming Be Made Sustainable?

00:42:49 - Economic Arguments: Norway, Chile, and Tourism

00:49:10 - The Problem with Regulation and Certification Schemes

00:58:06 - Salmon vs Other Protein Sources: A Comparison

01:04:36 - Alternative Ocean Economies and Other Fish Species

01:06:12 - Global Movement: Key Victories and Milestones

01:09:48 - The Power of Global Collaboration with Local Solutions

01:13:45 - Vision for the Future and Resources to Learn More

Useful Links & Resources:

Catalina Cendoya on LinkedIn

Por El Mar: Website, LinkedIn

The Global Salmon Farming Resistance (GSFR): Website, LinkedIn

Get in touch with The Ocean Age's host Fed DeGobbi on ⁠⁠LinkedIn⁠⁠, ⁠⁠X⁠⁠ or by emailing directly at fed@oceanage.co

The Ocean Age Podcast is produced by Charlotte Raffo and edited by Nebojsa Lešević. Sarah Carpenter and Giulia Leanza are our research assistants. 

Please send in your feedback: what do you want to hear more or less of? Any suggestions? Would love to hear what you think!

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