Harvesting is underway in the Marlborough Sounds of one of New Zealand’s most invasive pest species Undaria, more commonly known as Wakame seaweed.

The seaweed, which was introduced into waterways in the 1980s via ballast water from cargo ships, chokes out native species and fouls mussel farms.

But New Zealand company Waikaitu has turned what could’ve been an environmental disaster into an economic and environmental opportunity, harvesting the seaweed and turning it into organic plant care products.

CEO Alex Pressman says this year’s harvest is expected to be the biggest yet.

“With concern growing over the use of fertiliser and high nitrate levels in our soils, more people are looking for cleaner alternatives. As a result, demand for our products has increased and we’re expecting our biggest harvest from Marlborough and Otago Harbours.”

Wakame is a seasonal seaweed. It spends eight months of the year as a single cell organism either floating in the water or attached to a surface such as a rope or wharf making it extremely difficult to detect and remove. But once the water temperature drops to around 14C it grows very rapidly.

In October and November each organism can spawn off millions of gametophytes which is the name of its single cell juvenile form.

Mr Pressman says timing for this year’s harvesting has been a lot more precise thanks to

new visual-recognition technology developed by AUT.

“The problem we had to solve was to find the exact time when the Undaria was fully mature but prior to its reproduction to maximize the efficacy of our finished products and achieve the best ecological impact. The new technology allowed us to study the mussel lines from drones making operations more cost effective as well as reducing boat time and diesel usage.”

Waikaitu harvests and combines seaweed with other organic elements to create plant care products that give superior yields – naturally.

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