Immersion Group Welcomes Foreign Minister Penny Wong to our facility

Immersion Group today hosted Foreign Affairs Minister Penny Wong to our facility in Portarlington, Victoria. Minister Wong was deeply interested in the partnership between Immersion Group and Nissui Corporation to produce Asparagopsis at a global scale. Immersion Group director Liam O’Shannessy was on-hand to describe our efforts to date and future plans for expansion in Australia and Japan.

We were also honoured to welcome His Excellency the Ambassador of Australia to Japan, Justin Hayhurst and local Federal Member for Corangamite, Libby Coker.

Budj Bim Aquaculture Site Visit

Immersion Group was extremely proud to lead a delegation with Nissui Corporation to visit the Budj Bim aquaculture site in Victoria. The Budj Bim Cultural Landscape is located in the traditional Country of the Gunditjmara Aboriginal people in south-eastern Australia near Portland. Here, the Gunditjmara have been operating the world's most extensive and oldest aquaculture system for short-finned eels. The delegation learnt how rocks on an ancient lava flow were engineered and maintained to create channels and holding ponds for eels as the they travel out the sea. More incredible still, the site also played host to several hundred permanent stone dwellings that were built to service the aquaculture enterprise.

This meeting was truly memorable as it brought together the world’s oldest aquaculture operators alongside the world’s largest aquaculture operator.

Immersion Group featured in Surfers for Climate Action film

Immersion Group will be featured in a film made by Surfers for Climate Action documenting pro-longboarder Belinda Baggs’ climate journey. The film ‘Belinda’ will see its world premiere in Byron Bay on Saturday 17 Aug 2024.

Our Onshore Production System

Immersion Group is excited to lift the covers and showcase our proprietary onshore system for producing Asparagopsis. We utilise a multi-tubular photobioreactor (PBR) system to maximise airflow and light availability. The secret lies in the acrylic tubes which are air-tight and expose the Asparagopsis to the absolute maximum amount of light in order to encourage a high daily growth rate.

Being enclosed, our PBR system is less likely to suffer from contamination events and it provides both nursery cultures to boost scale and seaweed production potential.

This PBR system allows us to accurately dose nutrients and light quantities while controlling water temperature and pH closely in order to maintain a stable daily growth rate and achieve high concentrations of bromoform in the end product.

Please feel free to get in touch should you wish to discuss partnering with Immersion Group.

FutureFeed Interview

Immersion Group CEO recently sat down with FutureFeed to discuss how the company came into being and our ambitions for the future.

From its origins as an idea during the COVID pandemic, to securing a major investment from one of the world’s largest marine product companies, Australian-based FutureFeed licensee, Immersion Group, has come a long way in a short time.

“I remember when Immersion Group was merely an idea. Locked down during the depths of the COVID pandemic on my farm in Gippsland (Victoria), I was regularly meeting with Dr John Statton (Co-Founder and Director) via Zoom who couldn’t travel across from Perth (Western Australia) as the borders was closed,” Immersion Group CEO Scott Elliott said.

Elliott, an environmental scientist, had previously worked on seagrass restoration with Statton, an aquaculture expert working at University of Western Australia. The pair recognised the immense potential of Asparagopsis seaweed for reducing livestock methane emissions.

Following those exploratory conversations during the pandemic, Elliott took a significant risk, selling his farm to fund the establishment of Immersion Group.

Japan Visit

Immersion Group CEO Scott Elliott was in Tokyo during April to meet with the seaweed project team from Nissui Corporation. The visit coincides with new efforts to gain regulatory approval for Asparagopsis in Japan and underscores our plans for future Asparagopsis ruminant animal trials in the country.

Immersion Group was also able to meet with delegates from the Australian Embassy to discuss how this humble seaweed has the potential to drastically reduce methane production from traditional dairy and beef enterprises in Japan, including the high-end Wagyu industry.

Immersion Group is committed to being the world leader in terms of high-quality, high bromoform Asparagopsis production. Immersion Group views our partnership with Nissui Corporation as vital towards achieving this aim.

Our visit also afforded further insight into future automation plans for seaweed production and recent developments in terms of onshore seaweed cultivation in Japan..

Seagrass Restoration Work Commences on Shark Bay, Western Australia

Immersion Group joined a team led by our partners from Indigenous-owned sea cucumber business Tidal Moon on Shark Bay in Western Australia this week to commence seagrass restoration work.

In 2023, BHP awarded Tidal Moon the break through blue carbon grant to leverage Tidal Moon's diving, cultural and scientific expertise to restore damaged seagrass beds in Shark Bay. Immersion Group are assisting Tidal Moon with our proven seagrass restoration techniques developed by co-founder Dr John Statton to restore up to 100 hectares of degraded meadows.

Seagrass is an incredible blue carbon sink, however risks including marine heatwaves pose a significant threat to Shark Bay’s fragile seagrass ecosystems. It is notable that Shark Bay is home to Australia’s largest seagrass meadows, spanning more than X hectares. Immersion Group feels extremely privileged to be a part of this project that promises to leave a lasting legacy in terms of seagrass restoration techniques, given a stated project aim is the development of a new methodology for carbon abatement via the Emissions Reduction Fund.

Cawthron Institute Partnership

Immersion Group has partnered with the Cawthron Institute, New Zealand’s largest independent science organisation to further refine and improve our seaweed cultivation technologies.

Located in Nelson at the top of the South Island of Aotearoa, Cawthron Institute brings more than 100 years’ of scientific expertise to the table. Nelson is home to New Zealand’s blue economy renaissance and is renowned for its pristine coastal waters and for being the sunniest town in the country.

These factors have contributed to the institute’s exceptional facilities at the Cawthron Aquaculture Park, located a short drive from the Nelson CBD. Immersion Group looks forward to sharing further information regarding this partnership.

More about Nelson: Nelson is the operational headquarters for New Zealand’s largest fishing enterprise, Sea Lord, a company part-owned by our cornerstone investor Nissui Corporation.

The Moananui cluster has been established in Nelson to bring together forward-thinking companies including Sea Lord, Cawthron Institute and other diverse industries including: aquaculture, coastal tourism, shipping, ports, engineering, offshore renewable energy, manufacturing, marine conservation, bio-technology and more.