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High Tide Seaweed was founded by alumnae Flo Taylor and Beth Joseph-Horne (Biosciences, 2015)
Seeking kelp for sustainable snacks – alumnae found High Tide Seaweed
Alumnae Flo Taylor and Beth Joseph-Horne (Biosciences, 2015) met during their studies and connected over surfing, a passion for seaweed, and a desire to help the state of our oceans. After graduating they founded High Tide Seaweed, a women-led company which aims to show the potential of seaweed as a sustainable food source.
During their studies at Exeter Beth and Flo were first introduced to the potential of seaweed during their lectures in Marine Biology. After university, they went in different career directions with Flo training as a Marine Ecologist and Beth studying Nutrition. However over the years their friendship grew stronger as they connected over a shared love of the outdoors and they planned to take their interest in seaweed, and skills from their studies, into making a difference to the planet.
A few years ago they started running seaweed workshops (through their community business Seaweed Surf Shack) to educate people on the sustainability and nutritiousness of seaweed through guided seaweed walks, nutrition talks, yoga and surf sessions, beach cleans and beach cooking sessions. During this time, they noticed the need for more readily available seaweed foods to share the potential of seaweed as food source that is good for the planet and good for people.
Turning to action, they then founded the High Tide Seaweed, focusing on seaweed as a local, nutritious and super sustainable food source. In order to bring that mission to life they pioneered a seaweed-based snack bar to fuel active lifestyles with sustainable, high quality nutrition.
When asked ‘why seaweed?’ Beth and Flo explained “seaweed takes up carbon and excess nutrients as it grows, it provides a home for marine wildlife as well as protection from storms, and requires no freshwater, land space or fertiliser to grow in farms. Alongside growing faster than any other land plant as well as being nutritious and delicious”.
Their snack bar is naturally plant-based, made with organic, nutrient-dense ingredients as well as seaweed sourced from Câr-y-Môr - one of Wales's first restorative 3D-ocean farms. As such sales of the bars will also support local marine conservation projects and take action to create a more biodiverse future.
Reflecting on how far they’ve come since their studies Beth and Flo said: “Thank you to Exeter for instilling a love of the ocean in us, and allowing us to develop the skills and drive to start High Tide!”
We’re excited to see how High Tide Seaweed grows in the future and you can check out their Instagram account to follow along with their journey getting their bars ready for commercial production, developing eco-friendly packaging and working on getting their bars into distribution.
Date: 14 July 2022