About us
Sustaining the seas that sustain us.
A community-based social enterprise, restoring the ocean while building work that lasts.
Our story
Seafarming Australia began with a simple conviction: that a coastal community can build a new source of sustainable employment from the waters around it. We set out to create a regenerative seafarming industry rooted in the ocean itself, with the potential to become a major employer across Tasmania and, in time, coastal communities right around Australia.
We have moved well beyond the idea stage. Our first pilot farm is already in the water, with a second in planning — proving viability, surfacing the practical challenges, and laying the groundwork for a larger operation. We draw on the considerable aquaculture experience already held by locals on Bruny, and that early progress has been recognised beyond the island, most recently through our selection into the Hatch : Taronga Accelerator Program.
Our long-term vision is a network of regenerative seafarms — beginning on Bruny, expanding across Tasmania, and ultimately reaching coastal communities around Australia. Perhaps most telling is the support we've received: from across the political spectrum and from every segment of the community, including people who rarely find themselves on the same side of marine and environmental questions. In a conversation that so often divides, regenerative seafarming is something Tasmanians have been able to get behind together.
At a glance
Where: D'Entrecasteaux Channel, Bruny Island, Tasmania
What we grow: mussels, seaweed, scallops, oysters
How: integrated multi-trophic aquaculture (IMTA)
Status: Pilot #1 deployed · Pilot #2 in planning
Recognition: Hatch : Taronga finalist (1 of 5)
Our founder
“What sort of world am I leaving for my children, my grandchildren, and the generations that follow?”
Jonathan Ross · Founder
Background
Bachelor of Business, Monash University — International Trade, with three years of Japanese language study.
Technology start-ups and international trade, followed by twenty-five years self-employed in internet services.
Sailing since the age of ten. Commercially endorsed Yachtmaster. More than forty years in sailing administration, including President of the Australian Tasar Council.
Founder of the Bruny Wild Swimmers and organiser of the annual Bruny Wild Swim Classic.
Where the idea began
In 2024, founder Jonathan Ross was undergoing treatment for myelodysplastic syndrome, a cancer of the bone marrow. After two stem cell transplants and uncertain prospects for recovery, he began asking a question that many people arrive at only when confronted with their own mortality: what sort of world am I leaving for my children, my grandchildren, and the generations that follow?
The answer came from the water. Discovering the work of Bren Smith and GreenWave in the United States, Jonathan recognised in regenerative ocean farming something that could work here in the D'Entrecasteaux Channel — a way to restore marine habitat and create genuine, lasting coastal jobs at the same time. Integrated multi-trophic aquaculture, using native shellfish and seaweed species, offered a model that gave back more than it took.
Originally from Victoria's Mornington Peninsula, Jonathan moved to Bruny Island six years ago after an extended period living in France with his wife, Nathalie. He has been on the water since he was ten years old, and still skippers yachts in the Mediterranean when time allows.
Closer to home, he founded the Bruny Wild Swimmers five years ago — an ocean swimming group that now numbers more than five hundred members — and organises the Bruny Wild Swim Classic each February. That instinct, for bringing people together around the water, runs directly into the work of Seafarming Australia.
Governance
Built to outlast its founder.
Seafarming Australia is a foundation in formation. It was founded by Jonathan Ross and is currently led by him, but the intention from the outset has been that it should not depend on any one person.
An advisory board is being established to determine how the Foundation operates — its priorities, its governance, and the standards it holds itself to. Membership is under consideration now, drawing on marine science, aquaculture, community and governance expertise, and appointments will be announced as they are confirmed.
We are taking formal legal advice on the Foundation's structure and governance, and will act on the recommendations of the advisory board as it forms. We would rather take the time to build this properly than move quickly and correct it later.
Where things stand
Structure: charitable foundation, registration underway
Leadership: Jonathan Ross, Founder
Advisory board: in formation
Legal advice: provided pro bono
Board appointments: to be announced
How we're built
A foundation and an operating company, working as one.
The non-profit Seafarming Australia foundation holds the mission and community benefit.
Bruny Island Seafarms Pty Ltd as operating company runs the farms as a commercially viable business — linked to the Foundation through brand, IP, services and a shared mission.
A model built for both purpose and viability
We are structured as a non-profit foundation working alongside an operating company — a model that lets us pursue both community benefit and a commercially sustainable business at the same time.
It means the mission is protected as the enterprise grows, and that the value we create stays anchored to the community and the coastline it comes from. As the operating company becomes profitable, a rising share of profit flows back to the foundation and marine conservation — from 5% to as much as 50% at scale. We welcome mission-aligned, ethical investment from people and organisations who share that purpose.
For funders & partnersWant the full picture?
See the system in detail, or get in touch about supporting the next stage.