Featured Image: Tim Kristensson
In the depths of our oceans, where sunlight meets the sea, Karolina Martinson and Linnéa Sjögren are on an incredible journey, blending their love for freediving with a commitment to sustainable seaweed foraging and the blue industries of the future. As seaweed divers and ambassadors of the ocean, they’re creating a deeper connection between humanity and the wonders of the sea. In this exclusive Q&A, we get a glimpse into their world of seaweed, marine life, and their passion for bringing the treasures of the ocean to our tables.
1. How did your adventure as seaweed divers start?
Linnéa: For me it started in 2014 when my ex-boyfriend and I founded the company Catxalot. A few years before that I realised that Sweden imports seaweeds from Asia that we have in our own water. As a former librarian, I knew then and there that I wanted to teach and inspire people to use our own seaweeds.
Karolina: For me it started when I and my family moved to this little island Styrsö outside Gothenburg about 20 years ago. At that time I was working as an artist (potter and designer mostly) and in my work and life I have always been extra curious about the things that other people look at as garbage. Seaweed was actually nothing but garbage and a stinking problem for the people who lived here and the fishermen who were active, and that fact made me wonder if there was something that we had forgotten, lost along the way or even needed to learn. I was working with helping old people still living in their homes the first years we lived here, and I asked them to tell me everything they could remember about using seaweed as food. They said no, but they all knew how to use it as a nutrient (mostly when they cultivated potatoes) as food for their animals and for insulation of the houses. At this time this interest was nothing but something very playful for me, and in a way some kind of art, poetry or a way to relate to the nature around me. In my childhood picking berries, herbs and mushrooms was an important activity in our family, and something we did a lot, so to look at nature and the seaweed as a part of my pantry felt very natural for me. I thought that the seaweed looked tasty actually. Years went by, and I was experimenting on my own with seaweed in my kitchen, and after about ten years I met Linnea and her ex-boyfriend in a workshop that they arranged about how to pick seaweed and use it as food. This experience is something I will never ever forget, and it was really a big, life changing step in a new direction for me in my life. There and then I found Linnea and all the inspiring networks that were going on about seaweed in new ways. I started to work for Linnea and her company Catxalot , picking wild seaweed to restaurants, helping them with some workshops and working with creating new recipes for new products and hopefully the book of our dreams.
Photograph: Hanna Sallén Lennerthson
2. You must get lots of questions about diving in Sweden, isn’t it too cold, wild, inaccessible?
Linnéa: Of course you need a wetsuit most times of the year, but summertime it is alright with a swimsuit. The common misunderstanding is that it is dark and dull under water in Sweden. I try to change that belief.
Karolina: Yes, I think that most of us here in Sweden look at bathing in lakes and the ocean as something that we do in the summer on a sunny day. But I also think that in the last few years we have seen a quite big interest in winterbathing and the healthy benefits with that. So I think and hope that we are going to see a change in that habit. There is so much to gain if you dive under the surface here in Sweden during the colder months. A day in February or March can be such a moment of beauty with all the colours, crystal clear water (not always though) and fresh seaweed, moving in the waves. This is the best time of the year to pick some of the biggest kinds of seaweed here in Sweden, like the sugar kelp. And if you have a good wetsuit you can be in the water long enough to experience the beauty.
3. What’s been one of your most memorable experiences in the ocean that has really strengthened your connection with marine life?
Linnéa: Maybe one of them was when I was snorkelling in a storm and I suddenly felt that it would not matter if the ocean ”took me” (if I die), because I felt like a seal, waving in the water together with the moving seaweed. A lot of oxygen bubbles around me. I was totally calm.
Karolina: It is difficult for me to say one special moment, because the relation with life under water is something that has been growing for me with time. I am both more grateful, humble but also more worried now, but I always enjoy every single moment under the surface and it is never the right time to leave. This summer has been one of the best summers under the surface that I can remember. I have been enjoying the beauty here on the western coast so intensely, and it has been a pleasure to show the beauty to my guests too. But one of the moments that strengthened my connection actually was the most scary moment that I can remember. I was free diving and snorkelling on the eastern coast of Sweden earlier this summer. That part of the ocean has some huge problems with overfishing, too much nutrients in the water and dead seabed on big areas. One small fish was slowly swimming around all alone in something that looked like a ghost landscape. The little fish looked so sad. That moment actually meant a lot for me, because I could feel in my heart that what I do can hopefully be of importance to the health of the oceans. Every single person that I can inspire to think and act in new ways counts. Even if it was a moment of great sadness it strengthened my connection to the ocean.
4. Do you think foraging and eating from wild/nature should be for everyone?
Linnéa: Yes of course! I think that we in Sweden don't even think about it in a different way. That is a big difference from South Africa. It is so natural here.
Karolina: Yes, I think so. But we have to be very careful when we pick seaweed and other things in the ocean. It is quite new for most of the people here in Sweden. We have a tradition of picking berries and mushrooms here, and in Sweden the nature and its pantry is free for everybody to enjoy. So me and Linnea feel a big responsibility about that, and we both teach people how to pick seaweed in a humble way without destroying the fragile ecosystems. If we know how and when to pick in a sustainable way we can actually take care of the seaweed and make it grow even more, like we do in our garden.
5. What inspired you to write a cookbook all about your local seaweed and how to bring it to any home table?
Linnéa: The people who came for my seaweed workshop started to ask for a cookbook right away back in 2014. Jonas, my ex, and I started to plan it but we had problems finding a publisher. Maybe the time was wrong for it. When I met Karolina I saw that she was a great chef and asked her if she wanted to do it with me. I don't think it would be such a good book if she had said no.
Karolina: The dream about the book started quite soon after I started to work for Catxalot, and one of my tasks was to create recipes and to explore how to use our different kinds of seaweed in the kitchen. Like Linnea I met a lot of people in my workshops that asked for a book about Swedish seaweed and how to cook with it, so I was determined and I knew that there was a big interest. But it was quite difficult to find the right publisher to believe in our idea. Now I am happy that we didn’t succeed with our first attempts, because in the end we found the right person who understood what kind of book we wanted to do, and was brave enough to do it like we wanted it to be. Now I know that they are very proud of the book, and they have already sold more examples than they thought at the beginning. Three years after publishing, the book is still going strong and it is still winning prizes, being the first book in Sweden of its kind.
6. How do you collaborate with local communities and fisheries to promote seaweed industries while protecting marine ecosystems?
Linnéa: my business is so very small. I just teach people how to forage a little in a sustainable way and how to cook it. I also use cultivated seaweed at cooking classes, and the fishermen just think it's good that I do this and that I extend the tourist season.
Karolina: I should say that I, my company Algblomman AB, collaborates a lot. Maybe not with local fishery, but with other producers of low trophic species and more sustainable ways to look at food from both land and water. For me it is a great joy to collaborate with small producers of sustainable food, lifting good examples and to combine their deep knowledge about how to make local artisan food like cheese and bread and try to combine it with seaweed in different ways. I love to “play” with tradition to create innovation, and I have been doing that for many years now. Here on the islands were I live I am now collaborating with restaurants, local producers of artisan food, and a small sustainable hotel. Slowly we are creating new ways for tourists and guests to explore our beautiful place on earth in sustainable ways, and to show them new humble ways to enjoy the archipelago. Different seaweed experiences is a very interesting part of that work. If everything goes our way we are also going to start a very, very small cultivation of mussels and seaweed with young people here on the island. A kind of “showroom” and a place to talk about and to learn more about this topic and how the future of food from the ocean can look like.
7. As advocates for sustainability, how do you reach out to the public to raise awareness about marine conservation and the role seaweed can play?
Linnéa: In the way I talk to people at my workshops and lectures, and by showing people the beauty under water so they will feel love for the ocean.
Karolina: That is my main topic for everything I do, actually, and something I am always talking about in my lectures, workshops and seaweed- / food adventures. For me food is such a good way to talk about this. I think that if you combine an experience when you use all your senses like you do when you pick the food you are going to eat, feel the taste and smell of good food in a small group with a good talk around the table, maybe the information and hopefully the inspiration will go deeper and make some change even in your everyday life. There is only a win-win in this way of looking at food. What is healthy for the ocean is also healthy for us. So let’s cooperate with nature and the ecosystems again.
8. During your dives, what unique marine life or biodiversity in the seaweed forests has left you in awe?
Linnéa: It always makes me happy to meet animals. That is special. But once when I had an eelgrass meadow right in front of me with the sun behind it, I just laid there and watched the oxygen bubbles rising up to the surface. It was a religious moment.
Karolina: Actually, I have never met a bigger animal in the water (not bigger than a seal) and even if I would just love to swim close to a manta ray for an example, my biggest awe is always the smallest details in everything from how perfect a shell can be in its construction, the most beautiful patterns and colours you can find if you look really close to a small fish, snail or seaweed. Often the most beautiful details can be where no one even can see them, like the inside of a clam for an example. That is the biggest sensation for me, and it always makes me humble and very grateful.
9. The uses of seaweed seem endless, from food to biofuel. What excites you most about the future of the seaweed industry and its potential?
Linnéa: maybe the medical usage! The research of antioxidants is really interesting and I think it would raise the seaweed usage if the antioxidants were used.
Karolina: For me it is very exciting to think that there is so much about seaweed that we don’t know anything about yet. It is still so unexplored. I am sure that we will find so many interesting and fascinating facts about seaweed in the near future. Right now I would love to see more information about how it actually seems to “cooperate” with the nutrients in other kinds of food inside our bodies. Like a “bridge”, or something that connects and lifts other nutrients up. Seaweed has a unique role to play in our food, and I am so excited to learn more about it. I am also curious about how it can be a part of making plastics and paper more sustainable.
10. What are some simple ways people can support sea forestation and make responsible choices when it comes to seaweed products?
Linnéa: maybe to think about what you let out in nature when it comes to pollution. It all ends in the ocean!
Karolina: Right now, if you choose to buy Swedish seaweed products I should say that there are only responsible choices available on the market. Nothing else is allowed here at the moment. But we all have to be very careful and have a long term focus forward. Sustainability for me means that my choices are hopefully making it better for future generations to live on this beautiful planet, so we have to be careful. Humans often want to scale things up more and more, so it is very important to have nature's best in mind in every decision we make. If we do it in a careful way seaweed can be a very good solution for many of us. To make a responsible choice often means; have a close relation to the people who are cultivating your food so that you know that they are doing it in a responsible way.
Photograph: Amanda Falkman
11. What’s the most fulfilling part of your work with seaweed and sustainability?
Linnéa: when I see stars in the eye of people that I take beneath the water surface.
Karolina: I think that in some ways I work with hope, showing people solutions and to inspire change. And I have the best working partner for that: The ocean and nature. Sustainability is sometimes a very difficult topic, and it can feel heavy and maybe too late, but I want to open the door to new possibilities, and people are actually very grateful when they understand that. That is very fulfilling for me.
12. Do you have any favourite seaweed recipes that would be perfect for someone new to cooking with this superfood?
Linnéa: a simple one is: mix a little starch flour in gutweed. Wrap it around lobster or white fish (a small piece). Deep fry in neutral oil 170 degrees C for a couple of minutes.
Karolina: The way I use seaweed the most is probably in my baking. Some dried seaweed in your dough or cakes makes them very tasty and brings good nutrients to the bread. When we visited you in South Africa I could see that you had a lot of sea lettuce there. I love the combination of dried Sea lettuce and dill flowers. Mix them with ricotta and parmesan and do a filling for your raviolis. Delicious.
13. For anyone interested in following your path, what advice would you give to aspiring seaweed divers or those passionate about protecting our oceans?
Linnéa: do not get blinded by money. Follow your own belief and mission and don't listen too much to other people.
Karolina: First of all, enjoy. Have a really good time under the surface. Start to build a relationship with the seaweed over time so you can see the changes, understand how it lives and how you can cooperate with it. Build or join communities with other people who are interested in seaweed like you are. It is almost the best part I think, to share the interest for seaweed and the work for healthier oceans together with others. And …. A really good mask makes a huge difference for the experience.
Photograph: Fanny Rådvik