How Smidge Sunscreen helps to restore the oceans

Natalie Jones
Mar 16
2 min read

Updated: Apr 16

woman at the snow applying sunscreen lip balm to her lips

Imagine the coasts of New Zealand sustaining a healthy and vibrant ocean forest; absorbing carbon, improving water quality and providing habitat for thousands of marine creatures...Regenerating our seaweed forests is a way to make this a reality - and it’s exactly what you're supporting, every time you choose Smidge.

Before starting Smidge, I spent many years working as a conservationist in Wellington, where I had the privilige of working alongside the amazing team behind this project. Read on to learn how every Smidge purchase helps to restore the ocean thanks to the Love Rimurimu Project in Wellington, New Zealand.

Love Rimurimu's Seaweed Restoration Project

Love Rimurimu is growing an underwater forest at their seaweed (rimurimu) nursery in Wellington. By improving conditions and restoring sites in the harbour with seaweed seedlings, they are setting up the right environment for regeneration - helping nature to be a self-sustaining and healthy ecosystem again.

These giant underwater kelp forests will provide shelter and food for a diverse range of species including snapper, crayfish, stingrays and seahorses. Like trees on land, giant kelp forests also take up carbon, strengthening the marine ecosystem - making it more resilient into the future.

Every year, Smidge donates 1% of profit (not just revenue) to supporting the nursery where the seaweed babies are being grown before being planted out in the ocean.

Our Seaweed Forests Are Degraded

Like our forests on land, seaweed forests are being affected by iIncreasing air and water temperatures, degradation through sea bottom trawling, overfishing and pollution, reducing their extent in many coastal areas. Wellington harbour is no exception to the global trend.

In many places, the water is loaded with sediments, is impacted by poor water quality and the natural ecosystem balance is out of whack - which can create scenario’s where the population of grazers (such as kina) gets out of control, munching though our ocean forests.