Blue Harvest Technologies: from ropes and storms to scalable systems
2026-02-10
From microalgae to macroalgae
When Nikolai started the project, seaweed was not the plan. His background is in economics and project development, and originally the project was about microalgae and the valuable substances they can produce. That direction changed when an investor based in Lofoten with a background in fish farming pointed out a different opportunity. Along the coast, large amounts of salmon farming infrastructure were reaching the end of their operational life. The question was simple but powerful: could those resources be reused to build something new in macroalgae?
That idea led to Nikolai moving from Oslo to Lofoten in Northern Norway, and Lofoten Blue Harvest, the seaweed farming venture Nikolai founded with his investor. Early trials went well and permits expanded from two sites to three and four. But as the farm grew, so did the challenges of scaling.
“There was no production technique that existed off the shelf,” Nikolai explains. Most available equipment came from fish farming and was designed for a very different purpose and scale. Seaweed cultivation in Lofoten proved costly, labour intensive, and vulnerable to technical problems without clear solutions.
Team of Blue Harvest Technologies before the deployment of their Loop Farm in sea.
The big bottlenecks
One issue stood out above all others: handling ropes. Harvesting, coiling, cleaning, drying and preparing substrate for reseeding is time consuming and difficult to mechanise. Storms only make matters worse. In one particularly bad season, rope tangling after a storm cost the farm around forty percent of its yield.
Those experiences led to a clear conclusion. If Europe wants a serious seaweed sector, it needs to be serious about production technology.
A turning point at Aquanor
The turning point came in 2021 at Aquanor, an aquaculture convention in Norway. There, Nikolai met an engineer who was presenting a harvesting machine that had struggled in its first pilot. Where others saw a failed prototype, Nikolai saw potential and reached out to him. Conversations continued over dinner and follow-up meetings. A pre-study confirmed the fit, and Blue Harvest Technologies was founded as a joint venture between the seaweed farming operation in Lofoten and an engineering-led partner group.
From cutting with knives to push-button harvesting
Today, Blue Harvest Technologies focuses entirely on technology for seaweed farming. Its key developments include the Loop Farm, a cultivation system designed to reduce rope handling, prevent tangling and automate operations, and the Drishac, a seeding, harvesting and maintenace unit that services the farm from a single attachment point.
The Loop Farm before deployment.
“Everyone is on the working platform, and the machine does all the work,” Nikolai says. “You attach it to the farm, push a button, and it runs.”
The Loop Farm being threaded with 36 mm carrier rope.
Crucially, the approach can be adopted step by step. The Drishac can be used on existing longline farms, allowing producers to improve operations without rebuilding entire sites. Over time, combining it with the Loop Farm unlocks the full operational advantage.
The Loop Farm filled with seaweed.
Scaling needs more than farming
Blue Harvest’s main customers are currently in Norway, including Lerøy, the country’s largest fish farming company. At the same time, the company is exploring opportunities beyond Europe, where seaweed production already operates at much larger scale.
As an economist by training, Nikolai keeps returning to one core insight: sustainability starts with economic viability. Without processing capacity and higher-value applications that can pay farmers a workable price, cultivation will not scale.
Harvesting with the Drishac.
Blue Harvest Technologies’ mission is clear: to turn seaweed farming from a manual experiment into an industrially viable activity, built for European realities.
Curious or want to know more? Reach out to Blue Harvest Technologies
The rig with the Drishac in place with the Loop Farm.
