What really caused South Australia’s devastating algal bloom?
In this episode of Owner Insights, Lester Marshall, founder of Coffin Bay Oyster Farm, shares his personal view that the toxic algae affecting South Australia’s coastal waters in 2025 was likely introduced by two cargo ships.
Drawing on more than 30 years of experience farming the state’s waters, Lester explains why he believes these vessels may have introduced the algae through ballast water discharge – offering a thought-provoking perspective from someone who describes himself as a “canary in the coal mine” for the state’s marine environment.
But this episode is about far more than the algal bloom. Lester’s business journey is one of the most remarkable stories of resilience we’ve featured on Owner Insights:
- Losing everything at 26: How rising interest rates forced a 26-year-old Lester to cull 3,000 sheep and walk away from farming.
- Starting from scratch: The journey of founding Coffin Bay Oyster Farm in 1992 and helping build one of Australia’s most recognised oyster brands.
- Surviving the perfect storm: Navigating a brutal series of setbacks since 2016, including disease outbreaks, COVID, market shutdowns and algal blooms.
- Fighting for survival: How the business survived as staffing fell from 18 people to just two.
Lester reflects on the highs, the lows and what has kept him going in a candid conversation about resilience, reinvention and the determination required to keep moving forward when so much was beyond his control.
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