Posing a massive threat to native wildlife and a river’s fragile ecosystem, didymo (discovered in New Zealand in 2004) has now infested many of the South Island’s most iconic rivers (including the Rangitata and the Tekapo). Just a single drop of infected water or plant fragment can spread the algae – didymo kills rivers.

Angered at seeing his beloved waterways decimated by this ‘rock snot’ and frustrated by the apparent lack of action by ‘the authorities’, Logan Williams, a 22 year old scientist, inventor and entrepreneur from Timaru, has taken matters into his own hands.