How Salty Monkeys’ Dive-Gear Supports First Nations Artists and the Ocean

With a passion for ocean and culture, founder Dennis Fay realised his apparel and dive-gear company could showcase First Nations artists and lead clean-ups in the Torres Strait.

Fact file

Founder: Dennis Fay, 40
Grant funding: Parks Australia Ghost Nets Initiative (Marine Debris Task Force, a partnership with the Torres Strait Island Regional Council); Advance Queensland, Regional Futures – Collaborative Projects; Vincent Fairfax Family Foundation, Backing the Future program
First customer: Family members, who purchased Salty Monkeys shirts in 2018 “when we were just trying to build a community”
Headquarters: Cairns (Gimuy), Queensland
Staff: Five part-time or casual employees, plus contractors

What’s your elevator pitch?

“Salty Monkeys began in 2017 posting videos of my spearfishing adventures and evolved into a business selling high-quality apparel designed in collaboration with Indigenous artists. We are First Nations-owned and deeply invested in our community. We deliver youth leadership programs, marine and free-diving safety workshops and also lead the Marine Debris Task Force (MDTF) in the Torres Strait, in partnership with the Torres Strait Island Regional Council. Our aim is to clean up our shores to protect marine life, find innovative solutions to repurpose the debris and ensure our community has a sustainable future.”

What was the problem you were trying to solve?

“I grew up on Badu Island in the Torres Strait. We islanders have relied on the ocean for thousands of years – it’s more than our livelihood and source of food, it’s the foundation of our culture. Our ocean is under threat and it’s endangering our traditional practices.”

How does it work?

“Australian software engineering consultancy KJR has worked with Indigenous organisations using drones and AI to help locate rock art. I asked about using the drones to get aerial photos for our MDTF reports and KJR said it could build an AI detection model for debris. A grant from Advance Queensland gave us the funds to build it and we conducted phase one at the end of 2023, using drones and AI to detect marine debris and efficiently target the areas most in need of clean-up. In the future, with better tech, we can categorise marine debris so we’ll know what’s plastic, what’s glass and what are ghost nets. My aim is to build a business model in which we become self-funded and create local employment opportunities by repurposing the marine debris.”

How did you get it off the ground?

“Our storytelling videos built a loyal following on YouTube, Facebook and Instagram and a dive shop in Cairns gave us discounted gear in return for a plug – a non-contractual sponsorship! They believed we could build a brand. We wore monkey masks in the videos so we created the Salty Monkeys logo, approached a Torres Strait artist to share their artwork on our shirts and it grew from there.”

What’s next?

“We want to expand our impact on ocean conservation and scale the MDTF initiatives through technology and community empowerment. The Great Barrier Reef is on our doorstep – that’s a $6-billion-plus annual economy – and we’ve just launched our wetsuit range featuring designs by First Nations artists. Next are ecofinZ, free-diving fins with blades made from recycled PET plastic. We’ve done the design and testing and now we need to raise about $500,000 so we can purchase the moulds to manufacture them in Australia. I also want to continue creating content for entertainment and education, sharing our adventures, showing the beauty and the culture of the Torres Strait – and position Salty Monkeys as a global brand.”