Ocean industries must be grounded within environmental and social boundaries to meet the goals of a Blue Economy, which requires economic and social equity frameworks to transform the status quo. Kelp economies have been increasingly emerging worldwide, particularly with respect to aquaculture, harvest, and restoration operations, and provide an opportunity to use regenerative development as a framework for transformation. As a foundational species with numerous market applications, kelps can provide social-ecological benefits with the economic potential to meet several sustainable development goals. However, social, ecological, and economic objectives may conflict within siloed regulatory processes. Using British Columbia—where the kelp sector is rapidly expanding—as an example, we use regenerative development principles to ground the kelp sector socially and ecologically in place. This involves taking inspiration from Indigenous teachings, systems thinking, and the concept and critiques of planetary boundaries to illustrate a boundary-enclosed spectrum of kelp–human interactions that make up the kelp sector. This spectrum considers limits to growth both environmentally for kelp itself and as defined by human values and regulation, which is important in equitable governance decision-making. Finally, we provide recommendations for future research to progress towards a regenerative, blue kelp economy. Overall, this work provides an alternative cognitive framework to inspire integrated, regenerative management and governance for the kelp sector in BC and comparable social-ecological systems.