Global Warming and the Oceans  

The world’s oceans have absorbed 93% of the heat from global warming and according to the US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), global sea surface temperatures have already risen by more than 1.0°C in the last century. These higher temperatures curtail overturning circulation, reducing nutrients essential to primary productivity and decimating many key ocean ecosystems, such as coral reefs. A recent paper has documented that ocean stratification has increased as much as 5-20% since 1960 (see Figure 1) (Li et al., 2020). The ocean has been our greatest buffer to growing atmospheric CO2 concentrations, and we have only recently started to understand the extent to which many ocean ecosystems, such as kelp forests, act as significant ‘Blue Carbon sinks.
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​Figure 1: Graphic from Li et al (2020) showing increasing ocean stratification over the past half century.

Many tropical coastal communities are living on the front lines of climate disruption. Ocean livelihoods, such as artisanal fishing and seaweed farming, are extremely vulnerable to climate change, where warming water temperatures are reducing marine productivity. Global fish biomass has decreased 50% since 1970 due to global warming and overfishing, just as global food demand is set to double and agricultural productivity is being undermined by climate change.

Marine Permaculture® Approaches
Marine Permaculture (MP) may be our best chance to restore life in the oceans and mitigate climate change, while offering food and economic security to billions of people reliant on the ocean for their livelihoods and nutrition.

Marine Permaculture is a form of mariculture that reflects the principles of permaculture by regenerating seaweed forest habitat and other ecosystems in nearshore and offshore environments. Using deepwater irrigation, essential nutrients are accessed from depth in order to enable replete seaweed growth in conditions where seaweeds would ordinarily struggle to grow. Doing so enables a large-scale, sustainable and continuous harvest of seaweeds, while regenerating life in the ocean.

 Marine Permaculture platforms are based on semi-submerged, flexible structures located in the open ocean that provide substrate upon which living seaweed is affixed. The main material used in the platforms have been proven as seaworthy at the Natural Energy Lab, Hawaii Authority (NELHA) and other locations for nearly half a century. With a lightweight, flexible design, Marine Permaculture platforms can be deployed near the coast or further offshore. They can sustainably grow a wide variety of seaweed species, which can be harvested to generate ecologically responsible products such as fish, food, cattle and other livestock feed and fertilizer. We are able to grow multiple species of seaweed on the same line, which we have observed boosts growth.  We have experimented with various approaches to provide deepwater irrigation, including restoring natural upwelling by pumping cool, nutrient rich water to the surface and depth cycling which raises and lowers platforms diurnally in order to give seaweeds access to nutrients at night and sunlight during the day. Results from our trials using both approaches enable replete seaweed growth in offshore conditions where seaweeds would ordinarily fail to grow. Doing so can rescue production in the face of warming temperatures, increase productivity and extend the growing season thereby enhancing yields and even enable cultivation in offshore, nutrient deprived, conditions. Both approaches and architectures may be deployed depending on contextual needs. Our technology operates in conditions that are found in over half of the world’s subtropical and tropical oceans. We are also working on a community-based Marine Permaculture architecture that uses mostly local materials that can be implemented and scaled by seaweed growing communities.

MP platforms are designed to be modular and will generate income at hectare scale. Such designs enable a distributed scaling model whereby hectare-scale platforms can be built thousands to millions of times across tropical and subtropical waters. Importantly, Marine Permaculture platforms can pay for themselves through seaweed production while drawing down carbon from the mixed layer to the middle and deep ocean, providing scaling opportunities independent of carbon pricing

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Marine Permaculture Could be a key Climate Change Solution
Blog by Mattie Harland, l Editor, Permaculture Magazine

Seaweed Farming Creates a Climate for Coastal Revival
The Times l By Benjamin Cooke   March 22, 2021

Arctic Sea Ice Crisis: World Leaders Must cut Emissions to curb Arctic Heating
By EU Reporter l Correspondent  l November 3, 2020

Doing something about Climate Change is cheaper than doing nothing
By Steve Hanley   l September 25, 2020
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Stopping Climate Change Could Cost Less than Fighting Covid-19
Washington Post l By Sir David King and Rick Parnell l September 8, 2020

​Tasmania’s ‘Super-Kelp’ Is Making CO2 Vanish into the Ocean
Reasons to be Thankful | August 3, 2020
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Can the Forests of the World's Oceans Contribute to Alleviating the Climate Crisis?
ENSIA | June 24, 2020The Journal by Intrepid Travel
Seaweed: The climate change solution nobody expected
By, Kira Day | April 12, 2019
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The Drawdown Agenda
Episode 8: Marine Permaculture with Brian Von Herzen
Podcast
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Climate Offensive​
Episode 113: A Regenerative Future with Matt Powers
 Podcast: Kira Day| October 29, 2018
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Global Aquaculture Alliance
Ocean Permaculture: Air Conditioning for warming seas
By Twilight Greenaway July  24 2017
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Shirtloads of Science
Marine Permaculture (Brian von Herzen) (Episode 29)
Podcast: Dr. Karl  | May 7, 2017
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Journal of Applied Phycology
Consumption of Seaweeds and the Human Brain
By M. Lynn Cornish. lan T. Critchley, and Ole G. Mouritsen | Published January 20, 2017
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​National Geographic:
From Seaweed to Fish Feed, How Aquaculture Meets the Future
By April Fulton | Published October 5, 2016

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Innovation Change:
Announcing the Winners of the Blue Economy Challenge
By Kendra Yoshinaga | Published: September 16, 2016