What is Marine Permaculture?
PROBLEM:
Due to too much CO2 in the atmosphere, the Earth is warming up. Because most of the planet is covered by water, the oceans have absorbed 93% of the heat from global warming. The increasingly warm ocean water is bleaching coral reefs, and killing seaweed. This is a problem as coral reefs are the nursery for the ocean, and seaweed is habitat, food and sequesters gigatons of Co2.
|
|
SOLUTION:
Seaweed is more efficient at absorbing CO2 than the amazon rainforest!
IF you look at the chart below, you can see (on the far left) what percentage of the different ecosystems on Earths surface area. If you look at the middle chart, you will see that algal beds (seaweed) are MORE productive than the tropical rain forest at absorbing Co2. (Plus, they don't burn) So seaweed doesn't take up much room, but absorbs significantly more CO2 than any other ecosystem.
Kelp forests are one of Earth’s most vibrant biomes and dynamic carbon sinks, drawing down more CO2 from the atmosphere by area than land-based rainforests do. They comprise a major tool in the fight against ocean acidification, climate change and biomass loss and hold the potential to help reverse global warming. In addition, kelp forests are the habitat and foundation of the food chain for countless of the fish and crustaceans many of us consume.
OUR FIRST APPROACH: UPWELLING
|
|
 Architecture courtesy of AtMocean
Warming ocean temperatures are presently undermining natural overturning circulation of nutrient-rich cold waters, which is causing kelp forests to be wiped out around the world. Restoring overturning circulation through wave- and solar-powered deep water pumps created conditions conducive to forest growth.
|
|
|
|
Floating, open-ocean kelp ecosystems placed in the oceanic deserts around the world could sequester atmospheric carbon and attract and grow fish, filtering out their waste and recycling nutrients. The kelp could be harvested to be used as biofuel, fertilizer, livestock feed, superfood and countless biomass applications and high-value extract. After high-value extraction at sea in the harvester bio-refinery, the kelp could be sunk to deep anoxic environments, locking 90% of the sequestered carbon away for millennia.
OUR NEXT APPROACH: DEEP CYCLING
What we are now working on is what we call "Deep Cycling" , which is the lowering of seaweed during the night, and raising it during the day. This method has the advantage of guaranteeing that all of the seaweed is exposed to cool nutrient rich water, which is becoming increasingly important as the oceans continue to heat up, the stratification of the ocean becomes more extreme, and the kelp forests continue to die.
|
The large-scale regeneration and open-ocean cultivation of kelp forests will provide food, fuel and fertilizer for the 9 billion humans that are likely to inhabit the planet by 2040, while drawing down carbon dioxide from the atmosphere and leaving the much needed space on land for what agriculture is able to grow.
|
THE OPPORTUNITY
From deforestation to Seaforestation.
|
|
|
Recreated upwelling |
Renewable energy |
Restored circulation |
|
Marine permaculture mimics nature’s delivery of cool, nutrient rich water by creating a way to grow and feed kelp.
|
.Marine permaculture arrays (MPAs) run on nature’s own endogenous energy sources – wave, wind and marine-solar power – making this technology clean, natural and sustainable.
|
Once the MPA has helped the ocean water regain its seaweed, fish and marine creatures reappear.
|
|
From degeneration
|
OUR MISSION
From shutdown
|
|
The Technology
Improving livelihoods
and the seaweed industry
|
In the past, seaweed has been cultivated at a small a scale, too close to the shore, by too few countries. We’re developing the technology that will support the seaweed industry of the future.
Marine Permaculture can produce kelp on a huge scale, far out to sea, well out of the way of shipping and el niños, and where it has plenty of space and sunlight to grow, sustainably and naturally, all year round. So how does it work? |
photo from 2040. ©GoodThing Productions/Regen Pictures
Giant kelp can grow up to 50cm per day, and reach 60m in length, making it the fastest growing plant on the planet. |
|
Kelp forests can fix 3000 tonnes of carbon per square KM - that’s more than tropical rainforests! |
|
OUR JOURNEY
An overnight success
a decade in the making.
|
Between 2009 and 2013, focusing on the need to reverse seaweed decline, we tested our pioneering upwelling technology with the University of Hawaii, and successfully demonstrated the production of algae. Then from 2015 to 2018 we successfully tested nearshore MPAs in the Philippines and Tasmania. Since then we’ve been working on scaling MPA kelp production offshore, identifying how much we can produce per year, sustainably, with the aim of scaling up to 100+hectares.
|
|
|
|
"Macroalgae has the potential to transform the plight of our oceans, helping regenerate life in a sustainable way. We can develop carbon handprints to undo our carbon footprints."
Dr Brian von Herzen
Founder of The Climate Foundation
INVEST IN MARINE PERMACULTURE
This is the dawn of the seaweed revolution
If you’re thinking of somewhere to invest your ecosystem dollars, kelp forests are the most productive ecosystems on the planet. A 1km-size MP Array, at a cost of less than $1M, will achieve commercial payback within 2-4 years. We’re able to offer a franchise model for Marine Permaculture to transform the economies of ocean states the world over. And if a single island can manage 100 MP Arrays, this can in effect turn small island states into big ocean states. We need investors to invest in Marine Permaculture technology, and put in the private equity and lending to enable small countries around the world to help sustain their populations with Marine Permaculture.
graphic by Jonny Africa