Ocean Forests

Ocean afforestation is one of the greatest opportunities to address climate change while benefiting people and the planet.

At scale, ocean afforestation offers extraordinary potential to sequester carbon dioxide, provide habitat for marine life, reverse acidification and hypoxia, support tourism and fishing jobs, enhance coastal climate resilience and restore depleted fish stocks to the abundance we need to feed the world’s growing population. Our work on this emerging issue targets the ways we can accelerate the deployment of strategies and technologies for afforestation. Our focus is in different ecosystems that are replicable and cost effective in order to support local communities.

Regenerative Ocean Farming

Advancing a new paradigm for ocean farming that contributes to the restoration of an abundant ocean.

This is a way of farming the sea that is restorative to the marine environment and provides livelihoods and ecosystem services. Seaweed farms have the potential to enable millions of profitable businesses while providing raw material commoditization for inputs to plastics, food, fuel and cosmetics. 

Because they require no fresh water, no deforestation and no fertilizer — all significant downsides to land based farming — these ocean farms promise to be more sustainable than even the most environmentally sensitive traditional farms. And they offer a crucial opportunity to rebuild livelihoods for fishers and benefits for the community. We are looking for ways to scale seaweed aquaculture in a way that embraces the full potential of this type of farming for ocean regeneration.

Future of Seafood

Rebuilding our fisheries in a way that ensures healthy seafood remains an option for people around the world.

Three billion people around the world are reliant on seafood as their primary source of protein. Yet overfishing is causing entire fisheries to collapse. There are three times as many fishing boats in operation as the ocean can support. Since declining wild fisheries have not been able to meet growing demand, a global aquaculture market has grown to make up the difference. And seafood fraud has impacted consumers around the world.

We believe that science based policies, engaged citizens and new technologies can transform supply chains for wild caught and aquaculture seafood to eradicate piracy, advance traceability and transparency, rebuild biodiversity in the ocean and provide healthier options and greater trust for consumers.

Coral Reefs

One of the world’s most precious natural treasures is dying. To reverse this, we need to reimagine the solutions.

Even though they occupy less than 0.2% of the seabed, coral reefs are one of the most important biodiversity hotspots in the world. They are home to millions of species and are vital to maintaining a vibrant diversity of ocean life. For the human communities that depend on them, they provide food security, jobs and tourism, mitigate climate change, protect us from storms and prevent erosion, and contribute to the development of life saving treatments. 

Yet as a direct result of human activity and climate change, one quarter of the world’s reefs are damaged beyond repair with another two-thirds under serious threat. Scientists estimate that if nothing changes, we could lose coral reefs in a decade. We are working to advance our ability to regenerate our corals at scale, including advancing the deployment of leading edge technologies such as 3D printing, sensors and others.

Blue Carbon

Building a scalable, nature based approach to sequestering carbon that is restorative to the oceans and the climate.

The climate crisis is an ocean crisis and vice versa. The dramatic increase in carbon dioxide in the atmosphere since the Industrial Revolution has had profound effects on the ocean and its ability to support life. Addressing the climate crisis is fundamental to restore abundance to the ocean, and the ocean offers some of the most effective—and largely overlooked—methods for carbon sequestration and storage. 

The ocean ecosystems that store carbon—mangroves, salt marshes, seagrass, ocean forests and seaweed farms—provide additional essential services including nitrogen and phosphorus absorption, fish nurseries, coastal resilience and blue economy jobs. We use our scientific and markets expertise to scale up blue carbon solutions that are restorative to the oceans.