Seaweed aquaculture and kelp forest restoration are getting a tentative nod as a blue carbon strategy – but the way policymakers structure carbon credits and offsets may make its benefits theoretical instead of bankable.
Ocean 14 Capital Fund, which is over half way to raising €150 million, is looking to make a series of game-changing investments in the aquaculture sector as it seeks to improve global food security while ensuring the long-term health of the oceans.
Artificial reefs made from innovative, low-carbon emission materials have the potential to improve biodiversity around aquaculture sites and may even open up opportunities for multi-trophic aquaculture, according to Max Morgan-Kay of ARC Marine.
Collectively managed ”sea allotments”, which produce mussels for consumption by local communities, are a growing trend in Denmark, as more people bid to produce environmentally sustainable – and delicious – local seafood.
A new project that aims to investigate growing kelp and mussels alongside offshore wind turbines – as well as researching the potential for artificial reefs – has been awarded a NOK 84 million (£7 million) grant.
Jennifer O’Brien, founder of Sea and Believe, explains how childhood kelp baths not only restored her health but also helped to sow the seeds of a algae-based alt-seafood startup.
Peruvian Jenny Soria Nina develops technologies to facilitate the growth of the aquaculture sector. One of her recent successes is a mobile hatchery designed to produce scallops and other aquatic species.
GreenWave’s pilot seaweed subsidies programme can “prime the pump” for meaningful volumes of kelp to be grown in the US, according to Bren Smith, helping to provide livelihoods and ecosystem services in equal measure.
The ocean has enormous – and largely untapped – potential to cycle and sequester excess atmospheric carbon through processes like seaweed cultivation. So how can stakeholders tap into this potential to scale CO₂ removal efforts and deliver climate wins?
