We are Reforesting the Ocean - here's how

these are cal forests the cradle of the ocean and an essential element of our coastal ecosystems and for us they form a crucial part of our ambitions for marine rewilding [Music] i wanted to start this video by showing you what it's like to free dive through a beautiful amazing and wild kelp forest however in my in my search for such a beautiful kelp forest all i found was scattered individuals and that is because these forests have become quite rare so this is why for the last two years we have been cooperating with sea forester on a project that aims to bring back these lost kelp forests and now we are finally ready to commit to something concrete which is why we've put together 26 500 euros to build our very own little kelp factory so now at this point you might be wondering dart why do we need more seaweeds they you know they stink up the beach they get in your hair they're super annoying to swim with well in this video i'm gonna try to explain to you why we think they're really important and why we think they are worth having and i'll also run you through our kelp restoration trial the results from the trial as well as this new project that we are really excited about kelp forests are what we call ecosystem engineers because they create habitat for a variety of other species they provide food nursery areas and also shelter during storms from a human perspective they are a carbon sink they improve water quality attract recreational diving tourism and help stabilize local fisheries they are found on rocky cold water marine coastlines on all major continents except antarctica however in many places they are disappearing due to a variety of threats such as the case of sea urchins in california focusing on europe and in our project area in portugal the causes for the decline of the kelp are not fully known but we do know it's disappearing some of the main issues are herbivory which happens when the mix of species changes due to a lack of predators or another disturbance to the coastal ecosystem which leads to more kelp being eaten the growth of turf algae which blocked the young kelp from settling on the rocks damage to seaweed canopies through fishing changing water temperatures due to climate change and pollution from rivers and coastal runoff which blocks the sunlight needed for photosynthesis i will touch on how we will get around these issues later in the video because first i want to take a look at our restoration trial thiago is the most earth biologist who in addition to other projects manages marine rewilding and kelp forests we've been running this project together with jan and inish two marine biologists from sea forester which is an organization dedicated to bringing back wild kelp forests the goal of this trial was to understand whether the sporeback technique worked and whether it worked in a specific location in kashkais which is an urban area when it comes to results well it didn't work the areas where we deployed the spore bags did not develop any kill there might still be a bit of hope for spring but the chances are slim we believe the main reason for the failure of this technique was the turf algae which made it difficult for the kelp spores to attach themselves to the rock and start growing it seems to have done so even though we scraped it off at the start of the trial so remember this is a trial for one technique it failed but that is the point of doing trials you learn and you iterate and that is what we are doing now and this is where green gravel comes in the scalp restoration technique originated from a group of researchers in norway essentially it aims to adapt seaweed cultivation techniques and use them in kelp restoration allowing this work to be done at scale it is also a great solution to reseed turfed reefs by circumventing the lack of available rock surface by deploying the kelp with their own small rock the goal is for the kelp to then spread and attach itself to the reef thus reseeding the forest the process is relatively simple grow the kelp on pieces of gravel in a lab and then launch them at the desired site you don't even need the diver to deploy it so then the next question was does this work in portugal this is where our second group of partners in this project comes in juan and alvaro from the institute politecnical area or ipl for short and the labs at ipl are unlike anything i've seen they do all kinds of super interesting research on marine ecosystems while our sportback test was happening sea forester set up a green gravel trial in paniche they grew some green gravel deployed it and it worked check out all these beautiful kelps growing on the gravel and then how much they grew in just a few months this is a game changer for us so now it's time for a bigger experiment one way that you can think about this project is as if we were just learning to plant trees on land in recent times this latest experiment has managed to plant hundreds of trees and now we're looking at the next experiment which is to plant thousands of trees not yet millions millions will be in the future hopefully but thousands and that's the stage that we're looking to get with this project again i have to remind you this is still a test it is a tested scale but it remains experimental so here's how this process works the seed stock is grown and kept in a phytochamber and at the start of each batch this stock is spread on the gravel from then on essentially the modules run almost on their own in a closed system the water starts from this container then it passes through a chiller so it is at the correct temperature then it goes through a uv filter and into the various trays this is where the kelp is growing on the gravel under the led lights the water then runs through collection pipes through this filter and back into the initial container to get the money for this project we put together a mixed fund with money coming in from our most earth members as well as our wonderful partners at not just travel get set hire unifrog and the world surf league we are building five green gravel modules that will have the capacity for 86 trays with about 200 to 400 rocks in each one we should be able to produce three to four batches per year and to keep up with the running costs of our little factory both mossy earth and seaforester will be gathering funds to use for this purpose on our side we'll be using the regular contribution from our members and also from other partners that might want to help restore kelp forests so if you're not yet a member be sure to check out mossy dot earth to learn more i got alvaro to show me how the kelp is growing on the gravel under a microscope and it is really fascinating to look at this is their initial stage and here you can see a tiny kelp and then here how much it has grown in just 15 days so they're growing really fast at this stage eventually these will be proper kelps ready to be deployed to the ocean and start our big experiment the next step now is to finish building the final modules with a first batch hopefully going out in june or july what really excites me about this project is how pioneering it is marine rewilding is still in its infancy there have been many great experiments and tests done but very few places are doing it at scale it is a bit of an unknown world yet it's one of the biggest ecosystems out there it's huge and it has a huge impact on our lives in our livelihood and it is also home to a huge amount of biodiversity so i think getting started with with projects in the ocean and specifically these kelp forests that are such an important part of the marine ecosystem is really really exciting and finally i would like to say a really big thank you to everyone who has contributed to these projects and if you're not yet a member but you find this project exciting and worth supporting then maybe consider heading over to mossy dot earth where you can read more about our work and also become a member until next time cheers

Channel: Mossy Earth

Views: 402,951

Keywords: rewilding, create kelp farm, rewilding europe, kelp restoration, kelp restoration project, kelp forest, kelp forest ecosystem, marine rewilding, rewilding european landscapes, kelp forest europe, restoring kelp forests, bringing back kelp forests, sea forests, sea trees, seaforestation, kelp forest restoration project, sea reforestation, rewilding the ocean, Mossy Earth, Kelp rewilding, mossy earth review, Mossy Earth rewilding

Id: pzmc8ztD4e8

Length: 8min 24sec (504 seconds)

Published: Sun May 08 2022