Our planet is facing a triple global challenge of biodiversity loss, climate change and equitable development. Around a million animal and plant species are now threatened with extinction – more than ever before in human history. And the climate emergency is exposing millions of people to extreme heat waves, threatening food and water supplies, and could leave a billion people affected by sea-level rise within decades, among several other impacts.   At the same time, half of the world’s GDP depends on the efficient and sustainable use of natural assets and its services in sectors such as agriculture, fisheries, forestry and tourism.

Nature-based solutions are an opportunity to address these problems and ensure a nature positive future by providing essential services such as carbon storage, ensuring food and water supplies and buffering against the impacts of a warming world. 

Do nature-based solutions help fight climate change?
Estimates suggest that nature-based solutions can provide 37% of the mitigation needed until 2030 to achieve the targets of the Paris Agreement. How can this be done? If you plant trees, they’re going to soak up carbon. For example, restoring native forest at the margins of the river to avoid landslides can also act as a carbon sink. Climate-smart agriculture is another example that enables farmers to retain more carbon in their fields as they produce crops. Decreasing deforestation is another way to benefit from nature-based solutions – for example, by paying farmers not to cut down the forest preserves ecosystem services such as carbon sequestration, provision of clean drinking water, and reduction of river sedimentation downstream.
Nature-based solutions also play a key role in climate change adaptation and building resilience in landscapes and communities. They are a cost-effective way of addressing climate change while also addressing biodiversity and land degradation. You can address several problems at once.

Indigenous people and local communities have used nature-based solutions for milenia. It is crucial that all solutions are people-centered, led by communities and draw from traditional and local knowledge. Nature-based solutions must be inclusive, transparent, developed with respect to land rights and respect to local people’s views and the benefits should be equally distributed.

Estimates suggest that nature-based solutions can provide 37% of the mitigation needed until 2030 to achieve the targets of the Paris Agreement.

Challenges nature-based solutions can help solve

• Climate change adaptation & disaster risk reduction: Helping people and nature adapt to a warming world by preventing new and reducing existing climate hazards and strengthening resilience to future risks.
• Human health: Benefiting mental and physical wellbeing and reducing the transfer of diseases caused by the destruction of habitats or the consumption and commercialization of wildlife.
• Food security: Ensuring people have access to sufficient, safe and nutritious food that meets their dietary needs and food preferences for an active and healthy life.
• Water security: Providing sustainable access to adequate, quality water to sustain livelihoods, human well-being, development, protect against disasters and preserve ecosystems.
• Climate change mitigation: Nature plays an important role in the global climate system. When operating optimally, nature-based solutions can reduce the need to use untested methods to capture and store carbon. 

What are Blue Forests?
Blue forests are a common name for vegetation in the ocean and tidal zones such as kelp and rockweed, seagrass, saltmarshes, and mangroves. These different “forests” have significant value because of the vital role they have within marine environments.

Why are they important?
Many marine species are dependent upon blue forests. These coastal vegetation ecosystems provide key nursery habitats, feeding grounds and refuge spaces for juvenile marine species and fish, as well as larger species who rely on blue forests for feeding.

Nutrients that contribute to turbidity, or the clouding of the ocean water, are absorbed by blue forests which increases water quality and fosters below-water photosynthesis processes for other marine plant species. Blue forests also bind sediments, preventing coastal erosion along coastlines, and protect from storm surges – both vital for coastal and small island communities that are frequently impacted by severe weather events.

Blue forests are also important for carbon dioxide (CO2) uptake and carbon storage – a process which is called “blue carbon”. The total biomass of blue forests take up less than 0.5% of the world’s ocean surface, yet it is estimated that they account for 70% of carbon storage in the ocean.

In this context, blue forests can play an important role in reducing the impacts of climate change. Conservation, restoration and the sustainable management of coastal areas are essential for reducing the global climate footprint and maintaining biological diversity.

What Ecosystem services do Blue Forest provide?
The ecosystem services provided by blue forests can be categorised as supporting (i.e., nutrient cycling and maintaining ecosystem functions),  provisioning (i.e., providing food and resources), regulating (i.e., purifying water, storing carbon, and protecting coastlines), and cultural (i.e., aesthetics, recreation, and education). Thus, blue forests have economic value through tourism and other applications such as edible products for humans and animals, medicines, and thickening agents for cosmetics and foods.

The world from a blue forest perspective
Blue forests are an important nature-based solution to the climate and environmental crisis. They provide a range of essential ecosystem services, including carbon sequestration, biodiversity preservation, habitats and food for fish, and coastal protection.

Sustainably cultivated and harvested kelp can be used to reduce the climate and environmental footprint of our food, fertiliser and fuel.


The Big Five of Blue Forests

Rockweed
Rockweed is a macroalgae, and all rockweed species belong within the brown algae group (just as kelp do).  Some of he most important rockweed species are spiral wrack (Fucus spiralis), serrated wrack (Fucus serratus), knotted wrack (Ascophyllum nodosum), bladderwrack (Fucus vesiculosus), channelled wrack (Pelvetia canaliculat) and of course, the Japanese species like Japanese wireweed (Sargassum muticum).

Historically, rockweed and kelp have been harvested and utilised in many ways. Algae are exceptionally nutritious, as they contain high amounts of iodine, calcium, and several essential vitamins. Algae also contain high amounts of protein, carbohydrates, and antioxidants. Because of their nutritional value, algae have traditionally been used as fertiliser for farming and agriculture in Norway. Macroalgae can also be harvested for feed production within the aquaculture industry.

Rockweed and kelp were traditionally also burned to make glass and produce iodine. More recently, a useful substance called alginate is often extracted from macroalgae, where it is used in the food and pharmaceutical industries. In addition, macroalgae are harvested for feed production for the aquaculture industry.

Seagrass
Seagrass is a terrestrial plant that migrated into the ocean 145 million years ago, and it is one of the few marine plants that flowers and has roots. Seagrass flowers under water and it is pollinated by other plants via ocean current. There is also evidence that small shrimp pollinate seagrasses much like how bees pollinate terrestrial plants. Seagrass propagates through rhizomes, where several plants are often connected by the same root system. This root system keeps the soft seabed stable, and protects coastlines against erosion in many places.

Seagrass absorbs carbon dioxide (CO2) from ocean water to form new plant tissue and produce large amounts of biomass in sealgrass beds. Some of the biomass is eaten by marine animals while the rest becomes mixed into sediments on the ocean floor. Seagrass beds can capture and store carbon in sediments 40% faster than terrestrial tropical forests

The carbon dioxide absorbed by seagrass also contributes to the maintaining of a stable pH in ocean waters. Too high a concentration of CO2 in the ocean results in ocean acidification, which affects marine organisms like crustaceans, mussels, and corals by the pH dissolving lime (calcium oxide) – an important element for shells and exoskeletons.

Seagrass is also the perfect nursery and refuge area for juvenile fish and shellfish that require safe and stable surroundings. Seagrass provides ideal habitats for eels as well and its are also a food source for swans in particular, who dive down to feed on the nutritious grass and then fertilise it through their droppings.

Salt marshes
Salt marshes are coastal wetlands that are flooded and drained by tidal water, and they are one of the most productive environments on Earth. Salt marshes do not host a wide diversity of plant species due to the high salinity of the ecosystem, but the species who do live in salt marshes are rare and well-adapted to these conditions. Salt-tolerant grasses and low shrubs are among some of the species found in salt marshes.

Over thousands of years, these salt-tolerant plants have built up layers of organic material forming peat – the same process that occurs in other marshlands. Peat contains large quantities of carbon and provides nourishment to the plants living above the peat layer.

Marshlands consists of several plant species that provide important habitats for both aquatic and terrestrial organisms, who use this ecosystem as a refuge from predators or as a breeding and spawning area. The abundance of food and their safe surroundings also make saltmarshes an ideal place for countless bird species.

Salt marshes dissipate wave energy by reducing the height of waves by almost 20%. The ecosystem can therefore reduce the effects of both floods and erosion along coasts. Marshes can also remove excess nutrients, microbes and pollutants by filtering water from rivers and other water sources. This protects nearby estuaries and coastal waters from the harmful effects of various environmental toxins.

Internationally, marshland is often used for agriculture. The nutrient-rich soil, or peat, is drained then the land is repurposed for anthropogenic purposes, particularly coastal development. The peat in saltmarshes has also historically been used as fuel in many countries.

Salt marshes and wetlands are protected in several countries due to their great value to the ecosystem and humans. In addition, the large amounts of carbon in the peat have meant that several countries are protecting wetland areas as measures against and adaptation to climate change. The protection of such areas therefore benefits both humans and nature.

Mangroves
Mangroves are shrubs and trees that grow in coastal waters. Mangroves are halophytes, meaning they are salt-tolerant trees that thrive in intertidal conditions. These diverse and productive ecosystems provide essential habitats for species, coastal protection from storms, and livelihood opportunities for coastal communities.

There are approximately 70 species of mangroves world-wide, of which there are six primary species: red mangroves (Rhizophora mangle), black mangroves (Avicennia germinans), white mangroves (Laguncularia racemosa), palm mangroves (Nypa fruticans), and mangrove apple (Sonneratia caseolaris).

Mangrove forests are only found in tropical and subtropical coastal zones around the world, as they do not tolerate freezing temperatures. However, mangroves have adapted to grow in a range of different coastal ecosystems. For example, red mangroves are predominantly found bordering coastlines where they face more direct impact from wave intensity and storm surge, necessitating more substantial submerged roots to keep them in place and more aerial roots to provide the trees with oxygen through thick mud. Black mangroves are also coastal, though often located higher up along the coastline, while white mangroves can sit at even higher coastal elevations and do not generally have any visible aerial roots.

Mangroves are the most productive carbon-storing blue forests ecosystem. They store carbon through above-ground tree biomass and below-ground roots and soil. Coastal nations around the world are increasingly incorporating mangrove carbon – and blue carbon more generally – into climate mitigation goals through Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs) under the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC).

Because their carbon stocks can be reliably measured and monitored, mangrove forests are also ideal for blue carbon offsetting initiatives.  Additionally, mangroves provide nursery habitats, areas of refuge, and feeding grounds for many juvenile tropical fish species, shellfish, crustaceans and invertebrates. Terrestrial species benefit from mangrove ecosystems as well, with migratory birds, mammals and reptiles reliant on mangrove forests for breeding sites and feeding grounds.

Due to their complex root system, mangroves also absorb wave energy and stay in place through the rise and fall of daily tides. In this way, mangroves play a crucial role in protecting shorelines from coastal erosion and storm surge. Because they often border freshwater rivers and oceans, mangroves also trap and store sediments and pollutants which helps prevent nitrates and phosphates from flowing into the sea.

Mangrove forests are one of the most threatened habitats around the world, with global mangrove populations declining by 1% annually – approximately 150,000 hectares per year. Mangroves are predominately threatened by anthropogenic activity. Deforestation rates of mangroves can be attributed to large-scale shrimp aquaculture, agriculture (namely palm oil plantations and rice paddies), coastal development, pollution, and the harvest of mangrove wood for fuel and building materials.

When mangrove ecosystems become degraded from deforestation, the carbon once stored in their biomass is released back into the atmosphere, thus negating the carbon-storing benefits they naturally possess.

Kelp
Kelp are large, brown algae seaweeds that are found in the shallow outer region of coastal zones. Kelp can grow up to four meters high. Kelp do not reproduce by seeds and pollination like terrestrial plants do, but instead they contain microscopic spores. These spores are released, then they attach to the seabed and grow into male and female plants. When the male plant has fertilised the female plant, new spores are released. Other species of kelp can multiply by parts of the blade breaking off and attaching to the seabed to grow a new individual.

Kelp grow similarly to trees in a forest by creating 3-dimensional structures underwater that provide unique habitats, refuges, and nurseries for diverse groups of marine organisms.

Kelp forests grow in shallow, rocky habitats in most temperate coastal areas in northern latitudes of the world. They cover 25% of the world’s coastline and much of the Norwegian coast. Norwegian kelp forests in particular make up a large part of the total areas of blue forests in Europe.

Unlike plants, macroalgae do not have roots. Instead, they have holdfasts that are used to attach to rocks and other hard substrate. Kelp do not grow further than where the sun’s rays reach because they photosynthesise. Therefore, kelp thrive best when growing from 1 to 25 meters deep, which is slightly deeper than rockweed. In terms of wave energy, some species like tangle kelp can tolerate stronger waves, whereas sugar kelp prefer calmer waters.

Kelp forests form the basis of life for many marine species. Smaller algae often grow on kelp stalks and their underbrush, especially red algae. In addition to the algae, small crustaceans and molluscs thrive particularly well, as do fish who seek refuge within this blue forest. Molluscs, crustaceans and small fish also serve as food sources for larger animals such as seabirds, marine mammals, and larger fish. Thus, many species are drawn to this unique and diverse ecosystem.

Kelp forests form the basis of life for many marine species. Smaller algae often grow on kelp stalks and their underbrush, especially red algae. In addition to the algae, small crustaceans and molluscs thrive particularly well, as do fish who seek refuge within this blue forest. Molluscs, crustaceans and small fish also serve as food sources for larger animals such as seabirds, marine mammals, and larger fish. Thus, many species are drawn to this unique and diverse ecosystem.

Though kelp do not have roots, they still can capture carbon. Living kelp are considered short-term carbon sinks through the biomass they produce. This biomass is either eaten by other animals, or it breaks off to form detritus, which often drifts far from its original location before settling onto the seabed. Unlike living kelp, kelp detritus sequesters carbon for centuries once it becomes buried in seafloor sediment.

When harvested, kelp also provide other commodifiable provisioning services. Kelp can be transformed into thickening agents, cosmetics, medical dressings and supplements, plastic alternatives, edible products, and animal feed.

What is needed today:

Integrated management. Blue forests are affected by a number of risk factors, including nutrient run-off from land, coastal development, fisheries, aquaculture, and climate change. If we are going to better protect and restore these ecosystems, we must think and plan holistically.

Protection is preferable to restoration. We should protect the blue forest that we have, put in place the conditions necessary for lost blue forests to return on their own, and – if necessary – actively restore habitats.

Balance in the ecosystem. Many kelp forests in central and northern Norway have been replaced by the underwater deserts. Research points to overfishing in the 1970s as the cause. Without top predators, kelp-eating sea urchins have taken over. To hasten the return of kelp forests, the balance in these ecosystems must be restored. One solution is to harvest the empty sea urchins, fatten them up, and sell them as luxury seafood.

International cooperation. For example, Norway already supports blue forest projects through development, including mangrove forests in Indonesia as well as with knowledge exchange.

Cost-effective mapping and monitoring methods

Education and Awareness

The Magic of Blue Carbon!

Blue carbon is simply, the term for carbon captured by the world’s ocean and coastal ecosystems.

Human activities emit carbon dioxide, which contains atmospheric carbon, changing the world’s climate, and not in a good way!. What you may not have heard is that our ocean and coasts provide a natural way of reducing the impact of greenhouse gases on our atmosphere, through sequestration (or taking in) of this carbon.

Sea grasses, mangroves, and salt marshes along our coast “capture and hold” carbon, acting as something called a carbon sink. These coastal systems, though much smaller in size than the planet’s forests, sequester this carbon at a much faster rate, and can continue to do so for millions of years. Most of the carbon taken up by these ecosystems is stored below ground where we can’t see it, but it is still there. The carbon found in coastal soil is often thousands of years old.

The bigger picture of blue carbon is one of coastal habitat conservation. When these systems are damaged, an enormous amount of carbon is emitted back into the atmosphere, where it can then contribute to climate change. So protecting and restoring coastal habitats is a good way to reduce climate change. When we protect the carbon in coastal systems, we protect healthy coastal environments that provide many other benefits to people, such as recreational opportunities, storm protection, and nursery habitat for commercial and recreational fisheries.

Carbon Storage:  More Bang for your Buck

Global Distribution of Blue Carbon Ecosystems

Coastal blue carbon ecosystems are found along the coasts of every continent except Antarctica. Mangroves grow in the intertidal zone of tropical and subtropical shores.  Countries with the highest areas of mangroves include Indonesia, Australia, Mexico, Brazil, Nigeria, Malaysia, Myanmar, Papua New Guinea, Cuba, India, Bangladesh, and Mozambique.

Twenty-five Tipping points pushing our oceans
past the point of no return

Entire ocean systems are perilously close to irreversible tipping points

Our oceans are an interconnected set of complex and dynamic systems. Rapid economic growth over the past 50 years has increased humanity’s ecological footprint by several orders of magnitude, crossing several boundaries that represent stable conditions for modern civilisation.

Around the globe, various chemical, physical and biological systems are changing on a planetary scale. Pressures such as fishing, large-scale coastal developments, pollution and climate change are increasing at an exponential rate, causing entire ocean systems to come perilously close to irreversible tipping points. This will have profound implications for the water we drink, the food we eat and stable global weather patterns.

Here are 25 tipping points in the oceans that are concerning scientists today:

Less oxygen

Globally, our oceans are losing oxygen, with low-oxygen areas rapidly expanding in deep waters, impacting ocean animals. Low oxygen areas have expanded by 1.7 million square miles over the past 50 years, decreasing the amount of oxygen in our oceans by 2% globally due to global warming. Each degree of ocean warming reduces the concentration of oxygen in the ocean by the same amount by drawing out the oxygen. By the end of the century there could be a 3-6% decline in ocean oxygen. This decrease in oxygen has had dramatic impacts on ocean animals, killing some and impacting how others live, especially those in deep water where oxygen levels are naturally low.

More acidic

Oceans have become 30% more acidic over the past 50 years. When carbon dioxide (CO2) dissolves in seawater, carbonic acid is produced and the acidity of the oceans increases. Acidic seawater is already dissolving the calcium carbonate shells of planktonic species in the Southern Ocean. Unabated, increasing acidification could cause whole ecosystems to collapse from disrupted food chains.

Less plankton

Planktonic plants support the marine food web, generate half of the world’s oxygen and also slow climate change by absorbing CO2 from the air, but their populations have declined by 40% since 1950. Scientists believe warming surface temperatures are to blame for their decline by changing their metabolism in ways that reduce productivity.

Disrupted thermohaline circulation

A network of currents flow around the world’s oceans, each of them driven by differences in water density (thermohaline circulation, or THC). Of these, the best known is the North Atlantic Gulf Stream. The Gulf Stream’s flow has slowed 30% over the past 30 years as a result of rising temperatures. Disruption in the global THC could have dramatic and unpredictable impacts on weather, climate, agriculture and civilisation.

More extinctions and extirpations

Fifteen marine animals are now extinct due to humans – and more are at risk. Populations that show signs of collapse include tuna, sharks, large rays, sea turtles, marine mammals, deep sea fish, Antarctic krill, seabirds and others. Some species are iconic and have special cultural and even spiritual significance for people; the great success of efforts to ‘save the whales’ gives hope that similar efforts could restore many such species to their former abundance and importance, while sound policy and science could help restore the solely commercial species.

Melting glaciers and ice sheets (Greenland)

Global warming has doubled melting rates in Greenland since the 1990s. Meltwater from Greenland – which contains the second-largest body of ice, after Antarctica – accounts for one-third of all sea-level rises. If all the 660,000-cubic miles of glacial ice on Greenland melted, the global sea level would rise by over 20 feet. Freshwater from the Greenland glacial melt could also disrupt thermohaline circulation, including the Gulf Stream.

Melting glaciers and ice sheets (West Antarctica)

The Antarctic icecap, which is up to 9,000 feet thick, contains 70% of the world’s surface freshwater and more than 90% of the world’s freshwater ice. The 530,000-cubic mile West Antarctic Ice Sheet (WAIS), is particularly vulnerable to melting because much of it lies below sea level. Loss of the WAIS would raise the global sea level by more than 15 feet, with catastrophic social and economic effects.

Arctic melting (sea ice)

Arctic sea ice has decreased by 13% each decade. The region is expected to be ice-free in summer by 2025 for the first time in 100,000 years. A decrease in sea ice will dramatically disrupt marine ecosystems, especially ice-dependent wildlife such as polar bears and seals, and some fisheries.

Future sea level rises could have catastrophic social and economic consequences

More intense storms

The oceans’ heat powers weather systems and storm formation. Warming oceans may have increased the power and duration of hurricanes, typhoons, and destructive storms generated over the tropics by 50% since the 1970s. Changing ocean surface temperatures are also causing more erratic weather patterns all over the planet with widespread effects on human health, agriculture and economic activities.

Overfishing

About 30% of the world’s fisheries are overexploited or depleted. Harmful fishery methods also destroy habitats and harm fish populations. The populations of some species, such as bluefin tuna, which can live to 20-50 years, have collapsed by over 90% in the past 40 years and will take decades to fully recover. A significant part of the problem is unreported and unregulated fishing practices account for more than 11 million tons of fish catch each year.

Poleward migration of fish

Fish populations are moving toward cooler waters as sea temperatures rise. Given current forecasts for temperature rises, populations are estimated to shift about 10 miles further poleward every decade. Species that are unable to adapt or move will decline or disappear. Fish movements may have economic impacts on human communities that have traditionally depended on them.

Coral reef extinction

By 2050, 90% of all tropical reefs will be threatened with extinction from heating, overfishing, and coastal development. Coral reefs may survive in special places, such as locations cooled by upwelling or currents, but they will suffer heavy losses in most tropical regions, as will the human communities dependent on them. In addition, increased ocean acidity (see above) may increasingly inhibit calcium carbonate formation that form coral.

Submerged nations

By the end of this century, global sea levels will likely have risen by 1-3 metres. Island nations with an average elevation of around 3 metres – such as Kiribati, the Maldives, the Marshall Islands, Tuvalu, and the New Zealand territory of Tokelau – will be uninhabitable due to submergence or over-wash from storms, unless radical adaptation strategies are employed. Globally, over one billion people will be displaced from low-lying coastal regions.

Black Sea ecosystem collapse

Overfishing in the 1970s followed by pollution and the arrival of an epidemic invasive species in the 1980s caused the Black Sea ecosystem to collapse. More than 80 million people in six nations live around the Black Sea, a 436,400 square kilometre (km2) body of water separating eastern Europe and western Asia. Since the 1990s, pollution control and other management measures have had positive results.

Baltic Sea ecosystem collapse

The Baltic Sea, the world’s largest brackish-water system, shares many similarities with the Black Sea and offers many of the same lessons. Nutrient pollution, cod fishing, the impacts of shipping, hazardous industrial pollution and the dangers posed by World War II munitions all plague the Baltic ecosystem.

Seabed mining

Rare earth elements (nickel, cobalt, manganese and others) are in high demand by industry. They are also abundant and of higher ore quality on the seafloor than on the land. Extraction is challenging where mine sites are thousands of feet underwater and the environmental regime is still being developed. Already an area the size of Mexico has been licensed for seabed exploration including the Clarian Clipperton Fracture zone in the Pacific Ocean and around dormant hydrothermal vents.

Expansion of ocean dead zones

Ocean dead zones have doubled in frequency every decade since the 1960s. Their main cause is land-based pollution, including runoff from agriculture, animal feedlots and human sewage, that stimulate planktonic plants in huge population blooms that eventually die, decompose and use up all the water’s dissolved oxygen, creating a dead zone. Global warming will likely worsen dead zones around the world.

More invasive species

Species that are introduced into areas in which they are not native and which become ecologically established are invasive and can have negative ecological, economic or health consequences. Ships are a major vector for invasive marine species, primarily by ships taking on ballast water in one location and dumping it elsewhere. Species may also hitchhike on ships’ hulls, floating debris or litter. The recent growth of non-native and venomous lionfish in the Atlantic is one of the most well-known examples.

Arabian Gulf salinity

The 240,000 km2 Arabian Gulf lies at the northernmost end of the Arabian Sea, surrounded by Iran, Iraq, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, Qatar and the United Arab Emirates. Desalinisation plants in these arid countries supply more than 5 million cubic metres of drinking water per day to the region’s 43 million citizens. Brine discharge from desalination could affect all marine life in the region.

More El Niño events

The number of El Niño events has risen each decade and is set to double in frequency as a result of global warming. El Niño begins as sunlight and ambient air temperature heats surface water in the western Pacific Ocean around Indonesia by 3-5 degrees Celsius above average. This warm pulse of water eventually moves east to the coast of South America where it disrupts upwelling that affects fisheries, seabird populations, and weather patterns on a global scale.

Sound pollution

Shipping has increased four-fold in the past 20 years, with a corresponding increase in underwater noise. Intense sound is also produced during seismic surveys for oil and by military low-frequency sonar. Sound generated by seismic surveys in the Arctic is increasing as melting sea ice allows access for oil exploration. Without effective ‘quiet ocean’ initiatives, human-source noise will increase steadily throughout the ocean, affecting many large marine animals such as whales and dolphins.

Plastics pollution

There are over 5 trillion pieces of plastic trash in the oceans, a figure that is increasing at a rate of 8 million tons per year. The 20-fold increase over the past 50 years is expected to double in the next 20 years. Plastic slowly degrade to micro-plastic, which is ingested by ocean animals – some of which we eat. A recent study estimates there will be more pieces of plastic than fish in the ocean by 2050.

The collapse of coastal mangrove forests

Coastal development has destroyed over 60% of the world’s mangroves. Each year we lose a further 1%. At this rate, all unprotected mangroves could be lost within the next 100 years. Since mangroves slow global warming by trapping carbon dioxide, provide nursery areas for ocean wildlife, and protect coastlines from erosion and flooding, their loss would have diverse negative implications.

Harmful algal blooms

Harmful algal blooms (HABs) have increased in frequency, severity and geographic distribution due to global warming. HABs produce dangerous toxins that kill marine organisms, taint shellfish, cause skin and lung irritations, and contaminate air. In 2016, HABs killed 20% of Chile’s farmed salmon, causing the world’s second-largest exporter of salmon to lose more than $1 billion.

Methane gas release

Intermediate-depth warming of ocean water could be enhancing methane release from ocean sediments around the world. One study in the Pacific Northwest shows that the warming ocean in that area is already causing the transformation of methane hydrates to gas in amounts that over the course of a year equal the methane released from the 2010 Deepwater Horizon blowout in the Gulf of Mexico. Methane is 30 times more potent as a warming greenhouse gas than CO2, and is also being explored as a possible source of offshore fuel.

Our Indigo Life Ocean Advocate, ten-year old, Mateo, lives in Miami and attends Sunset Elementary Public School.  He recently appeared at the Miami-Dade School Board Session to ask for urgent and deep changes in the way schools handle plastics. He advocated for the elimination of plastic utensils and plastic cups in the cafeteria and also asked for educational sessions for all grades and schools to show other kids the damage and consequences of plastic pollution while sharing ways to fight it. 

Mateo is an avid sailor and has seen the damage first-hand.  He is determined to start changing habits in his school and his community.  He also plays soccer and has been talking to soccer clubs about plastic pollution and ways of changing plastic use in clubs, training sessions and tournaments. 

Listen to Mateo Addressing 
The Miami Dade County School Board

Mateo is an Indigo Life Guardian of the Sea and a future changemaker! 

Sunset Elementary is already implementing changes in the cafeteria and around school.

Miami-Dade County has the largest public school district in the United States .