GreenWave: Creating restorative ocean farms

Spreading an open-source model for aquaculture to regenerate ecosystems and revitalize economies.

The Problem

Industrial-scale fishing has resulted in massive overfishing and the destruction of marine habitats, and is ultimately unsustainable. But entire communities depend upon fishing for their livelihood, creating an apparent zero-sum contest in which ecological and economic imperatives clash.

The Solution

GreenWave seeks to address overfishing, mitigate climate change, restore marine ecosystems and provide jobs for fishermen. They have created an open source model for ocean farming that anyone is free to replicate. The system grows only restorative crops, such as seaweed and shellfish, to produce food, fertilizer, animal feed, cosmetics and biofuel. Each species is carefully selected to address a certain environmental challenge, such as fixing excess nitrogen, in the case of oysters, or seaweed that soaks up carbon dioxide. Requiring zero input, such as fertilizer, these farms are designed to have a negative carbon footprint. GreenWave is also working to train a new generation of farmers whose production model will have a restorative environmental impact.

Stage of Development

  • Early Stage
  • Established Prototype
  • Scaling
  • Other

Organization to Receive Funds

Greenwave.

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