We can hardly comprehend the oceans. They cover 70% of the earth’s surface but 80% of their depths have never been explored. Only a fraction of ocean species have been discovered. Oceans provide much of the oxygen we breathe as they cool the planet. But the vastness of the oceans tends to make us think they can take whatever we throw at them, like eight million metric tons of plastic waste. And actually, the oceans are in danger. Industrial and agricultural waste, oil spills, and sewage make the water toxic for sea life; sea level rise from climate change threatens the coasts; a third of fish stock are overfished…. Once this pandemic is over, we need to build back better, pursuing a Blue Recovery that could mean a lot of great new products and opportunities, cool inventions, brilliant discoveries, and healthy oceans.
The ocean economy is different from the Blue Economy. The Blue Economy means sustainable use of the ocean resources: fishing, but not overfishing; beach recreation and tourism minus the 14,000 tons of sunscreen that poison the water; using ships to carry goods back and forth without oil spills or picking up invasive species from one part of the world in ballast water and dumping them on the other side to mess up the ecosystem. Or Seabased’s favorite—getting power from the ocean in a way that can actually help the ocean environment.
So we thought we’d look at just a few of the exciting plans for a Blue Recovery:
Clearing the oceans of plastic
The Great Pacific Garbage Patch is twice the size of Texas or three times the size of France. Though many countries have moratoriums against dumping trash in the ocean, not all are compliant and some allow their ships to dump trash at sea. A nonprofit called the Ocean Cleanup set out to clean up the garbage patch. After a year or so of false starts, they finally brought in their first haul of 60 cubic meters from the garbage patch, from large debris to microplastics, in January 2020. They believe they could have half the garbage patch cleared out in five years. They’ve also created the Interceptor which intercepts garbage at the mouth of rivers and feeds it into a solar-powered marine shuttle that can collect up to 100,000 kg of trash a day. The company plans to park an Interceptor at the mouth of the 1,000 rivers that create 80% of the waste. Once the plastic is cleaned from the ocean, it could be fed to giant maggot-like waxworms that live on the wax in beehives and are able to digest plastic. But it won’t, because it’s actually quite valuable.
Recycling Ocean Waste
“Polyethylene is a high-quality resin that can be up-cycled in many ways and can fetch up to $500 per tonne,” according to biologist Tracy Mincer at the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institute. That cast-off water bottle is actually valuable to someone who can use it to make everything from sunglasses to athleisurewear. You can easily find lists of cool new companies using recycled ocean waste, much of which is plastic. Even very big companies are getting in on the action.
Adidas has a pair of shoes, Coca Cola has a soda bottle, and Patagonia has been making polyester fleeces out of recycled plastic since 1993. Companies like Oceanworks sell the plastic itself, ready to be made into something else. Ocean Waste Plastics forms recycled ocean plastic into packaging.
And it’s not all about plastic trash, either. Bureo makes everything from office chairs to skateboards out of recycled fishing nets.
Sustainable Marine Tourism
Tourism has shrunk considerably during COVID-19, letting many people experience their communities in a whole new way—beaches and streets you can actually move around in, cleaner air, less trash…. In ocean areas, touristic boats can damage corals, touristic skin care products can poison the water, and in many places, tourists tend to litter the waters and the beaches. However tourism also provides one out of 10 jobs globally and tourism can help in lower income areas and boost the economic conditions of women and artisans. In the World Bank’s 20 Reasons Sustainable Tourism Counts for Development they wrote: “Tourism accounts for an estimated 26% of ocean-based economic activity, and much of the projected growth of global tourism will be coastal and marine. Many countries that rely on ocean-based tourism have recognized the importance of protecting their coastlines, coral reefs, marine biodiversity, beaches, and waters.”
The key is to focus on sustainable tourism going forward—examining ways to incorporate ecotourism into the design strategy. For example, instead of treating spa water with chemicals, using sea or saltwater; using hydro-powered boats instead of gasoline ones; creating boundaries around reefs and other fragile ecosystems; imposing steep fines for littering; and reducing the amount of single-use plastics and paper.
Desalinating water for people
Desalination is removing the salt from ocean water. Currently, according to the EU’s 2020 Blue Economy Report it is used to overcome water shortages in places with limited freshwater resources-- big coastal cities and islands as well as for offshore industrial processes where high salinity makes seawater unusable. The Blue Economy report said that there were 1,573 operational desalination plants in the EU in 2019 producing a total of 6.9 cubic meters a day of fresh water from seawater and brackish water. Most of it goes to public water supplies managed by municipalities, the rest is for industrial and irrigation purposes.
It’s expected that as climate change reduces the availability of water, desalination will become even more crucial. Many EU regions are expected to face severe water scarcity by 2050. Coastal desalination processes require 18 terawatt hours of energy each year and nearly 40% of the energy demand for desalination processes comes from European islands. The Clean Energy for EU Islands Initiative calls for viable technological solutions to power desalination with renewable energy, which Seabased can do as part of providing CO2-free energy.
Providing clean energy from ocean power
Ocean energy could power the world. Water is 800 times denser than air which means that it embodies an enormous amount of energy. And ocean waves are predictable: they work 24/7, 365 days a year. While the wind moves quickly and can change just as quickly, ocean waves take longer to build and longer to subside so it’s easier to know what the wave height and power will be. Ocean Energy Europe predicts that by 2050, ocean energy will be providing 10% of Europe’s energy and 400,000 jobs.
By the very fact that this is a nascent industry, it means many jobs will be created to bring it to fruition. And that’s the very definition of a Blue Recovery.
Redesigning how things are done to protect the oceans while using their resources can inspire the creation of new technologies, new solutions, even new industries, and create jobs while fighting against climate change. But it takes money, imagination, and political will. In its report, Financing and Investment for a Sustainable Ocean Economy, the Organization for Co-Operation and Economic Development notes: “The challenge is…significant, requiring scaling up investment in sustainable ocean activities and reallocating capital away from harmful or unsustainable activities…. many ocean sectors are inherently risky compared to their land-based counterparts, because the ocean is a harsh and often remote physical environment. This can make attracting finance for ocean investment difficult and costly, even before integrating the additional risk posed by some sustainable activities, for example due to new technology and business models.”
The report recommends governments create policy frameworks around ownership of ocean assets, improving the underlying investment climate, using public funding to mitigate the risk of private sector capital, and creating new financing models and incentives toward sustainability, like carbon credits related to conservation of coastal ecosystems.
The oceans are abundant with benefits for humans; we have to decide whether they stay that way.