Ocean Startups Are Changing Conservation Faster Than Science Alone

0:00 The next breakthrough in ocean conservation might not come from a university. It might come from a startup. Not because science isn't important, because startups are built to take ideas and actually put them into the real world. And right now, that's the part we're missing. This is the How to Protect the Ocean podcast where we break down ocean science, policy, and solutions so that you can actually understand what's working and how to be a part of it. So hit that follow button right now so you don't miss tomorrow's episode. We're covering ocean businesses, businesses that are out to scale solutions for the ocean all week. At the end of the week on Friday, we have an interview with EarthX CEO Peter Semmick talking about the EarthX conference where you're going to find a lot of ocean startups, a lot of ocean businesses that are already in practice that are looking to find solutions.

0:49 So check it out on Friday and don't forget to follow so you don't miss any other episode. For decades, ocean conservation has been driven by governments, by NGOs, by universities, and those institutions are very critical to the process. They give a science, they shape policy, but they are not built for speed. They are built for accuracy, and that creates a gap because discovering a solution is very different to scaling one for protection. That's where startups come in. They take ideas and ask a different question. Can this work in the real world and can it scale? If you're new to the show and you want to understand how ocean solutions actually scale, then make sure that you follow how to protect the ocean podcast so you don't miss any of the future episodes. So hit that follow button right now. All right, let's take coral Vita for an example. Traditionally, coral restoration happens underwater. It's slow, it's expensive, and it struggles to keep up with warming oceans. Coral Vita changed the model. They grow corals on land and in controlled environments. That allows them to grow corals 50 times faster, select heat tolerant corals, and scale production far beyond traditional methods. Then they transplant those corals back onto reefs. But here's where it really matters. They built a business. They partner with tourism operators who depend on the reefs, governments protecting coastlines, and insurance companies that recognize reefs reduce storm damage, which I've

2:21 talked about so many times on this podcast. This turns coral restoration into something that can scale globally, not just one project. It's an actual service. Let's talk carbon removal in the ocean. There's a company called Running Tide. They're working on ocean-based carbon removal. The idea? Grow kelp that absorbs carbon. Then sink it deep in the ocean, locking that carbon away long term. This falls under ocean carbon dioxide removal. And according to the IPCC, we likely need carbon removal to meet climate targets. But this approach is controversial. Because the ocean is complex, we don't fully understand the long term impact. Still, it's getting funded because it fits into carbon markets. And when something fits and when something connects to markets, it has a chance to scale. Now, I'm not saying that this is going to work. I'm not saying that this is probably good for the ocean. It may not be, but at least we're developing these ideas. If there were pilot studies that were stuck in academia this entire time, a lot of these companies may not be able to get this going and find out if it actually works or if it doesn't work. Now, of course, there's always advantages and disadvantages to this approach and I fully understand those, but this is just one idea where we can really think about, hey, does actually this carbon sinking and carbon removal actually work when we think about it at this scale and at this with this ability to use kelp to do that.

3:47 Think about the video that I put up this week on Sargasm that probably came out today as you're going to listen to this. Sargasm is an algae that grows really big. It just basically suppresses beaches and it just smothers beaches in high tourist areas. It stinks. People don't like it. It can affect people with breathing problems and it takes a long time to remove and is hard to inexpensive to remove. Imagine being able to sink something like Sargasm to be able to remove carbon. That's something that's a key identifier in carbon removal. Whether it will work or not, whether it's good for the ocean or not, time will tell and these experiments with businesses as partnerships will be able to help. Startups bring something conservation has struggled with.

4:30 Speed. They test faster. They adapt faster and they scale faster. They don't necessarily wait till you have peer reviewed publications that are done two years down the road that are published two years down the road. They want to know six months from now whether this idea will work. If it doesn't, they're going to move on. If it works, they're going to move forward. If it's good for the ocean, they might move forward. If it's bad for the ocean, they may move forward too. That's where we have to be careful with some of these startups. However, the point is they move fast and that matters because the ocean is changing fast. We are seeing marine heat waves, rapid biodiversity loss, overfishing pressures, increasing pollution, solutions that need to move as solutions need to move as quickly, just as quickly as these problems are hitting the ocean.

5:14 And when the startups find something that works, they can expand globally in years, not decades. But let's be clear. Not every setup succeeds. Some fail, some over promise and some create unintended consequences. Like just think about anything that has to do with deep sea mining right now. There is a big push to do deep sea mining, but we have no idea the effects on the ocean. This is why science still matters and regulation still matters. This isn't about replacing traditional conservation. It's about complimenting it with speed, with funding and with a different mindset. Because right now we don't just need ideas. We need ideas that actually spread and we need to implement those ideas as quickly as possible.

6:00 And that's the episode for today. If you like this type of information, you want to know more about businesses that find solutions and you have a business that has an ocean solution or you know of one that has a notion solution, let us know in the comments by going to speak up for blue dot com forward slash feedback that speak up for blue dot com forward slash feedback. I want to hear what you have to say either by voicemail or you can type it in. I would love to hear what you have to say because this is the start of a conversation and I would love for you to continue that with me and with others. And I know with podcasting on audio it's really difficult to do a comment. If you're on Spotify and you want to comment, please do so. But if you're not and you want to comment and you want to have feedback, please go to speak up for blue dot com forward slash feedback because you know what the next big breakthrough may not be it may not come from a paper, but it might just come from a company trying to solve a problem at scale and I want to find what those those businesses are what that company is and I want to tell it I want to talk to them on the podcast at some point. So I want to thank you so much for joining me on today's episode of the how to protect the ocean podcast. I'm your host, Andrew Lew and have a great day. We'll talk to you next time and happy conservation.