AWARD YEAR
2021
CATEGORY
Community
GOALS
Zero Hunger, Responsible Consumption & Production, Climate Action, Life Below Water, Partnerships for the Goals
KEYWORDS
Offshore scalable kelp forests
COUNTRY
Netherlands
DESIGNED BY
Daniel Hooft, Kelp Blue
WEBSITE
http://kelp.blue
Kelp Blue - rewilding the oceans
Our submersible structure allows us to grow kelp forests 5-10km offshore at scale to restore oceans.
Inspired by Professor Tim Flannery, one of Australia's leading writers on climate change, Daniel Hooft, founder of Kelp Blue and ex-Shell offshore engineer, rose to the challenge to find a way of growing kelp forests off-shore, at scale. By placing kelp forest offshore Kelp Blue can scale up the size of the forests as it is not competing with near shore activities. The forests grow off a floating platform made of a series of arrays and placed at 20-40m below sea surface. Kelp is one of the fastest organisms on the planet and through photosynthesis captures vast amounts of CO2, re-oxygenates and de-acidifies marine waters. Kelp forests are ecosystem engineers, they provide shelter and habitat to hundreds of marine species. But in order for them to have a meaningful impact on the oceans there needs to be scalability. At Kelp Blue we are aiming to become a public blueprint for others to follow.