In Maine, Seaweed Farming Helps Save Jobs and the Planet

A fishing cooperative at the San Ignacio Lagoon protects gray whales that use the lagoon as a nursery by not fishing at that time of the year. Instead, their income comes from ecotourism which brings people close to the whales during that season.

Communities in the Sundarbans have adopted shrimp farming as a sustainable livelihood strategy; the approach has proven successful, with environmental benefits and many farmers earning a good income.

A social enterprise that started in the Netherlands and is spreading to countries around the Celtic Sea is training young people to work in marine industries while restoring ocean biodiversity. The young trainees work on projects like marine mammal observation and planting seagrass.

The Maine Coast Fishermen’s Association launched a program to support local fishing businesses and address food insecurity during the pandemic that continues to do so today. The nonprofit buys fish at a more than fair price from local businesses and donates them to food banks and public school food programs.

In Spain's Bay of Cádiz, locals have spent years collaborating with universities, scientists, and government entities to restore their bay's traditional salt marshes. The results? A revived economic sector, a community adapted to rising sea levels, and protected migratory birds.

Farmers in West Bengal, India, are swapping rice for bananas to save on expenses and labor and adapt to increasingly erratic monsoons and rainfall impacting yields. The farmers use solar panels and drip irrigation setups funded by the state government to reduce emissions and minimize water loss, as bananas require a lot of water.

The RETI Center, an environmental justice nonprofit, is growing kelp in Booklyns incredibly polluted Gowanus Canal in an effort to remove pollutants from the water and restore the ecosystem. It plans to eventually sell carbon capture credits and sell the kelp to make products like more sustainable cement.

The Tropical Research and Conservation Center’s mangrove restoration projects in Nigeria use a community-based, participatory approach to engage locals in the process, educate them on the importance of the trees, and keep them from turning to deforestation as a source of income.

Enaleia pays fishing crews a small monthly fee, between $30-$90 depending on how much plastic they can bring in along with their catch. The funding comes from local foundations as well as large international donors including the Ocean Conservancy, Nestlé and Pfizer. Some of the waste, including recovered fishing nets, is sold to sustainable clothing manufacturers, and the money is invested back into the fishing crews. More than half of Greece’s large-scale fishing fleet, which includes hundreds of ships, has signed up for the program.

As harvesting lobsters becomes more uncertain along the Maine coast due to climate change, many fishers are turning to kelp farming as a way to diversify their income. Atlantic Sea Farms purchases 1 million pounds of kelp a year from dozens of farmers resulting in The Pine Tree State becoming one of the top aquaculture producers in the United States.