From scarcity to abundance: the sea as a source of prosperity

The SeaStore Seagrass Restoration Project in Kiel, Germany, is teaching locals to harvest and replant the underwater grasses. The project is restoring areas these plants used to inhabit because they store large amounts of carbon.

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.

Over many months, the Wuikinuxv Guardian Watchmen in British Columbia, Canada, patrol about 2,000 square kilometers of the coast by boat, and they're doing everything from warding off poachers to participating in scientific studies. Since it’s rare to see government vessels monitoring the area, many Indigenous communities throughout Canada have created these guardian programs as a way to conserve and protect their land.

The Supporting Oyster Aquaculture and Restoration initiative (SOAR), coordinated by the Pew Charitable Trusts, The Nature Conservancy, and various state agencies, NGOs, and universities, spent millions buying oysters from 100 farms in seven states to put back into the oceans for reef restoration. Working in areas that already have reef monitoring programs, SOAR is supporting 20 reef restoration projects to create habitat for more oysters and other marine species, clean the water, and mitigate coastal flooding. SOAR also helped mitigate potential losses for shellfish farmers due to COVID-19.

A research project in a marine protected area (MPA) off the coast of South Africa brought fishers and scientists together to understand the abundance of fish and rock lobster in the waters. The project paid fishers to lower baited remote underwater video stations and got youth involved to review the video footage. By bringing fishers into the project and building trust with the community, they were able to demonstrate the importance of a MPA and empower them to be part of the decision-making process.

Coral reefs play a vital role in the ecosystem, but are facing a dire future in many parts of the world. In Jamaica, however, "grassroots-run coral nurseries and fish sanctuaries" have been established over the last decade, which has helped bring reefs in this area back to life.

In Jamaica, locally-led coral nurseries are working to restore the coral reef that have been lost to natural and manmade disasters. These organizations have small coral gardens where they can grow free of danger and when they’re big enough, are transported to a reef. With coral and fish being so codependent in the underwater ecosystem, the regrowth of coral has meant an increase of fish and fishing for the country, which many people rely on for their livelihood.

To protect the health of Belize's coral reefs and fish populations, the tiny country has implemented restrictions around where and who can fish commercially. This managed access program divides the region's territorial waters into nine different zones and so far has resulted in a decline in illegal fishing.

Bonaire's coral reef is one of the few in the world that is thriving, rather than dying. Thanks to a combination of local efforts, such as reef maintenance and restoration as well as rules that limit fishermen and divers, the reef is proving to be a model for other regions that are struggling.

Over the last ten years, the Isle of Man has worked to implement regulations around plastic pollution, climate change and overfishing. From a locally owned beach clean-up charity to creating marine nature reserves, the Isle of Man is now a model for neighboring countries on how to achieve this level of success.