Offset Carbon with Sea Grass for Otters

Help restore critical marine habitat and offset your carbon footprint.

Seagrasses grow in shallow coastal regions of every continent on Earth except Antarctica. These hidden meadows are incredibly important ecosystems, providing crucial habitat for thousands of species of fish, plants, and invertebrates, as well as providing food for animals like sea turtles and otters. They also play a critical role in the flight against global warming: an acre of seagrass can store more than twice the carbon stored by an acre of pristine rainforest, and seagrass habitats are up to 45 times more effective in their carbon uptake and storage abilities.

Unfortunately, because these beautiful underwater fields are hidden from our view, the disastrous destruction of seagrasses worldwide has gone largely unnoticed by the general public. Scientists estimate that we lose a seagrass meadow the size of a soccer field every 20 minutes — a rate faster than global deforestation. Most of this loss is caused by human activities such as coastal development, boat groundings, and propeller scars. The damage a boat propeller can do in five seconds can take five to fifty years to heal.

SeaGrass Grow!, a program of the Ocean Foundation, works to restore damaged seagrass, plant new seagrass, and increase public awareness to eliminate destructive human behavior and conserve our coastal meadows. Your support protects and restores threatened coastal seagrass, offsetting carbon emissions, providing habitat that supports global fish populations, and supplying a critical food source for sea animals like the otter.

You can help. Just $20 restores two linear foot of sea grass, and offsets 1 ton of carbon emissions.

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Reports from the Field

September 2017

Through the SeaGrass Grow Project The Ocean Foundation planted and protected 13,585 Acres of Seagrass and offset 223,481 total tons of CO2.

March 2017

Thanks to donors like you, The Ocean Foundation was able to launch the blue carbon calculator, a new way to build public support for seagrass and other blue carbon restoration projects this year. It also gave them the capacity to pursue and secure partnerships with a number of convention and event organizers to offset their events. This has been especially helpful in helping TOF start down the road of establishing the first ever coastal restoration project approved by the Verified Carbon Standard.

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The Ocean Foundation created the SeaGrass Grow! program to protect and restore seagrass habitats and provide voluntary opportunities to naturally offset greenhouse gas emissions in the ocean — known as "Blue Carbon." The goal of this project is to restore 1,000 square feet of seagrass. Our education plan empowers the public to conserve and protect seagrass resources by informing them of the importance, benefits and vulnerabilities of seagrasses.