Shark Bite #5

Welcome to Shark Bite #5.

Seagrass

This one isn’t about an ocean conservation org, but it’s a really cool story…

You’ve probably heard that over 80% of the ocean is undiscovered…kinda scary right? Well, a research team from the University of Western Australia just discovered the largest known plant on Earth. 

They discovered a seagrass patch three times the size of Manhattan, which is believed to have grown from a single seed over the last 4500 years. It covers about 200 sq km off the coast of Shark Bay. Ironic, huh?

You might be wondering why some plain old seagrass is so important. Well, here’s the deal – seagrass is one of the earth’s most effective weapons against climate change. Despite occupying less than 1% of the seafloor, it accounts for 10% of the ocean’s ability to store carbon. And, it’s 35x more effective at storing carbon than tropical rainforests. 

More seagrass = less carbon. Let’s call this a small win for Mother Earth.

The Ocean Cleanup

The Ocean Cleanup just trialed their new Interceptor Trashfence in the most polluted river in the world. The Interceptor is essentially a really big net – preventing trash from flowing out of the river into the ocean. 

The Rio Motagua basin (in Guatemala) is believed to be the most polluted river in the world, dumping an estimated 20,000 tonnes of plastic into the Caribbean each year – that’s 2% of all global ocean plastic emissions. 

The Interceptor Trashfence came at the right time. The problem had gotten so bad that “trash tsunamis” were decimating the local environment.

Let's call that another big win :)

See you next time.

Kai

Co-Founder