Marine Permaculture Arrays

"Once a systems engineering consultant, Brian Von Herzen now devotes his life to reversing global warming by restoring the primary production of oceans, using kelp and other seaweeds. Primary production is the creation of organic compounds from carbon dioxide through photosynthesis. ... The key technology involves marine permaculture arrays (MPAs), lightweight latticed structures roughly half a square mile in size, submerged 80 feet below sea level, to which kelp can attach. Attached buoys rise and fall with the waves, powering pumps that bring up colder, nutrient-rich waters from far below. Kelp soak up the nutrients and grow, establishing a trophic pyramid rich in plant and animal life.
Plants that are not consumed die off and drop into the deep sea, sequestering carbon for centuries in the form of dissolved carbon and carbonates. Floating kelp forests could sequester billions of tons of carbon dioxide, while providing food, feed, fertilizer, fiber, and biofuels to the world." -Marine Permaculture, Drawdown.org
"In just 57 hours after deployment, the system sparked plankton growth. Shortly thereafter, these blooms attracted various species of fish. Two weeks later, a 17-foot long whale shark was still circling the area feeding on plankton that had started blooming." -Marine Permaculture, ClimateFoundation.org

Does this mean we that we are now going to need a Oceans & Seas Permaculture sub-forum at permies?

Yes! Anyone familiar with the concept? Would be interested to hear more. Is there a marine/aquatic sub-forum at permies?

We have reforestation program for land. It would be cool to have it for the sea too. The scale wouldn't be at the home-scale though it seems, it would have to be at the farm/biz scale or even bigger at the government scale. I could see it increasing the amount fish in an area or maybe adding them where coastal cities dump their municipal sewer water into the sea.

Here are some Natural Marine Permaculture Arrays.
With the keystone species in each regions.
I wonder what the entire "guild" would look like.
I have read that some kelp forest have over 20 different species of kelp in it.

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5751975/

I sincerely hope that we wouldn't destroy even more while tryıng to save.

Does anyone know where to source marine plants/seaweed? I have been establishing a garden right next to a coast here, its not ocean its more of an inland sea. It would be very cool to try to extend things out over the short stretch of rocky/sandy shore (5-10 feet) and into the water! Erosion can be an issue so I imagine if kelp could be encouraged it would work to break up wave action and protect the shoreline plantings. I know that many types of shellfish are supposed to be able to be grown and harvested right off of docks on lines, and they supposedly filter and improve the water rather than be detrimental in any way, even at higher concentrations.

Is this marine permaculture still in its infancy too much to be able to buy/source these types of things? Obviously being mindful of potentially invasive species would be important too, but I don’t even have a clue about what the basic requirements are for growing this stuff. How are these plants seeded? What conditions do they require... is there a “zone” system for marine plants?  I know that the area I’m in has fish species from a couple of different “zones”.

Eon MacNeill wrote:Does anyone know where to source marine plants/seaweed? I have been establishing a garden right next to a coast here, its not ocean its more of an inland sea. It would be very cool to try to extend things out over the short stretch of rocky/sandy shore (5-10 feet) and into the water! Erosion can be an issue so I imagine if kelp could be encouraged it would work to break up wave action and protect the shoreline plantings. I know that many types of shellfish are supposed to be able to be grown and harvested right off of docks on lines, and they supposedly filter and improve the water rather than be detrimental in any way, even at higher concentrations.

Is this marine permaculture still in its infancy too much to be able to buy/source these types of things? Obviously being mindful of potentially invasive species would be important too, but I don’t even have a clue about what the basic requirements are for growing this stuff. How are these plants seeded? What conditions do they require... is there a “zone” system for marine plants?  I know that the area I’m in has fish species from a couple of different “zones”.

Kelp and otther marine algae are not plants but protists.
If you want to grow something on the shore use local algae and do not bring from otther places as these can be really invasive and damaging to the enviroment .
The japanese oyster is farmed all around the world and altough its mildly invasive ,because its a valuable food its worth trying it like they grow it in France ( but these like brackish water).
You have to learn a lot before attempting something like this.

Eon MacNeill wrote:Does anyone know where to source marine plants/seaweed? I have been establishing a garden right next to a coast here, its not ocean its more of an inland sea. It would be very cool to try to extend things out over the short stretch of rocky/sandy shore (5-10 feet) and into the water! Erosion can be an issue so I imagine if kelp could be encouraged it would work to break up wave action and protect the shoreline plantings. I know that many types of shellfish are supposed to be able to be grown and harvested right off of docks on lines, and they supposedly filter and improve the water rather than be detrimental in any way, even at higher concentrations.

Is this marine permaculture still in its infancy too much to be able to buy/source these types of things? Obviously being mindful of potentially invasive species would be important too, but I don’t even have a clue about what the basic requirements are for growing this stuff. How are these plants seeded? What conditions do they require... is there a “zone” system for marine plants?  I know that the area I’m in has fish species from a couple of different “zones”.

You can read the wikipedia entry here about Caulerpa Taxifolia that was most likely released into the wild by Jack Yves Cousteau and now its spread through out the Mediteranean sea.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Caulerpa_taxifolia

@Eon MacNeill - I know I saw an interview with a poly-culture ocean farmer and my brain believes he was Nova Scotian. I suggest you try searching and if NS, doesn't work, it might have been the New Brunswick side of the Bay of Fundy. If you can track it down, maybe add the link here?  It sounds as if he's doing things really responsibly.

To some degree based on reading the info from Drawdown (book mentioned by the OP - well worth a read), it a situation of "if you build it, the local flora and fauna will come and populate it. Sidney, BC put an extensive "reef ball" installation under a wharf they built. Volunteer divers went down at regular intervals to take census and it was pretty impressive how quickly life grew on it. It's now a really popular place to go crabbing when the weather's nice and the season is open.

@Mihai Ilie - that was an interesting article you linked to about Caulerpa taxifolia. I particularly noted the paragraph: "Beds of the algae typically inhabit polluted, nutrient-rich areas such as sewage outfalls,[5] explaining its spread among port cities in the Mediterranean Sea. This actually reduces the pollution in those areas, as the caulerpa consumes it: In an eight-year study of Caulerpa beds in the French Bay of Menton by the European Oceanographic Observatory of Monaco (based within the Museum of Monaco[6]), it was found that the alga reduced pollution and aided in the recovery of native Posidonia seagrass.[7]"

Similar has been said about the Purple Loosestrife invasion in Ontario (Canada) wetlands. When farmland surrounding a wetland moves to organic or better practices and runoff into the wetland is less polluted with artificial fertilizers, the Purple Loosestrife declines. I've also heard the same about a water plant invasion in Africa but I can't recall the details. The issue is less the invading plant, and more human pollution that needs to be filtered and sequestered through artificial wetlands, edge plants, and possibly fast growing trees, before it even gets to the lake or ocean!

Much of human made pollution, such as phosphates from laundry detergent or nitrogen from urine, is like candy to growies. So long as we position sources of "waste resources" so that there are growies to benefit, we solve the problem at source. Another example I've read about may also have been in the book Drawdown. Someone built floating frames in a highly polluted lake in China and grew flowers on it and the improvement in the water quality was incredible. The sales of the flowers, covered much of the original costs if I recall, or at least the labor costs, making it a totally win-win solution.

Jay Angler wrote:@Eon MacNeill - I know I saw an interview with a poly-culture ocean farmer and my brain believes he was Nova Scotian. I suggest you try searching and if NS, doesn't work, it might have been the New Brunswick side of the Bay of Fundy. If you can track it down, maybe add the link here?  It sounds as if he's doing things really responsibly.

To some degree based on reading the info from Drawdown (book mentioned by the OP - well worth a read), it a situation of "if you build it, the local flora and fauna will come and populate it. Sidney, BC put an extensive "reef ball" installation under a wharf they built. Volunteer divers went down at regular intervals to take census and it was pretty impressive how quickly life grew on it. It's now a really popular place to go crabbing when the weather's nice and the season is open.

@Mihai Ilie - that was an interesting article you linked to about Caulerpa taxifolia. I particularly noted the paragraph: "Beds of the algae typically inhabit polluted, nutrient-rich areas such as sewage outfalls,[5] explaining its spread among port cities in the Mediterranean Sea. This actually reduces the pollution in those areas, as the caulerpa consumes it: In an eight-year study of Caulerpa beds in the French Bay of Menton by the European Oceanographic Observatory of Monaco (based within the Museum of Monaco[6]), it was found that the alga reduced pollution and aided in the recovery of native Posidonia seagrass.[7]"

Similar has been said about the Purple Loosestrife invasion in Ontario (Canada) wetlands. When farmland surrounding a wetland moves to organic or better practices and runoff into the wetland is less polluted with artificial fertilizers, the Purple Loosestrife declines. I've also heard the same about a water plant invasion in Africa but I can't recall the details. The issue is less the invading plant, and more human pollution that needs to be filtered and sequestered through artificial wetlands, edge plants, and possibly fast growing trees, before it even gets to the lake or ocean!

Much of human made pollution, such as phosphates from laundry detergent or nitrogen from urine, is like candy to growies. So long as we position sources of "waste resources" so that there are growies to benefit, we solve the problem at source. Another example I've read about may also have been in the book Drawdown. Someone built floating frames in a highly polluted lake in China and grew flowers on it and the improvement in the water quality was incredible. The sales of the flowers, covered much of the original costs if I recall, or at least the labor costs, making it a totally win-win solution.

Ive had the Caulerpa that Jack Cousteau released it in the Mediteranean sea at home in a reef aquarium.
The problem with that algae is that nothing wants to eat it,it grows fast and then it breeds sexually and dies releasing all the nutrients it gathered back.
In China ( and here in Romania) they grow carps and have chicken farms on top of the lakes wich fertilise the algae that the carps eat.Thats a trully win-win situation.
Here on carp farms we add manure in the water and then the algae feeds on it,then zooplancton feeds on algae and finally the carps feed on zooplancton.

Ive had my times dreaming to farm marine creatures,starting with corals then dreaming to breed lobsters ( was mostly a challenge because its soo hard to do) then i wanted to breed Maryland blue crabs wich are a lot easyer to achieve than lobsters and grow really fast but they are more canibalistic than lobsters.
Finally i really breed the japanese oysters at home but i didnt farmed them since i was growing them in a small place( an aquarium).
About the crabs and lobster farming i know( i discovered and tested it) a secret to make them molt at the same time  to reduce canibalism and to sell them much more expensive( 3 times the price) as soft shell crabs and lobsters.
I can make any crustacean molt in 24 hours with that trick but its a secret im not thinking to sell.

Here is a japanese oyster ( like those farmed in France)breeding in my aquarium where you can see the white cloud.