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The Only Blue Carbon Offset Program
SeaGrass Grow! protects and restores seagrass habitats and provides voluntary opportunities to offset greenhouse gas emissions naturally in the ocean – known as “Blue Carbon."
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Blue Carbon Offsets
Blue carbon is the carbon dioxide captured by living coastal and marine organisms and stored in coastal ecosystems such as seagrass meadows.
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Presented by The Ocean Foundation
A community foundation whose mission is to support, strengthen, and promote those organizations dedicated to reversing the trend of destruction of ocean environments around the world.
Why Offset Your Carbon Footprint with Blue Carbon?
A carbon footprint is historically defined as "the total sets of greenhouse gas emissions caused by an organization, event, product or person." Personal carbon footprint emissions can come from direct sources such as driving your car or indirect sources such as the fuel burned to produce a product you've purchased. By offsetting your carbon footprint with blue carbon, you help to slow climate change and restore critical marine habitats. By using our Carbon Calculator and contributing to the Seagrass Grow! campaign, you can naturally offset your carbon footprint AND contribute to ocean conservation. Calculate Your Carbon Footprint now!
Your Carbon Footprint
The Average Person
The average North American creates 20 tons of carbon emissions per year. Well above the global average, which is only around 4 tons.
The Average Household
The average household creates as much as 50 tons of CO2 per year. Emissions vary by location, climate, and energy production methods.
Indirect Factors
Indirect factors leading to increased emissions include: diets high in red meat, using inefficient appliances, and buying products with excessive packaging.
Why Seagrass?
Carbon Storage
Seagrass habitats are up to 45 times more effective than the most pristine Amazonian rainforest in their carbon uptake abilities.
Economic Benefits
For every $1 invested in coastal restoration projects, $15 in net economic benefits is created.
Food & Habitat
A single acre of seagrass may support as many as 40,000 fish, and 50 million small invertebrates.
Safety Benefits
Seagrass meadows provide a buffer from storm surges by soaking up seawater and dissipating wave energy.
Threats & Solutions
Global Destruction
Scientists estimate that we lose seagrass meadow the size of a soccer field every 20 minutes.
Boating & Shipping
The damage a boat propeller can do in five seconds can take five to fifty years to heal. Props, anchors and vessel groundings literally rip seagrass from the ocean floor.
Coastal Development
Coastal development such as resorts, piers, residential areas and marinas often require the dredging of adjacent seagrass meadows during construction.
A Global Solution
Seagrass meadows can be found along the coasts of every continent except for Antarctica. The Ocean Foundation works with seagrass experts around the world on restoration and protection methods.
Restoring Prop Scars
We use sediment tube technology for quick and cost efficient recolonization of seagrass into the habitat. In as little as 12 months, we've seen recovery rates to be around 75%.
Community Engagement
Through speaking engagements, aquariums and workshops The Ocean Foundation and our partners continue to educate the public about the value, ecology, conservation and restoration of seagrass along our coasts.
More on Seagrass
What is Seagrass?
Seagrasses are flowering plants that grow in shallow waters along coasts, lagoons and estuaries. Seagrass meadows can be found along the coasts of every continent except for Antarctica and over a billion people live within 30 miles of a meadow.
Seagrass Meadows
Seagrass meadows provide food and habitat for 70% of juvenile marine species such as shellfish, seahorses, manatees, and sea turtles. They provide protection from shoreline erosion, filter pollution from water, support tourism, food security, commercial and recreational fishing.
Carbon Sequestration
Seagrasses occupy 0.1% of the seafloor, yet are responsible for 11% of the organic carbon buried in the ocean. Seagrass meadows can store up to 83,000 metric tons of CO2 per square kilometer, compared to terrestrial forests which store about 30,000 metric tons.
Ecosystem Services
Seagrass beds form the basis of the world’s primary fishing grounds, supplying 50% of the world’s fisheries. They provide vital nutrition for close to 3 billion people, and 50% of animal protein to 400 million people in the third world.
Alarming Rate of Loss
Between 2–7% of the earth's blue carbon sinks are lost annually, a seven-fold increase compared to only 50 years ago. If more action is not taken immediately to restore these vital ecosystems, most may be lost within 20 years.
Our Role
The Ocean Foundation continues to support a national effort to bring new tools to coastal managers based on recent science demonstrating the advantages of protecting and restoring tidal wetlands to combat climate change.