Ocean Wise Seaforestation – What is it and why is it so important?

Ocean Wise Seaforestation – What is it and why is it so important?

Our partnership with Ocean Wise is helping enable an amazing change off of the west coast of Vancouver Island, Canada. Seaforestation is the act of restoring, planting, managing and caring for underwater seaweed forests. It’s an initiative that has many amazing benefits.

Kelp grows 30x faster than trees and can store carbon for centuries.

Kelp are giant brown seaweeds that drive near-shore ecosystem productivity and provide vital habitat for fishes. As the oceans warm, kelp forests around the globe are being threatened by the direct and indirect effect of rising temperatures and other stressors. Replanting these forests is an important initiative in the race to remove carbon from our atmosphere and fight climate change.

Kelp forests help reduce ocean acidification. 

Did you know the ocean absorbs some 25% of the carbon dioxide we emit into the atmosphere? Unfortunately, this absorption causes our oceans to become more acidic, dissolving the shells of shellfish and affecting fish, whales and seabirds. Kelp’s speedy growth – up to 5 inches per day – means it undergoes a large amount of photosynthesis that produces oxygen and removes carbon dioxide from the water.

Underwater plants

Ultimately local fisheries, communities and coastal environments all benefit.

Whether you live near the ocean, vacation at the beach or just enjoy fresh seafood, seaforestation is good news. Kelp forests provide much needed habitat for many ocean species (including salmon!) and these dense forests also help protect the coast from the impacts of extreme weather events.

Spreading the Seaforestation message – one scannable receipt at a time

EcoChit receipts help businesses put their commitment to the environment right into customers’ hands every time they take a receipt – a scannable QR code on the back of each receipt leads to this information on the benefits of seaforestation. For business customers who use receipts at scale, the back imprint is completely customizable, and EcoChit can help design a QR code and information program specifically for you.

Thanks for learning more about our Ocean Wise seaforestation partnership. Be sure to check out our Veritree reforestation page as well.