Seatrees was born out of a deep commitment to protecting and restoring our ocean ecosystems because of their immense potential to fight climate change, foster biodiversity, and support coastal communities.
As a program of Sustainable Surf, a nonprofit focused on transforming surf culture into a force for sustainability, Seatrees evolved as the organization’s flagship program to directly support ocean health.
The journey began with a simple but powerful idea: communities and individuals could take tangible action to give back to the ocean. By creating a platform that connects people with restoration projects worldwide, Seatrees empowers them to make measurable impacts. Early projects focused on restoring ecosystems like mangroves in Indonesia and kelp forests in California, each highlighting how localized efforts could yield global benefits.Over the years, Seatrees has grown through innovative partnerships with brands, artists, and communities. By leveraging collaborations like biodiversity credits and art installations at global climate events like COP, the organization has solidified its role as a leader in ocean restoration.
Today, Seatrees is not just about planting trees in the ocean; it’s about creating a movement that aligns communities, businesses, and individuals to prioritize the planet’s most vital ecosystems.
What is Blue Carbon?
Blue carbon refers to carbon stored in coastal and marine ecosystems, including wetlands, kelp forests, mangrove forests, seagrass, and coral reefs. Commonly known as blue carbon ecosystems, they sequester and store large quantities of blue carbon in both the plants and the sediment below.
Blue carbon ecosystems are found on every continent except Antarctica. SeaTrees develops coastal restoration projects across five blue carbon ecosystem types: mangrove forests, kelp forests, seagrass meadows, coral reefs, and coastal watersheds.
Blue carbon Ecosystems are 5-10x more efficient at sequestering carbon than any forest on land. Yet when destroyed, these ecosystems emit the carbon they have stored for centuries into the atmosphere and oceans and become sources of greenhouse gases.
Coral Reefs
Coral reefs are home to a quarter of all marine life in the ocean and are the most diverse marine ecosystem on earth.
Millions of people around the world also depend on fisheries, tourism and coastal protection provided by healthy coral reefs - yet they are one of the most threatened ecosystems on the planet.
Coral reefs are incredibly sensitive, so much so that just a one degree change in ocean temperature can cause detrimental effects on all coral reefs in the sea.
The impact of the ongoing climate change is directly affecting coral reefs by an already measurable rise of sea water temperature, caused predominantly by human activity.
Not only are corals an integral part of marine ecosystems, they also act as a natural filtration for ocean - contributing to the ocean carbon cycle through photosynthesis, respiration, calcification and dissolution. These processes recycle their nutrients efficiently and sequester huge amounts of carbon from dissolved carbon dioxide as carbonate - so that carbon stays within in the reef system and out of the ocean and atmosphere.
Mangrove Forests
Mangroves are one of the world’s most under appreciated and underrated ecosystems.
Located along tropical coastlines, per hectare mangroves are among the most carbon-rich forests in the world - in fact, despite covering only 0.1% of the planet's surface, research shows that 14% of all coastal carbon sequestration is thanks to mangrove forests.
Compared to any forest on land, mangroves are 10x more effective at storing this carbon, making them our best tool for reversing climate change.
Mangroves play a crucial role in protecting coastal communities by preventing erosion, reducing storm surge impacts, and buffering against rising sea levels. Their intricate root systems filter pollutants like nitrates and phosphates, improving water quality before it flows into the ocean. Mangroves also serve as critical habitats and nursery grounds for countless species, including birds, fish, invertebrates, and plants. Beyond their ecological benefits, mangroves capture and store vast amounts of carbon in their waterlogged, carbon-rich soils, helping combat climate change for generations.
Seagrass Meadows
Seagrasses are one of the most widely found ecosystems on the planet. In fact, seagrass is found along the coast of every continent except Antarctica.
Found in shallow, salty, and brackish waters, they only cover roughly 0.2% of the sea floor globally, are are responsible for about 11% of the organic carbon buried in the ocean.
Similar to other blue carbon ecosystems, seagrasses have proven to be incredibly efficient in sequestering carbon, up to twice as much as the average terrestrial forest.
As one of the most productive ecosystems in the world, seagrasses absorb carbon dioxide from the ocean and atmosphere and store it in their biomass, where it accumulates over time, and is eventually stored in the soil for millennia.
Kelp Forests
Similar to all other blue carbon ecosystems, kelp forests are among the most degraded - but their disappearance is the hardest to see.
Beneath the surface of the ocean lies a hidden forest - but one that looks significantly different than it once did a decade ago. Known as “the sequoias of the sea” for their rich biodiversity and carbon sequestration potential, kelp forests are home to hundreds of marine species - until recently.
These underwater ecosystems have faced detrimental impacts over the last several decades. Today, only 5% of the historical population of kelp remains, with 90% having disappeared from the California coast in just the last 10 years.
Kelp is one of the fastest-growing plants on the planet, growing up to 2-3 feet per day in ideal conditions. Utilizing this power could be a key to mitigating climate change across the world. And the latest science suggests that kelp forests have the potential to sequester even more carbon than mangrove forests.
Coastal Watersheds
The world’s watersheds are currently facing ongoing anthropogenic threats that endanger their biological value and their ability to provide ecosystem services to countless communities and species.
A coastal watershed is a land area where water drains down through rivers and streams, to groundwater, lakes, bays, wetlands, and/or oceans. Also known as as catchment areas, catchment basins, or drainage areas, watersheds can vary in size from a couple hectares to as large as hundreds of square kilometers.
Watersheds provide critical benefits to our Ocean Planet both above and below ground. In fact, they can capture and store atmospheric carbon dioxide at 10x the rate of a mature tropical forest by sequestering it in the ground for many years.
