Awards
Recognition of contribution and advances in technology and strategies to reduce or repair our impact on our oceans.
‘Sustainable Ocean Innovation Award’
(We also support Masters or PhD students or other individuals making a positive contribution to furthering the science of restoration and sustainable design).
GhostNets Australia wins Sustainable Ocean Innovation 2012!
The award goes to GhostNets Australia for their amazing program in northern Australia tackling the serious problem of lost fishing nets called 'ghost nets'.
GhostNets Australia has set up an effective cooperative alliance of Indigenous communities with over 150 rangers from these communities who regularly patrol their coastlines to locate, remove and record ghost nets, as well as rescue entangled wildlife where possible.
Sydney Architect Wins Inaugural Sustainable Ocean Innovation Award 2010
A project that uses a revolutionary method for the design and manufacture of constructed reefs has won the inaugural 2010 Award for Sustainable Ocean Innovation. Director of Sustainable Oceans International, David Lennon, announced that architect James Gardiner won the award at the exhibition of James’ work at Customs House in Sydney.
“This process has the potential to revolutionise the effectiveness of constructed reefs,” said David. “Reefs are diverse and topographically complex structures. Current artificial reef modules used to replace damaged reef structure are effective but tend to provide only moderate complexity and often look artificial. It is usually too costly to cast a range of different modules to create the complexity required to mimic a natural coral reef. This technology enables us to create reef modules that have a complexity similar to a healthy coral reef.”
As part of his PhD research at RMIT, James, Director of Faan Studio, interviewed over 80 companies globally including NASA, Boeing, BAE Aerospace and IKEA Homes to study advances in prefabrication technology. It was from this exposure to leading manufacturing technologies that lead James to a new way of constructing reef units.
“I have designed a system for creating houses with this technique and I thought I should turn my attention to something that could really make a difference to the environment” said James.
Sustainable Oceans International, an international marine consultancy specialising in artificial reef design for impact mitigation and reef restoration, offers the annual Award for Sustainable Ocean Innovation to recognise and promote innovation that helps mitigate marine impacts or restore degraded marine ecosystems.
“We are really excited that the inaugural award has gone to someone who has seen an opportunity to maintain marine biodiversity and then set out to demonstrate its feasibility. This innovative thinking has the potential to advance reef restoration and coastal development to the next level” said David. “Sustainable Ocean’s goal is better design below the waterline.”
The award opens nationally in June and is awarded in November each year.
The project – ‘(in)human habitat: rethinking the artificial reef’ is on display at Customs House in Circular Quay (Sydney) until mid January 2011 as part of the Open Agenda exhibition.
In the News
We have a winner!
Sustainable Ocean Innovation Award 2012
...and the award goes to...GhostNets Australia for their work in northern Australia tackling the serious problem of lost fishing nets called 'ghost nets'.
The group has found ghost nets measuring 10km long and recorded a myriad of marine species that get entangled as the nets drift along with the currents. The litany of marine casualties include turtles, dolphins, sharks, seabirds, crocodiles, rays and of course, multitudes of fish. The destruction caused by ghost nets continues as they near shore, often wrapping themselves around delicate coral reefs and coastal mangrove systems.
"The GhostNets Australia program is a fantastic example of innovation in action. Solving our environmental problems needs a healthy dose of lateral thinking in order to first see a solution and then brainstorm a way to make it happen" said David Lennon, director of Sustainable Oceans International.
>>Read the media release here: Sustainable Ocean Innovation Award 2012
878 trees to save Orang Utans
SOI through the fantastic giving portal Buy 1 Give 1 (www.b1g1.com) donates a percentage of every project to planting trees in Borneo for Orang Utan habitat.
We just purchased 100 more trees today as part of our Bahrain project with Reef Arabia. That makes 878 in total we've added to the planet rather than taken away from the planet.
Why not join us and include B1G1 in your business!
SOI constructs first 'cod house' to help save Murray cod
Murray cod are Australia's largest freshwater fish and overfishing and loss of essential habitat has decimated their numbers. SOI has been contracted to design and construct a concrete unit to help restore some of the essential breeding habitat the fish require. Sidescan image by ACT Government.
SOI wins 2 Year Contract - Bahrain
SOI and partner Reef Arabia have won a two year contract to design, build and monitor 10 artificial reefs around Bahrain.
>>Further details and photos of deployment of first reef in Bahrain
>>Bahrain newspaper article in Arabic
Four reefs have been deployed thus far. This is the first project of its kind to be constructed in the Arabian Gulf and the first to use custom reef units (designed by SOI) specifically for the local species.
SOI Completes Coral Mitigation Plan for New Doha Port
SOI conducted the necessary surveys and prepared the coral mitigation plans for the New Doha Port construction. This included accurate coral surveys to quantify the size, type and number of corals within the imperiled and threatened zones, and detailed recommendations on relocation methodology, relocation sites and compensatory artificial reefs to offset loss of productive reef structure.
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