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.