MBET Kelp Reforestation

MBET Kelp Reforestation The Lungs of the World

I.  Environmental Benefits of Kelp Reforestation

KELP REFORESTATION WILL BE THE CENTER OF MBET’s EFFORTS TO REVERSE GLOBAL WARMING.  It is also a major aspect of MBET’s Vision: “Feed, Heal and Power the World while Cleaning the Environment™.”  There are two major components to the carbon cycle (see Global Warming Section): 1. Production of CO2 and 2. Consumption of CO2.  Kelp reforestation benefits both.

Kelp reforestation is essential to correct the massive kelp loss and corresponding kelp ecosystems (for instance California has lost about 94%, and  Canada 67% of their kelp forests and the corresponding ecosystems).  One-third of all carbon dioxide in the air diffuses into the ocean.  Normally, macro-algae, like Kelp, consumes CO2 and produces O2 and consumable vegetation (see photosynthesis chart).   Without ocean vegetation (macro and microalgae) photosynthesis, carbon dioxide combines with water to produce carbonic acid, causing decreasing pH (acidification) which dissolves calcium carbonate found in all shellfish and hard coral and negatively impacts all marine life.  Using MBET’s Natural Selective Breeding and Hybridization System™ of indigenous kelp and MBET’s Dynamic Spawning Technique™ of planting, the resulting kelp forests will not only be sustainable but will also naturally expand into its previous habitats. 

(Chart 1 – photosynthesis chart-MBET Reforestation)

A. Kelp is the fastest growing plant on Earth (one to three feet a day) and a kelp forest consumes more carbon dioxide per acre than the Amazon Rain Forest.

1. Kelp biofuel grown to MBET’s large scale will solve the CO2 production component of Global Warming.  It will replace coal and oil/natural gas in power plants and gasoline/diesel in transportation to reduce total CO2 emissions by over 50% without massive and expensive infrastructure changes.
2. Carbon dioxide consumption and oxygen production through photosynthesis, reverse ocean acidification and hypoxia.
3. Kelp is a tremendous “carbon sink”, another major aspect in decreasing CO2 and thus another step in solving global warming. A healthy kelp forest will be built on the glucose produced during photosynthesis.  As you see from Chart 1, carbon dioxide is transformed into glucose which is transformed into the kelp plant.  The now hardy kelp forest will sequester a tremendous amount of CO2.  Pruning the kelp forest fifteen feet every two weeks will not only stimulate further growth and strength but also be a massive sustainable supply of kelp to be used in food, food products, biofuel, and other products and functions (see below).

B.  Purification of ocean water – Kelp is a tremendous consumer of animal wastes (nitrogen load) and filter of man-made pollutants (mercury, lead, arsenic, PCB’s, radiation, etc.) – Selectively bred and strengthened kelp planted in polluted ocean area (like Palos Verdes. or Santa Monica Bay) would be harvested and processed to remove the pollutants and use the biomass for biofuel.  In these areas, MBET’s Natural Selective Breeding and Hybridization System™ will be used to improve kelp absorption of pollutants (see Chart 1).

C.  Kelp planted to be harvested for edibles will have selective breeding to decrease pollution absorption and increase nutritional value with increased levels of protein, vitamins, and calcium concentrations (see below).  Thus, when this kelp is harvested, it will be pure and nutritious.

D.  Recreation of complete vertically integrated kelp/seaweed ecosystems will generate tremendous seafood production.  Substituting seafood for a land-based diet will decrease production of Green House Gasses (methane and nitrous oxide represent 15% of all GHG) and increase consumption of carbon dioxide (82% of GHG).

E.  Kelp is a perennial, growing year-round consuming CO2 and producing O2 through photosynthesis; most other ocean vegetation grows during spring and summer and dies off in the fall and winter (thus CO2 absorption for 6 months and CO2 release for 6 months).

II. Revenue Streams of Kelp

“Feed, Heal and Power the World while Cleaning the Environment” (MBET Vision)

A. Profitability of growing and harvesting kelp creates sustainability and expandability of kelp reforestation.  MBET will reforest kelp beds for free but must have long-term contracts to maintain and harvest them.    

B. MBET Carbon Exchange Program, potentially the largest carbon sink in the world – (MBET Carbon Exchange)

C. Harvest Kelp  –  pruning kelp stimulates further and stronger kelp growth and thus increases CO2 consumption

1. Biofuel  – (MBET Biofuel) Kelp’s massive biomass could replace all fossil fuels and will be a major contributor in solving Global Warming (see Kelp Biofuel Section).
2. Food Products  – (MBET Kelp Processing)  healthiest edible vegetation (per unit of weight): more calcium than milk, more vitamin C than oranges, more protein than soy); to be grown in purist ocean waters with no pollution; selective breeding to increase nutrients and decrease the absorption of pollutants.  Kelp and seafood will help feed the increasing global population. (MBET Global Seafood Distribution), (MBET Value Added Seafood).
3. Healing compounds from kelp – MBET Cosmeceuticals, MBET Nutriceuticals, MBET Healing Preparations, MBET External Pharmaceuticals, MBET Internal Pharmaceuticals
4. Additives in consumables (to emulsify, thicken, bind) – toothpaste, ice cream, lotions, shampoos, etc. (MBET Kelp Processing)
5. Manufacture into dried kelp product to feed to kelp-eating organisms in aquafarms in areas of the world which have lost their kelp forests (MBET Kelp Processing).  This product has the flexibility of adding medication or nutrients (like plant or insect-based proteins, vitamins, minerals) to the dried kelp to produce an even healthier and more useful product than kelp alone to feed kelp-eating animals like abalone, sea cucumber, sea urchins (AbKelp in Ensenada is the prototype).
6. Organic fertilizer for land-based farming

D. Ecotourism – huge global industry and revenue streams to state and Federal Governments

1. Snorkeling/SCUBA diving in man-rejuvenated kelp forests with complete vertically integrated ecosystems
   • from cruise ships
   • from shore
2. Sport fishing – from cruise ships/shore
3. Sightseeing boats (i.e. glass bottom boats)

E. Fishing concessions for different species of the regenerated ecosystem, thinning each species to stimulate natural regeneration and sustainability.

F. Harvest seafood (MBET Global Seafood Distribution, MBET Value Added Seafood) – Help Feed the World

1. Shellfish (abalone, clams, oysters, scallops, etc.)
2. Crustaceans (crab, lobster, shrimp, etc.)
3. Small fin fish (sardines, mackerel, etc.)
4. Large predatory fin fish (tuna, salmon, cod, sea bass etc.)

a. Most desirable seafood.  This must be increased in a sustainable way to change the dietary habits from land-based, domesticated animals to seafood (see MBET’s Ocean Ranching below).

b. Depletion mostly through over-consumption has reduced total predatory fish by over 90%

c. Normally every increased pound of large fin fish requires consumption of 8-10 pounds of small fin fish; not sustainable to increase harvest of predatory fish

d. MBET’s Ocean Ranching System is designed to increase predatory fish – reestablishing kelp forests and supplementing the predatory fish diet with plant and insect based protein will allow a much higher proportion of predatory fish than even a very healthy kelp forest (an improved and sustainable version of Salmon Ranching in Canada).

G.  Creating a new government brand: “Tremendous economic boost using environmentally beneficial process”.

III. MBET Kelp Reforestation Program

To date, current methods of kelp reforestation have been totally unsuccessful. This can be attributed to inefficient and low yield/low surviving implantation combined with the fact that they are grossly cost inefficient.

Current techniques are extremely expensive, labor-intensive and non-scalable. They use in vitro kelp propagation on strips of tile. Scuba divers then place and secure these tiles to the ocean floor.  The reason for the low kelp survival rate is two-fold.  First, the kelp has not been selectively bred for the increasingly harsh ocean environment and it dies when planted.  Second, its random placement allows hydrodynamic sheering from winter storms and the individual kelp plants are shredded, (see figure 3b).  Thus, current kelp reforestation techniques do not create a sustainable forest.  Therefore, a completely new approach is essential.

The MBET Kelp Reforestation Program offers a major paradigm shift in technology and methodology, using novel and revolutionary in vitro and in vivo technologies. By using these techniques (see below), MBET’s method of kelp reforestation allows for the mass propagation of indigenous kelp plants which are capable of not only  surviving but thriving, as well as expanding in the increasingly warm (from global warming) and polluted ocean off the West Coast of the United States, Canada and Baja (Mexico) and all other indigenous kelp areas around the world. It addresses and solves the coexisting dangers and alarming effects of ocean acidification and hypoxia (OAH) as well as ocean pollution.

1. Methods

1. MBET’s Selective Breeding and Hybridization System™: MBET has developed an in vitro proprietary and patent-pending system of recirculating tanks (patent pending) see Photos 1 and 2. These two by four-foot tanks are arranged in vertical groups of five. They allow complete control of water temperature, water chemistry (including all pH, salinity and pollution, and trace elements), and light intensity, wavelength and duration. The entire R&D laboratory contains over 2000 of these tanks. The second stage of this revolutionary system allows scaling to 100’s of larger (4’ x 4’ x 30 – 60’) “raceways” see photos 3 and 4. These raceways allow grow out and continued conditioning. The diploid sporophytes obtained in these raceways will then be dispersed using the MBET Dynamic Spawning Technique™. This system allows for the conditioning and hybridization of indigenous kelp plants (and animals) to speed up the evolutionary process (natural selection in response to the increasingly harsh environment) and allow them to not only survive but thrive in these deteriorating environmental areas where they are planted. This allows MBET to correct the entire plant and animal ecosystems.
   

   

   

2. The MBET Selective Breeding and Hybridization System™ will be used to correct and revitalize whole ecosystems around the world (coral, seaweed, kelp and all other vegetative ecosystems).  By correcting the lowest rung of the food chain, the entire ecosystem regenerates.  The importance of this, given the past failures of survival of other implantation methods, cannot be overstated.  It also allows for greater reforestation of kelp forests into other areas where previous kelp forests existed, i.e., along the entire West Coast of the United States, Canada and Baja (Mexico) and Chile, Southern coast of Australia, Northeast coast of China, and elsewhere. MBET’s System allows for adaptability as ocean conditions change.

2. Kelp Reforestation Technology – Planting a “Forest” MBET’s Dynamic Spawning Technique™

Equally important is the reproduction of nature’s kelp forest architecture. Previous attempts to “grow kelp” in the ocean have been unsuccessful not only because the new kelp plants have not been acclimated to the changing environment, but also because they have been planted as individual plants rather than as in the MBET configuration of “planting a forest” MBET’s (Dynamic Spawning Technique™).  Planting individual kelp plants allows the massive hydrodynamic forces of winter storms to create sheering and destruction of the plants (see Figure 3-b). The MBET kelp forest configuration and density duplicates nature. It deflects these hydrodynamic forces above and around it (see Figure 3-c and 4). Thus, this forest architecture minimizes kelp damage and allows nature’s normal sustainability.

Figure 3: a) Schematic of a typical random tile layout used to seed giant kelp.  This is the present, traditional technology which involves growing kelp on strips of tiles in vitro (laboratory) and then scuba diving to attach them individually to the ocean floor.  b) Schematics of the hydrodynamics for the strong winter currents traveling Northwest to Southeast (in Western United States) for random distribution of kelp seeding (standard/traditional placement) over one acre c) Schematic of the streamlines velocity due to the hydrodynamic forces deflected by MBET parabola shaped kelp forest.

Figure 4: Sagittal view of a MBET planted kelp forest along the red dashed line schematic (see figure 3), note that the kelp density decreases homogeneously as we go away from the apex of the forest.  The hydrodynamic forces which are especially strong during winter storms causes the higher density kelp to bend backwards streamlining the kelp forest.  This MBET Dynamic Spawning Techniqueô allows even the strongest storms to roll around and above the kelp forest with minimal damage.

The MBET’s Dynamic Spawning Technique™ involves cast spawning in a parabolic pattern which simulates nature.  It is done in late fall/early winter when the highest currents, that ordinarily do the most damage, will instead spawn this kelp (diploid sporophytes) into the most high energy intersections, thus creating the highest concentrations of kelp plants in the path of the highest currents.  It does so “naturally” and thereby creates a kelp forest pattern that is designed to protect the whole plantation. In fact, the energy of the winter storms is the tool used to spread the kelp forest in a natural way.

MBET is currently developing a revolutionary, special, environmentally friendly carbon fiber mesh for deep water (greater than 200 feet) kelp reforestation.  This will be further discussed on the website.  It shows tremendous potential and could allow kelp forest propagation to the ocean boundary of 200 miles offshore.  This could provide the Western United States over 200 million acres of kelp forest along with its ecosystem, and potentially the enormous global benefits:  FEED, HEAL, AND POWER THE WORLD WHILE CLEANING THE ENVIRONMENT.

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