March 23, 2026
Why Ocean Solutions Fail, And How Business Can Actually Save the Ocean
Ocean conservation is failing to scale, and it’s not because of a lack of science. In this episode, we break down why decades of ocean research have not stopped overfishing, pollution, and habitat loss, and what is really holding solutions back.
Ocean solutions need more than discovery, they need adoption. You’ll learn how business models, financial incentives, and scalable systems are the missing link between scientific breakthroughs and real-world impact. We explore why many conservation efforts stall, and what separates small successes from global change.
Ocean innovation is already happening, and it’s changing the game. From nutrient capture systems that turn pollution into profit to scalable environmental solutions, this episode shows how aligning economics with conservation can drive faster, larger impact than traditional approaches.
Follow How to Protect the Ocean to learn how science, policy, and business come together to create real ocean solutions.
Transcript
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What if the biggest barrier to saving the
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ocean isn't science?
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What if we already know how to solve many
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of the solutions to the ocean's biggest
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problems overfishing,
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pollution, habitat destruction?
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And yet those problems
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are still getting worse.
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So why? They never reach the people who
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need them and they never scale.
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This is the How to Protect the Ocean
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podcast, where we
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break down what's really
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happening in the ocean and why it matters
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to you and how you can be part of the
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solution. So if you're interested in this
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more of this type of content, hit
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that follow button so you
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don't miss tomorrow's episode.
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For decades, we believe that
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science will save the ocean.
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And to be honest, it allows us to view
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what's really happening in the ocean,
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identify trends, whether they're positive
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or whether negative.
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And so don't get me wrong.
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Science is still critical.
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It helps us understand ecosystems, it
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identifies threats, it helps us develop
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solutions. But here's the problem. The
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science doesn't scale the solutions.
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It doesn't drive adoption and it doesn't
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change behavior on its own.
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We've known about nutrient pollution and
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dead zones for over 50 years.
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We've understood the overfishing dynamics
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since the 1970s and we've been
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documenting coral reef decline
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for decades. And yet dead zones are still
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expanding. Fish stocks
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are still under pressure
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and coral reefs are still disappearing.
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We are not lacking the knowledge.
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We are lacking the implementation. I just
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went to the World Ocean
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Summit put on by the economist
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that was done a couple of weeks ago in
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Montreal. And it was a great
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conference. Don't get me wrong.
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Everybody there was super friendly.
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Everybody there wanted to
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meet other people. Everybody
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there were out there looking at solution.
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And we knew the solutions.
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The High Seas Treaty was put in.
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The World Trade Organization subsidy
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program or policy was put
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in. And there was a lot of talk
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about those. But there was, it was really
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just talk and about the
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prediction of the future and
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whether things will be implemented or
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not. And when I spoke to
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somebody there, then I don't want
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to mention their name, but they said,
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wouldn't it be great if we had instead of
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us like just a discussion
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conference, we had an implementation
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discussion conference.
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Speaking about how companies,
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organizations are implementing the
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solutions that will actually
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help protect the ocean and scale
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those solutions to a point where we can
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actually make a difference. In
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comes the Earth X conference.
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At Earth X, one idea came up again and
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again. Solutions only scale when they
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become financially viable.
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Because scale requires adoption and
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adoption requires
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incentives. If a solution depends on
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people doing the right thing, it will
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struggle. If a solution depends on
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economic incentives,
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it spreads fast. And that's where
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business comes in. Not
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just profit, distribution,
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replication, scale. Business is what
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turns a good idea into something that
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actually changes the world.
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Let's look at a real life example.
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Fertilizer runoff is one of the biggest
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drivers of ocean dead zones.
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I actually had the opportunity to do some
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data collection and one
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of my first jobs at LumCon,
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the Louisiana University's Marine
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Consortium in the Gulf of
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Mexico. I did my work there as a
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marine technician aboard the RV Pelican,
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which is still running today,
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I believe. And we had a great
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time. I, my first job was awesome. I was
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out in the Gulf of Mexico
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doing all this wonderful thing.
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I got to work with one of the scientists
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that came on board, which was
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at the time was was a resident
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scientist at LumCon at the Institute. And
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she studied the dead zone, the the Gulf
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of Mexico dead zone,
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which is essentially nutrient runoff
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comes off of the Mississippi
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River, which runs all the way up
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the Midwest of the U.S., comes down,
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collects all these fertilizers, nitrates,
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nitrogen, ammonia, all these
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nutrients and phosphates that come down
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in the Mississippi. They
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empty into the Gulf of Mexico. And
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when they empty into the Gulf of Mexico
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in the spring, there's this
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spring bloom of phytoplankton,
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because once you get the great weather,
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once you get the right amount of
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currents, and once you get
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the right heat and nutrients, you get
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this bloom of phytoplankton in the
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spring. And that phytoplankton
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mixes in the water column as the wind
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kind of comes in and it mixes
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and mixes. And then eventually
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it'll hit summer and the wind will die
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down, the layers will stratify and the
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phytoplankton will die and move to the
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bottom of the ocean.
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At the bottom of the ocean, that's where
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the microbes just kind of break them down
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and they eat them up and they use oxygen
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when they eat them up.
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And so when that oxygen is taken out of
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the bottom of the ocean, that one and a
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half meter layer is
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devoid of oxygen in some cases.
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And that hypoxic zone is what we call the
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hypoxic zone. That hypoxic zone is
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extending year after year after year.
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And it's measured every year. And I was
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part of that program to help measure
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that. And it was unreal how
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different it was every year.
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And the fertilizers that would be
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regulated the next year were based on the
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results from the previous year.
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And it was kind of it went all the way up
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to Congress. And it was quite the program
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and something that, you know, people had
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to look out for in the future.
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And I'm sure Nancy Rabelle, Dr. Nancy
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Rabelle wasn't really a lot of didn't
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make a lot of friends in the agriculture
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company, the agricultural industry,
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because, you know, she was basically
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based on the results.
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She was having a say in the regulation of
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how much fertilizer can be used. Right.
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So when you get excess nitrogen
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phosphorus washing up in agricultural
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fields flows through
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rivers and up in the ocean.
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Once there, you get that fuel, the algal
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bloom, it comes down, it all dies down.
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Now, here's the shift.
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So instead of trying to convince farmers
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to simply use less fertilizers, some
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innovators built systems that capture
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excess nutrients
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before they leave the field.
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And then they do something even smarter.
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They return that captured waste back into
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fertilizer, a product,
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something that can be sold.
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And now reducing pollution isn't a
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burden. It's a business opportunity.
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And farmers don't need to care about the
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ocean conservation to adopt it. It just
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makes economic sense.
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Now, compare that to a typical
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conservation project, grant funded short
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term, limited by specific place. It
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works, but it doesn't spread.
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Now, compare that to a business model. It
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generates revenue, it attracts
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investment, and it's replicated across
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regions and industries.
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That's the difference between impact and
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global impact. We don't just need
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solutions that work. We
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need solutions that scale.
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And if you ever talk to a scientist who's
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doing one of these pilot studies, a lot
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of the times they're just
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wanting to protect the ocean.
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The incentive to do something more,
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although some scientists are doing it, is
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not really in their purview.
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They just want to get everything started
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and let somebody else, an innovator, take
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over or at least be part of that process.
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But a lot of the times the business
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people that solve the problems and
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provide the solutions and are willing to
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invest money to put it together.
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When I met the World Ocean Summit, one of
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the biggest things that people are
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looking for is funding, is
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seed funding, is pilot funding.
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There was no mechanism to generate
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revenue just yet to get that off the
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ground. Once they get off the ground,
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they have that revenue.
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And the ones that are going to be
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successful are ones that drive revenue
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quickly and are able to bring it to a
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market and able to scale that.
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So if you're a scientist or a
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conservationist or a student listening to
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this, you need to
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start thinking differently.
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Not just about does this solution work,
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but can the solution scale? Can it
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sustain itself? And can it
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spread without constant funding?
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Because solving the problem is step one.
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But scaling the solution is
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what actually protects the ocean.
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One last thing about the World Ocean
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Summit that you'll probably get at the
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Earth X Summit is you'll get people that
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like I saw at the World Ocean Summit,
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there was a couple of people that I met
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that were scientists and it were
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frustrated with the academic process
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because they found something within their
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graduate studies that said, hey, this is
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a big thing that we need to do.
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And we can use it as a tool for industry
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to use to clean up or to identify risks
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in what they do that
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could protect the environment.
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But when they realized that tool wasn't
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really going to be used, it was just more
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of an exercise, maybe more of someone's
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master's degree, they got extremely
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frustrated and they ended up starting a
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business that will actually help the
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solution better and it'll
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scale the solution better.
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And this is a different solution, but
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they know that they can actually have a
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bigger impact on the world because they
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control where the solution goes and they
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can bring in money on their own and
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generate revenue to
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continue to solve that problem.
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So that's what we're going to be talking
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about this week. We're going to talk
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about businesses. We're going to be
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talking about how they're affecting how
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they are finding solutions
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and scaling those solutions.
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And then at the end on Friday, I have a
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great interview with Peter Semek, who is
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the CEO of Earth X talking about the
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Earth X conference is coming up at the
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end of April, April 20th to 22nd.
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You're going to love the interview. I
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highly recommend that you listen to it
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because you're going to find out it's
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actually not just one
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conference, 20 conferences in one.
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So if you it doesn't matter if you're
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listening to this and you're an engineer,
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you're a business person, you're a
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scientist, you're a conservationist, it
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doesn't matter what you are, you will
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find something that you love there.
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So stay tuned if you want to learn more
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about how businesses can help and how
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businesses are helping
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finding solutions to the ocean.
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You know, hit that follow button. Don't
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miss tomorrow's episode.
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And of course, stay in all week because
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that's we're going to
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be covering all week.
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And you get the interview from Peter
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Semek from the CEO of Earth X on Friday.
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So stay tuned, hit that follow button so
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you don't miss any episodes.
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I want to thank you so much for joining
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me on today's episode of the How to
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Protect the Ocean podcast.
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Have a great day. We'll talk to you next
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time and happy conservation.
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What if the biggest barrier to saving the
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ocean isn't science?
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What if we already know how to solve many
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of the solutions to the ocean's biggest
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00:00:08,708 --> 00:00:10,166
problems overfishing,
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pollution, habitat destruction?
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And yet those problems
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are still getting worse.
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So why? They never reach the people who
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need them and they never scale.
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This is the How to Protect the Ocean
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00:00:22,500 --> 00:00:23,208
podcast, where we
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00:00:23,208 --> 00:00:24,541
break down what's really
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happening in the ocean and why it matters
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00:00:26,625 --> 00:00:28,375
to you and how you can be part of the
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00:00:28,416 --> 00:00:30,166
solution. So if you're interested in this
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more of this type of content, hit
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00:00:32,125 --> 00:00:32,958
that follow button so you
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00:00:32,958 --> 00:00:34,000
don't miss tomorrow's episode.
20
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For decades, we believe that
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science will save the ocean.
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And to be honest, it allows us to view
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what's really happening in the ocean,
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identify trends, whether they're positive
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or whether negative.
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And so don't get me wrong.
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Science is still critical.
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It helps us understand ecosystems, it
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identifies threats, it helps us develop
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solutions. But here's the problem. The
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science doesn't scale the solutions.
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It doesn't drive adoption and it doesn't
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change behavior on its own.
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We've known about nutrient pollution and
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dead zones for over 50 years.
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We've understood the overfishing dynamics
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since the 1970s and we've been
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documenting coral reef decline
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for decades. And yet dead zones are still
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expanding. Fish stocks
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are still under pressure
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and coral reefs are still disappearing.
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We are not lacking the knowledge.
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We are lacking the implementation. I just
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went to the World Ocean
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Summit put on by the economist
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that was done a couple of weeks ago in
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Montreal. And it was a great
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conference. Don't get me wrong.
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Everybody there was super friendly.
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Everybody there wanted to
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meet other people. Everybody
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there were out there looking at solution.
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And we knew the solutions.
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The High Seas Treaty was put in.
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The World Trade Organization subsidy
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program or policy was put
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in. And there was a lot of talk
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about those. But there was, it was really
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just talk and about the
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prediction of the future and
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whether things will be implemented or
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not. And when I spoke to
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somebody there, then I don't want
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to mention their name, but they said,
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wouldn't it be great if we had instead of
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us like just a discussion
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conference, we had an implementation
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discussion conference.
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Speaking about how companies,
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organizations are implementing the
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solutions that will actually
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help protect the ocean and scale
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those solutions to a point where we can
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actually make a difference. In
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comes the Earth X conference.
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At Earth X, one idea came up again and
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again. Solutions only scale when they
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become financially viable.
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Because scale requires adoption and
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adoption requires
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incentives. If a solution depends on
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people doing the right thing, it will
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struggle. If a solution depends on
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economic incentives,
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it spreads fast. And that's where
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business comes in. Not
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just profit, distribution,
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replication, scale. Business is what
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turns a good idea into something that
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actually changes the world.
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Let's look at a real life example.
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Fertilizer runoff is one of the biggest
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drivers of ocean dead zones.
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I actually had the opportunity to do some
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data collection and one
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of my first jobs at LumCon,
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the Louisiana University's Marine
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Consortium in the Gulf of
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Mexico. I did my work there as a
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marine technician aboard the RV Pelican,
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which is still running today,
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I believe. And we had a great
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time. I, my first job was awesome. I was
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out in the Gulf of Mexico
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doing all this wonderful thing.
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I got to work with one of the scientists
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that came on board, which was
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at the time was was a resident
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scientist at LumCon at the Institute. And
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she studied the dead zone, the the Gulf
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of Mexico dead zone,
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which is essentially nutrient runoff
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comes off of the Mississippi
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River, which runs all the way up
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the Midwest of the U.S., comes down,
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collects all these fertilizers, nitrates,
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nitrogen, ammonia, all these
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nutrients and phosphates that come down
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in the Mississippi. They
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empty into the Gulf of Mexico. And
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when they empty into the Gulf of Mexico
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in the spring, there's this
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spring bloom of phytoplankton,
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because once you get the great weather,
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once you get the right amount of
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currents, and once you get
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the right heat and nutrients, you get
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this bloom of phytoplankton in the
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spring. And that phytoplankton
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mixes in the water column as the wind
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kind of comes in and it mixes
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and mixes. And then eventually
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it'll hit summer and the wind will die
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down, the layers will stratify and the
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phytoplankton will die and move to the
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bottom of the ocean.
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At the bottom of the ocean, that's where
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the microbes just kind of break them down
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and they eat them up and they use oxygen
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when they eat them up.
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And so when that oxygen is taken out of
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the bottom of the ocean, that one and a
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half meter layer is
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devoid of oxygen in some cases.
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And that hypoxic zone is what we call the
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hypoxic zone. That hypoxic zone is
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extending year after year after year.
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And it's measured every year. And I was
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part of that program to help measure
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that. And it was unreal how
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different it was every year.
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And the fertilizers that would be
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regulated the next year were based on the
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results from the previous year.
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And it was kind of it went all the way up
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to Congress. And it was quite the program
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and something that, you know, people had
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to look out for in the future.
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And I'm sure Nancy Rabelle, Dr. Nancy
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Rabelle wasn't really a lot of didn't
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make a lot of friends in the agriculture
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company, the agricultural industry,
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because, you know, she was basically
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based on the results.
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She was having a say in the regulation of
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how much fertilizer can be used. Right.
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So when you get excess nitrogen
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phosphorus washing up in agricultural
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fields flows through
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rivers and up in the ocean.
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Once there, you get that fuel, the algal
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bloom, it comes down, it all dies down.
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Now, here's the shift.
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So instead of trying to convince farmers
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to simply use less fertilizers, some
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innovators built systems that capture
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excess nutrients
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before they leave the field.
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And then they do something even smarter.
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They return that captured waste back into
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fertilizer, a product,
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something that can be sold.
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And now reducing pollution isn't a
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burden. It's a business opportunity.
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And farmers don't need to care about the
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ocean conservation to adopt it. It just
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makes economic sense.
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Now, compare that to a typical
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conservation project, grant funded short
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term, limited by specific place. It
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works, but it doesn't spread.
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Now, compare that to a business model. It
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generates revenue, it attracts
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investment, and it's replicated across
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regions and industries.
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That's the difference between impact and
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global impact. We don't just need
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solutions that work. We
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need solutions that scale.
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And if you ever talk to a scientist who's
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doing one of these pilot studies, a lot
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of the times they're just
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wanting to protect the ocean.
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The incentive to do something more,
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although some scientists are doing it, is
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not really in their purview.
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They just want to get everything started
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and let somebody else, an innovator, take
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over or at least be part of that process.
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But a lot of the times the business
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people that solve the problems and
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provide the solutions and are willing to
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invest money to put it together.
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When I met the World Ocean Summit, one of
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the biggest things that people are
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looking for is funding, is
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seed funding, is pilot funding.
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There was no mechanism to generate
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revenue just yet to get that off the
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ground. Once they get off the ground,
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they have that revenue.
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And the ones that are going to be
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successful are ones that drive revenue
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quickly and are able to bring it to a
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market and able to scale that.
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So if you're a scientist or a
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conservationist or a student listening to
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this, you need to
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start thinking differently.
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Not just about does this solution work,
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but can the solution scale? Can it
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sustain itself? And can it
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spread without constant funding?
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Because solving the problem is step one.
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But scaling the solution is
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what actually protects the ocean.
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One last thing about the World Ocean
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Summit that you'll probably get at the
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Earth X Summit is you'll get people that
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like I saw at the World Ocean Summit,
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there was a couple of people that I met
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that were scientists and it were
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frustrated with the academic process
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because they found something within their
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graduate studies that said, hey, this is
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a big thing that we need to do.
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And we can use it as a tool for industry
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to use to clean up or to identify risks
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in what they do that
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could protect the environment.
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But when they realized that tool wasn't
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really going to be used, it was just more
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of an exercise, maybe more of someone's
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master's degree, they got extremely
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frustrated and they ended up starting a
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business that will actually help the
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solution better and it'll
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scale the solution better.
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And this is a different solution, but
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they know that they can actually have a
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bigger impact on the world because they
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control where the solution goes and they
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can bring in money on their own and
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generate revenue to
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continue to solve that problem.
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So that's what we're going to be talking
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about this week. We're going to talk
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about businesses. We're going to be
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talking about how they're affecting how
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they are finding solutions
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and scaling those solutions.
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And then at the end on Friday, I have a
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great interview with Peter Semek, who is
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the CEO of Earth X talking about the
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Earth X conference is coming up at the
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end of April, April 20th to 22nd.
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You're going to love the interview. I
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highly recommend that you listen to it
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because you're going to find out it's
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actually not just one
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conference, 20 conferences in one.
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So if you it doesn't matter if you're
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listening to this and you're an engineer,
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you're a business person, you're a
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scientist, you're a conservationist, it
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doesn't matter what you are, you will
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find something that you love there.
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So stay tuned if you want to learn more
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about how businesses can help and how
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businesses are helping
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finding solutions to the ocean.
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You know, hit that follow button. Don't
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miss tomorrow's episode.
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And of course, stay in all week because
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that's we're going to
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be covering all week.
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And you get the interview from Peter
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Semek from the CEO of Earth X on Friday.
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So stay tuned, hit that follow button so
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you don't miss any episodes.
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I want to thank you so much for joining
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me on today's episode of the How to
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Protect the Ocean podcast.
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Have a great day. We'll talk to you next
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time and happy conservation.
