Shining a light on blue carbon
In 2020 we ran a blue carbon squared campaign, cleaning a square meter of mangrove for every blue ocean edition gin sold.
Blue Light Blue Carbon Squared
Our mangrove cleanup campaign
What is Blue Carbon?
Plants absorb Carbon Dioxide (CO2) out of the air and convert it into Oxygen. Marine based plants (mangroves, seagrass, wetlands) can do this at far greater rates than most land-based ones. The CO2 stored in marine plants (and soil) is called Blue Carbon.
Why is Blue Carbon important?
Our planet’s CO2 emissions are going up and our natural CO2 reducers (plant populations) are going down. These contradicting points are contributing to the rising global tempeatures (global warming). Blue Carbon is important due to its efficiency.
Mangroves can store around twice as much CO2 per square area compared to tropical forests. It means for every square area of mangrove lost/destroyed, twice as much CO2 is released into our atmosphere (compared to forests).
Mangroves. The key to marine life.
What's the Damage?
Over the last 50 years, around 30-50% of mangroves, globally, have been destroyed/lost. It’s said that the rate of loss continues at around 2% per year. That’s a huge impact!
Apart from storing huge volumes of CO2 and helping to keep global temperatures down, mangroves are also the breeding grounds for much of the tropical fish populations. They provide food, shelter and habitat for a huge percentage of marine species. It’s estimated that 75% of commerically caught fish spend time in mangroves or rely of a food web directly linked to mangrove areas.
What's causing Mangrove loss?
There are a few contributors to mangrove loss. These include aquaculture, agriculture, mangrove forest exploitation, terrestrial and marine sources of pollution and industrial and urban coastal development.
Plastic travels well both on land and in the sea. If it ends up blowing or washing into a mangrove, the chance of it getting tangled and stuck inside is high. Over time the build up of plastic is killing mangrove species (crabs, birds, fish) that help to keep the ecosystem functional.
What is Blue Light Squared?
For every bottle of our Blue Ocean Edition Gin sold we have an informative bottle tag. Each of these tags convert directly to one squared meter of mangrove that will be cleaned on your behalf. One square meter of mangrove can store around 100kg of CO2.
While the Blue Square does have a direct, physical impact it means much more. Pollution is only one of the many continuous to mangrove loss. However, by purchasing a bottle of Blue Ocean Edition gin you are shining a (blue) light on a very important issue. Our goal is to use this platform to encourage greater awareness and protection of these amazing marine ecosystems going forward.