Welcome to c/tidalpunk, a community dedicated to imagining and building a better future for our oceans and marine environments!

Tidalpunk is a sub-genre of Solarpunk, one which applies the themes of sustainable technology, conservation, accessibility, and community action to our global oceans and other waters.

Oceans are a crucial part of our planet's health, and so their preservation is crucial for our planet's future wellbeing. This is a space to celebrate efforts to protect and support marine systems, discuss emerging sustainable aquatic tech, share new oceanic discoveries, and post ideas about what a tidalpunk future may look like.

Some years ago, I was doing a little volunteer work with Climate Foundation, and I loved their long-term vision. It was based on these facts: 1) giant kelp is fast-growing brown algae that thrives in cold, nutrient-rich water. It is among the fastest-growing plants in the world 2) kelp thrives when there is abundant sunlight - clear water is much better for kelp than turbid water 3) cold, nutrient-rich seawater is present in oceans worldwide, but in the tropics, for example, it is present only below a depth of about 300 meters 4) kelp needs an anchor-point - it attaches and grows long fronds - it does not grow free-floating.

So the CF vision was to eventually build large kelp farm support arrays at a depth of 30 meters - suspended from buoys at the surface. Cold water would be drawn up from deeper ocean to create a suitable habitat for the kelp at the surface. But ships could still pass right over the platforms, if they could avoid the support buoys. These floating arrays would have the potential to support a vast new fishery in the tropics where pelagic fish are relative scarce in natural conditions. The fast growing kelp would absorb a large amount of carbon dioxide, and kelp fronds that sink in the deep ocean carry their carbon to the abyss where it is fixed for practical purposes for centuries, at least. Finally, vast kelp forests could support a range of industries; tourism certainly, but also a variety of chemical and food products that can be derived directly from kelp or with some added processing.

cross-posted from: https://kbin.social/m/environment@beehaw.org/t/81637

Although sand dunes often conjure images of great deserts, they also occur along coastlines worldwide and can be an important buffer for communities threatened by sea level rise, storms and coastal erosion.

This is also the site of the deepest wind turbine foundation in the world. It will be interesting to see the data on this one from ongoing studies into the impact of offshore wind farms on marine ecosystems!

Really interesting study from the Journal of Coastal Research - I think work like this is a massively useful transition strategy. There's a lot of benefits to blending economic practicality (construction methods that remain feasible for local governments and small community or private groups), and ecologically minded design (features that improve a project's impact on local ecology)

I've been learning about the cultivation of algae and cyanobacteria, and I found this guide to be an interesting read. What do you guys think about algae as a potential sustainable food source?

The sailing ship is a textbook example of sustainability. For at least 4,000 years, sailing ships have transported passengers and cargo across the world’s seas and oceans without using a single drop of fossil fuels. If we want to keep travelling and trading globally in a low carbon society, sailing ships are the obvious alternative to container ships, bulk carriers, and airplanes.

Do you think that Final Fantasy X would count as tidalpunk? The world has a strong connection with water and for the most part its people seem to live in peace with nature (if you don't count monsters).

Also, can you recommend me anything you'd consider tidalpunk? Games, books, shows, whatever.

Species like tuna and sharks are especially vulnerable to these changes.