Conservation Projects

Part of the mission of the Seahorse Hawaii Foundation is to help put 20% of our ocean into marine reserves around the world. This is the magic number that scientist believe will bring our ocean back to what is was 100 years ago.

These marine reserves need to include the world nursery grounds, which are coral reefs, sea grass beds, bays, inshore and coastal waterways.

These are not only areas where we like to surf and play in the ocean but areas where the seahorse and many other beautiful fish and corals, which I call the art of the sea, were once common. Without protecting these areas we do not have a chance of bringing our oceans back to the pristine state they once were.

Today we have less than 1% of our oceans protected and 6% of this includes the recent addition of the northwestern Hawaiian Islands. We have to do more.

So what the Seahorse Hawaii Foundation is doing is helping with the creation and protection of marine reserves of pristine reefs in Tonga. We are working with to create a Marine Reserve in Vava u Tonga.

Not only can you swim with Humpback whales here, but this is one of the worlds most pristine isolated and untouched reefs that we hope to preserver for future generations.

Close by however are reefs that have been heavily stripped for food by villagers, poachers and aquarium collectors from all over the word. We will be creating an Aquafarm and research station for culturing and restocking Corals, Giant Clams, Sea Cucumbers and Sea horses, and other delicate reef animals in order to restock and restore these reefs.

Our hope is that this combination of marine reserve, aquafarm and research lodge will become a model for other reef communities in Polynesia that are feeling the pressures of our global population of 7 billion people.

We just spent 2 weeks filming the underwater reefs in and around Tonga for the upcoming movie ‘A Different Kind of Farm’. We feel saving this unique underwater world is a perfect example of why marine reserves have to become an urgent worldwide priority.

Just like protecting the rain forest on land, the reefs are the lungs of the ocean and need our urgent help and protection. We hope you would like to help us help the ocean.