Eco-friendly antifouling, seaweed bricks, boat recycling… 3 solutions to protect the oceans

Each year, the Ocean Pitch Challenge identifies marine conservation champions. Born from the alliance between the Sustainable Ocean Alliance (SOA) and the RespectOcean association, this international competition is an opportunity to highlight innovative and environmental initiatives around the seas and oceans. From January 19 to February 28, 2023, the third edition of the Ocean Pitch Challenge launches with the ambition to support the emergence of solutions that have a positive impact on the ocean.

After registration and at the end of the selection process, the three best projects will be awarded. In 2022, three entries were announced as winners after projects, training and a pitching challenge in front of a panel of judges. These include non-toxic anti-boat paint, a Sargassum recycling project made from bio-bricks and a recycling system for end-of-life boats to create a circular economy.

Finsulate: less polluted oceans with this coating for boat hulls

He is the first winner of Ocean Pitch Challenge 2022. Antifouling is used to protect the hull of submerged boats and to prevent mussels, algae and other organisms from adhering and growing, damaging the hull and slowing the vessel. . This particular coating is often toxic to underwater flora and fauna. But the company Finsulate was inspired by nature, and more precisely by sea urchins, to imagine a biocide-free self-adhesive coating.

Specifically, the system works in a mechanical and non-toxic manner. Like the sea urchin, which uses its spines to defend itself, Finsulate has tiny spines that prevent the organisms from attaching themselves properly. Therefore, it is enough to dip and remove them regularly with a brush or spatula. Finally, this film is guaranteed for 5 years, which reduces maintenance costs of conventional polluting paint.

Discover Finsulate’s video pitch to limit pollution in the oceans:

Home algae: (seaweed) brick is gorgeous

This innovative project, started by six students from Sup’Biotech, aims to turn algae, sargassum, into bio-bricks for building houses. The idea came to them when they observed the increasing presence of this brown algae in many coastal countries, including France, since 2011. By washing up on beaches, sargassum destroys ecosystems, releasing toxic gases as well as foul odors. Therefore, it is a real environmental, economic and health problem. So why not restore and convert it?

This is the call to Home of Algae awarded during the Ocean Pitch Challenge 2022. Instead of burning this algae, which accounts for 90% of sargassum collected on beaches, six students had the idea to transform it. biobrick for construction, “lighter and more durable than conventional cement bricks”. They are still conducting various experiments to optimize the creative process and validate the concept before they start looking for investors to develop and bring their ideas to market.

Discover the Alguae to House video:

Good luck! New life for expired boats

This is the story of a chance encounter in 2021. During the sea innovation competition, Bon Vent! » meet and decide to answer the real problem: what to do with boats at the end of their life? The project wanted to find an appropriate response to the ecological transition initiated by the state and Europe. Good luck! therefore began to envision a process to reduce the environmental impact of yachting waste while creating a circular economy sector and providing new and quality services to boaters crossing the oceans.

Through the online market, the idea is to simplify the recycling of various dismantled elements of boats so that they can be reused directly or after conversion; This is called the circular economy. The goal is to make it possible to go from 1,000 boats that are recycled each year to 5,000 that can be dismantled each year to 3,000.

Discover Bon Vent’s video reel! :

Ocean Pitch Challenge 2023: a call for projects to protect the oceans

Until February 28, 2023, you can submit a file with your impact idea that will help protect the oceans. Applications must be submitted here. The competition is open to anyone, individuals, associations, companies in France and abroad. Projects can be in the idea stage, prototype stage or already in the market.

The 10 projects selected by the initial selection committee will benefit from a month of training to improve their pitching technique. Then, during the Grand Finale, a presentation will be held in front of a professional audience, at the end of which three projects will be awarded in favor of ocean conservation. Note that in addition to the three winners, the preliminary selection committee will award three special awards:

• “solution for marine biodiversity” special award in collaboration with the French Biodiversity Office (OFB)
• Special “bio-inspiring solution” award in collaboration with NewCorp Conseil / Biomim’Expo
• Special start-up award in partnership with SOA

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