Florida's coral restoration to cost $250 million, when do you need the money by?

How to make money with the oceans and save it

A recent article in the LA Times caught our attention this week.

Apparently to save two species of coral in Florida the cost will be close to $250 million dollars - and take 400 years.

Cue the lamentations from the conservation crowd, "$250 million dollars!?"

Our response was more reasoned, "When do you need the money, oh, and when do you want to start?"

If one plugs in the typical way of doing coral conservation, $250 million dollars will take approximately 30 years to raise. The net effect will be diffused among 20-30 coral and oceans conservation groups and in the end little will be done with the exception of 70,000 lbs of shrimp being consumed at various fundraising events - that's a fair amount of shrimp.

Let's look at this same conservation fundraising issue through our lens.

1. Florida resort hotels account for the largest single use group of natural nearshore reef systems.

2. Less than 1% of Florida resort hotels have coral reef protection or mitigation programs.

3. The primary reason Florida resort hotels do not invest in their near shore reefs is "monetization." (They have not figured out a way to make money from their nearshore reefs directly.)

4. Art inspired artificial reefs not only rebuild habitat, they are also fully monetized from day one.

5. If 10% of Florida resort hotels adopted art inspired artificial reefs they would generate an estimated $470 million dollars in tourism revenues a year.

What could be done with $470 million dollars a year in additional tourism revenues?

A lot of coral restoration with a timeline of 10-20 years for project completion.

We need to start thinking differently in regards to oceans, conservation, and the way we create oceans solutions. Numbers like $250 million should spark ways of thinking that take us outside our comfort zones and into the places where innovation and inspiration give us answers.

Who's in?