OceanX to help Philippines understand fishery sector, apply for blue carbon credits

US-BASED nonprofit exploration group OceanX is set to conduct a research mission in the Philippines next year using the world’s most advanced research vessel, as it tries to help the Southeast Asian nation understand the state of its fishery sector and apply for blue carbon credits. 

OceanX, a nonprofit initiative by Dalio Philanthropies, will work with scientists from Philippine universities and government agencies, Chief Executive Officer Mark Dalio said in an interview inside their flagship vessel OceanXplorer, which was docked at the port of Manila on Thursday.

He said they would accept study proposals from Philippine sectors, noting that the open call would focus on the fishery sector and carbon-related studies. Priorities also include coral and deep sea studies.

“The reason why we’re focused on fisheries and biodiversity assessments is that these have a financial impact on countries,” Mr. Dalio said, noting that the sector is a major source of protein — and exports — for the Philippines.

“Using our full genomics laboratory that we have on board, we can kind of understand the health of fisheries in a much more targeted way,” he added.

OceanX would help the country spot areas where there are declines in fishery outputs and understand why it’s happening, he added.

“The research will allow for the countries to have a much more real-time assessment of that. We’ll have long-term benefits in terms of the health of the oceans, but also long-term financial benefits as well.”

For carbon studies, the goal is to come up with data that would help the country “apply for carbon credits,” Mr. Dalio said.

The Philippine Environment department has been pushing legislation that will formalize the Philippines’ carbon credit system.

In May 2023, it signed a memorandum of agreement with Marubeni Corp., DMCI Holdings unit Dacon Corp. and the University of the Philippines Los Baños College of Forestry and Natural Resources for the development of a carbon credit program focused on reforestation.

In November 2023, the Climate Change Commission and Maharlika Carbon Technologies Liability Limited Corp. signed a deal to support efforts to create a national registry that will let the Philippines sell sovereign carbon credits to the global market. 

UNMAPPED SEAS
Mr. Dalio said studying ocean-based carbon credits is relatively “a new concept,” noting that its studies with Philippine scientists would likely “open up new ways of getting carbon credits.”

More than 80% of the world’s ocean remains unmapped, according to Oceana.

“Overall in the entire world, there’s very little known about the deep sea because there are few organizations that have submersibles with remotely operated vehicles,” said Mr. Dalio, who used to be a filmmaker for National Geographic.

“The organizations that have the most knowledge is usually the oil and gas vessels because they are the ones that have remotely operated vehicles,” he added.

Mr. Dalio said OceanX’s flagship vessel was originally an oil surveyor ship. “Because it had all the deep sea capabilities, we took the oil surveyor vessel off the market and we converted it into a science research vessel and then converted it with science labs and other facilities,” he said.

Two of the four vehicles aboard the 87.1-meter OceanXplorer, which uses state-of-the-art optical technology to stream ocean exploration in real time, are manned submersibles that can go as deep as 1,000 meters.

It also has two 6,000-meter remote-operated vehicles. 

“When you get into Southeast Asia, it has some of the deepest seas around this region yet it doesn’t have, let’s say, research,” he said. “It has research vessels, but it’s not an extensive amount of research vessels.”

“So the deep sea is very unexplored overall, and part of what we’re hoping to do is map it, show it, learn more about it, and get more individuals and more organizations and governments interested in doing scientific studies that will benefit the health of the oceans.”

Agriculture Secretary Francisco Tiu Laurel, Jr. said the government hopes that the research by OceanX in the Philippines would “make us understand more how we can repopulate our fisheries, how we can breed, and how we can hatch more fingerlings and fries and all different species.”

“The research that will be done here will be a chance for us to repopulate our fisheries faster,” he said in a fireside chat on the sidelines of the tour of OceaneXplorer at the Manila port. — Kyle Aristophere T. Atienza