We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Shelby Thomas . We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Shelby below.

Shelby , thanks for taking the time to share your stories with us today Let’s kick things off with talking about how you serve the underserved, because in our view this is one of the most important things the small business community does for society – by serving those who the giant corporations ignore, small business helps create a more inclusive and just world for all of us.

We help serve the underserved marine environment and coastal communities. ORAI artificial reefs serve as a targeted solution in the face of pressing marine habitat challenges, to increase coastal resiliency, expand ecosystem services and create lasting habitat for biodiverse marine organisms. We must acknowledge however, that even with our best efforts, threats to our coral reefs will continue well into the future. We believe that education, engagement and action is key to addressing these threats, and that education provides an essential impetus to action.

That is why ORAI complements our important reef restoration efforts with the Coral Rangers Program, specifically designed to ensure that future generations understand and appreciate the critical role coral reefs play in maintaining healthy ocean ecosystems, providing shoreline protection and maintaining our fisheries.The Coral Rangers Program combines classroom learning programs with hands-on experiences to engage school age children in activities that promote a love for the ocean and the coral reefs so vital to their ecological survival.

Access to marine resources is expensive, ORAI is committed to creating accessibility to marine resources to underserved communities and youth.
Our goal is to inspire and equip the next generation to become responsible stewards of our oceans.

Children are remarkably impressionable, and there is no better time to reach them than now. With your help, many of the students we reach will become environmental stewards of the ocean, and perhaps, even career professionals dedicated to carrying on the important task of preserving our reefs!

Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.

I am a marine biologist who specializes in applied restoration, I have always had a passion for marine restoration specifically coral restoration. I grew to see the inherent gaps and problems within the marine restoration industry that inhibited true sustainable and regenerative growth. This eventually led me into creating business models to support large scaled marine restoration. I founded my nonprofit the Ocean Rescue Alliance International in 2019 which implements innovative techniques to restore marine environments. We use artificial structure to enhance marine environments, build marine habitat, conduct restoration, protect coast lines, and connect communities through art. Our work complements various sectors of United Nations sustainable development goals (SDGs) and environmental, social, governance (ESG) impact. ORAI projects fulfill addressing biological goals while supporting socioeconomic issues. ORAI projects not only support the blue economy and peoples livelihoods but more importantly restore thousands of hectares of marine resources and conserve marine life. We build artificial structure for strategic biological purposes which include the following.

Our artificial reef services provide:
* Coastal protection/ resiliency (artificial structures that reduce 75% of wave energy on average and protect against coastal erosion) most scalable and needed solution to protect and support coastal communities.
* Restoration (coral, oyster and mangrove restoration)
* Fish habitat (each reef supports fisheries and habitat complexity)
* Biodiversity (each reef supports marine biodiversity with diverse habitat space)
* Ecotourism (each reef supports eco tourism through art and tourism)

Fundamentally we believe in providing actionable solutions that any individual can do through our work. We are aiming to develop a societal impact to adopt the understanding of through serving nature we serve ourselves. We believe in creating meaningful connection that sustains long-lasting impact and individual accountability to protecting our natural resources.

Let’s talk about resilience next – do you have a story you can share with us?

We have had countless challenges to overcome from politics, environmental factors, limited funding and being a pioneer in the artificial infrastructure space. One of the biggest challenges being obtaining permits and the scientific community acceptance of our work. Specifically we worked to develop small bases to help expedite coral outplanting on natural reefs it took 3 years to obtain the permits, trust and respect to implement this in areas of great need. Some of the timing coupled with limited funds has created hurdles but we have stayed resilient with maintaining the mission and vision to help restore our marine ecosystems.

Can you tell us the story behind how you met your business partner?

How meeting an artist lead to starting my nonprofit.

In 2017 I met an artist who initially body casted people as roman-esk figures, no head or lower body just physique. He had a client who wanted his wife sculpted as a mermaid, life size, 10 ft tall, to put at the end of his dock by his yacht in Miami Beach… months later the mermaid is built and beautiful! Returning excited to his client, the client responded with “Welp I have bad news… I am losing my house, wife and yaht..” The artist shocked what should we do with this mermaid sculpture? “Just throw it in the ocean for all I care…” …sparks idea.. well can we do that?.. so make this sculpture an artificial reef.. This artist approached an artificial reef builder to explore its feasibility and eventually lead that road to me a coral biologist. They wanted to put coral on the statue.. after getting turned away by many scientists and once again were expecting another shut down by me which I did….but they peaked my interest. Now in reality we can not put coral on these sculptures for restoration in Florida but we could use the sculptures to engage and fund direct restoration… Further I speculated at the time maybe we could possibly put coral on structures if they more closely mimicked natural reefs.

And so started my nonprofit Ocean Rescue Alliance International (ORAI), a marine conservation and restoration nonprofit organization that implements innovative techniques to restore marine environments at scale. We use artificial structure to enhance marine environments, build marine habitat, conduct restoration, protect coast lines, and connect communities through art. Through the last 5 years we have developed novel structures that mimic natural reef geology, create complex habitat that supports biodiversity, provide nursery bases that we actively outplant corals, oysters or mangroves and can act as breakwaters to protect against coastal erosion. We make reefs intentionally to be biofunctional while continuing to innovate designs that take local ecology and biology in mind. With over 280 reefs in the water a majority dedicated to habitat and research, over 25,000 corals outplanted to natural reefs and 8 restoration applications developed to scale oyster, mangrove and coral restoration with more to come.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.oceanrescuealliance.org & www.1000mermaids.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/oceanrescuealliance/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/OceanRescueAlliance
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/company/ocean-rescue-alliance
• Twitter: https://twitter.com/ORA_Reefs
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCYGwHhsQdzwBVO5KmOdOYcQ https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCvyzIk70_6BxMmeSykJ7HrQ
• Other: personal ig: @shelbythomas21 linkedin: www.linkedin.com/in/shelby-thomas-347241b5

Image Credits
Making Waves Productions with Timothy and Megan Sullivan John Garza Shelby Thomas Ocean Rescue Alliance International