This European Social Enterprise Is Giving Gen Z Jobs They Actually Want—And Protecting Our Oceans

“The climate conversation is always policy, science, or tech. It should be about people,” says Van Der Werf. “The Sea Ranger Service doesn’t just offer jobs. We offer purpose.”

Van Der Werf recruits unemployed or underemployed Europeans as young as 18-years-old, into a five-week boot camp run by military veterans to teach teamwork, strength, and discipline. Those who advance are put to work on two teams: offshore sailors who handle marine life surveys, hydrographic mapping, shipwreck protection, wind farm development, and drone surveillance, or a coastal cohort focused entirely on seagrass restoration. 

While seagrass occupies only 0.1% of the ocean surface it accounts for 10% to 18% of underwater carbon capture. And unlike seaweed, seagrass has a root system that traps carbon in sediment and assuages storm surges. For tens of thousands of years, ancestors found seagrass endlessly useful: as bedding for Neanderthals and popes alike, food for indigenous Canadians and Mexicans, brick binding by ancient Minoans, and wall insulation for both Rockefeller Center and the U.S. Capitol. But as ports industrialized, seagrass was dismissed as a visual blight. “Humans relied on it for all sorts of different things,” said Ben Jones, chief conservation officer and cofounder of Project Seagrass, which partnered with the Sea Ranger Service to cofound the Seagrass Consortium. “And then we sort of forgot about it.”