Prince William set to award 2022 Earthshot Prize | Times of Oman

Prince William set to award 2022 Earthshot Prize | Times of Oman

Fifteen contenders are in the running for Prince William's Earthshot Prize for environmental innovation, which will be awarded in the US city of Boston on Friday.

There are five prizes, each worth £1 million (€1.16 million, $1.21 million), that recognize solutions to some of the planet's greatest environmental challenges.

Among the finalists is a Portuguese group that has developed seaweed farming technology to restore underwater kelp forests.

SeaForester places seaweed spores onto small stones and scatters them into the ocean, where the idea is that the seed new kelp forests. The innovators call the system green gravel, and say it is highly scalable and more cost effective than previous approaches.

Kelp are large brown algae that grow in dense formations like a forest, sequestering carbon and sustaining marine life by providing food and shelter.

But along coastlines from New Zealand to California, kelp forests are being killed off by a variety of factors including climate change and pollution. By planting new kelp forests, the group hopes to reverse ocean acidification, replenish fish stocks, boostbiodiversity, improve water quality and capture carbon.

SeaForester is one of three finalists in the Revive Our Oceans category, competing against a women-led Indigenous Australian group that is helping to protect the Great