Gilles Rollet, the founder of the Rollet Reef Foundation (RRF), which promotes the protection and preservation of coral reefs, will be a speaker at the Bluetide Caribbean Investment Summit on ocean economies being held in Puerto Rico this month. The Summit is organized by Bluetide, a U.S. 501c(3) that supports ocean economies through research, technology, and best practices. Bluetide focuses on sustainable investments to enhance livelihoods of coastal communities and countries.
The focus of the Summit is on generating interdisciplinary collaboration among multiple oceanic-dependent industrial sectors. It also features recognized blue economy business leaders and investment experts focused on launching a new era of Caribbean-Atlantic cooperation through eight technical portfolios in infrastructure development. The event includes five speakers and five panelists, including experts such as Stewart Sarkozy-Banoczy who is the Director of Strategic Partnerships and Development and served on President Obama’s Hurricane Sandy Rebuilding Task Force, and Howard W. Buffet, an adjunct professor in public policy and international affairs, a political advisor, and philanthropist. Buffet previously led agriculture-based economic stabilization and redevelopment programs in Iraq and Afghanistan while at the U.S. Department of Defense and as a policy advisor in the Executive Office of the President of the United States under President Barack Obama.
“When we launched Rollet Reefs Foundation earlier this year, our objective was to work with and support other organizations on initiatives that protect reefs and other marine environments in the Caribbean. It’s an honor for our foundation to be able to speak at the event, and we are also proud to have entered into a partnership with Bluetide to support the incredible work that they do,” said RRF founder Gilles Rollet.
Bluetide’s approach to marine conservation is to integrate it with economic development that is sustainable and has minimal impact on the coastal and marine environment. Their proprietary technologies such as the Fish Aggregator Device (FAD), which creates self-sustaining food sources for smaller fish, which in turn attracts larger fish and can then stimulate a sustainable sports fishing industry without decimating species, is just one example of their approach.
“The FAD’s developed by Bluetide really are an exciting example of innovation in marine conservation. Bluetide has 22 FAD’s in the region, and they started creating populations of fish species incredibly quickly. More importantly, they manufacture these locally, and stimulate jobs – I couldn’t be more excited to work with the organization”, explained Gilles.
The Bluetide Caribbean Investment Summit will be held on August 17th, 2022 at the Vivio Beach Club, Carolina in Puerto Rico with registration open at 8 AM and the first speaker starting at 9 AM.
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