Beyond the 100-Foot Waves: Nazaré’s New Ocean Experiment

Last October big wave surfers Laura Crane, Mason Barnes, Nic von Rupp, and helped João Macedo and his coalition of surfers and fishermen known as the Hope Zones Foundation (HZF) launch Portugal's first-ever regenerative ocean farm just 10 minutes south of the Nazaré harbor. Beyond chasing giant waves, they're all collaborating on a sustainable future for Portugal.

The farm is a big step forward for surfer-led environmental projects and is the latest project partner for Seatrees — a leading nonprofit organization based in California that specializes in ocean restoration and conservation projects. The film below takes you inside the backstory of the project and how it challenges the misconception that ocean conservation and fishing can't work hand-in-hand.

Thanks to the combo of an underwater canyon and North Atlantic swells, the sleepy fishing village turned into a global bucket list destination. Every winter throngs of visitors come to witness the swells in real life but the tourism doesn't stop with the waves, it's year round.

The harbor, once home to only the salt of the Earth fishermen, is now abuzz with high-powered jet skis and daily sightseeing tours. The world's most elite surfers chasing 100-foot waves comes with a lot of new activity in the old harbor. While many in the region benefitted from the boom, the fishermen weren't exactly in on the equity.

The Hope Zones project aims to change this by including the fishermen to manage the farm operations and sell the future seaweed harvest for agricultural fertilizer--a practice that goes back more than 700 years in Portugal. It was in 1308 that King Dinis, the "Farmer King", passed a law mandating the trade of sargaço (a seaweed) to help boost the yields from their sandy soils.

It was only in the 1950s that synthetic fertilizers started to replace seaweed and all but killed the practice by the end of the 20th century. Since October '24, a seeded kelp line has been installed at the artificial reef that was put in place back in 2010. The artificial reef is made up of some 1050 concrete modules that were meant to stimulate biodiversity and support fish stocks.

A decade later and the results still weren't as robust as everyone had hoped, the Hope Zones project was designed to boost the operation by providing much needed vegetation. Ideally, the proximity to the high profile wave, and help from notable surfers, will help bring attention--and fundraising--to grow the project. If successful, it could prove a powerful pilot project to implement throughout the Portuguese coast.

To learn more or donate visit the Seatrees project site and follow them and Hope Zones Foundation on Instagram.