SARASOTA COUNTY – Captain Planet is committed to improving water quality across the Suncoast, one dock at a time.
Garrett Stuart, better known as Captain Planet is a Marine Scientist and wild life biologist whose plan is to save the earth.
“I hope to accomplish that the next seven generations of the people of earth can have a beautiful earth to call home,” said Garett Stuart, ‘Captain Planet’
The Kansas native has dedicated his time to installing artificial reefs, which is a man-made structure intentionally placed in waters to create a habitat for a variety of marine life.
“Proven to filter over 30,000 gallons of water every single day, and house about 300 fish and 200crab per year on average,” said Stuart.
The artificial structure works like a mangrove ecosystem
“It’s going to be the homies that grow on here that are actually filtering the water, this itself is acting like a fish and crab habitat from the minute I put it in the water, I actually got some cool videos of it only being in the water five minutes and little crabs are crawling all over calling it home,” said Stuart.
In an effort to help improve water quality across the Suncoast, Stuart has collaborated with several waterfront restaurants to install the reefs on their docks, as they can even help with red tide
“We have the ability to put them under our indoor dining room which rests over the water as well so we have room to host a lot of these artificial reefs for captain planets business and really for all of us to benefit,” said General Manager of Pops Sunset Grill, Stephanie Brown.
“What I hope comes from this is that businesses and people can be more than businesses and people , they can be heroes, our little ones are always watching us, learning how to be human so I am trying to set an example on what a human should be,” said Stuart.
Captain Planet says it usually takes from 6 to 9 months for the reef to be fully developed with life, and in some cases as little as six weeks.
For more information on the artificial reefs and how you can purchase one, you can visit the Eco Preservation Project website here.