French Polynesia Open to Seasteading Collaboration
Last week Blue21 was part of a delegation of the Seasteading Institute that went on a very promising exploratory mission in French Polynesia. The delegation was honoured to meet with President Édouard Fritch, a large part of his government and the mayors of Bora Bora and Makemo to discuss the development of sustainable floating islands.
“It would be wonderful if we could work with The Seasteading Institute to bring sustainable development and economic activity to French Polynesia,” the President told us through our translator. “Let’s create the future together,” he concluded.
Randolph Hencken, Executive Director of the Seasteading Institute: “We look forward to working with French Polynesia to develop floating island that will benefit our host country and our international community of seasteaders. With numerous protected waters where we could station the first pilot platforms, French Polynesia offers many optimal locations for seasteading from an engineering point of view.”
Joe Quirk, co-author with Patri Friedman of the forthcoming book, Seasteading: How Ocean Cities Will Change the World” adds to that: “Our sustainable modular platforms are designed by the Dutch engineering firm Blue21, who showcased their engineering ingenuity with the famed Floating Pavilion in Rotterdam.”
Former Minister of Tourism for French Polynesia and businessman Marc Collins is a supporter of the Seasteading Institue’s vision. “Polynesian culture has a long history of seafaring across the Pacific Ocean that will contribute to this ambitious project. More than most nations, our islands are impacted by rising sea levels, and resilient floating islands could be one tangible solution for us to maintain our populations anchored to their islands. For many Polynesians, leaving our islands is not an option.”
The Seasteading Institute will send a draft Memorandum of Understanding to the presidency this week.
Photo Seasteading Delegation: Tom W. Bell, Egor Ryjikov, Marc Collins, Joe Quirk, Randolph Hencken, Nicolas Germineau, Greg Delaune and our engineer Bart Roeffen
