Quick Dips
Curated topical articles on the Blue Economy

4 ways to ensure the future of aquaculture is sustainable

Karen Demavivas, World Economic Forum Fisheries & Aquaculture

As our global population expands, so too does demand for nutritious and climate-friendly food.

Read more → (6 minute read)


US energy officials release strategy to boost offshore wind

Jennifer McDermott, AP News Energy Solutions

The U.S. Energy Department said Wednesday it has a new strategy to meet the goal of vastly expanding offshore wind energy to address climate change.

Read more → (3 minute read)


InvestEU: €28 million for the first Blue Economy instrument in Portugal

European Commission

On 27 March 2023, the Growth Blue I fund was signed in Portugal – the first fund signed under the new InvestEU Blue Economy instrument focusing on southern Europe.

Read more → (5 minute read)


Envisioning blue economy opportunities for a vacant Port of Providence landmark

Greg Miller, Boston Globe

Legacy sites like the Providence Gas Company Purifier House on Allens Avenue are integral in the city’s transformation.

Read more → (3 minute read)


Winners Of The Tom Ford Plastic Innovation Prize Are All Using Seaweed

Jeff Kart, Forbes Fisheries & Aquaculture Plastics & Pollution

Making bioplastics from seaweed is becoming fashionable. And that’s not a dig.

Read more → (4 minute read)


Investing to jumpstart the blue revolution

Megan Howell, The Fish Site

Georg Baunach, co-founder of Hatch*, explains the ethos behind the company’s newly launched Blue Revolution Fund (BRF) as it begins to work with startups and SMEs to increase ocean biodiversity, tackle climate change and create positive social outcomes for coastal communities.

Read more → (8 minute read)


United States Opens $2.3M Competition For Novel Wave Energy Technologies

Amir Garanovic, Offshore Energy Energy Solutions

The US Department of Energy’s Water Power Technologies Office (WPTO) has launched a new competition for developers investigating novel technologies for harnessing and converting the power of ocean waves into usable types of energy. 

Read more → (3 minute read)


Startup Says The Seaweed Blobbing Toward Florida Has A Silver Lining

Harri Weber, Tech Crunch Fisheries & Aquaculture

Recent sargassum surges are forcing folks to find creative ways to get rid of it, and already, possible applications run the gamut. Researchers and entrepreneurs aim to turn it into syrup, bricks and even jet fuel. As for Carbonwave, the Boston- and Puerto Rico–based startup is using it in fertilizer, cosmetics and even faux leather.

Read more → (3 minute read)


Beyond grants: Accelerating blended finance for ocean-positive investments

Yabanex Batista, World Ocean Initiative

A blog by Yabanex Batista, deputy head, UN Global Team, Global Fund for Coral Reefs, as well as a speaker at the recent World Ocean Summit.

Read more → (5 minute read)


Plant-based seafood and plastic-eating insects among EIT Food’s Marketed Innovation Prize winners

Oliver Morrison, Food Navigator Fisheries & Aquaculture Plastics & Pollution

EIT Food, the world’s largest food innovation community, has announced the results of its Marketed Innovation Prize, designed to reward innovative food start-ups that have successfully brought products or services to market.

Read more → (3 minute read)


Climate advocates say the oceans are overlooked in climate change. Biden's new action plan would change that.

Dinah Voyles Pulver & Doyle Rice, USA Today Energy Solutions

President Joe Biden released a first-of-its-kind U.S. Ocean Climate Action Plan on Tuesday, which he said will “harness the tremendous power of the ocean to help in our fight against the climate crisis.”

Read more → (5 minute read)


In wake of sobering IPCC report, investors, companies and policymakers called on to raise climate ambition

Ceres Energy Solutions

The latest report from Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, which lays out the current and growing impacts of the global climate crisis, is “devastating and harrowing—and yet it holds out hope,” said Ceres CEO and President Mindy Lubber.

Read more → (3 minute read)


The Latest IPCC Report: What is it and why does it matter?

The Nature Conservancy Energy Solutions

The Nature Conservancy prepared this guide to help you understand what these climate reports are, what their findings mean for our world and what we can do.

Read more → (6 minute read)


Tom Ford Plastic Innovation Prize Winners Announced

Tom Ford, plasticprize.org Plastics & Pollution

In 2020, Tom Ford partnered with Lonely Whale to launch the TOM FORD Plastic Innovation Prize, the only global competition focused on creating scalable and biologically degradable alternatives to traditional thin-film plastic polybags.

Read more → (3 minute read)


World Ocean Summit 2023: Six key takeaways from a remarkable ocean week

Martin Koehring, World Ocean Initiative

Martin Koehring, head of Economist Impact’s World Ocean Initiative, reports back from a successful World Ocean Summit in Lisbon.

Read more → (6 minute read)


Seaweed Is Having Its Moment in the Sun

Somini Sengupta, The New York Times Fisheries & Aquaculture

Seaweed has suddenly a hot global commodity, but can it survive climate change?

Read more → (4 minute read)


Can seaweed save the world? Well it can certainly help in many ways

Catriona Macleod, The Conversation Fisheries & Aquaculture

Seaweed is increasingly seen as a solution to many of the world’s most pressing problems. Interest in farming seaweed has exploded.

Read more → (5 minute read)


The ocean is as important to the climate as the atmosphere

The Economist Energy Solutions

But only now is it beginning to be studied properly.

Read more → (3 minute read)


More than 170 trillion plastic particles found in the ocean as pollution reaches ‘unprecedented’ levels

Laura Paddison, CNN Plastics & Pollution

The world’s oceans are polluted by a “plastic smog” made up of an estimated 171 trillion plastic particles that if gathered would weigh around 2.3 million tons, according to a new study.

Read more → (4 minute read)


Why a new UN treaty to safeguard the “high seas” matters

The Economist Fisheries & Aquaculture

Long-neglected international waters will finally receive more protection.

Read more → (8 minute read)