Reflections On Our Blue Economy

At this time 10 years ago I was moving with my 5 year-old and VERY pregnant wife down from the little Victorian seaport Port Townsend on Washington’s Olympic Peninsula back down to Seattle. I had taken on a role to build a coalition of maritime interests to find pathways to collaborate for a sustainable and resilient future.?

The Washington Maritime Federation was envisioned as a place where the breadth of the maritime industry could find common interests. Opportunities for innovation for sustainability and economic development came to the top of the priority list as we looked across the many sectors of this $34 billion industry at that time. When the call came to join Governor Inslee and the Washington Department of Commerce it became my primary focus.

Together, across industry, government, research institutions, communities, labor, tribes, and environmental organizations we created the first comprehensive state-wide strategy for the Blue Economy (a term hardly anyone had heard of at the time). Having traveled and met the leaders of the most innovative maritime industries across the globe, we found the “Innovation Cluster” as the most effective organizing tool to actually implement the strategy and decided to form one right then and there.? We announced Maritime Blue with its founding members the day we released the strategy. We envisioned this region as a global hub for a sustainable and equitable Blue Economy and a center of excellence for ocean-based climate solutions.

Now, after six years of formal cluster organizing, Maritime Blue has become one of the largest, most active and productive maritime innovation clusters in the world. The Pacific Northwest has surged as a global hub for innovation in the Blue Economy with membership from some of the largest multi-national maritime corporations to one-person engineering shops, research institutions, public agencies, community-based organizations, and capital providers.

As we approach the years ahead, the Maritime Blue team and Board of Directors have been actively working to ensure we are aligned across our initiatives and programs for increased impact towards our vision.? We see each of our program areas as key service centers to our areas of focus, members, and region to achieve our mission.?

We’ve gathered and organized leaders across the region. As they convene around these topics we are able to identify critical challenges and opportunities. They illuminate areas for innovation, the needs for a future workforce, and necessary areas for knowledge sharing and global connectivity.??

In turn, these leaders are available to mentor and invest capacity and capital into early stage innovation and demonstration projects. They can host interns and lead equity-based engagement with wrap around support from our team. They define markets and invite partners from around the globe to grow markets.?

In these ways the innovation cluster becomes alive and is woven into the fabric of our sails as, together, we chart a new course towards an innovation, sustainable, and equitable future.

Through this collaborative model Maritime Blue has facilitated its 120+ members and hundreds of other interested parties to provide direct ROI to our members, influence positive impact on our region and “one ocean”, and leverage public, private, and philanthropic capital.?

Joint Innovation: Maritime Blue leads multiple formal collaborations in strategic areas of focus in maritime decarbonization, renewable ocean energy, sustainable fishing and seafood, healthy ocean ecosystems, and digital solutions.

• Quiet Sound: Reducing the impacts of large commercial shipping on our endangered Southern Resident Killer Whales.
• Blue Wind: Activating our region’s opportunity to develop a thriving supply chain for the West Coast’s floating offshore wind industry.
• Sustainable Maritime Fuels: Defining and demonstrating the development of low-zero emission maritime fuels from production to use-cases.
• Salish Seaweed: Coordinating the region’s commercial kelp growers for market development and shared processing opportunities.
• Tacoma Blue Edge Network: Developing the first-of-kind high speed network for ports and maritime operations in the Tacoma Tideflats.
• Joint Innovation Projects: Collaborative projects and analysis including; a zero-emission, foiling fast ferry; hydrogen-based energy production for port terminal use; shipyard capabilities for low-emission vessels; fishing vessel decarbonization; and more.

Blue Ventures: Leading early-stage innovation programs for founders and start-ups and every stage of the process and supporting their pathways to commercial growth and investment through the Maritime Blue Innovation Accelerator, Tacoma and Seattle Blue Incubators, and the One Ocean Accelerator.

• Supported 66 startups since our programs began in 2020
• Helped secure more than $400 million in investment and funding
• Saw more than 500 jobs created across the region
• Prioritize equitable access to support with more than 45% of founders reporting as typically underrepresented.

Equity Engagement: Fostering an equitable and diverse 21st century workforce through career connected learning and employer driven engagement through multiple youth and employer programs.

• More than 350 youth served since 2020.
• Facilitated 75 internships and more than 30 events.
• More than $200K in stipends delivered.
• ?98% BIPOC and underrepresented youth served.

Blue Hub: The home of Maritime Blue with collaborative work and meeting space for members, partners, and stakeholders providing events and knowledge sharing.

• Operate the Blue Hub as a collaborative work and meeting space for members and interested parties.
• Hosted dozens of high-level government and business delegations.
• Ongoing events and knowledge-sharing activities.
• Design and planning Maritime Blue headquarters at the Maritime Innovation Center at the Port of Seattle.

We are rapidly approaching the halfway point of the United Nations Decade of the Ocean with goals to ensure a healthy, productive, resilient, and inspiring ocean for decades to come. A perfect time to reflect on where we have been, and where we are heading.

It's a time of major transition here in the US and at home in the PNW. New administrations, rapidly evolving markets, and ever increasing development and adoption of new technology. This is our sweet spot. Where we thrive as an ecosystem and an organization. But only if we are fully engaged, intentional, and working together.

So reach out to our team and get involved! Now is the time.

From all of us at Maritime Blue, Happy Holidays and New Year

-Joshua Berger, President/CEO

www.maritimeblue.org

ENGAGE in collaborative technology and market development

ACCESS new markets and strategic growth opportunities

MENTOR early-stage startups to increase impact and access to capital

HOST interns for equitable access to career-connected learning

SUPPORT events, organizational capacity, and impactful programs