The New England Aquarium and the blue economy

The New England Aquarium’s plaza, in a 2017 photo.

— Photo by Beyond My Ken

Edited from a New England Council report

BOSTON

“The New England Aquarium is using its family-oriented reputation to educate and help grow the blue economy. This multi-pronged approach brings together big names from the industry, young and small startups and businesses, and academic experts.

‘‘The first initiative involves industry and the market working with the aquarium’s BalanceBlue lab to help promote sustainable ocean use, from improved fishing practices and carbon removal innovations. ‘You can’t have a climate conversation without the ocean. All the programs come together to think about how we are going to create new pathways to promote responsible ocean use,’ said Emiley Lockhart, the aquarium’s associate vice president for ocean sustainability.

“The BalanceBlue lab includes the bluetech incubator BlueSwell, which helps startups working on both ocean sustainability and the marine economy. BlueSwell has helped four startups receive funding and mentorship since 2020. An additional part of the BalanceBlue umbrella is the UpSwell program, which runs in collaboration with SeaAhead and is publishing a series of webinars and papers about ocean tech. According to Lockhart, the blue economy will be expanding rapidly, and he believes that ocean-derived technology will be an important part of that growth, with the New England Aquarium leading that growth.’’

N.E Aquarium collaborating with SeaAhead in incubator project

New England Aquarium Plaza

BOSTON

Edited from a New England Council (newenglandcouncil.com) report:

“New England Aquarium is working with SeaAhead Inc. to create their BlueSwell Incubator program. The program is to support early-stage entrepreneurship in ocean sustainability solutions. BlueSwell aims to bring together founders, ocean experts, industry leaders and venture capitalists to develop bluetech projects.

“There were seven startups who completed BlueSwell’s latest program in March, with each startup having a different area of focus, including sea-urchin farming, data sharing among offshore wind farms, fishing communities and  camera-based inventory systems for seafood processors. Now, each startup is working on different goals for the year ahead, from raising seed rounds to finding new clients. Each startup in this program will receive $50,000 in funding to help their projects become commercialization. The startups will also have access to support, including industry, investment, academia, government and NGO mentors.

“‘We are excited for the scientists and technical experts in the Anderson Cabot Center for Ocean Life to continue mentoring these transformational startups to maximize their positive impacts on ocean health,’ said John Mandelman, vice president and chief scientist at New England Aquarium. “Being part of BlueSwell provides invaluable expertise from New England Aquarium scientists with decades of experience guiding industry, policy, and ocean management.”

Taylor Witkin/Scott Nuzum: Designing seafood systems for the post-pandemic world

Photo by Gordito1869

From SeaAhead

BOSTON

While the COVID-19 pandemic directly threatens the lives of millions of patients and frontline health-care workers, it also jeopardizes the livelihoods of seafood-system workers across North America. The pandemic exposes the vulnerabilities of supply chains that criss-cross oceans, stretching across thousands of miles and demonstrates a need, and capacity, for regional food security.

Savvy seafood harvesters are often prepared for major market disruptions -- harmful algal blooms that shut down production, hurricanes that force boats back to safe harbor, ice that takes out equipment. But this pandemic is a different kind of crisis. It attacks demand as well as supply. Harvesters that rely on sales to restaurants, where 90 percent of shellfish and 75 percent of all seafood in America are consumed, are left wondering how to stay afloat if pandemic-induced shutdowns continue. The entire industry has been forced to pivot to direct-to-consumer sales models, a daunting task given that restaurants aggregate customers and bear much of the marketing burden.

While these are indeed dark times, there are rays of hope for better days. Ultimately, this crisis may lead to a reorientation and recommitment to local food systems, providing a much needed boost to local communities and restoring some resiliency in domestic food- supply chains. In addition, this crisis also may provide an opportunity to reflect upon how we might redesign our commercial fishing fleets to take advantage of a range of innovations -- including remote sensors, advanced propulsion and alternative fuel systems.

This reorientation, recommitment and reimagining will, in large part, be aided by the bluetech sector. Working as partners, local producers and tech companies have the potential to revitalize the seafood sector and create the seafood system of the future.

With international trade stalled, the pandemic is forcing producers, suppliers, and consumers to rethink America’s seafood system, where 90 percent of seafood comes from foreign sources. Much has been written recently of the collapse of domestic seafood-supply chains (NY Times, LA Times, National Fisherman, Seafood Source). Seafood processors are saddled with more fish than they can process. Fishers can’t engage in their livelihood. All the while, consumers facer empty supermarket shelves and compete for coveted grocery delivery windows on mobile apps. Moreover, with reports of Covid-19 outbreaks spreading through many of the country’s food-processing facilities, people are increasingly concerned about the chain of custody of their food and whether it is safe to eat.

Consequently, consumers have sought work-arounds to these supply chain failures by looking closer to home for seafood, relying on local farmers markets and community-supported fisheries to deliver fresh, high-quality finfish and shellfish from short, trustworthy supply chains. Whereas the “know your fisherman” ethic was a lifestyle choice in the pre-COVID-19 world, it is now gaining momentum and becoming mainstream.

And with good reason. The United States is blessed with an abundance of seafood up and down its lengthy coast. Most U.S. fish stocks are well managed, meaning that fish can be harvested sustainably. And, increasingly, we have the tools to provide traceable and transparent supply chains. Combined, these factors point to an opportunity to transform seafood-supply chains to not only increase resiliency and sustainability in the system, but also to improve economic returns for fishers and their local communities. 

The Local Catch Network demonstrates the power of an engaged virtual community, and that technology does not need to be complex to be effective. Local Catch is a community-of-practice made of fishermen, suppliers, chefs, researchers and organizers committed to providing local, healthful, low-impact seafood via community- supported fisheries. Local Catch’s Seafood Finder map provides the location and contact info for nearly 120 businesses that distribute to over 500 locations in the U.S. and Canada, making it easy for consumers to find local seafood providers and distribution points. Though businesses within the network are struggling, as consumers make a concerted effort to support their fishermen and farmer neighbors, some seafood providers are well positioned to weather the crisis, and are even doing more business than usual. 

While Local Catch Network was conceived in the pre-COVID-19 world, the virus has only served to reinforce its underlying thesis -- that the seafood-supply-chain network was ripe for disruption. This and countless other groups, such as SeaAhead members Oyster Common, Oyster Tracker and LegitFish hope that their efforts bring greater value to fishers and the coastal communities in which they live, in the process demonstrating the transformative possibilities of the bluetech space.

If you want to learn more, check out the Social FISHtancing podcast

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Taylor Witkin is the Bluetech Desk Manager at the Cambridge Innovation Center (CIC) and works with SeaAhead to manage and grow the Bluetech Innovation Hub, in Boston. Before joining CIC, he was the Network Coordinator for the Local Catch Network and organized the 2019 Local Seafood Summit. He also conducted research for the University of Maine on adaptations by stakeholders and supply chains in the lobster industry. His seafood-systems research has been published in the journal Fisheries Research.

Scott Nuzum is a strategy consultant and futurist at VNF Solutions LLC and a lawyer with Van Ness Feldman LLP. He helps organizations assess and understand the implications of technological, environmental and geopolitical change and works with clients to craft strategies to become more resilient in the face of this disruption. In addition, he advises innovative companies and start-ups operating in the environmental-, energy- and social- impact spaces on a range of issues, including providing input and feedback on engagement strategies with potential investors and regulators. Before joining VNF, he was a policy adviser at the White House Council on Environmental Quality and a lawyer at the U.S. Department of the Interior.

SeaAhead advances

Over the Atlantic.

From the New England-based SeaAhead project:

”The SeaAhead team continues to move ahead in our efforts to set up a base of operations in Boston — we'll have news on that front shortly. Our recent adventures have taken us events in Newport, New York and Boston, and we've begun mapping out lots of great events of our own for 2019.’’

For more information, hit this link to our site.

“SeaAhead is a Benefit Corporation with the mission of supporting new venture development at the intersection of innovation + sustainability + the oceans. Our ecosystem includes technologists, scientists, startups, corporations, governments and other ocean stakeholders that are coming together to create impact in areas including greener shipping and ports, aquaculture and fishery processes, offshore alternative energy and smart cities.’’