Diving into the Blue Economy: Harnessing Ocean Data for a Sustainable Future

The ocean’s health is vital to life on Earth. Often called the lungs of the planet, the ocean produces half of the oxygen we breathe. As the largest ecosystem, it hosts up to 80% of global biodiversity and feeds over 3 billion people. An unparalleled carbon sink, the ocean absorbs a quarter of anthropogenic CO2 emissions and 90%of the excess heat from greenhouse gases.

While the ocean buffers the most severe impacts of climate change and human activity, it comes at a cost. Ocean acidification has risen 30% above pre-industrial levels, threatening marine ecosystems. Warmer temperatures drive sea-level rise and alter weather patterns, contributing to more frequent, severe storms. Eutrophication creates coastal dead zones, while plastic pollution and overfishing add further pressure. With 37% of the global population living in coastal areas, the effects of declining ocean health reach far and wide.

Recognizing the ocean’s dual role as both a victim of climate change and a valuable asset is essential. Valued at $2.8 trillion annually and growing at twice the rate of global GDP, the Blue Economy– encompassing all ocean-related industries – presents a tremendous opportunity for sustainable development and climate action. Buoyant breaks down the Blue Economy into the following sub-sectors:

• ‍Blue food systems, like sustainable aquaculture, provide high-quality protein with a smaller carbon footprint than many land-based alternatives. ReelData offers an AI and computer vision-driven software platform to optimize, decarbonize, and automate land-based aquaculture. ‍
• Decarbonizing maritime shipping through low-carbon fuels, fleet electrification, and operational efficiency could reduce 3% of global emissions. Bearing AI supports this transition with automated emissions monitoring, fleet-wide optimization, and scenario forecasting. ‍
• Offshore renewables present meaningful opportunities in the transition away from fossil fuels. With 75 GW of global capacity in 2023, offshore wind leads in scale, while tidal and wave energy technologies are emerging. Shoreline Wind provides a SaaS solution to support the entire supply chain of wind projects.‍
• Marine carbon dioxide removal (mCDR) technologies like ocean alkalinity enhancement and direct ocean removal harness the ocean’s CO2 absorption capacity. With more R&D, they could achieve scale while ensuring minimized harm to marine life. Nekton Labs is developing a monitoring, reporting and verification (MRV) system for mCDR and blue carbon projects.‍
• Blue carbon initiatives protect and restore coastal ecosystems, like mangroves, seagrasses, and salt marshes. These nature-based solutions not only sequester carbon, but also strengthen coastal resilience. Coastal Carbon uses AI for underwater remote monitoring of seaweed farming and ocean restoration.‍
• Blue intelligence encompasses the acquisition, aggregation, and cross-sector application of ocean data to advance the Blue Economy and drive climate mitigation and adaptation. The following sections will explore blue intelligence in greater detail.  

The Critical Role of Ocean Data

Rick Spinrad, head of NOAA, coined the term “New Blue Economy,” defining it as one that looks to the ocean not for material extraction, but for data and insights that solve societal challenges. Across Blue Economy sectors and beyond, ocean data underpins smarter marine resource management, increases operational efficiency, and informs climate adaptation strategies. However, the ocean’s vast scale, harsh conditions, and complex governance have led to gaps in ocean data infrastructure.

Our market map below includes startups transforming this space. This growing landscape offers significant opportunities for innovation and impact and Buoyant is excited to champion these efforts.

Data Acquisition

The ocean covers 71% of Earth’s surface, yet over 80% remains unexplored. Harsh conditions including corrosive saltwater, poor visibility, high pressure, and strong currents have made marine data acquisition historically challenging, expensive, and often hazardous.

Traditional research methods using oceanographic vessels and teams of scientists are prohibitively expensive, but new technologies are transforming marine exploration:

• Autonomous platforms and low-cost sensors have been key to overcoming cost barriers. Satellites, drones, and sensors attached to buoys, vessels, floats, and uncrewed surface vehicles (USV) monitor surface conditions, like temperature, wind, waves, and sea level rise.
• Autonomous underwater vehicles (AUVs) and underwater drones collect water column data and map the seafloor.
• Companies like Aquatic Labs offer low-cost, modular sensors for various platforms.
• ‍Open Ocean Robotics deploys solar-powered USVs for surface monitoring, while Terradepth’s AUV collects deep water data.
• Other startups, like NatureMetrics, use environmental DNA (eDNA) to monitor biodiversity with a single sample detecting hundreds of species.

These technologies enable precise measurements that dramatically expand our understanding of marine environments.

Reliable ocean communication has historically limited real-time data transmission in remote areas. Companies like WSense are bridging this gap through underwater internet (IoUT) networks, enabling large-scale data collection in real-time.

Limited power availability in remote locations has also restricted continuous monitoring, but innovative solutions with extended reach and duration are emerging: Ocean Motion Technologies powers buoys with wave energy, while SeaTrec's subsurface platforms harvest energy from temperature differences in the water column.

Data Aggregation and Analytics

Data alone isn’t enough; ocean data customers demand that it’s packaged to meet their specific needs. Raw ocean data must be transformed into actionable insights through aggregation, integration, and analysis. AI and ML help process data in real-time, identify complex patterns, and enhance visual clarity.

Key challenges in the ocean data value chain include:

1. Data silos in government or private industry repositories, like those of the US Navy or Oil & Gas companies, limit cross-sector collaboration and comprehensive analysis that could emerge from combined datasets.
2. Organizations often resist sharing their data with centralized databases due to concerns over ownership and control. This leads to stymied innovation.
3. The lack of universal standards creates interoperability challenges. Different formats, resolutions, and collection frequencies make it difficult to aggregate datasets seamlessly. Creating coherent time series from these diverse datasets requires sophisticated interpolation methods to preserve critical information.

Rather than collecting data directly, startups like Ocn.ai, Coastal Measures, and Bluemvmt make existing ocean data accessible through user-friendly dashboards and APIs. Aggregating data from various sources, Starboard Maritime Intelligence leverages AI to detect illegal fishing and monitor vessel activity. Current Lab generates hyperlocal ocean forecasts using observational datasets, physics software, and cloud computing.

While defense and government remain the primary markets for ocean data, applications are expanding across industries. The offshore energy sector can use ocean data to streamline site selection and permitting, support operations and maintenance, and monitor environmental impacts. In aquaculture, real-time data enables smarter decisions about site selection, water quality, disease prevention, and feed. Maritime shipping companies optimize routes and port logistics with ocean data to reduce fuel consumption and emissions. Ocean data also play an essential role in verifying marine carbon capture projects and monitoring ecosystem protection efforts.

Climate Risk and Weather Analytics

Beyond the Blue Economy, ocean data is an emerging opportunity for climate risk analytics. Ocean measurements improve the statistical accuracy of climate and weather models. For example, ocean salinity levels, which rise with evaporation, improve rainfall predictions on land. Startups like Salient Predictions and Planette AI integrate ocean data to deliver more precise and reliable forecasts.

At Buoyant, we believe the ocean data sector’s growth hinges on several emerging market forces.

While defense is a primary driver of ocean intelligence innovation, we see increasing potential for dual-use applications. The anticipated expansion of offshore wind and the commercialization of other marine energy resources will create demand for precise operational and compliance data. Increasing awareness of marine biodiversity’s role in climate resilience could trigger new monitoring regulations. The maturation and growth of compliance markets would catalyze investments in mCDR projects and drive demand for reliable verification. The continued development of autonomous ocean equipment, IoUT, renewable energy solutions, and data standardization is set to revolutionize ocean industries. These advances will make previously unattainable ocean insights both technically and economically viable.

We prioritize clear paths to data standardization and interoperability, along with productization of ocean data for end users. Ultimately, we hope to support startups that harness ocean data to drive climate mitigation, adaptation, biodiversity protection, and the sustainable growth of ocean industries.

‍

Do you have feedback, or are you building a solution in the Blue Economy? We’d love to talk to you!

Thank you to our MBA associate, Nanea Alden, for leading his research. Finally, thank you to experts, Jennifer Garson, Luke Sawitsky, Jake Reznick, Mike Gilkes, Chris Wu, Jack Pan, Alex Orona, Ted Janulis, Helena Janulis, Tom Quigley, and Jim Leape for sharing their insights on all things oceans and the Blue Economy.