Over 70 percent of the earth’s surface is water, and the oceans hold about 97% of the Earth’s water. The “Blue Economy” is still a bit of a fuzzy concept in terms of precise definition but embraces concepts of both conservation and multi-sectoral development primarily in oceans and marine areas very relevant to the SDGs including SDG 14 on Live Below Water.
The ocean economy has been around since the millennia via trade and shipping. Today, over 3 billion people rely on seafood as their primary source of protein, 38 percent of the global population resides near the coast, and the ocean is an essential aspect of the global economy via oil production, global communication via cable along the ocean floor, pharmaceuticals. It is expected to expand from 1.5 trillion USD in 2010 to 3 trillion in 2030. However, overexploitation of the resources and pollution may be at the expense of future generations. Since the early 2010s, the concept of the Blue Economy has taken root where ocean sustainability is just as important as economic development.
Technology has been evolving at a rapid pace to help us rethink the promise and challenges of a Blue Economy. Entrepreneurs are creating new technological applications for monitoring and managing the freshwater, coastal, and ocean ecosystems of the Blue Economy. These are facilitated through the work in academia, private sector, civil society organizations, governments, and other stakeholders and networks across them (e.g. industry clusters such as TMA BlueTech ). An overview of some of the innovations in the Blue economy have been reviewed by the OECD.
Take a quick look at some of the issues relating to the Blue Economy in the Caribbean using these immersive 360o photos .
A few global examples of technology and innovation driving the blue economy are described in the following sections.