Hi everyone!
If you’ve been around for a while, Seaking Blue has arrived in your inbox for 100 Tuesdays! Two years ago, I just wanted to learn everything I could about the ocean-climate industry, and here we are now. Thank you all for subscribing- I so enjoy putting this together every week.
Moving on from the sappy stuff, we have a long one this week in the news section! Also, I’m happy to say I found two articles about creating space for indigenous work in the ocean climate space this week.
🌊 Sea you at 101 🌊
PS: The preview image for this article is a sea sheep nudibranch because I’ve been obsessed with nudibranchs for a while now.
News
Planetary Technologies has committed to the Canadian Council for Indigenous Business's Partnership Accreditation in Indigenous Relations (PAIR) program, aiming to integrate Indigenous engagement into its operations across leadership, employment, business development, and community relationships, thereby fostering trust, collaboration, and economic reconciliation. This an integral part of the implementation of climate solutions as a whole, so kudos to Planetary for spotlighting this.
McGill University researchers have developed an ultra-strong, environmentally friendly medical glue made from marine waste, utilizing chitosan nanowhiskers activated by ultrasound to create a resilient bioadhesive with applications in wound care, surgeries, drug delivery, wearable devices, and medical implants.
Berlin-based maritime tech startup Tilla has secured €2 million in funding—bringing its total to €4 million since inception—to expand its AI-powered crew logistics platform into new global markets (including APAC and the Mediterranean), enhance operations, and scale its team, after gaining support from Motion Ventures and EXMAR.
MEOPAR's initiative in Atlantic Canada is empowering Indigenous youth by integrating traditional knowledge with Western science through hands-on ocean research aboard the Polar Prince, fostering leadership and breaking down barriers to participation in marine science.
The Copernicus Marine Service has launched 14 new coastal monitoring and capacity-building projects across 11 European countries under its National Collaboration Programme, demonstrating downstream use cases—from seagrass mapping to flood forecasting—to strengthen EU directive implementation, support environmental resilience, and drive adoption of coastal ocean data tools.
CorPower Ocean has secured a €40 million EU Innovation Fund grant to build its pre-commercial VianaWave project off Portugal—a 10 MW wave farm comprising 30 point‑absorber converters expected to generate 30 GWh annually and anchor wave energy at scale in Europe.
A cutting-edge facility has been launched to transform marine debris—including plastics and other ocean waste—into durable, long‑lasting infrastructure materials, embodying a circular economy approach that turns pollution into value while helping clean coastal ecosystems.
Hatch Blue has unveiled its Crest Accelerator cohort—based in Hawai‘i’s HOST Park—featuring breakthroughs across aquaculture, ocean health, and blue carbon, including innovations like AI-powered shrimp pond diagnostics, seaweed-boosted crop biostimulants, electrostatic phytoplankton harvesting, hemp-based regenerative feed, and scalable water-based ocean carbon capture systems.
UK-based GT Wings has secured an additional £1 million in UK government funding through the Clean Maritime Demonstration Competition (CMDC6) to advance its AirWing “jet sail” technology—including AI-driven trim control, weather routing, and propeller integration—bringing the first commercially viable compact wind propulsion system closer to widescale deployment across retrofit and new-build vessels.
Ichthion’s holistic river-to-ocean strategy uses AI-powered hotspot mapping, floating interception barriers, and community partnerships to prevent up to 80% of ocean-bound plastic—not just cleaning up debris, but stopping pollution at its source.
Women in Ocean Food is going global—highlighting and connecting female leaders in small-scale fisheries who are combining traditional knowledge with innovation to build more resilient, equitable coastal communities around the world. Already in Southeast Asia and Latin America, the program is now also growing to sub-Saharan Africa.
Opportunities
Applications are open for the Great Lakes Blue Tech Challenge. Apply here.
Applications are open for call for projects issued to the scientific community throughout the European Economic Area (EEA) on the topic of Ocean and Coastal Ecosystems.
The 'Our Shared Ocean' Mobility and Travel Grants 2025 program offers funding to support research conferences, training courses, and research visits, primarily for Small Island Developing States (SIDS) in partnership with Irish institutions. Remaining submission deadlines are June 13, September 5, and November 7, 2025.
Hatch Blue, an aquaculture and alternative seafood investor, is looking for startups to join their accelerator program, in which they will invest $75,000 in each successful applicant.
Apply to Katapult’s Ocean Accelerator program that is designed to guide founders through complex entrepreneurial issues, add structure, and help raise a startup’s next round.
Fair Carbon has launched a Blue Carbon Academy that aims to help with the fine-tuning of the design of a Blue Carbon project.
Events
Register for the 3rd International Forum on Blue Economy and Growth in Mexico on 20-22nd of August.
rrreefs is hosting their first ever webinar about their solution on August 28th.
The EAHN Thematic Conference on September 10-13th will be focusing on “The Built Ocean”. They have an open call for papers for the conference.
Register for the Ocean Hackathon 2025 that will be taking place from October 17th-19th in Paris.
The Blue Economy Investment Summit will be occurring in Portland, Maine, on October 24th. You can register early with a discounted ticket price here.
The Ocean Exchange 2025 will be hosted in Fort Lauderdale, FL, from October 26-28.
Ocean Floor Explore will be taking place from October 26-29, 2025 in Victoria, Canada.
Learning
Researchers at UC San Diego's Scripps Institution of Oceanography and Jacobs School of Engineering have developed SNAP-X, a nanoparticle-based gel that releases chemical cues to enhance coral larvae settlement, achieving up to 20 times greater attachment rates in lab experiments compared to untreated surfaces, offering a promising tool for coral reef restoration efforts.
In this podcast episode, former Google X engineer Sergei Nozdrenkov shares how his rural upbringing and love of ocean life led him to found Wildflow, a startup building a “nervous system for the planet” using AI to turn vast ocean data—like 3D coral scans, bioacoustics, and eDNA—into real-time conservation tools, while exploring bold ideas like ecosystem modeling and interspecies communication.
This webinar recording from Fair Carbon explores how bundling and aggregating small-scale nature-based projects can overcome barriers like high costs and complex monitoring to unlock greater impact and finance opportunities in the Voluntary Carbon Market, featuring expert insights and real-world solutions.
Companies doing the work
KAHU is an Oslo-based maritime data startup crowdsourcing and fusing radar data from vessels in order to address the growing challenge of shadow fleets, environmental threats, and maritime safety and security.
Vlinder restores mangroves with local communities through developing nature-based projects that benefit people and the planet while securing long-term value for investors.
Let’s gooooooo!
Delaney. Congrats on #100! Thank you for sharing and connecting us with such invaluable information over the last 2 years. Keep going!! Will you be attending any of the events you mentioned.