Hi everyone!
We are approaching World Oceans Day on June 8th, and many meetings and celebrations leading up to it in the next week.
Happy reading!
News
The US government has published its Principles for Responsible Participation in Voluntary Carbon Markets, which is a huge step for ensuring quality in carbon credits moving forward.
Wood Hole Oceanographic Institution published a fact checker article addressing the misinformation that offshore wind structures are killing whales.
Canada’s Ocean Supercluster announced a $7 million project, entitled the Canadian Electric Propulsion Acceleration Coalition (CEPAC) Project, to expedite the development and commercialization of electric propulsion systems.
The Kitasoo Xai’xais Nation established the first indigenous-led blue park with an MPA that they manage.
The UK is developing a blueprint for how to set up natural capital markets for funding all sorts of ocean-based climate solution projects.
The sustainable aquaculture investor Hatch Blue has secured $10 million to fund their next round of startups.
The US Department of Energy has announced the Energy Earthshots Initiative to fuel the clean energy transition, including offshore wind.
Arctic Reflections has been endorsed by the UN Ocean Decade to lead the Arctic Sea Ice Restoration project.
Opportunities
The application for the Elemental Accelerator for funding climate solutions with deep community impact is open until May 31st.
Apply to the Sustainable Ocean Alliance Ecoprenuer Network Class of 2024. The first wave of applications is due by June 3rd. The goal of the program is to provide lifetime support that to advance the world's most ambitious ocean for-profit startups and to amplify their efforts to achieve transformative planetary impact.
Uplink has launched the Regenerative Blue Economy Challenge, which is a call for “solutions to reduce marine pollution and promote ecosystem protection, restoration, and rewilding”. Applications are open until June 8th.
If you have an idea for a new product or initiative that can better protect the oceans against pollution, overfishing, extinction of species or climate change, you should submit your idea for the OceanLove Innovation Awards taking place on June 8th.
The Massachusetts Climatetech Studio is accepting applications for their launchpad program until June 24th at 11:59PM ET.
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.
The Ocean Community Innovation Challenge OCC2024 has opened, and it is open to early solutions across all 10 Blue Economy sectors; Water Management, Blue Biotechnology, Blue Transportation, Blue Renewable Energy, Blue Food/Fisheries and Blue Tourism. The selected teams will work with experts and investors for pre-acceleration during 4 weeks+4 months mentoring, followed by access to acceleration programs and investment opportunities.
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.
Apply to the TMA Blue Tech Incubator program.
Students and entrepreneurs can enter the Monaco Ocean Protection Challenge to create innovative solutions that have a measurable positive impact on the ocean.
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
Watch the Finale of the Ocean Pitch Challenge TONIGHT at 5PM CET.
Ocean advocate and the founder of The Ocean and Us, Farah Obaidullah, is currently on a tour for “The Ocean Hope Project: Protecting the Deep Sea”. On May 28th from 4:30-6PM, she will be giving a public talk at NYU.
The Billion Oyster Project will be hosting weekly shoreline cleanups in Kaiser Park, NYC, on May 30th from 2-5PM. You can sign up to volunteer here.
This Friday, May 31st, at 3PM EDT, I will be participating in a call that is a collaboration between the climate activism app “chilli” and Sustainable Ocean Alliance to talk about the deep sea in North America.
The 7th International Conference on Marine Connectivity is taking place in Montpellier, France, in May 27-31, 2024. It is a 5-day event with a 3-day scientific conference at the heart of the gathering to discuss interdisciplinary approaches to Marine Functional Connectivity (MFC), research and the global functioning/health of the ocean, and how MFC knowledge can be used for improved environmental policies and sustainable development. There will be round tables and applied workshops to integrate this knowledge into decision-making regarding environmental policies.
The 2024 BlueTech Forum will be taking place in Edinburgh, Scotland on June 3rd-4th.
The One Ocean Foundation will be hosting a Blue Economy Summit at 9AM on June 4th at Bocconi University in Milan.
Women and Climate is hosting a virtual World Oceans Day Summit on June 4th at 10:30am EST.
The JPI Oceans Strategic Navigation Forum will be taking place on June 11th in Brussels.
The OCEANOVATION Festival will be taking place in The Hague, the Netherlands on June 19th & 20th.
From July 1st-5th, there will be a Summer School on Ocean Literacy & Collaboration on Nature-Based Solutions for the Baltic and North Seas in Malmö, Sweden. It is a youth-focused program, so applicants must be under 35 to apply. The applications are due by April 30th.
BlueInvest Africa 2024 will be taking place in Kenya on July 3rd & 4th. The purpose of the event is to facilitate meetings between African entrepreneurs seeking financing and international investors in blue tech.
The Advancing Ocean CDR Summit will be taking place in Boston, Massachusetts from July 9th-11th. You can register, learn more about the event, and check out the speaker guide on their website.
From September 16-20 the 6th NOAA AI Workshop on Leveraging Artificial Intelligence in Environmental Sciences will be taking place in a hybrid format.
EuroMarine will be hosting their Foresight Workshop this year in Barcelona in October. It is entitled “CIMA: Conservation initiatives in valuable maritime-coastal areas beyond protected areas”. You can find out more on their website.
Ocean Exchange 2024 will be taking place on October 27th-29th. You can follow their event page here to stay up-to-date as the event approaches.
Learning
Check out this episode of Climate Positive featuring a conversation with the executive director of the Carbon to Sea Initiative. They discuss the topic of the “promises and sensitivities of tinkering with the ocean’s chemistry to enable it to store more carbon dioxide”.
Watch this ongoing livestream from Coral Gardeners as their staff outplant nursery-grown corals onto this reef in the garden of Six Senses Fiji in Malolo.
Around a year ago, the Economist Impact published this blog post about why it is integral to put the ocean at center stage in pursuing solutions to the climate crisis.
Companies Doing the Work
Arctic Reflections is restoring the the Arctic ice as heat shield by thickening the ice in winter through pumping sea water on top of it in locations across the Arctic Sea.