93rd Edition
Loads of updates out of UNOC
Hi everyone!
Since UNOC is happening in Nice this week, here are some resources specifically related to the conference:
Here is the Sustainable Ocean Alliance guide to UNOC.
Get the full rundown of what’s happening at “The Reef” hosted by 1000 Ocean Startups here. They are also posting all of their events daily on LinkedIn— here’s today’s, for example.
The Blue Marine Foundation is also posting a daily update on LinkedIn.
Apply to Katapult Ocean’s Impactful Innovations Day during the 2025 UN Ocean Conference on June 11th.
Ocean Visions is cohosting a side event, “Advancing Marine Carbon Dioxide Removal Innovation” on June 12th.
Thank you to everyone who attended and contributed to the NYC OceanTech Summit last Friday. I had a blast! For those of you who have me on LinkedIn, there will be a reflection post coming soon (once we get the professional photos).
Heads up: it’s a bit of a longer read this week due to the influx of news out of UNOC. Happy reading!
News
Ahead of the UNOC, the World Resources Institute compiled a list of “4 Issues to Watch at the UN Ocean Conference”.
Australia’s Ocean Impact Organisation and Southerly Ten have announced the winners of the country’s first Offshore Wind Net-Positive Challenge, recognizing innovative solutions that promote marine biodiversity and climate benefits alongside offshore wind development.
A recent surge in ratifications for the High Seas Treaty at UNOC marks historic progress toward its entry into force, paving the way for stronger international protection and sustainable management of the ocean beyond national jurisdictions.
The Guardian has published an article on the work of ocean alkalinity enhancement startups, such as Ebb Carbon and Planetary Technologies.
SWEN Capital Partners raised €160 million for ocean sustainability ventures. Click here for a report by AquaFeed, and here for Bloomberg’s report.
Last week, at the One Ocean Science Congress in Nice ahead of UNOC, the High Level Panel for a Sustainable Ocean Economy released a blue paper on “Principles for responsible and effective marine carbon dioxide removal development and governance”.
The Ocean Risk Alliance highlights new initiatives aimed at accelerating investment in sustainable blue economy projects by enhancing project bankability and reducing financial risks.
The Earthshot Prize and Builders Vision have announced a strategic partnership to accelerate and scale innovative ocean solutions, aiming to close a $900 billion investment gap and align with global goals to protect 30% of the world’s oceans by 2030.
Captura has opened a new 30,000-square-foot headquarters and manufacturing facility in Pasadena, California—marking the first U.S. site to produce complete electrodialysis systems—scaling up its Direct Ocean Capture technology and expanding domestic production of high-performance, PFAS-free bipolar membranes.
(carbon)plan has released another model-based dataset and tool to help characterize how well direct ocean removal (DOR) works depending on where and when it is performed.
Bibby Marine’s eCSOV hybrid vessels and bound4blue’s eSAIL suction-sail technology were honored at Nor‑Shipping 2025, winning the Next Generation Ship and Ocean Solutions Awards respectively for their innovative steps toward zero‑emission maritime operations and fuel-efficient wind propulsion.
The World Economic Forum’s new report, Making Waves in the Regenerative & Sustainable Ocean Economy, identifies high-impact investment opportunities—such as blue bonds and nature-based solutions—to mobilize the estimated $1 trillion annual funding needed to realize a regenerative ocean economy by 2030.
Opportunities
The Seaworthy Collective have now opened the applications for The Continuum Ocean Enterprise Studio & Incubator. Applications are due on June 26th.
The Journal of Ocean Technology is looking for technical papers, essays, and short articles focused on how Indigenous researchers, technologists, scientists, groups, and communities around the globe use ocean technology for economic growth, resource management, community engagement, and mentoring the next generation of ocean leaders. Details can be found here. Submissions are due by July 25th.
The StartBlue Accelerator at UC San Diego will be accepting applications until July 31st.
The Neptune Awards from Ocean Exchange have a variety of deadlines for their $100,000 USD price depending on your region: the date has passed for Asia & Oceania, Europe, the Middle East, and Africa, but the deadline is August 1 for the Americas.
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.
Propeller VC has opened applications for their Fall Ocean MBA program. Apply here. The program will be taking place October 21–24, 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
The 2025 San Diego Innovation Council Showcase will be occurring tomorrow, starting at 8AM PT. You can find the schedule for the day here, and registration here.
Hohonu is hosting a webinar on June 11th at 3PM ET entitled “How Communities Are Fast-Tracking Flood Readiness — and What You Can Learn”. Register here.
The COVE Demo Day will be taking place on Thursday, June 12th, in Dartmouth, Nova Scotia.
Register for OCEANS 2025 Brest, occurring in Brest, France from June 16-19.
The next monthly Ocean Nexus webinar will be occurring on June 18th at 3PM ET, entitled “Kíttan, Sacred Waters Honoring the Gifts”. Register and learn more here.
On Wednesday, June 18th, at 7am PDT, Sofar Ocean is hosting a webinar entitled “Building South Africa’s real-time coastal observation network with SAEON & STS”.
The 2025 People and the Sea Conference will be taking place from 24-27 of June, with the theme focusing on “tensions, trade-offs, and transformations for the Ocean Decade and beyond”.
The SF Blue Tech happy hour for the month of June will be occurring on June 26th at 5PM, featuring Bedrock Ocean Exploration.
Attend the Advancing Marine CDR Summit this July 8-10.
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 Ocean Exchange 2025 will be hosted in Fort Lauderdale, FL, from October 26-28.
Learning
As the UN Ocean Conference convenes, a new report underscores the critical influence of nature-based solutions and participatory empowerment tools in building resilient coastal communities—distilling European case studies to guide policy and practice in bolstering coastal adaptation and equity.
This blog post explores the critical "missing middle" gap in blue carbon finance, highlighting the challenges in scaling mid-stage investments for coastal ecosystem restoration and emphasizing the need for innovative financing solutions to unlock this pivotal phase.
“Be Careful What You Wish (Fish) For: Actioning Distributive Equity Principles When Determining Catch Limits in Transboundary Fisheries” examines how applying equity-based principles—such as “polluter pays” and benefit-sharing—in managing transboundary tuna fisheries can inadvertently disadvantage developing nations, suggesting that combining multiple equity frameworks may lead to fairer, more balanced governance.
A recent paper in Nature proposes four guiding principles—participation, autonomy, equity, and coordination—to shift maritime security frameworks toward more inclusive, human- and ecosystem-centered approaches that better support coastal communities and sustainable ocean governance.
Companies doing the work
Bedrock Ocean Exploration is developing a robotics and software to quickly and cheaply explore the oceans. They offer subsea survey services (Hydro, Geo, UXO, etc.) as well as paired cloud & local software to store, process, and analyze the data.