The New England Aquarium, best-known as a family-friendly tourist attraction in the city, is trying to use that reputation to help educate about and build the blue economy.
It’s a multi-pronged approach that involves bringing in big names in industry, young startups and small businesses, and academic experts, said Emiley Lockhart, the aquarium’s associate vice president of ocean sustainability, technology, and innovation.
Educating about marine life has always been a priority at the aquarium, “but we don’t stop there,” Lockhart said.
There are three specific initiatives in which its innovation team is engaged to make waves for ocean innovation.
The first, called the BalanceBlue lab, works directly with industry and the market to promote ocean use that’s sustainable for the long haul, from better fishing practices to carbon removal innovations.
“You can't have a climate conversation without talking about the ocean,” she said.
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The BalanceBlue lab includes the bluetech incubator BlueSwell, which helps boost startups working on ocean sustainability as well as the blue economy. SInce it launched in 2020, four cohorts of blue startups have received funding and mentorship.
Also in the aquarium’s blue portfolio is the UpSwell program, run in collaboration with SeaAhead, which is in the process of publishing a series of whitepapers and webinars about ocean tech.
“All the programs come together to think about how we are going to create new pathways to promote responsible ocean use,” she said.
Over the course of the next five years, Lockhart says the blue economy will continue to grow at a rapid pace. She believes ocean-derived technology will shape the renewable energy sphere, and that related sectors are on the verge of appearing. The aquarium is set to be on the cutting edge of these developments, she said.
“We see ourselves as intrinsic to the Massachusetts innovation economy — and honestly the whole country,” Lockhart said.
The blue initiatives at the aquarium are funded through federal grants and philanthropic donations. Lockhart said the BalanceBlue lab is a roughly two million per year venture currently, and the team hopes to scale that in the coming years.
