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Blue Tech Advancements Reach One-Year Milestone in Israel

Israel, a high-tech powerhouse situated at a naval crossroads, began earnestly combining these assets just last year with the launch of the Israeli National Center of Blue Economy. Let’s delve into our Blue Tech accelerator program, international partnerships, and the inaugural global Blue Tech Summit held at the Port of Haifa.

The Israeli National Center of Blue Economy team. Left to right Omri Shamir – Hila Ehrenreich – Iris Tzur. Credit Orly Eyal Levy

Embarking on Blue Tech Advancements

At the heart of our mission is the convergence of startups, investors, the industry, and government to cultivate the Blue Economy in Israel and coordinate the Israeli Blue Economy internationally.

A prime example of our commitment is the Blue Tech Program, a platform through which we invest in promising enterprises, raise funds, and provide tailored growth solutions. Our portfolio currently comprises 13 startups, with the eagerly anticipated launch of a second batch of 15 startups early next year. The process of scouting and interviewing startups has revealed an inspiring convergence of remarkable technologies and visionary entrepreneurs that surpass our wildest expectations.

Let’s consider two examples:

WATCHIT: Pioneering skipper assistance solutions, WATCHIT employs boat sensors and AI algorithms to prevent collisions at sea, enhancing safety and minimizing damage. Think of them as the MobileEye of the oceans!

Bomvento: BomVento’s innovative approach combines wind turbines and photocatalysis to generate clean energy and reduce greenhouse gases.

Part of the WATCHIT team at the Blue Tech Summit IL.23. Credit: Ronen Topelberg

Fostering Collaborative Partnerships

In an interconnected world, cultivating the Blue Economy demands collaborative efforts. Accordingly, we actively engage with international governmental bodies and organizations to effect meaningful change. Our Memorandums of Understanding (MoUs) with India, as well as South Korea, underscore our commitment to cross-border collaborations. Additionally, we’ve established partnerships with the UN’s SwitchMed program, which champions circular economy initiatives in the region. Further afield, we’ve solidified collaborations with European countries such as the Netherlands and the UK. Of course, we are also hands-on in connecting companies in different countries. Our recent partnerships with companies like Royal Caribbean and Carnival Group are promising. These alliances aim not only to bolster startups within these nations but also to facilitate their expansion beyond borders.

Blue Tech Summit IL.23

A standout moment this year was undoubtedly the Blue Tech Summit IL.23: Advancing Blue Economy with Tech Innovation. The summit offered a deep dive into all things Blue Tech, captivating participants throughout the day. Featuring 40 international expert speakers, an Innovation Hub showcasing 30 startups, and over 300 attendees, the event encapsulated the dynamism and promise of the Blue Tech landscape. For a taste of the summit’s highlights, check out the video below.

Key Takeaways for a Thriving Blue Future

We find ourselves in an era of astounding technological feats, and it’s crucial that we provide the necessary resources for companies pioneering these technologies. Collaborative efforts across borders are a wellspring of potential. Israel’s renowned high-tech sector and flourishing startup culture are what we bring to the table. By forging connections with international counterparts, such as Norway and the Netherlands with their rich marine traditions, and India and Angola with their expansive coastlines and entrepreneurial drive, we can synergize strengths for optimal results.

As the Blue Tech momentum continues to surge, let’s harness groundbreaking technologies and work collectively to ensure the health and cleanliness of our oceans while nurturing a thriving economy. Together, we can forge a path toward a sustainable and prosperous future.

Here’s to many more years of innovation and progress in the Blue Economy!

Iris Tzur is Head of International Relations and Marketing with the Israeli National Center of Blue Economy. She is an ex-Googler with 17 years of international experience in marketing and communications in the areas of tech, sustainability, and government.

September, 2023

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If we were to form a company to commercialize our work it would be called Marine Biofilms, Inc.  Our students made it to the finals at Ocean Exchange for their work with (i) a novel method to restore oyster populations (ii) a unique method to synthesize pharmaceuticals in the ocean (iii) an antibiotic that worked against drug resistant Tb (US Patent 10335374).  Our tremendous experience with Ocean Exchange helped refine our fundamental studies to be products that could go to market.

Oysters are a keystone species for marine life, from fisheries to crabs.  In addition, a single oyster can filter up to fifty gallons of water per day, and a living oyster bar prevents shoreline erosion.  Worldwide oyster populations are down almost 90%, which is having a terrible impact on our coastal ecosystems, from the Pacific Rim to the Atlantic coastline.  While many restoration efforts use existing oyster shells, there is a finite supply, and there is no guarantee there will be spat (larvae) in the water column in a specific location.   We’ve developed a method to grow a biofilm on a surface that releases a natural chemical cue to attract the larvae, and forms the biofilm they require.  We can start the growth process in one location (high larvae count) and later move to an area where restoration is needed.  We currently have permits from the state of Florida and the USACE for this work. In addition to the concrete composition, there are important geometric aspects (left; before and after: right: 4 weeks in and the surface has dozens of young oysters).  We also had a permit for coral restoration in the Florida Keys but Hurricanes Irma and Ian had something to say about that location.  The oyster work is in collaboration with Gulf Specimen Marine lab (Panacea, Fl.).

2. Did you know that one mL of healthy seawater can have 10 million viruses and 1 million bacteria? In some cases, the viral load can be up to 200 million.  Most of the viruses are phages and are incessantly attacking the bacteria, and the bacteria repel them with a chemical defense system.  We have developed a method to capture this chemical defense system in the ocean (1).  Considering there are billions, if not trillions, of bacterial species in the world oceans, this promises to be a treasure chess of new medicines.  We have had two molecules accepted for preclinical trials for testing against cancer; and currently one of our drugs is being tested against 15 different viral strains responsible for infectious diseases.

There is a rule of thumb that 99% + of marine microbes are difficult or impossible to grow in a lab.  Another ROT is that there are billions or trillions (??) of bacterial species on the ocean, with over 99% + yet to be discovered!  We believe microbial growth has to take place in the ocean and not the lab.

A thought experiment related to our pharmaceutical aquaculture approach.  Imagine a steel cable, starting at the surface, that is over 7 miles long, and is secured to the bottom of the Marinas trench.  Every 500 feet a attached perforated steel container that contains one of our biofilm blocks, attracts microbial colonies.  It is left in place for two or three months and the biofilm blocks retrieved.   From top to bottom, there are multiple microbial ecosystems studied, collecting an untold number of new microbes and their chemical systems.  There are new chemical structures, and not just for medicine.  There might be new proteins and small molecules involved in energy conversion; new catalysts for biological processes; new polymers for green plastics; etc. 

To quote one of my idols; “The future is in the hands of those who explore… and from all the beauty they discover while crossing perpetually receding frontiers, they develop for nature and for humankind an infinite love.” Jacques Yves Cousteau

Dr. Thomas Manning is a professor of chemistry at Valdosta State University. Dr. Manning has taught Instrumental Analysis, Environmental Chemistry, Physical Chemistry I, Marine chemistry, Research classes and different 1000 level classes and labs. His primary research interests are drug development related to the treatment of cancer, bacterial and viral infections and neurological diseases. His undergrad group has 20 novel complexes that have entered pre-clinical trials at the National Cancer Institute, developed and patented a drug that works against Multidrug Resistant Tb, and has recently published novel treatments for COVID19. He also has active projects for oyster and coral restoration. He can be reached via tmanning@valdosta.edu.

(1) https://www.noaa.gov/interagency-ocean-policy/2022-sost-opportunities-and-actions-roundtable/pioneering-pharmaceutical-aquaculture-drugs-from-sea  

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Most people know that nutrient pollution of water is a Bad Thing—it causes nuisance algae growth and harmful algal blooms, or HABs (see Figure 1). Fewer people realize, however, that nutrient pollution has gotten so bad that it puts the entire planet at risk.

Figure 1: A Harmful Algal Bloom Destroying Aquatic Life.
SOURCE: National Oceanic & Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), May 12, 2016: noaa.gov/content/Weather+Climate+Ocean-&-Coasts+Fisheries+Satellites+Research+Marine-&-Aviation+Charting+Across-NOAA+Sanctuaries/story?page=41

Nutrients cycle in global processes and hence constitute one of the nine planetary boundaries. Johan Rockström of the Stockholm Resilience Center and numerous colleagues introduced the concept of planetary boundaries in a 2009 article in Ecology & Society,[1] summarized (and commented on) in the journal Nature.[2] The nine planetary boundaries (see Figure 2) delineate a “safe operating space” for humanity—that is, the boundaries of the stresses that humanity can put on the rest of the planet to avoid creating a risk of changing the entire planet into a less hospitable place.

Figure 2: The Planetary Boundaries 2015
Note that under “Biogeochemical Flows,” both nitrogen (N) and phosphorus (P) are already beyond the safe operating space, meaning that humanity’s use of these nutrients is already putting the planet at risk.
Credit: J. Lokrantz/Azote based on Steffen et al. 2015.
Used in conformance with the license under CC BY-NC-ND 3.0.
SOURCE: https://www.stockholmresilience.org/research/planetary-boundaries.html.

Importantly, nutrient pollution—often labeled “biogeochemical flows”—has always been one of the planetary boundaries. More importantly, since the researchers first identified those planetary boundaries, anthropogenic nutrient pollution already puts the planet at risk—more risk than climate change, land use change, and freshwater depletion, and matched only by biodiversity loss (“biosphere integrity”). As the researchers noted in 2009, “Human activities now convert more N₂ from the atmosphere into reactive forms than all of the Earth’s terrestrial processes combined, and much of that reactive nitrogen, often in the form of ammonia, “eventually ends up in the environment—polluting waterways and coastal zones, adding to the local and global pollution burden in the atmosphere, and accumulating in the biosphere.”[3] In the water, nitrogen pollution stimulates harmful algal blooms that can release toxic compounds, as in “red tides.” Moreover, when all that algae decomposes, it uses up the oxygen in the water column, creating hypoxic “dead zones” where no animal life can exist. Nitrogen pollution has already flipped freshwater and coastal ecosystems into new and less productive states.

            In their latest 2023 version of the planetary boundaries, Rockström and colleagues have differentiated safe boundaries from just boundaries.[4] Just boundaries take account of interspecies justice and Earth system stability, intergenerational justice that accounts for future generations, and intragenerational justice between countries and among communities and individuals.[5] Notably, nitrogen pollution is one of the boundaries where the just boundary requires less nutrient use than the safe boundary, meaning that nitrogen use is unevenly distributed in ways that disadvantage certain people, communities, and countries. Specifically, the differing safe and just boundaries account for the facts that lack of access to fertilizers threatens food security in many places and that mining of phosphate “exposes poor and marginalized communities to mining waste, destroyed land and human rights abuses.”[6]

            Most importantly, however, current global nutrient pollution again far exceeds both the safe and the just boundaries.[7] Nutrient pollution thus continues to put the entire planet at risk, suggesting that increased regulation is necessary.

ROBIN KUNDIS CRAIG is the Robert C. Packard Trustee Chair in Law at the USC Gould School of Law, where she teaches Environmental Law, Water Law, Ocean and Coastal Law, Toxic Torts, Civil Procedure, and Administrative Law. Craig specializes in all things water, including climate change adaptation in the water sector; the food-water-energy nexus; water quality and water allocation law; marine protected areas and marine spatial planning; and the intersection of freshwater and ocean and coastal law. 

[1] Johan Rockström et al., Planetary Boundaries: Exploring the Safe Operating Space for Humanity, 14(2) Ecology & Society art. 32 (2009) [online journal], http://www.ecologyandsociety.org/vol14/iss2/art32/ [hereinafter Exploring the Safe Operating Space].

[2] Johan Rockström et al., A Safe Operating Space for Humanity, 461 Nature 472-75 (2009), https://doi.org/10.1038/461472a.

[3] Id. at 13.

[4] Johan Rockström et al., Safe and Just Earth System Boundaries, Nature (published online May 31, 2023), https://doi.org/10.1038/s41586-023-06083-8.

[5] Id. at 2.

[6] Id. at 7.

[7] Id. at 3 fig. 1.

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The climate action space is overcrowded with phrases like “eco-friendly”, “sustainable”, and “green” thrown around disingenuously far too often. As someone who leads an environmental nonprofit which helps businesses and individuals understand, track, reduce, and offset their carbon footprint, I get it. It’s time to break through the noise to get to the real truth, and to build momentum behind the authentic, impactful, and necessary changes.

Ditching the straw isn’t going to move the needle.
Most people want to do right by the planet; they just aren’t sure what to be doing. So, they proudly refuse a straw, bring their reusable bags to the grocery store, and wheel out their recycling to the curb every week. Continue to ditch the straw, but also analyze your consumption and make some big changes.  Look for ways to reduce your consumption, vote with your dollar by supporting local businesses, and support  environmental nonprofits. 

Renewable energy can have tremendous environmental and economic benefits. 
Renewable energy allows us to continue business as usual.  Don’t get me wrong, we need to be working on renewable energy AND, at the same time addressing our overconsumption.

Look for Long Term Solutions
Fossil fuels are plants and animals that decomposed ~300 million years ago. We are now digging them up, burning them, and the pollution is warming our planet. Planting trees has more benefits than just absorbing carbon emissions, but it’s important to understand that when the tree dies, the carbon emissions it sequestered will be released back into the atmosphere. It’s not a long term solution. Not digging up fossil fuels is.

Question everything. 
The world is riddled with greenwashing, misinformation, disinformation, distractions, etc. It’s hard to know what to do or who to trust. Check your sources then call brands out for false claims and/or greenwashing.. It’s time to be loud. Politicians and brands are listening. The good ones need our votes and our dollars to stay in power. 

So, what should we do? 
Develop a baseline. Analyze our lifestyles and business operations to creatively and strategically make changes to streamline. Monumentally reduce our consumption of fossil fuels and natural resources. Offset the rest while you build up to larger reduction and mitigation strategies. Talk about all of it. Admit what you’ve measured and what you’re still working on, but continue learning. Encourage others to dig deeper. Contact We Are Neutral at www.weareneutral.com (or me directly at anna@weareneutral.com), to help you understand, reduce, and offset your carbon/water/waste footprint. The same way you hire an accountant to help you with your taxes, let us help you minimize your impact and eco-anxiety

Anna Grace Sampson is the Executive Director for the environmental nonprofit, We Are Neutral. For the past 15 years, she has used her creative and mathematical education from her past as a sustainable architect to fight climate change in the nonprofit sector.

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Panelists included Robin Craig of the USC Gould School of Law, Andres Bisono Leon of SOS Carbon, and Doug Myers of the Chesapeake Bay Foundation.

Key Takeaways

• Newest developments in dealing legally with nutrient water pollution.
• Creative approaches to the issue of nitrogen in the context of global ecosystems.
• How environmental crises can be transformed into opportunities, especially for climate crisis mitigation.

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The Dialogue With Industry, Draft Synthesis Report, released at Ocean Business, is now available and over the next four months. We need your help to prioritize the actions and recommendations and tells us what will motive you to participate with us to accelerate the Ocean Enterprise. Until now, vital ocean observing activities that underpin human safety, marine health, blue economies, and sustainable development have largely been managed by the scientific sector and pillared on public projects. But today, private companies are stepping into the field with promising opportunities for a blue data and services revolution.

Our societies rely on ocean observations and services every day. Yet, the importance of the whole Ocean Information Value Chain – from data collection to user services – is not recognized. This builds a barrier to growing the Ocean Enterprise.

To understand the opportunities and barriers, the Marine Technology Society, the Global Ocean Observing System coordinated by the Intergovernmental Oceanographic Commission of the United Nations Education Scientific and Cultural Organization, and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration conduct a series entitled – Dialogues with Industry. The Dialogues, held from September 2022 to January 2023, were curated conversations that brought together 87 invited participants and more than 400 observers from forty countries, and included representatives from private (for-profit and nonprofit/NGO) entities, governmental and other public bodies, as well as the academic sector.

Ocean Information Value Chain

The four Dialogues were structured around the Ocean Information Value Chain, enabling in-depth discussion around each stage. The Draft Synthesis report analyzed more than 400 recommendations received and grouped them into four areas and 12 categories that reflect essential pathways to grow the Ocean Enterprise.

A teaser of opportunities to grow the Ocean Enterprise:

• The Ocean Enterprise is not perceived as critical infrastructure as is the Weather Enterprise – that perception must change.
• Industry participants identified the lack of standards as a significant barrier to growth. Standards level the playing field but must be adopted by all.
• Blue investment is considered risky. Ocean observing and services can de-risk Blue Investment but investors are not aware of the Ocean Enterprise’s capacity.

The Dialogues with Industry participants pointed to the oncoming blue data revolution through sensor transformations that will allow us to take a closer look into ocean biogeochemistry and marine life. “There’s no single sensor or sampler technology that can solve all of our problems. The future lies in finding the right combination of devices and the platforms on which they are deployed to address specific use cases,” says Dr. Christopher Scholin, President and CEO of the Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute.

Early Career Ocean Professionals at the Glider School – a reference training school in marine glider technology held annually by the Oceanic Platform of the Canary Islands (PLOCAN) Credit: PLOCAN

The need for talent in the private sector is a large limiting factor for industries to develop their workforce and scale their production. The private sector can provide a wide array of rewarding careers that students might not be aware of, and to raise this awareness we need stronger coordination with educational systems. We want students to think: ‘Oh, that’s another potential job path for me. I could do this for a living. I could work on something I really care about,’” says Clara Hulburt, Product Line Manager at Teledyne Technologies.

Zdenka Saba Willis, L.L.D. is the CEO of Veraison Consulting, focusing on ocean technology and policy. She retired from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s Senior Executive Service where she was the founding Director of the United States Integrated Ocean Observing Systems (IOOS®) Office. From 2006 to 2007, she was the Director of NOAA’s National Oceanographic Data Center. Ms. Willis retired with the rank of Captain from the United States Navy. Ms. Willis is an MTS Fellow.

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