We’ve known for years that the United States is an ocean nation with a growing “Blue Economy,” but did you know there’s now a “New Blue Economy?”
Coastal communities in the U.S. are home to over 127 million people, 40% of the population. In 2019, the American Blue Economy grew faster than the nation’s economy in its entirety, supporting 2.4 million jobs and contributing $397 billion to the nation’s gross domestic product through activities such as tourism and recreation, shipping and transportation, commercial and recreational fishing, power generation, research, and related goods and services.
Now, a new age in ocean technology, sustainability, and logistics requires a “New Blue Economy” founded on the improved collection, analysis, and dissemination of ocean and coastal-derived data and information to support economic growth, protect the ocean’s health, and address societal challenges and inspire their solutions, while protecting ocean health and ensuring social equity.
The New Blue Economy builds on the traditional Blue Economy by harnessing the power of big data to coalesce and apply ocean and coastal data and information. Given NOAA’s role as an authoritative ocean and coastal data collector, product developer, and disseminator and as public servants, NOAA is uniquely poised to accelerate and guide the early development of the New Blue Economy by revolutionizing the application of ocean data within multiple sectors.
According to Dr. Richard Spinrad, Under Secretary of Commerce for Oceans and Atmosphere & NOAA Administrator, The New Blue Economy is “ . . . a knowledge-based economy, looking to the sea not just for extraction of material goods, but for data and information to address societal challenges and inspire their solutions.”
NOAA’s free and open source ocean and coastal data (temperature, water level, hydrography, topography, pH, salinity, surface currents, and more), provide the foundation for the New Blue Economy. These data are used by other Federal agencies, state and local governments, tribes, academia, non-governmental organizations, businesses, and the public, and are vital to the siting of offshore wind and aquaculture farms, creating the most efficient shipping routes, and better understanding the conditions needed for rapid intensification of hurricanes. NOAA’s data also include information about where certain marine life occur, whether there’s a harmful algal bloom on the way, or whether important fish stocks have moved into another country’s waters.
The rapid and accelerating pace of climate change is driving increased demand for information in the ocean and along our coasts, and NOAA is looking ahead and anticipating our country’s current and future needs by generating and disseminating the ocean and coastal data, information, products, and services that economic sectors, decision makers, and communities need. In turn, these products contribute to our Nation’s climate and economic resilience, opening up new markets, and increasing the need for authoritative coastal and ocean observations and data as a foundation.
NOAA is investing in innovative ocean and coastal observing technology to maximize the economic potential of the world’s oceans while ensuring the sustainable use of ocean and coastal resources and protecting ocean health, natural capital, and ecosystem services now and in the future.
Learn more about the New Blue Economy HERE.
Learn more about how NOAA is supporting the “New Blue Economy” HERE.
In 2021, NOAA released its Blue Economy Strategic Plan for 2021-2025, laying out a roadmap for new ways to advance America’s Blue Economy and enhance a global ocean economy expected to double in value to $3 trillion over the next decade.
The Strategic Plan focuses on five sectors that NOAA will advance through agency-wide initiatives: marine transportation, ocean exploration, seafood competitiveness, tourism and recreation, and coastal resilience.
The 2021-2025 NOAA Blue Economy Strategic Plan aligns with several key agency initiatives, including implementing the National Ocean Policy of 2018, the 2018 National Strategic Plan for STEM Education, the 2019 Presidential Memorandum on Mapping the U.S. EEZ and Shoreline & Nearshore of Alaska, the 2020 National Strategy for Mapping, Exploring, & Characterizing the U.S. Exclusive Economic Zone, the 2020 Executive Order on Promoting Seafood Competitiveness and Economic Growth, the 2020 Federal Strategy for Addressing the Global Challenge of Marine Litter, and several NOAA conservation, science and technology, and mapping strategies.
Download the Powering the Blue Economy brochure from the U.S. Department of Energy Water Power Technologies Office to learn more about energy innovation in the New Blue Economy, energy resiliency for coastal and islanded communities, and the initiative’s overall progress.
The U.S. Department of Energy’s Water Power Technologies Office Powering the Blue Economy™ initiative is a meaningful first step toward protecting, understanding, and leveraging the immense power and promise of the oceans to help us achieve our collective economic, social, and environmental goals. Collaboration and engagement are central to efforts supporting communities and marine life while sustainably providing power to the Blue Economy.
Marine Energy & the Blue Economy
Blue Economy Applications
Research Activities & Projects
Powering the Blue Economy Report
Informational Resources
Guice Offshore Vessels Work With Scientific and Government Researchers; Even Documentary Filmmakers
Guice Offshore (“GO”)’s fleet is regularly employed in a variety of support roles including ocean science research and development, and other special projects requiring top-of-the-line, highly dependable offshore support vessels. Our multi-purpose vessel GO America, based in Port Everglades, Florida, operates in conjunction with our partners Global SubDive to support a large array of science and research projects, often utilizing GSD submarines and ROVs. Similarly, partner Ryan Marine is an expert in the field of unmanned vehicle operation, which allows us to provide turnkey AUV and UUV services anywhere in the United States and Caribbean.
Guice Offshore vessels like the 150 ft. DP1 GO Liberty or the 170 ft. DP1 GO Discovery are often used by geotechnical and other types of companies to perform detailed survey activities such as seabed mapping, soil investigations and core sampling. Depending on their equipment installed, our vessels can work in a variety of coastal or offshore environments and water depths. The open cargo deck, ample accommodations, excellent maneuverability and station-keeping, all coupled with an efficient cost of operations, makes the Guice Offshore fleet a consistently reliable choice for those needing an offshore supply vessel or marine transport.
For researchers looking to document their missions, Guice Offshore vessels also support movie and television productions, whose crew needs capable vessels like ours to film scenes, house crews or transport between sets. Our vessels have participated in the filming of feature films movies Deepwater Horizon and Isolation. GO America was also supporting actor in the TV series Cooper’s Treasure Season 2 and Shark Week’s “Tiger Shark King” episode. GO vessels have even been mentioned on national news programs for their participation in life-saving rescues or other offshore recovery missions. With our partners, submarines and ROVs can be provided to assist with underwater cinematography.
