Charting the Course for the Blue Economy — Navigating Innovation Change Waves Across Maritime Industries

Panelists

Ms. Jennifer Downing
Executive Director, New Bedford Ocean Cluster 

Mr. Steven Fox
Partner, Propeller VC

Mr. Andrew Hargens
Chief Development Officer, Massport

Mr. Nick Rotker
Chief BlueTech Strategist, Cross-Cutting Director, Advanced Maritime & Acoustic Technologies, The MITRE Corporation

Dr. Rockford Weitz
Professor of Practice and Director of Maritime Studies, The Fletcher School, Tufts University

Moderator: Dr. Dan Kuchma
Professor, Civil and Environmental Engineering, Tufts University; Member, MOCEAN

Session Overview

Leading experts from academia, industry, and the scientific community examined the challenges and opportunities at the intersection of maritime shipping and shipbuilding, fishing and aquaculture, coastal tourism, renewable energy, undersea mining, biotechnology, etc. This discussion highlighted the impacts on scientific discovery, innovative place-making, and regional economic development, ultimately creating a vision for greater productivity and prosperity in New England and coastal communities nationwide.

Key Discussion Points

Beginning their discussion of the growing blue economy in New England, Tufts University Professor of Civil and Environmental Engineering Dan Kuchma noted how, given the diversity of the blue economy, the communities involved in different industries had the potential to pull in different directions, creating conflict. For communities to co-create policies that benefit all and avoid opposition, three foundational questions need to be answered:

1. Why is it critical for the United States to lead the blue economy?
2. What are the challenges and opportunities facing coastal communities?
3. And what needs to be done to address them?

Propeller VC Partner Steven Fox, answering the first question, pointed to a United Nations report from early-2025 that the blue economy would be worth $2.3-$3 trillion by 2030. The United States, he argues, has an outsized advantage in capturing this growth; its offshore energy and aquaculture markets are growing, coastal insurance premiums are driving a multibillion-dollar resilience market, and our ocean defense tech sector is world leading.

But New Bedford Ocean Cluster Executive Director Jennifer Downing cautioned that the United States is behind in investment in the blue economy. For example, Canada’s blue economy supercluster has received $2 billion in investment, while the European Union has pledged $3 billion, and China is investing at even higher levels. But the United States does have opportunities to lead. Bills are before Congress to advance ocean innovation superclusters, and New England in particular has both the history of the maritime industry and the political will around climate tech to lead. Massachusetts and Rhode Island also received an EDA Ocean Tech Hub designation in 2023, making them more competitive to receive federal funding in the future and better able to close existing investment gaps.

Andrew Hargens, Chief Development Officer at the Massachusetts Port Authority, then offered an illuminating perspective on Massport’s growing role in advancing New England’s blue economy. While widely recognized for managing much of the Commonwealth’s transportation infrastructure, Massport is also a major steward of land and assets around Boston Harbor—positioning it as a unique catalyst for economic innovation. In addition to supporting legacy sectors like fishing and maritime shipping, Massport is increasingly focused on unlocking new opportunities tied to emerging technologies, ocean-based industries, and sustainable development, helping to redefine the working waterfront as a 21st-century innovation corridor.

Tufts University Professor of Practice and Director of Maritime Studies at the Fletcher School Rockford Weitz reinforced the message that New England has built-in strengths in the blue economy that are hard to match. Food, energy, and national security, especially shipbuilding, are all areas of legacy strength, and all areas with a strong bipartisan backing for investment. The United States leads in areas critical to the future of the blue economy — from sustainable fishing and aquaculture to offshore wind, clean fossil energy, and shipbuilding — an industry now gaining renewed focus under the current administration’s maritime revitalization efforts. Nick Rotker, Chief BlueTech Strategist at MITRE Corporation, underscored a key advantage unique to the U.S.: the close proximity of world-class universities and research institutions to rich environmental data repositories, such as those at Woods Hole. By integrating advanced AI capabilities with these data assets, MITRE aims to improve model training and accelerate data-driven insights—amplifying the impact of both scientific research and technological innovation.

Asked about what concerns are facing New England’s coastal communities, Mr. Hargens was quick to point to the need to protect physical assets on coastlines from rising sea levels and violent storms. Coordination between agencies and regulatory reform will be crucial to support novel solutions, like seawalls made from living material, and the businesses that create them.

Ms. Downing pointed to the need to keep the seafood industry healthy, as fish stocks have been depleted by overfishing, and regulations to protect them are not nimble enough to keep up with changing conditions. She noted how better data collection — like a project to equip fishing vessels with sensing systems — can make information more readily available, but regulation changes need to accelerate to keep pace. There is also pressure on local seafood processors, many of which lack the resources to compete with global competitors, even in places like New Bedford — the largest fishing port in the country.

Dr. Weitz was also concerned about the health of the ocean biosphere, citing a “Bermuda Triangle” of physical pollution, human-induced chemical imbalances, and biological disruption from overfishing. However, Mr. Fox touted his venture capital firm’s investment into companies looking to solve these issues, be it through reversing acidification, reducing waste in fishing, or building more resilient concretes. While the oceans are under pressure, technologies are being developed to mitigate it, but permitting reform will be crucial for deploying them.

Mr. Rotker also called for institutions to commit to breaking down silos that prevent cooperation. The MITRE BlueTech Lab has been opened to the outside world, giving space for the testing of autonomous underwater vehicles; finding new ways to bring teams together is necessary to advance blue technology.

Dr. Kuchma then turned to finding the best practices for deploying solutions to bluetech problems. For example, while sticker price is often the biggest determinant for decisions in the energy industry, Europe has transitioned to a model where impacts on marine ecology are considered with similar weight. Should similar practices be implemented here?

One idea shared by Mr. Rotker is to improve data-sharing across New England’s laboratories, universities, and research institutions to foster greater cross-organizational understanding and innovation. And Ms. Downing reinforced the need to better support the startup ecosystem—particularly by expanding access to real-world saltwater testing environments. While support organizations exist to help connect startups with industry, many remain underpublicized and underutilized. Mr. Hargens illustrated this challenge by citing a Boston-based seafood-sorting startup that partnered with a firm in Alaska, bypassing nearby processors simply because they weren’t part of a connected network. He noted that while Massport could serve as one bridge between innovation and industry, it cannot be the only one.

For Dr. Weitz, the core competitiveness issue in bluetech is not innovation, but scale — and the regulatory hurdles that impede it. He candidly shared that he had advised some startups to go abroad in search of more permissive permitting regimes. In countries like China, Japan, and South Korea — global leaders in shipbuilding — more flexible regulatory frameworks have enabled growth despite higher labor costs. In contrast, the United States, though known for openness, has drifted toward regulatory overreach. Encouragingly, he noted, there is growing bipartisan momentum to reverse that trend.

Asked for their final thoughts, Dr. Weitz was emphatic that the United States had all the pieces to lead the blue economy — it just needs to seize the opportunity. Ms. Downing, meanwhile, pushed for greater federal support for emerging place-based initiatives like the New Bedford Ocean Cluster. Mr. Fox highlighted the upcoming Ocean MBA program from Propellor VC, which is training bluetech founders on strategies for business success.

To wrap, Mr. Hargens and Mr. Rotker pressed Conversation participants to take advantage of the opportunity to reach out to their fellows and form new partnerships, paving the way for future success.