This paper is a short study into ocean data and the business models that surround the collection and distribution of ocean data.
I hope that the language and lists in this article will support any ocean data company with the task of tailoring their messaging towards each customer type they are able to serve.
If you have anything to add to the article, please reach out! 🙏
Example ocean data businesses
Open Ocean Robotics
https://www.openoceanrobotics.com/
Organization type: Privately Owned Corporation
Invention:
Business mission:
- “Open Ocean Robotics provides safe, affordable, and sustainable ocean monitoring solutions to digitize planet ocean and sustainably grow the $2.5 trillion blue economy.”
- They are doing this with unmanned surface vehicles powered by solar with zero greenhouse gas emissions. There is a mission to reduce greenhouse gas emissions: “Open Ocean Robotics reduces greenhouse gas emissions by taking offshore research vessels off of the ocean. Taking one offshore research vessel off the ocean for a week is like taking 100 cars off the road for a year. Open Ocean autonomous boats can replace or augment vessels that use sensors or cameras to observe, protect and understand the ocean, reducing the need for traditional fuel consuming vessels.”
Existing customers or projects:
- Defense
- Illegal fishing enforcement
Intended customer types:
- oceanographic research
- environmental monitoring
- offshore energy assessments
- maritime domain awareness
- coastal mapping
- offshore surveys
- fisheries monitoring
- open ocean data delivery
- protect marine ecosystems
- Reporting on carbon sequestration
- From the website: “create monitoring, verification, and reporting solutions (MRV) for carbon sequestration methods including alkalinity enhancement and macroalgae growth.”
- Optimizing shipping routes
- From the website: “We are also advancing solutions for improved ocean current profiling and weather forecasting to support ship routing and ports. This data we consistently collect in all our missions has the potential to be used to develop data products to enable ships to shorten their routes and port to improve efficiency in ship wait time. Ships produce 1000 megaton of greenhouse gasses every year, more than all of Canada emits, and even modest improvements will make substantial impact. By helping ships drive more fuel-efficient routes using real-time information on ocean conditions, they can conserve fuel and reduce emissions.”
- Any other mission-critical task.
Sale type:
- Selling the robot
- Service of maintaining and operating the robot
- Access to a data portal with extra data
Cost of doing business: Not available, estimated > $2M CAD per year based on team size
Team size: 33 people
Location: Victoria BC
Inaugurated: 2020
Investment: Around $12M CAD since 2019 across equity and grant.
Awards:
- MaRS women in cleantech finalist
- Solar Impulse Efficient Solution Label
- Emerging Rocket Clean Tech list
- Thetius most innovative companies in Marine
- Creative Destruction Lab Oceans Stream Graduate
- Clean Tech Group Top 50 to Watch
- NA Co, Canada’s most promising startup
- Venture Lab Company of the year 2021
Revenue: not available
Sea Manta Ray
https://www.northropgrumman.com/what-we-do/sea/manta-ray
Organization type: Publicly sold (NYSE) corporation
Manta Ray is a division of Northrop Grumman, which is an American technology company that has been servicing the American security and defense industries since 1939.
Invention:
Business mission:
- Manta Ray’s business mission: Uncrewed support for long-duration undersea missions, going where humans can’t.
- From the website: “Northrop Grumman has been pioneering capabilities in the undersea domain for more than 50 years. Now, we are creating a new class of uncrewed underwater vehicles (UUV) with Manta Ray. Taking its name from the massive “winged” fish, Manta Ray will operate long-duration, long-range missions in ocean environments where humans can’t go.”
- Northrop Grumman’s business mission: “Northrop Grumman solves the toughest problems in space, aeronautics, defense and cyberspace to meet the ever evolving needs of our customers worldwide”
Intended customers:
- Defense
- global aerospace, defense and security company
Cost of doing business: Not Available
Team size: approximately 100,000 employees
Location: West Falls Church, Virginia (previously Jefferson),United States
Inaugurated: 1939
Aquaai
Organization type: Family owned corporation
Invention:
Business mission: We help keep humanity alive by protecting waterways. No clean water, No life.
We merge risk management and biomimicry for affordable data to all. Easy & affordable access to reliable visual & environmental data from waterways!
Existing customers:
Only one customer is listed in publicly available information:
- As seen on Back Stage Capital: “Amongst Aquaai’s customers are Norwegian sustainable fish farms including Kvarøy Fiskeoppdrett, providers of salmon to Whole Foods.” From: https://backstagecapital.com/headliners/aquaai/
Intended customers:
- Water Management & Biodiversity Tool
- Smart City
- Sustainable Underwater Farms
- Flooding
- Pollution
- Canals
- Corals
- Mangroves
- Ports
- Harbors
Types of data:
- Oxygen, Salinity, PII, Temperature, wave height, Battery, location, underwater images, species recognition
Here is the best image of their data portal available:
Cost of doing business: not available
Team size: 4
Location: United States and UAE
Inaugurated: Seed round in 2014
Investment: Latest deal is $1.5 M
16 total investors since 2014
Awards: UAE's HUB71/Techstars 2024, NEOM Food 2022, World’s Top 50 Innovation Codex 2022, Top Tier Impact Awards 2022 (finalist), GreenBiz, Atlantic Council, Verizon Climate Resilience Prize 2022 (finalist), OceanPitch Fest 2021 (finalist), Hardware Cup CleanTech 2021 (finalist), Innovation Norway grantee 2020, TEKFISH (2020 trip winner) - Australian Fisheries Research and Development Corp (FRDC), European Commission's Seal of Excellence for Impact, Quality and Efficiency 2020,
CDL Graduate 2020, Winner Top Aquaculture Innovation Award Fish 2.0 Stanford Global Forum 2019
Revenue: Latest deal is $1.5 M
Charles River Analytics
Organization type: Corporation
Business mission: Primarily Robotics for defense, with commercial solutions being provided based on solutions previously made for the U.S. military.
There are two key products related to ocean data:
- Autotrap
This product is a software product for submerged vehicles that allows for faster processing of sonar information, and target identification. This allows for USVs to identify AutoTRap Onboard's architecture supports the detection of shipping containers,
oil pipelines, human forms, black boxes, and more.
- Autonomous Look out system
https://cra.com/awarion-autonomous-lookout-system/
This product “The Awarion® Autonomous Lookout System is an Al solution that complements and supports human lookouts and marine radar systems to support marine conservation for wind farms and the shipping industry.”
Intended customers:
- Defense
- Marine container shipping
- Offshore surveillance
- Offshore wind
- Marine conservation
Team size: 150 people
Location: Cambridge, Massachusetts
Inaugurated: 1983
Global Fishing Watch
https://globalfishingwatch.org/
Organization type: Non-profit Organization
Organization mission: “Our purpose is to create and publicly share knowledge about human activity at sea to enable fair and sustainable use of our ocean.”
“We use cutting-edge technology to turn big data into actionable information. We believe human activity at sea should be common knowledge in order to safeguard the global ocean for the good of all.”
Examples of current projects/customers:
- Catching Illegal bottom trawling in Mediterranean sea with https://www.medseaalliance.org/
- Satellite imagery to track reflagging with Duke University and Stockholm Resilience Center
- Partnered with BirdLife International to investigate the overlap between longline fisheries and albatrosses. Using GPS data from more than 300 longline vessels operating in the southern Atlantic, Indian and Pacific Oceans, we applied our machine learning technology to identify exactly what time of day these vessels set their lines.
- Marine Manager—a dynamic technology portal created to help inform the design, monitoring and management of marine protected areas—with support from philanthropist and ocean advocate Dona Bertarelli.
More projects listed here: https://globalfishingwatch.org/success-stories/
Here is a list of the common data types Global Fishing Watch is providing:
- Common Data types applied in each project:
- Satellite data analysis
- GPS data analysis
- Port records
- Marine manager: to monitor and analyze commercial fishing, shipping and other industrial activity. This information can be overlaid with environmental, biological and zoning data, offering insights into the health of the marine environment and how it is affected by humans
- Purposes of the projects:
- Illegal fishing
- Incorrect practices (Seasons, Timing)
- Wrong species
- Wrong location
- Hidden fishing
- Illegal fishing
Intended customers:
- Nations that are policing their waters
- Foundations protecting species, oceans
- MPA managers
Cost of doing business: n/a
Team size: 51-200
Location: Washington, District of Columbia
Inaugurated: 2015
Investment: Global Fishing Watch has received a five-year USD $60 million commitment through The Audacious Project to leverage open data and emerging technology to revolutionize global ocean management. - from: https://globalfishingwatch.org/press-release/global-fishing-watch-to-reveal-all-human-activity-at-sea-with-investment-through-the-audacious-project/
Revenue:
- Our overall income in 2023 was U.S.$75.1 million with a total spend of U.S.$14.4 million, an increase of U.S.$65.1 million and U.S.$1.5 million respectively in the previous year. - from: https://globalfishingwatch.org/annual-report-2023/
- $8M in 2022, from https://projects.propublica.org/nonprofits/organizations/815461345 or $10M in 2022 from https://globalfishingwatch.org/annual-report-2023/
2023 by the numbers:
From: https://globalfishingwatch.org/annual-report-2023/
Awards: Many awards received, including:
- Peter Benchley Ocean Award
https://globalfishingwatch.org/news-views/peter-benchley-ocean-awards-partners-win/
- $60 million commitment through The Audacious Project
Dive Viz
Organization type: corporation
Business mission: “Our app is dedicated to bringing the dive community consistent and accurate ocean visibility reports and forecasts. Our goal is to provide the most accurate representation of what a dive site would be like before having to enter the water, therefore ensuring that the millions of Scuba divers, freed divers and snorkelers know when to plan their dives for the most enjoyable experience and highest safety.”
Invention:
From: https://diveviz.com/pages/about
Intended customers:
B2C business model:
- Focusing on divers, snorkelers, and free divers doing tourism and leisure fishing
B2B business model:
- advertising dive shops on the app
Revenue: It’s possible that this business has gone flat as of 2023
Cost of doing business: N/A
Team size: 5
Location: San Diego
Inaugurated: 2020
Investment: Some Government funding in 2021
Awards: N/A
Sofar Ocean
Organization type: corporation
Invention:
It can also drop a line that has sensors on it:
Business mission: “We developed a marine sensing platform called Spotter and deployed hundreds globally to create the largest privately-owned network of ocean sensors. Each day, this network makes more than 1.5 million real-time observations of waves and other ocean variables.”
“Our team of ocean scientists builds innovative models to assimilate the observations made by the Spotter network into Sofar’s marine weather forecasts. These forecasts are up to 50% more accurate than traditional models.”
From: https://www.sofarocean.com/products/spotter
Products:
- Devices - buy the devices directly
- Sofar API
- Spotter platform
Current projects/customers:
Intended customers:
- Maritime Shipping: We optimize voyages to help maritime shipping save fuel and emissions.
- To maximize our impact, we focus on maritime shipping, which produces 3% of global emissions. Our Wayfinder platform uses our high-accuracy forecasts to optimize voyages and help fleets decarbonize.
- We equip science, industry, and government with our devices and data.
- No organization can close the ocean data gap on its own. Our customers deploy Spotter platforms and access data from our global sensor network to power marine research and solutions.
Types of data:
- Wave spectra, wind, sea surface temperature, and atmospheric pressure.
- Measure subsurface temperature, water level, and current.
- Turbidity
- Acidity
- pCO2
- CTD
- Cameras
- Hydrophone
- More with DevKit
Cost of doing business: n/a
Team size: 51 - 200 people
Location: San Francisco, USA
Inaugurated: 2016
Investment:
Awards: n/a
Revenue: n/a
Rockland Scientific
https://rocklandscientific.com/
Organization type: Privately owned corporation
Inventions:
https://rocklandscientific.com/products/
Business mission: “Rockland Scientific is dedicated to the measurement of turbulent flow in the marine environment. We provide measurement services, assist with technical questions and consult on the design of measurement campaigns, experimental instrumentation, and data collection & processing.”
Intended customers:
- Off shore energy
- InSTREAM, a corporation is co-funded by the Offshore Energy Research Association
Cost of doing business: n/a
Team size: ~10 people
Location: Victoria BC Canada
Inaugurated: 2016
Investment: n/a
Awards: n/a
Revenue: $5.8 M (per year? source: https://rocketreach.co/rockland-scientific-inc-profile_b5c10c05f42e08bf)
Other ocean data businesses
E-oceans
Civilian science for MPA management.
W Sense
Underwater wireless communication from device to device.
Sea Sketch
“SeaSketch puts powerful tools into the hands of ocean planners, stakeholders and the public that were once limited to GIS professionals, enabling participatory marine spatial planning processes that are closely tied to the relevant science and information”
Ocean Weather
“Oceanweather Inc. is a specialized metocean consulting firm serving the coastal and ocean engineering communities since 1977. Our approach is to develop and apply high-level technology to satisfy practical requirements in marine meteorology, ocean wave and current specification, ocean engineering, and statistics of environmental data.”
Ocean Sync
“Real time shipborne weather data”
WIPSEA
Drone footage processed by AI for identifying large marine objects, such as marine mammals.
Broad information about ocean data businesses
What kind of ocean data is out there?
Based on the websites of the companies above, here is a broad overview of the common data types available by these monitoring companies:
- Wind speed and direction
- Surface Current speed and direction
- Waves/wave height/speed
- Traffic data
- Water temperature
- Thermal camera
- Air temperature
- Air temp & pressure
- Water Depth
- 360 degrees surface camera
- Underwater camera
- high quality video feeds of underwater/surface
- Sound - passive acoustic array & processing
- Water salinity
- Dissolved oxygen in the water
- Chlorophyll A
- pCO2
- FDOM
- Turbidity
- Satellite imagery of the ocean
- Fishermen’s records of species population
- Human counting of species
Others may include:
- Other weather, water and air conditions
- Data derived from the communication between two devices
- Historical records from ships/ports/documentation
What kind of sensors and tools collect ocean data?
- Radio
- Echolocation
- Thermometer
- Camera
- Pressure meter
- Motion sensor
- Human
- GPS
- Satellite imaging
- Dissolved oxygen, chlorophyll, co2, salt measuring sensors
There is also processed information available, such as:
- Traffic detection
- Animal detection
- Animal counting
- Camera Trap images
- Video feeds
- Topographical maps
- Digitally generated maps
Raw ocean data is often processed by AI. Here are some examples of companies that process the data for the end-user:
Open Ocean Robotics:
AI-driven analytics with XplorerView™, which uses custom AI analytics to deliver key insights on acquired data. This provides better detections of vessels, animals, and other objects, as well as improved data collection. Paired with DataXplorer’s AI powered edge computing system, it maximizes the value of acquired data to provide an unparalleled understanding of key ocean parameters.
Ocean AID:
Object identification using Sonar data.
Global Fishing Watch:
Flag watching over 50 years of data collection
https://globalfishingwatch.org/research-project-vessel-identity/
Maps of where different species are habituating.
What kind of vehicles collect ocean data?
- Surface robot, i.e. Open Ocean Robotics
- Submerged robot, i.e. Aquaii and Sea Manta ray
- Satellite
- Stationary sensors
- Buoy
- Attachments to ships
- Drones
- Human-operated app
- Digital models for forecasting based on past data
- Unique submersible IoUT devices (Internet of Underwater Things)
How do customers access the data?
- Companies usually make their data accessible through a customized portal, where users can log on and get the data being provided by the collectors.
- The data is also often accessible through API and other kinds of downloads.
- Report based - some companies do a lot of processing and reporting of data independently, so their customers are enabled to do more decision making.
What are the global/public repositories of ocean data?
According to a presentation by Reyna Jenkins from World Data Systems International, there are several federated data systems for ocean data. Here is the slide from her presentation on the different public repositories of ocean data:
Some of the databases listed above are here:
Not listed above are several other key databases:
- https://www.ncei.noaa.gov/products/world-ocean-database
- https://globalfishingwatch.org/open-ocean-project/
- https://marine.copernicus.eu/
- European Digital Twin of the Ocean
- Copernicus Data and Information Access Services
- European Marine Observation and Data Network (EMODnet)
Further questions I have about these public databases:
- What kind of data is available in each public repository?
- How “clean” is the data?
- How can the data be consumed - what is the price/cost etc.
- Who makes and maintains these repositories, and how much funding do they have?
- What advantage does an ocean data company provide over these public databases?
Shout out to a very cool story on providing data for MPA management publicly to support MPAs:
https://globalfishingwatch.org/impacts/stories/marine-manager-supercharges-ocean-conservation/
Who are the stakeholders/customers in ocean data?
Based on the Ocean Impact Navigator by 1000 Ocean Startups, the next section will outline the different pillars in Ocean Impact and their ocean data needs.
This section outlines the who and the why of ocean data.
Here is 1000 Ocean Startup's infographic showing the 17 main sectors of ocean impact. This Ocean Navigator can be used as a guide to help ocean data companies identify potential customers in Ocean Impact.
Sustainable ocean food production
Company types:
- Fisheries
- Quantities of fish
- Movements of fish
- Health of fish
- Aquaculture farms
- Quality/quantity of fish
- Water quality
- Substitutes to seafood
- How many fish are left untouched?
- Seaweed, algae, shellfish production
- Volume of seaweed
- What is the effect on ecosystems at large
- Seafood supply chain
- Monitoring sources of fish
Needs and questions:
- Data for applying for licenses
- Data for meeting scientific limits on fisheries
- Data for understanding scientific limits
- Data for calculating catch
- Which species are affected by fishing?
- How much fishing is happening?
- Where is the fishing happening?
- Is the MPA in the right place?
- Who is fishing? Is it the right people who are fishing?
Illegal fishing law enforcement
Company types:
- Governments
- Ocean protection foundations
- 3rd party fishing watch teams
- Local MPA management teams
Needs and questions:
- Who is fishing in the MPA?
- Are people fishing at the right time of day?
- Are people fishing with the correct practices/methods?
- I.e. Not using long-lines at the wrong time, which can dramatically affect albatross life
- Taking the correct species
- Understanding what the scientific limit is
Clean ocean energy
Company types:
- Off shore wind
- Off shore wave
- Thermocline energy generation
- Salinity energy generation
Check out some of the interesting oceanic energy ideas here: https://cwf.ca/research/publications/energy-innovation-brief-39-exploring-oceanic-energy/
Further needs and questions:
- Is the farm in the optimal location to farm the most power?
- Are marine mammals being interrupted by wind farms?
- Is the water being churned more/less than before?
- Is there carbon dioxide emission or sequestration as a result of the churn?
- How does the energy farm affect water quality?
- Data for licensing and choosing the location of the farm.
- Have the species who are living in the area changed?
- Is it possible to grow seaweed under the wind/wave farm?
- What ecological effects are there from floating solar panels?
Solutions to pollution
Company types:
- Major emitters of pollution that are being policed into controlling their pollution
- Plastics sourcing companies, who are looking to mine ocean garbage
- Ocean conservation foundations
- Ports looking to monitor sound/other pollution
- Circular materials companies
Types of pollution to be monitored:
- Pollution
- Sound pollution
- Agriculture runoff
- Biological pollution
- Plastic pollution
- Chemical pollution
Needs and questions:
- Pollution capture for MPA management
- Pollution capture by marine conservation societies
- Pollution capture as a resource for manufacturing
- Where is the pollution?
- What kind of pollution?
- How deep is the pollution?
- Is the pollution “within the scientific limit”?
Low carbon transportation and shipping infrastructure
Company types:
- Shipping companies
- Ports
- Ferries (human/passenger transportation)
- Vessel insurance
- Pleasure craft, recreational vehicles
- Aqua plane companies
- Auxiliary companies
- Software for shipping
- Blue credit companies in sustainable shipping
Needs and questions:
- Route optimization
- Fuel optimization
- Port inspection
- Vessel identification
- Ship monitoring for law enforcement, i.e. exhaust/sound pollution limits
- Cost/benefit analysis of new practices:
- Sails on container ships
- Eco-friendly fuel
- Hull maintenance
Defense, security, law enforcement, search and rescue
Company types:
- Defense
- Building a defense focused infrastructure for the decarbonized world
- Coast guards
- Port inspections
- Fisheries enforcement
- Search and Rescue
- Government or 3rd party
Questions and needs:
- Identifying vessels that are not abiding by the law
- Identifying foreign vessels in the ocean space
- Policing ports
- Policing coasts
Conservation and climate change
Company types:
- MPAs (Ecosystem restoration and preservation)
- Boundaries
- Included species
- Enforcement
- Affiliated conservation groups
- species count
- Sea ice monitoring
- Depth
- Thickness
- Locations of sea ice boundaries
- Ocean based carbon removal
- Tons of carbon sequestered
- Locations of seaweed farms
- Seaweed, algae, shellfish, carbon sequestration
- Setting up coral farms
- Identifying good location for coral restoration
- Identifying the right species for coral restoration
- Monitoring health of the coral
Tourism
Company types:
- Ecotourism/tourism groups
- Expedition groups/explorers
- Cruise ships (tourism)
Needs and questions:
- Where are the best tourist locations to visit?
- Where are the mammals and ecosystems that people want to visit?
- Route optimization
- Ticket price optimization
- Hotel package deals optimization
- Decarbonization requirements
Mining
Company types
- Offshore mining/drilling companies
- Companies attempting to stop offshore mining and drilling
Needs and questions:
- Identifying places that are acceptable for offshore mining/drilling (no where is acceptable??)
- Complying with regulations
- Pollution capture
- Pollution prevention
- Harm prevention
Other
- Universities
- Research
- Government
- Benchmarking
- Any kind of insurance, i.e. fisheries
- Blue carbon credits and blue credit companies
Broad list of ocean data applications
In case it’s useful, I’ve compiled a broad list of ocean data applications. These ocean data applications could be applied to any customer type, and could be generated from several different sources of data.
Applications
- Species identification
- Species monitoring
- Marine mapping
- Maritime situational awareness
- Ship detection and monitoring
- Weather monitoring
- Maritime intelligence reconnaissance and surveillance
- Marine mammal detection
- Scientific research and ecosystem monitoring
- Seafloor mapping
- Ocean current profiling
- Traffic information at ports or high seas
- Wave height and depth map
- Vessel information, i.e. location, speed, country of origin, contents
- Ocean pollution identification
Benefits of collecting and applying ocean data across various sectors
In case it’s useful for ocean data marketers, here is a list of of benefits I’ve seen across ocean data websites:
- Healthy oceans
- SDG 14
- Food scarcity and insecurity reduction
- Carbon emissions reduction
- Policy writing supporting
- Sustainable livelihoods for all who depend on seafood to live
- Improved wealth for fishermen living near MPAs
- Sustainable usage of maritime resources
- Ocean data analytics applied to your industry
- Decreasing the use of higher carbon and resource intensive methods to collect data
- Understanding the impact climate change has on oceans
- Supporting natural and enhanced ocean carbon capture
- Cost savings for mission deployment
- Cost savings for materials - i.e. using recycled materials
- Marine mammal protection
- Ocean bird protection
- Customer experience improvement, i.e. in Tourism
Conclusion
Understanding the business models surrounding ocean data is a very broad topic. It’s very difficult to imagine how one data company might be able to service two customers as wildly different as MPA management and Port Security monitoring, yet there is overlap in their data needs.
The major challenge to ocean data businesses is being able to capture and service the needs of diverse clients. In order to do this, every ocean data business needs to identify their target customers, how to talk to them, and how to package the data in a way that is useful for them.
Hopefully this article helps towards completing some of the steps of that process.
Please reach out if you're interested in chatting about these topics!
