Resource Provides Critical Data for a Sustainable Blue Economy

Resource Provides Critical Data for a Sustainable Blue Economy

Bigelow Laboratory for Ocean Sciences has taken ownership of the National Ocean Economics Program, the first dataset in the U.S. for tracking the value and health of ocean and coastal resources and the array of economic sectors that depend on them.

For over 25 years, NOEP has been used by policymakers, resource managers, and scientists around the world to monitor and measure the blue economy. Bigelow Laboratory intends to continue that legacy while also expanding the possibilities of this resource.

Leveraging recent computational advances and the expertise of the institute, and its Tandy Center for Ocean Forecasting, the new leadership team intends to modernize and expand the database to better understand the future of the ocean and ensure the sustainable and productive use of its resources.

"One of the key things I've learned in my work is that to understand the future, we need to recognize that humans are part of the ocean, which is where NOEP comes in," said Senior Research Scientist Nick Record, director of the Tandy Center. "We're excited about what this could be in terms of bringing together the natural and social sciences, improving ocean forecasting, and helping grow the blue economy."

NOEP was conceived in the late 1990s by Judy Kildow, current Bigelow Laboratory board member and then-professor at MIT, to provide a scientific foundation for policy and management decisions over coastal and ocean resources. Through the persistence of Kildow and Charles Colgan, the former Maine state economist, it has grown into a critical, free tool for tracking economic and demographic trends with reliable, standardized data. It was even included among President Clinton's top priorities for the "International Year of the Ocean" in 1998.

Initially funded by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and the Lokar Foundation, NOEP has been supported over its lifetime by various state and federal agencies, foundations, and universities. It has also been managed by several institutions. Most recently, it was hosted by the Center for the Blue Economy at the Middlebury Institute of International Studies.

At each step, the database became more robust, but the overarching mission - to provide objective, accessible information - has stayed the same.

"So much of our public data are in jeopardy right now, so, as an institution, we're glad to play our part in stewarding this public resource," said President and CEO Deborah Bronk. "Managing NOEP will help bring a human dimension into more of our research, while our expertise in the natural sciences will allow us to accomplish new things with this database for the benefit of all its users."

Access to this information will help scientists at the Tandy Center refine their ocean forecasting work. The institute's strengths in data science will also enable researchers to incorporate new sources and begin linking social and environmental data, which has been part of the NOEP vision from the beginning.

In addition, bringing NOEP's resources to Maine can help with both statewide and regional efforts to measure and create jobs and economic activity in blue economy sectors - from aquaculture to marine biotechnology - in partnership with other experts in the state.

"This resource is going to allow us to take that work in some interesting, new directions," Record said.

To that end, the team has a vision to expand both the depth and breadth of the database.

The team is investing in a more detailed, deeper-dive into emerging industries specifically in Maine as the first step in creating an "ocean account" for the state.

Ocean accounts have become a popular framework for envisioning how to understand ocean and economic health by tracking and reporting specific data on ocean resources, economic activity, and development. The team's hope is to create a pilot ocean account to guide policy and management here in the state to, as Record said, "point our blue economy in the directions we want it to go."

They also hope it can serve as a model for stakeholders around the world interested in building ocean accounts tailored to their own industries, communities, and ecosystems.

"This is all data that's collected for the public good, and it should remain available, accessible, and useful to the public broadly," he said. "Combining the social and natural sciences, bringing in new perspectives, diving deeper into the data: all of this work is how we're really going to understand and guide the future of the ocean.