With its ideal location on the Pacific and its year-round temperate climate, San Diego has been a hub for maritime activity for centuries. Hundreds of local companies, many of them spun off from or contracting with the Navy, have studied and innovated everything from underwater acoustics and optics, sonar, cabling, and current monitoring to buoy technology and manned and robotic submersibles. Now that climate change, pollution, and increasing demand for clean water and healthy fish stocks are returning to the top of the industry’s priority list, San Diego is once again taking the lead in blue technology.
1903
Members of the Scripps family and other community leaders charter the Marine Biological Association of San Diego. Its first laboratory, built two years later, will eventually become the Scripps Institution of Oceanography.
1942
Pioneering UC San Diego wave researcher Walter Munk examines wave and currents data to determine optimum landing dates for Allied operations, including D-Day. He will continue researching ocean swells, tides, and acoustic tomography throughout
the century.
1964
General Atomics patents the reverse osmosis spiral module still widely used in desalination.
2007
Michael Jones founds The Maritime Alliance (TMA), a nonprofit that promotes sustainable, science-based aquatic industries through economic development and global outreach. Jones was previously an investor in SeaBotix, which becomes the fastest-growing manufacturer of mini-ROVs before being bought by Teledyne in 2014.
November 2008
BlueTech Week is launched, bringing professionals from academia, industry, and government to San Diego to stimulate collaboration and innovation in the blue economy.
2012
The San Diego Workforce Partnership, Regional Economic Development Corporation, and TMA release the San Diego Maritime Industry Report, identifying over 1,400 companies in the city’s blue economy creating nearly 46,000 jobs and $14 billion in direct annual revenues.
February 2013
At the annual State of the County address aboard the USS Midway, county supervisor Greg Cox tells an audience of hundreds that “the blue economy will be the next big thing for San Diego County.” Cox is appointed to the California Coastal Commission later that year and, in 2015, to the National Ocean Council Governance Coordinating Committee.
“The Blue Economy will be the next big thing for San Diego County.”
—County Supervisor Greg Cox, in 2013
February 2015
Rose Canyon Fisheries submits an application to the Army Corps of Engineers for a permit to build a commercial fish farm off the San Diego shoreline in partnership with the Hubbs-SeaWorld Research Institute. The proposed project would be built 4 miles off San Diego’s coast and could produce 11 million pounds of yellowtail and sea bass each year.
February 2016
The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, through its Integrated Ocean Observing System, publishes the first-ever report on the economic value of the ocean enterprise. Coauthored by TMA, it identifies over 400 companies in 36 states with $7 billion in direct annual revenue from the business of ocean measurement, observation, and forecasting.
May 2016
The Port of San Diego introduces its Blue Economy Incubator for aquaculture and blue tech entrepreneurs, providing key assets and services focused on launching and supporting pilot projects.
December 2016
The Port of San Diego initiates an Oyster Nursery Research Project, which carefully monitors the water quality and health of both farmed and wild oysters in the bay.
February 2017
San Diego welcomes its first Oceanology International North America conference. It begins a new era for new markets and trade promotion and will return to San Diego every other year.
June 2017
The Blue Economy Incubator announces the funding of four pilot projects: San Diego Bay Aquaculture’s development of an accelerated, year-round shellfish nursery operation; Red Lion Chem Tech’s filtration of soluble copper in seawater; RentUnder’s Drive-In Boatwash, an in-water boat hull cleaning system; and Swell Advantage’s software and app that automate and optimize dock management at marinas.
TMA is invited to speak at the United Nations’ first-ever Ocean Conference, where it highlights the role that blue tech clusters like San Diego’s play in promoting the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals.
October 2017
The City of San Diego awards TMA a $50,000 grant to launch a blue tech incubator. Its initial six companies are variously working to combat oceanic pollution, harness wave energy, develop water-monitoring sensors, create navigation software, and more.
TMA partners with the San Diego Unified School District to launch the BlueSTEM Career Pathway for grades 6 through 12.
Walter Munk celebrates his 100th birthday. His research is still going strong, and may hold the key to harnessing tidal forces for clean, renewable energy.
December 2017
The port installs a Floating Upweller System (aka FLUPSY) on floating barges at Tuna Harbor for the purpose of farming oysters. The system is being operated in partnership with San Diego Bay Aquaculture as part of the Blue Economy Incubator.
Tags: Blue Tech, On the Rise, Scripps Institution of Oceanography, The Maritime Alliance, UCSD
