OCN’s Blue Natural Capital
One of the Top 20 Most Influential Projects of 2024
For unifying datasets with AI and promoting a regenerative oceanic economic model
Region: Latin America Sector: Climate Action UN SDGs: 14, Life Below Water
“Sapphire waters lapping against powdery white beaches? Endless warm sunshine giving way to stained-glass sunsets…?” The British Virgin Islands’ Tourist Board’s website describes a traveler’s dream vacation, a perfect paradise for visitors and a “way of life” for residents. Picture-perfect landscapes remind us of what’s worth saving, and a deeper look at these gorgeous islands reveals some of the challenges in doing so.
Countries surrounded by water — especially small countries with non-diversified economies — have historically been looked at as prime territory for ocean extraction and exploitation. Commercial fishing, tourism, and concession of port rights are some of the conventional challenges. If managed poorly, these economic activities can lead to destructive impacts, like depleting fish and marine life stocks through overfishing, polluting waters by relying too heavily on ship-based tourism, or even conceding too much power to external stakeholders, such as cruise lines, by relying upon them too heavily for income.
It’s an understandable way to look at water. “The reason for extraction is a need for jobs. It’s a privilege to think about ocean protection,” says Jeremy McKane, founder of OCN. Countries surrounded by the sea rely upon it for employment and the economy. But extraction comes at a cost, and the consequences are usually borne by the residents who live in these countries, not the ones who land there and then leave.
McKane, whose office features a license plate that reads “MR. OCEAN,” launched OCN in 2018 with the goal of offering countries a different lens to look through, one that would allow governments with ocean-dependent economies to be able to view the ocean as a place that needs to be protected precisely because of its value. And by value, McKane means cash value.
“OCN is on a mission to unite the world’s ocean data sets, create accessible products to incentivize data collection, and promote a regenerative blue economy,” McKane explains, one where “blue natural capital” can be leveraged by countries in a way that is both profitable and responsible. “When you build an economy around the ocean rather than exploitation, you’re able to move the needle,” McKane says.
In 2024, OCN launched a project in collaboration with the British Virgin Islands (BVI) to do just that. McKane, who took on the role of project manager, says it took many virtual meetings and multiple in-person visits to understand diverse stakeholders’ concerns and to explain the model of a regenerative blue economy and its benefits for the islands. Once he was able to persuade the island’s prime minister about the value of the partnership, OCN incorporated other stakeholders’ needs and ideas into the project model.
Using artificial intelligence and machine learning to collect thousands of data points — including water temperatures, current movements, and bathymetrics (ocean floor conditions) — enables OCN to support the British Virgin Islands to take an inventory of their ocean resources and to identify ways to value these rather than exploit them. “What we’re doing is like a Fitbit for the ocean,” McKane says. OCN’s database now includes more than 1.5 billion records, pulling together an unprecedented amount of data from globally dispersed sources onto a single platform. The technologies capturing this information and transmitting it to OCN can evaluate both the ocean’s resources — How many fish? What species? How’s the ocean’s health, generally? — and its hazards that aren’t otherwise visible, such as underwater volcanoes.
These data points paint a bigger picture, resulting in an actual cash value being assigned to the islands’ waters, a value that McKane expects will boost the BVI’s economy while simultaneously improving ocean health. The promise of this new way of looking at oceans, and BVI’s participation as a pioneer in the regenerative blue economy model, has motivated more than a dozen other countries to get in line to be next in the project.
McKane, for his part, is excited to see how the project model can be applied in a variety of countries and contexts around the world. Getting local buy-in for project partnerships can be challenging because each country has a wide range of stakeholders, and though they may share a nationality, they don’t necessarily share the same priorities. Still, McKane is convinced that the big data OCN is collecting can bring diverse stakeholders to the same table to begin conversations about how to look at their waters as economic opportunities — without the exploitative lens.