NEWS AND UPDATES

April 4, 2024

Washington Maritime Blue hires Kidist Gashaw as Youth Engagement Program Coordinator. Kidist joins Maritime Blue after years working with young people, including with Evergreen Goodwill’s Youth Maritime Program.

March 27, 2024

Washington Maritime Blue hires Brian Hoffman as the Program Director for Blue Ventures. Brian joins Maritime Blue after many years with StartX, the startup community for Stanford entrepreneurs. He will be responsible for leading our full suite of entrepreneurship programs. 

February 27, 2024

Maritime Blue is seeking seeking competitive proposals from qualified vendors to produce a report on the triple-bottom-line impacts of Washington State’s Blue Economy in 2024 as well as its update in 2026. See RFP for more details. Proposals are due March 19.

UPDATED: January 10, 2024

Maritime Blue is seeking a Communications and PR firm to support our work in the Blue Economy. The work will be focused on major announcements, event advertising, coordinating with media for interviews and presence at events. Full RFP at the link. Federally funded award.

December 7, 2023

We are hiring a Director of Blue Ventures to join our team. Priority deadline is January 2, 2024. This position is closed.

November 16, 2023

The 13-member leadership committee will identify and accelerate opportunities for the state’s manufacturing, maritime, and technology sectors to develop a robust regional offshore wind supply chain.

November 15, 2023

Maritime Blue was named a recipient of a 2023 Build to Scale Venture award from the U.S. Department of Commerce, Economic Development Administration. 

October 10, 2023

Blue Wind aims to harness and grow the state’s manufacturing, maritime, and technology expertise to accelerate and expand the floating wind supply chain for economic and workforce development. 

September 28, 2023

Addressing the enormous challenges facing our ocean and accessing opportunities for solutions coming from the ocean is hard! The ocean is unforgiving, difficult to access, and requires patience, deep expertise, and enormous amounts of capital. And yet – we cannot afford not to prioritize it. The evidence is overwhelming that the largest climate impacts and solutions start and stop in the ocean.

August 31, 2023

Washington Maritime Blue in partnership with the Port of Seattle are launching their new incubator program for concept and early-stage maritime, oceans and fisheries focused startups and those looking to grow in the region.

August 17, 2023

Jean-Noel Poirier is joining our Blue Ventures team as Executive in Residence. He will be managing our One Ocean Accelerator this fall and supporting the first cohort for the Seattle Maritime Blue Incubator at Fishermen’s Terminal.

July 26, 2023

Washington Maritime Blue hires Camille Smith as the Contract and Finance Manager. Camille is a finance administrative professional who came to Maritime Blue after six years working for Ashesi University Foundation. As the Contract and Finance Manager Camille will be responsible for the daily financial operation of Washington Maritime Blue. 

June 29, 2023

What is the value of a cluster organization? We are conveners, connectors, and co-creators. 

May 22, 2023

We are hiring a Contract and Finance Manager to join our team. Priority deadline is June 16. This position is closed.

April 3, 2023

SEATTLE, WA — Is the Blue Economy niche? It is not! But it certainly is an up-and-comer in the world of startups and venture capital as well as the new segments of our legacy sector spin out of a $2.5 trillion global market.

February 23, 2023

SEATTLE, WA — Washington Maritime Blue announces its fourth cohort, affectionately called the Fourth Wave, of the Maritime Blue Innovation Accelerator. The four-month, mentor-based accelerator program brings together founders from Washington, the region, and beyond to learn new skills, connect with resources, and scale their work to develop ocean-based climate solutions and become the next big job creators for the state.

January 26, 2023

SEATTLE, WA — Washington Maritime Blue announces its first cohort of the One Ocean Innovation Accelerator, an intensive mentor-based twelve-week program focused on helping international maritime industry startups learn how to scale and grow an equitable and sustainable blue economy.

January 18, 2023

TACOMA, WA – Washington Maritime Blue’s Tacoma Maritime Innovation Incubator (TMII) is one of the twenty-two organizations that is an award recipient of a Small Business Innovation Fund from Washington State’s Department of Commerce.

January 17, 2023

Local maritime leaders Cailtin Hardy and Nico De Golia have been elected to the Board of Directors of Washington Maritime Blue bringing a depth of sustainable maritime industry perspectives and expertise.

January 13, 2023

We are thrilled to announce that Cassidy Fisher has been named the Program Director for Joint Innovation at Maritime Blue. Cassidy has been working on the joint innovation team since March 2022 as a project manager, bringing her skills to bear convening partnerships and building coalitions in the maritime industry. Cassidy will join the leadership team and continue to support members and partner organizations in the development and management of demonstration projects and strategic initiatives through a collaborative and whole systems design-process.  

December 1, 2022

2022 witnessed unparalleled developments in the blue economy. From commercial vessels voluntarily slowing down to protect endangered Southern Resident Killer Whales, to dozens of maritime startups graduating our accelerator programs, we saw the hard work and dedication of our community ripple across the maritime industry. 

November 7, 2022

Follow our President/CEO, Joshua Berger’s adventures aboard the Stratsraad Lehmkuhl on the One Ocean Expedition! He is sailing across the Indian Ocean from Singapore to Jakarta and Mauritius while engaging in research and discussion around ocean climate solutions and a sustainable blue economy.

TACOMA, WA – Meet the companies going through the next cohort of the Tacoma Maritime Innovation Incubator! The incubator selects companies that can provide innovation and jobs for communities in the southern reaches of Puget Sound, and is based at the Center for Urban Waters in Tacoma.

September 5, 2022

Learn more about the Accelerator fourth wave, Quiet Sound trial slowdown, and the return of Blue Drinks this fall! Want our newsletter delivered directly to your inbox each quarter? Sign up here.

LeAsia joins Maritime Blue with over ten years of experience serving BIPOC youth and young adults from underserved communities. LeAsia will join the Equity team as Youth Programs Manager where she will plan, develop, and implement youth programs and serve as mentor and leader to youth participants. 

August 10, 2022

2021-2022 has been a remarkable year of growth as our community strives toward a more sustainable & innovative Blue Economy. This is just the beginning. See our year in numbers and what’s ahead in the annual report.

June 29, 2022

We’ve been so busy, we forgot to write! Find out what we have been up to recently in our newly relaunched newsletter. Want our newsletter delivered directly to your inbox each quarter? Sign up here.

May 13, 2022

Washington Maritime Blue Innovation Accelerator, the global resource to accelerate innovative solutions that benefit maritime and ocean economies, healthy marine and ocean ecosystems, and equitable and resilient communities, celebrates the eight startups from its third Maritime Blue Innovation Accelerator. A showcase event will be held May 26, 2022 at the University of Washington to share the cohort’s new funding, product launches, and other milestones.

Washington Maritime Blue is excited to announce the expansion of our Joint Innovation Project (JIP) team with the addition of Cassidy Fisher. She is an experienced project manager driven by a desire to combat climate change. In her new role, she will work to advance the development and implementation of Joint Innovation Projects, as well as support stakeholder management and partnership building.

Washington Maritime Blue was chosen from more than 500 nationwide applicants for initial funding and is the only finalist from Washington State to now compete for once-in-a-generation funding of up to $100 million of $1 billion in the U.S. Department of Commerce EDA’s challenge.

Our Program Director, Josh Carter outlines some of the impact our accelerator has had over the past two years including some thoughts from our ecosystem partners. Check out the post by clicking the button on the left.

Workshop report for the September 15, 2021 “Maritime Electrification for Utilities Workshop” hosted by PNNL, MARAD, Washington Maritime Blue, and DNV.

Over our 2020-2021 fiscal year, Maritime Blue has focused on enriching program and project delivery, fostering leadership, and creating the necessary infrastructure to deliver on our mission.

Tacoma, WA – Finland’s Ambassador to the US, Mikko Hautala, visited the Center for Urban Waters and the Tacoma Maritime Innovation Incubator on September 14. Finland and Washington State have been in discussions over the last several months regarding the advancement of port innovation, marine health, and the blue economy. 

Seattle, WA – It was announced on April 6th, 2021 that two companies from the Washington Maritime Blue Innovation Accelerator were awarded a contract to build a pump out vessel for the Port of Lopez. This vessel was purchased through a generous grant from the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation and will serve as the first all-electric pump out vessel for the port.

The goal of the Quiet Sound program is to better understand and reduce the cumulative effects of  acoustic and physical disturbance from large commercial vessels on Southern Resident Orcas throughout their range in Washington State.

A quarterly news update on all that is going on within Washington Maritime Blue, its members, partners and affiliated programs around the globe – all working to accelerate innovation and grow the blue economy for a sustainable maritime industry. 

Washington Maritime Blue, in collaboration with Impact Washington and DNV, announces the release of a report (‘Recycled Paper Barging to Washington State Mills’) examining barging options for supplying wastepaper feedstocks to Washington State recycled containerboard mills. An associated study (‘Zero Emissions Barge Feasibility Study’) explores opportunities to accelerate decarbonization through batteries for short sea shipping.

Over just this first year, Maritime Blue has driven capital investments toward a clean energy future, has convened partnerships to accelerate innovation and entrepreneurship and is consciously building the trust with communities that is necessary to develop an equitable and just twenty-first century workforce.