Welcome back! This week we’re looking at how Ecuador’s shrimp industry became a global proving ground for new farming tech, the imaging breakthroughs helping scientists discover 31 new deep-sea species in days, and a $260M push from Bloomberg Philanthropies to get ocean protection from commitment into action.
Blue Tide was recently mentioned in Inés Mas de la Peña’s piece on how to work in ocean innovation. Highly recommend giving it a read if you or someone you know is interested in this industry. Read here.
🦐 Ecuador's shrimp exports quadrupled in a decade
Hatch Blue recently shared how Ecuador’s shrimp industry has grown fast enough to reshape the global market. Exports more than quadrupled between 2015 and 2025, closing last year at $7.5 billion and making Ecuador the world’s largest shrimp exporter. That growth accelerated sharply once automatic feeding systems started rolling out across farms in 2014, pushing annual export growth from an average of 8.7% to 18% through 2023. Major feed companies have taken notice, building vertically integrated operations in the country.
Ecuador’s scale has also made it a fast-moving test bed for new shrimp farming technology, much of which is being built by Hatch Blue portfolio companies. Minnowtech uses sonar to give farmers real-time visibility into pond populations, Wittaya Aqua benchmarks feed efficiency against real production data, and Hadl and Hedros are developing diagnostics to help farms manage disease risk as stocking densities rise. Hatch Blue is now mapping how shrimp farming is evolving globally to better understand where these lessons can transfer to other regions.
🔬 New tech helped scientists confirm 31 new marine species in days
An international team aboard the research vessel Falkor (too) discovered 31 new marine species during a recent expedition off the coast of Brazil. Identifying a new species usually takes scientists decades, but a new set of tools changed that. Laser-based scanners built non-invasive 3D images of fragile deep-sea animals, while another camera captured fine details the 3D scans missed. Onboard genetic testing let the team confirm each species was genuinely new within days, instead of years.
The expedition also marked a first for ocean research at sea, capturing a 3D image of a single living cell’s internal structure for the first time recorded. The team also used a virtual reality chamber and a microscope that works like a treadmill for tiny organisms, letting them study delicate, jelly-like animals without the damage caused by older collection methods. The work was funded by the Sasakawa Peace Foundation’s Ocean Shot Research Grant Program.
🌊 Bloomberg Philanthropies commits $260M to push global ocean protection into action
Bloomberg Philanthropies announced a $260 million commitment to ocean conservation, bringing its total funding in the space to $635 million. The money supports a global goal known as 30x30, an agreement among countries to protect 30% of the world’s ocean by 2030. So far, countries have set aside roughly 10% of the ocean for protection, but many of those areas still lack the funding, staffing, or enforcement to actually work. This new funding aims to close that gap, including helping establish the first protected areas in international waters, made possible by a the recently enacted High Seas Treaty, and by expanding the use of satellites and AI to track illegal fishing.
The initiative will also fund coral reef restoration, focused on more than 165,000 square kilometers of reef across 71 countries identified as having the best odds of surviving climate change, and will expand its work into new countries including the Marshall Islands, Mexico, and the United Kingdom. The funding supports a network of conservation partners, including Global Fishing Watch, Oceana, the Wildlife Conservation Society, and Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution.
That's it for this week. If you have a story, company, or initiative you'd like to see featured, reach out.
The new tool for near-immediate new species identification is so cool!