🟦 Blue Tide Roundup | July 29, 2026
$1T Great Lakes blue economy, Building ocean infrastructure the right way, $935K for Florida undersea research
Welcome back! This week we’re looking at why the Great Lakes blue economy deserves more attention than it gets, how the world’s largest infrastructure build can avoid damaging the ocean, and a new funding opportunity for Florida research teams to live and work inside an undersea habitat.
🏞️ The Great Lakes blue economy tops $1 trillion, new report finds
We usually focus on the ocean when talking about the blue economy, but the Great Lakes tell a different story worth paying attention to. A new report from RTI International, commissioned by water innovation nonprofit Current, found that the Great Lakes region supports $1 trillion in GDP and 6.9 million jobs across Illinois, Indiana, Michigan, Minnesota, Ohio, and Wisconsin, accounting for 25% of the region's total economic output and 17% of national blue economy employment.
The region also punches above its weight on innovation, holding 23% of U.S. water-related patents over the past decade despite representing a smaller share of overall patent filings, with particular strength in wastewater treatment and separation technologies. From 2015 to 2025, 237 venture-backed water companies in the region raised $1.3 billion, and wages in the water sector run 37% above state averages.
⚒️ WWF shares guidance on building sustainable ocean infrastructure
A new pair of reports from the World Wildlife Fund lays out what a nature-positive approach to blue economy infrastructure actually looks like across four key sectors: offshore wind, coastal tourism, shipping, and ports. The core argument is that site selection is the most consequential decision in any development project, and that placing infrastructure away from protected areas, key biodiversity zones, and sensitive habitats like mangroves, seagrass beds, and coral reefs is the single highest-leverage action available.
Beyond siting, the reports offer sector-specific guidance on reducing operational impacts, restoring degraded ecosystems nearby, and transforming broader systems through policy and financing. With $151 trillion in global infrastructure investment required by 2050 to support the clean energy transition and transportation resilience, the reports argue that the window to build this right, rather than retrofit it later, is open now but not indefinitely.
🪸 Florida awards $935K for research missions inside DEEP’s undersea habitat
Florida has awarded $935,000 to support up to six university and research institution teams to live and work aboard Vanguard, DEEP's pilot underwater habitat deployed at Tennessee Reef in the Florida Keys National Marine Sanctuary. Each team will complete a five-day mission between November 2026 and June 2027, with research focused on two priority areas: reef restoration and environmental monitoring, and human-machine collaboration.
The distinction the program is built around is time at depth. A researcher spending five days inside a saturation habitat observes reef conditions in a fundamentally different way than one making hourly dives, and that sustained access is what Florida is funding. Proposals are due September 1, 2026.
That's it for this week. If you have a story, company, or initiative you'd like to see featured, reach out.