With its 381 miles of coastline, Delaware is a logical home for growing the “blue economy” – a new business and social classification that the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) defines as “a knowledge based economy, looking to the sea not just for extraction of material goods, but for data and information to address societal challenges and inspire their solutions.”
Delaware has long enjoyed a vibrant beach-and-coastal economy driven by recreation and tourism and by commercial sea fishing. In the1800s, shipbuilding along Wilmington’s waterfront was a thriving industry.
Today, Delaware is building on that base with a blue economy that depends on technological innovation and public and private cooperation. Already, the first steps are being taken. They include establishing an industry supporting offshore clean-energy wind farms all along the Atlantic coastline, reinvigorating seafood-producing aquaculture businesses and building a virtual incubator to grow small, technology-driven research and development ventures that attract established businesses looking for centralized coastal locations.
Project ABLE Provides the Spark
One of the lead initiatives in building this blue economy is Project ABLE (Align, Build,Leverage and Expand), a two-year, $1.3 million initiative funded by NOAA and spearheaded by Delaware’s congressional delegations. Administered jointly by Delaware State University and the University of Delaware (UD) Center for Autonomous and Robotic Systems, ABLE’s goal is to make Delaware a leading national center in the application and development of autonomous systems, artificial intelligence and workforce development in support of advancing the blue economy.
“ABLE’s purpose is to kickstart a series of initiatives and to gather stakeholders together to discuss what we’ve been doing and need todo both with public institutions and private companies,” says Art Trembanis, a professor in the School of Marine Science & Policy at UD. “You have to think of ABLE as a spark, and not a budget line item.”
According to Trembanis, ABLE is also primed to work with the Delaware Prosperity Partnership in attracting major companies to invest in marine development along the state’s bay and coastal waters, especially in southern Delaware. For example, this includes businesses that need autonomous and robotics capabilities involved in operating marine plat-forms, conducting underwater ocean surveys, exploring and monitoring the seascape through sensors and generally tasks requiring major computer-based and AI capabilities. These same capabilities can be valuable to public agencies at state and federal levels, including NOAA and the state’s Department of Natural Resources and Environmental Control (DNREC).
For example, DNREC has been working since 1995 on constructing and maintaining an artificial reef system offshore to help sustain commercial fisheries, recreational fishing and the underwater tourism industry. Delaware now has 14 permitted artificial reef sites in the Delaware Bay and along the Atlantic Coast made up of stable construction materials, discarded boats and subway cars that are creating habitats for fish and other marine animals.
As part of ABLE’s training and education program, Trembanis says it is conducting this summer an automated systems boot camp for adults “that will bring together marine and ocean science experts and roboticists across academia, government and industry” to discuss opportunities and challenges facing marine scientists and oceanographers. “It will be held on [UD’s] Lewes campus, and we already have 65 people signed up,” he says.
Bringing Oyster Production Back to Delaware
Another important Blue Economy initiative is underway to help restore an important seafood industry — oyster production. “There existed a natural aquaculture in Delaware’s inland bays up until the 1970s, and now we’re working to bring it back,” says Ed Halein UD’s School of Marine Science & Policy. Hale oversees the school’s oyster hatchery in Lewes, which was established as part of the Delaware Sea Grant (DESG) program. DESG helps Delaware communities manage and conserve coastal resources by fostering sustainable coastal economies and developing the next generation of coastal leaders.
According to Hale, Delaware’s production of oysters was restarted in 2017, with its first farmed oyster crop being produced the following year. Today, he says, there are eight or nine companies involved in farming oysters, mostly in Rehoboth Bay. “Of the 343 acres available, about 18 are being farmed — all for oysters,” Hale says.
One problem these aquatic farmers have, however, is in obtaining the oyster larvae, or “spat,” which they cultivate into mature oysters over a complicated two-year growth period. Currently, spat has to be brought in from out-of-state hatcheries, a process that involves additional permitting, thus causing delay and added expenses. The Lewes hatchery was opened in 2022 to provide Delaware larvae directly to these oyster farms.
“There are now about 40 oyster hatcheries along the Atlantic Coast, butDelaware was the last state to have one,”Hale says. The UD hatchery did get into production earlier than expected, last year shipping the first 200 bags of shells containing about 105,000 oyster spat to state farmers. “We now have a hatchery coordinator and two seasoned technicians,” Hale says.
As the next step, Hale envisions establishing a full-scale fishing and aquaculture center at Lewes if the needed funds can be found. “States like Rhode Island make millions on their oyster industry,” he says, “and Delaware currently makes about $300,000. I’m trying to change that.”
Incubating New Marine-Based Businesses
In addition to Project ABLE’s offshore robotics initiative and the oyster hatchery’s resurrection of aquaculture, the third leg of the blue economy consists of what is being called a “blue tech incubator” for small marine-based businesses necessary to Lucky Rabbit, a Dewey Beach-based government contracting company that is using drone-based technology to monitor beaches for trash in cooperation with waste-management firms. The other company is Flamelit, a data integration startup.
Taking the lead in this program is the recently established Delaware Coastal Society, a cooperative venture with UD’s College of Earth, Ocean & Environment that is being headed by Greg Godbout. Also involved is Baltimore-based Fearless, a digital services company where Godbout is chief growth officer. Fearless is helping the society build a virtual incubator instead of a bricks-and-mortar one.
“We already have two working companies in the accelerator,” Godbout says, “and it will take the next two years to test what the structure will look like. We’re building a small team to work with business development.” One of those two companies is Lucky Rabbit, a Dewey Beach-based government contracting company that is using drone-based technology to monitor beaches for trash in cooperation with waste-management firms.The other company is Flamelit, a data integration startup.
National — even international —conditions exist to support the growth of the blue economy. According to a report by NOAA Administrator Richard Spinrad, “Mariner-related gross domestic product grew 4.2% from 2014 to 2019, much faster than the 2.2% growth of the total U.S. gross domestic product. The economic activity of America’s seaports alone grew 17% from 2014-2018 to $5.4 trillion, comprising nearly 26% of the nation’s$20.5 trillion gross domestic product…If American coastal counties were an individual country, they would rank third in the world in GDP.”
As it has been for centuries, a big part of Delaware’s future is still in looking out to sea.
