Tons of of worldwide leaders gathered within the Pacific Northwest this week for the inaugural One Ocean Week Seattle, a maritime convention with dozens of occasions that introduced collectively firm executives, authorities officers and advocates charting paths towards cleaner transport, sustainable fishing and ocean conservation.
The convention, organized by Washington Maritime Blue, was anchored by Wednesday’s One Ocean Summit, the place leaders from international corporations with Seattle ties mentioned their local weather progress and the challenges of deploying sustainable applied sciences.
Seattle-based SSA Marine, a worldwide marine terminal operator, has 200 areas worldwide, transferring cargo from ships to terminals and onto trains and vans. The corporate has carbon emissions targets and is working to shift from fuel and diesel to electrical energy, however the transfer requires juggling typically competing components.
“If in case you have a bit {of electrical} tools, it’s a must to take into consideration charging time that’s required in between shifts, and when are you able to truly match it in there?” stated Meghan Weinman, SSA Marine’s vp of sustainability. “A type of large items of innovation that we actually have to consider is the overlay of expertise, labor planning, and might it do the job that we’d like it to do.”
Corvus Energy is a Norwegian clear transport firm with Seattle places of work and a producing facility in Bellingham, Wash. The enterprise helps vessels go electrical with its maritime battery applied sciences, serving ferries, cruise ships, tugs, cranes and fishing boats.
It’s an evolving sector and the corporate spends as much as 15% of its annual income on analysis and improvement to fine-tune its expertise to satisfy demanding oceanic situations.
“It’s completely totally different to function a battery in an EV versus a maritime setting,” stated Corvus CEO Fredrik Witte. “For an EV, you’re touring three, 4 hours a day, perhaps. However in a maritime setting, you’re probably working 24/7 — within the excessive.”
Seattle’s Trident Seafoods operates fishing boats and onshore manufacturing amenities, together with the biggest seafood processing plant in North America in Akutan, Alaska. Whereas seafood usually has a a lot decrease carbon footprint than beef, pork or dairy, the corporate desires to scale back the local weather impacts related to its operations.
However Paul Doremus, Trident Seafoods’ vp of coverage and sustainability, pointed to a tough actuality: the corporate competes immediately with Russian and Chinese language seafood corporations which might be doing enterprise beneath much less stringent environmental laws.
He stated the seafood sector — “which has been type of famously fragmented, small, pretty scrappy” — wants to come back collectively to collectively make enhancements.
Doremus applauded occasions like One Ocean Week Seattle for gathering maritime pursuits to attract consideration and capital towards “sustainable use of the ocean for the advantage of native communities, regional and nationwide.”
“I believe that’s the subsequent wave,” he stated.
Collaboration and innovation
The decision for collaboration echoed all through the One Ocean Summit, which additionally featured former NOAA Administrator Jane Lubchenco, United Nations officers, and Norway’s ambassador to the U.S.
Washington Lt. Gov. Denny Heck gave a welcoming handle, highlighting the state’s maritime financial system whereas calling out threats from plastic air pollution, undersea noise, and environmental degradation.
“To face these challenges, we might want to develop new applied sciences and strengthen our establishments,” Heck stated. “It would require sustainable gasoline storage, habitat restoration, quiet propulsion and so many different innovations and improvements. However extra importantly, it is going to require the dedication and teamwork of 1000’s of individuals.”
The message was strengthened by Haakon Vatle, chief of the One Ocean Expedition, which is crusing a 111-year-old Norwegian tall ship throughout the globe. The ship, named the Statsraad Lehmkuhl, was moored simply outdoors Bell Harbor Worldwide Convention Middle through the occasion.
“The position of our ship is to create consideration and share data of the essential position of the ocean for a sustainable future,” Vatle stated. “We’re going to make use of a ship to scale back the hole between science and the general public — get the folks we’d like for the ocean we wish. We can not save the ocean alone.”
Editor’s observe: GeekWire reporter Lisa Stiffler was the volunteer emcee of the One Ocean Summit.
