Transforming Tomorrow 20 Our People and the Ocean Knowledge and Action Hub gathers expertise on the wide range of connections between people and the coastal and marine environment. It aims to share academic knowledge, and foster dialogue with private and public stakeholders. Led by Dr Celine Germond-Duret, the hub is interdisciplinary and draws knowledge from across many disciplines, from social sciences to arts and humanities, and from economics to law. Expertise among members includes justice and the blue economy; a sense of place in a coastal and marine environment; fisheries and social responses to fish farming; ports as novel hubs of ocean governance; blue avian ecologies; deep sea mining; and maritime security. People and the Ocean One of the Hub’s early activities has been the ‘Mapping Blue Business’ project. This seeks to investigate place-based blue economies. The blue economy as a concept emerged from the organisation of the 2012 United Nations Conference on Sustainable Development (Rio + 20), and can be defined as “the sustainable pursuit of economic activities resulting from the exploitation of coastal and marine resources”. However, there are different understandings of what it exactly means, how it can be applied, and how it can be measured. With an initial focus on Lancashire, UK, the ‘Mapping Blue Business’ project aims to assess the understanding of the blue economy by public and private actors, mapping regional marine economic activities (“blue businesses”), creating a blue network (to facilitate dialogue and knowledge exchange between these businesses), and identifying the potential for place-based blue economies. Through research, interviews, and research data from the Lancashire Skills and Employment Hub, the project produced some preliminary mapping of sectors, businesses and jobs that contribute to a Lancashire blue economy. In June 2024, the findings were shared and discussed at a roundtable that gathered academic experts and regional stakeholders. The project will conduct further engagement with public and private stakeholders to build and refine the database. The Hub will continue to foster a broad array of activities, with a particular focus on ocean justice and the United Nations 2025 Ocean Conference, whose overarching theme centres on the mobilisation of all actors to conserve and sustainably use the ocean. Mapping Blue Business
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