Finance and the Ocean Are One System
A fishing boat belongs to somebody, feeds a family, and rests on a stock that may or may not be there next year. The divisions between those things are ours, not the ocean's.
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Evolving finance fora living ocean
The health of the ocean reflects choices made across generations, including choices made in finance. Blue Finance Canada brings those downstream effects into view and examines what it would mean for finance to take greater responsibility for them.
Selected Essays
A few pieces that show how this publication thinks.
Taking Stock
Who Checks That Blue Finance Works
Construction lenders do not release funds until an independent surveyor confirms the work was done. Blue finance has strong mechanisms for tracking where money goes, but much weaker ones for verifying what happened in the water. The capacity to close that gap already exists on Canada’s three coasts.
Indigenous Stewardship
The Great Bear Sea Project Finance for Permanence
Most conservation funding runs out when the political cycle turns. The Great Bear Sea agreement was built to outlast that: $335 million, an endowment at its core, and Indigenous governance as the foundation, not the recipient.
The Basics
What is Blue Finance?
Financing an ocean industry is not the same as blue finance. What the term covers, where its boundary sits, what the major frameworks refuse to fund, and how far Canada has got.
Start Here
Choose the path closest to the work you already know.
Coming from Finance
Begin with how lending, investment, risk and capital allocation connect to ocean outcomes in Canada.
Coming from Ocean, Coasts and Communities
Begin with how finance influences ocean industries, conservation, Indigenous stewardship and coastal life.
- The Core Concepts Behind Blue Finance
- The Blue Economy and Blue Finance
- Why Indigenous Ocean Stewardship Is Hard to Finance
Coming from Policy and Research
Begin with the evidence, institutions and public decisions that shape what gets financed, governed and protected.
Latest Writing
New analysis, commentary and research.
The Players
How Pension Funds Allocate Ocean Capital
A pension liability and a port terminal share an unusual trait: both run for decades. That makes pension capital a natural home for ocean infrastructure, and Canada's funds already hold it. What they lack is an allocation category that would let them fund the ocean economy on purpose.
Where Things Stand
What Would Have to Change Inside a Canadian Bank
Canadian banks can classify a sustainable asset, sell a federal bond that funds marine conservation, and structure a blue bond in Mexico. What I cannot find is the condition of the ocean inside a Canadian credit decision.
Ocean Life
Phytoplankton
In September 2019 the water off Newfoundland turned milky blue in the wrong month. What that colour is made of, and why somebody has been sampling the same spot in Halifax Harbour since 1992.
Taking Stock
Swim, Drink, Fish: Gord Downie and the Water
Ten years after the Tragically Hip's last concert, a look at the ocean in their songs and the water advocacy Gord Downie carried away from the stage. A three-word standard, a decade on a charity board, and a pier across the street from his family home.
Industry Profiles
Each Research Dossier looks at an industry from four perspectives: the main findings, how the industry works, its relationship with the ocean, and the role of finance. Here’s one.
Featured Research Dossier
Offshore Energy in Canada
A four-part Research Dossier connecting how the industry works, its relationship with the ocean, and the role of finance.
Research Brief
A concise synthesis for readers who want the main findings and implications.
Coming soonOffshore Energy: The Industry
How the industry works, where value is created, and what its structure means.
Read the reportThe Ocean
What the industry depends on, what it changes, and where ecological limits matter.
Coming soonOffshore Energy: Finance
How capital supports the industry and where better alignment with ocean sustainability is possible.
Read the reportBlue Currents
Our monthly newsletter covering significant developments in Canadian blue finance, ocean investment and marine stewardship.
Subscribe to Blue CurrentsThe Blue Register
A monthly measure of the maturity of blue finance in Canada, and how it’s evolving. Published as part of Blue Currents.
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