The Blue Register
The Blue Register is a monthly measure of how far blue finance has developed in Canada, and where it is moving. It reads seven lines: public capital, private capital, financing instruments, Indigenous-led finance, institutional disclosure, policy, and marine protection. Each month’s reading is published in Blue Currents.
Public capital and Indigenous-led finance continue to carry most of the score. August added $106.5 million through the new British Columbia Fisheries Fund, taking qualifying public commitments to $1.1348 billion. No qualifying binding private capital or live financing instrument was verified during the reporting period. The overall reading therefore remains 29, unchanged from July.
The Seven Measures
Full definitions, counting rules, and sources are in the methodology below.
Reading History
The register was established with a December 31, 2025 baseline. Published monthly readings begin in June 2026, and the history grows by one row each issue.
See all issues in the Blue Currents archive →
Methodology
The register is modelled on the monthly risk register used inside financial institutions, with fixed definitions, named sources, a prior-period comparison, and a stated rule for every judgment call. The baseline date is December 31, 2025. Cumulative figures count forward from that date and reset each January 1. The register’s definitions and scoring criteria are revised each January only. If the field changes mid-year in a way the register cannot see, the change waits for the January revision.
No international body publishes a monthly, national, finance-first measure of ocean investment. SDG 14 remains the least-funded of the seventeen Sustainable Development Goals, and its indicators measure ecology far better than they measure capital. The register borrows its definitions and denominators from the international frameworks and applies them to one country, every month.
The seven lines
Line 1. Public capital committed. Cumulative federal and provincial funding committed to marine conservation and the sustainable ocean economy, in millions of Canadian dollars. Sources are federal budgets and announcements from Fisheries and Oceans Canada, Environment and Climate Change Canada, and provincial governments. Traces to SDG indicator 14.a and Canada’s reporting under Target 19 of the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework.
Line 2. Private capital committed and deployed. The private portion of qualifying Canadian ocean-related bonds, loans, funds, equity, guarantees and blended transactions. Committed and deployed amounts are tracked separately. Excludes public capital within blended transactions, conventional corporate financing without a defined ocean use or performance condition, general corporate capital expenditure, and non-binding expressions of interest. A commitment is recognized when legally binding and deployment when the transaction closes or funds are advanced.
Line 3. Instruments in market. A count of live Canadian financing instruments tied to ocean outcomes, including blue bonds, sustainability-linked loans with marine performance indicators, project finance for permanence structures, and parametric ocean insurance. Sources are issuer announcements and public term sheets. New entries are named in the month they appear.
Line 4. Indigenous-led finance. Cumulative capital committed to Indigenous-led ocean stewardship and conservation finance, including project finance for permanence agreements and Indigenous Protected and Conserved Areas with marine components. This line is a spotlight subset. Its items also appear in Line 1 or Line 2, and the overlap is disclosed by design so that Indigenous-led finance is visible on its own terms without being double-counted in dollar totals. The composite score is the sum of all seven stage scores, so this line does contribute to it alongside Lines 1 and 2. Tracked separately because the Canadian record to date suggests this is where the country’s most significant conservation finance structures originate.
Line 5. Disclosure adoption. The share of a fixed cohort of 25 large Canadian banks, insurers, pension managers and listed issuers providing identifiable, decision-useful ocean or nature-related disclosure. The cohort is set for the year and reviewed each January, so movement in this line reflects disclosure practice instead of a changing denominator. An entity is counted when it publishes disclosure identifying exposure, governance, metrics or financial implications, and general sustainability language or framework membership is not counted. Sources are the public TNFD adopter registry and published annual, climate, nature and sustainability reports, all verifiable by any reader. The ISSB's biodiversity standard is expected to absorb much of the TNFD framework; if that proceeds, this line follows the framework into the ISSB standards.
Line 6. Policy and regulatory changes. Enacted legislative, regulatory and supervisory changes affecting ocean-linked finance, scored against the same five stages as the other lines. Covers OSFI guidance, federal marine targets and legislation, and provincial regulatory movement. Strategies, consultations and voluntary commitments are watch items until adopted. Judgment is applied here and identified as such.
Line 7. Marine protected area coverage. The official percentage of Canada’s ocean estate conserved, against the 30 percent commitment for 2030. The source is Government of Canada reporting on marine conserved areas, with the as-of date stated. Traces to GBF Target 3 and SDG indicator 14.5.1. Where no official figure exists for the baseline date, the most recent official figure before that date is used and identified.
Counting Rules
Public commitments are counted at announcement. Private commitments are counted when legally binding, and deployment when the transaction closes or funds are advanced. Each dollar is counted once. Components of larger packages are counted under the package, never twice. Target fund sizes and aspirational figures are watch items, listed but not counted.
Only funding directed at marine conservation, ocean health, or the sustainable ocean economy is counted. For multi-purpose packages, the itemized ocean components are counted, never the headline figure. Marine infrastructure spending, such as harbours and ports, is a watch item unless explicitly tied to conservation or climate-adaptation outcomes.
Where a commitment’s ocean share cannot be determined from official sources, the item is flagged, listed, and excluded from the count. A flagged item enters the count in the month its ocean share becomes determinable, with a note.
The register counts new commitments after the baseline date. Activity predating the baseline, such as annual results from existing funds, is not counted as register capital, but it informs the development score as evidence of operating capacity already in the field.
Corrections and revisions
Corrections are welcome at Brian@BlueFinance.ca. Definitions and scoring criteria are revised each January, and every revision is recorded here.