Max, a Michelin-trained chef and holder of a Master's degree in environmental entrepreneurship from UCSB’s Bren School, continues his work to bring purple sea urchin (aka uni) to market as a sustainable food product. The timing for this eco-conscious blue food startup is now: purple urchins are decimating kelp forests off of California, the supply of them is overabundant, and demand for sea urchin is peaking in the U.S. With this grant, Max is seeking the necessary certifications to enter retail markets and secure product packaging and distribution of his uni butter product, with plans to scale up and sell uni chips.

Marine Biologist Rodrigo Oyanedel, Ph.D, leads an effort to develop a standardized set of tools for estimating, understanding, and monitoring illegal, unreported, and unregulated (IUU) fishing in small-scale fisheries, which more than 50 million people worldwide depend on. Rodrigo will incorporate input and data from Sernapesca (Chile's fisheries enforcement agency) to create a toolkit they can use to improve their efficiency and effectiveness in preventing IUU activity. Ultimately, the goal is to design a toolkit that's transferable and open access for other Latin American countries to utilize.

Expanding upon previous work supported by SOA, SOA Tanzania will construct a seagrass nursery in consultation with the Fisheries and Education Training Agency (FETA) in Mbegani-Bagamoyo and restore .5 square kilometers of coastal seagrass. They will train 10 Mbegani community members on sustainable resource use to support coastal livelihoods, and seek to educate hundreds about the importance of seagrass. Additionally, they will pilot a Blue Market where local fishers and artisans can sell sustainable goods. Lastly, to continue their efforts to operationalize their new organization, they will create a website and explore carbon credit bundling as a possible revenue source.

Blue Latitudes is a social enterprise, led by an all-female executive team, that unites science, policy, and communications to create innovative solutions for offshore energy generation and decommissioning. With this grant, they will continue to develop their Fisheries Location Assessment Technology (FishLAT) tool, which helps ocean managers predict how site-specific removal, reefing, or installation of an offshore energy structure will impact fishing activity and fisheries resources. There are already federal assessments required for developing or removing offshore oil and gas or wind structures, but they do not incorporate site-specific fisheries metrics. Blue Latitudes aims to fill this gap and deploy a robust FishLAT prototype in the Gulf of Mexico by December 2023.

To promote and raise awareness about a municipal ordinance regulating single-use plastics, Save Philippines Seas and Plastic Battle will build a mobile educational display targeting market-goers and vendors in Tapaz, Capiz. The display will serve as both a food cart an "information booth" that will give out reusable bags and information to those in the market over the course of 2 months.

Muuse is a smart system enabling reusable packaging as a service. Using a fully-integrated mobile/web application, Muuse operates a global network of elegant, robust, tech-enabled products, including cups and food containers, for the to-go food economy.

SafetyNet Technologies is a UK-based early stage company, making the fishing industry smarter through the development of user-friendly technologies to enable Precision Fishing and make the industry more sustainable.

Desolenator is pioneering low-cost, ocean-safe desalination with a technology powered 100% by solar energy, and without the use of harmful chemicals. Desolenator supports the resilience of communities and thought-leading businesses experiencing high water stress.

OCEANIUM biorefines seaweed into multiple end components, including plant-based food ingredients (protein and fibre), nutraceuticals for food and cosmetics, and sustainable materials (plant-based “vegan” leather, packaging).