What is the Ocean Enterprise?

The study encompassed private sector businesses that are:

• Providers of ocean observing and measurement tools and infrastructure
• Intermediaries who tailor ocean data or information for a specific end-use

Why did you do this study?

The results of this study will be widely disseminated by IOOS and NOAA, helping to raise the profile of the Ocean Enterprise cluster as a critical enabler of the Blue Economy and an important business sector in its own right. Study outputs will also help to inform and guide the work of NOAA, IOOS and the Department of Commerce in delivering initiatives that foster innovation and business success for U.S. companies engaged in the New Blue Economy.

Who did this study and how was the study run?

This work was funded by the U.S. IOOS Program Office which is a part of NOAA’s National Ocean Service. IOOS contracted with ERISS Corporation to execute the surveys, establishing a baseline with the 2015 study and then repeating the study in 2020 to understand how the U.S. Ocean Enterprise business cluster has responded to opportunities to support a growing and changing Blue Economy.

What was your methodology?

The methodology was a combination of a web-survey of businesses identified as being Ocean Enterprise Providers or Intermediaries, and secondary analysis of the Ocean Enterprise cluster based on public and proprietary business information sources.

How does this benefit private companies — do they have any incentive to contribute or help this study thrive?

This study benefits private companies by bringing this Ocean Enterprise business cluster into the spotlight. Toward the end of the study period, when asked by the project lead what benefit the study might provide to the companies who participate in the study, one large U.S. company CEO answered “we think it is great. Any attention on this sector is a good thing from our perspective because it highlights our business.”

I don’t live on a coast. Is this relevant to my community?

Yes — we identified companies involved in the ocean enterprise sector all over the US, including non-coastal states. Tech development and developing services from data are coast agnostic — these study results are relevant everywhere.

How does this compare with the findings of other studies?

Comparable studies are available for the UK and Canada, with results available at Eleventh Annual Review of the UK Marine Scientific Industry and The Canadian Ocean Enterprise Studies.

What does an annual revenue of $7 billion (USD) really mean — can you put that in context for me?

• $7B is .04% of the 2014 US GDP of $17,419B (Source)
• $7B is about the same size as the GDP of the Bahamas (Source); Togo (Source: International Monetary Fund. Retrieved 18 April 2016), or Barbados (Source: International Monetary Fund. Retrieved 18 April 2016)
• The NFL made $7.24 billion in revenues in Fiscal Year 2015 (Source: Fox Sports, ESPN, others)
• $7.5 billion American greeting card industry (Source: Small Business Development Center)

Okay, what about $8 billion (USD)?

• $8 B is 0.4% of U.S. GDP ($21.48 T in 2020) (Source)
• $8 B is roughly the GDP of Tajikistan ($8.1 B in 2020) (Source)
• $8 B is close to Hershey’s revenue for 2021 ($8.1 B in 2021) (Source)
• $8 B is the approximate revenue of the global banana industry for 2016 (Source: FAO. Retrieved 18 April 2024)
• $8 B is two times the 2021 team value of the New York Jets (Source)

More importantly, this business cluster supports ocean information provision essential to enabling a nearly $400 B U.S. ocean economy, set in an overall global ocean economy expected to generate around $3T in value added by 2030.

Are you going to repeat this study in the future? My company is a provider/intermediary, and I’d like to be contacted to participate.

The intention is to continue to monitor the development of the Ocean Enterprise business sector.

If you would like to be included in any future work, please drop us a line and let us know at oceanstudy.2020@noaa.gov.

Email us at: oceanstudy.2020@noaa.gov