Turning Ocean Protection Into Profit

Most ocean protection runs on government aid and philanthropic foundations. Jeremy McKane, CEO of OCN.ai, thinks the only way to make protection permanent is to make it pay for itself. Turning marine protected areas into revenue centres.

It was the first day of the World Ocean Summit in Montreal. I had just arrived at the venue and was having a coffee when I bumped into Jeremy. Coincidentally, we had both just received a text from a mutual friend, saying something along the lines of "You need to talk to this guy". We took it as a sign. We sat down in a quiet spot and started recording.

“If we remove the ocean, if we remove the life that's in the ocean, all of those systems that support life as we so know it will disappear. So then ask yourself the question: how much will it cost us to build synthetic systems to support life as we know it? And the answer is trillions upon trillions. Why not just pay the ocean for what she does for us every day? This is the philosophy behind having a marine protected area be profitable.”

To do this, Jeremy and his team are building the data infrastructure that lets investors see whether ocean assets, such as marine protected areas, are actually performing.

The idea is that by gathering accurate data (mostly live), it is possible to monitor revenue-generating mechanisms, such as biodiversity credits or carbon credits. This lets investors know whether they are performing, turning ocean protection from a leap of faith into something you can invest in.

The markets would pay for credits that are credible, transparent, verified, and based on actual performance (i.e. positive impact).

Investors would also be given a system to assess the risk linked to these financial products:

“Because if you're an investor of those things, you're going to want to know what those risks are. The same reason if you bought Microsoft stock or Intel stock and all of a sudden it started tanking, you're going to want to know why it tanked. What were the reasons for it? What are the things leading up to it so you can make informed decisions? Right now, without this data, you cannot make informed decisions on investing in the ecosystem. And we solve that problem.”

If you’d like to learn more about this and how it might be relevant to your ocean venture, you can check out the full interview on The Ocean Age Podcast – out today.