November 2025 Edition
A monthly round-up of news and trends important to the AltaSea community.
AltaSea Community Spotlight
AltaSea at the Port of Los Angeles announced today that the Los Angeles Board of Harbor Commissioners unanimously approved an amendment to its lease, a vital step forward in ensuring the continued redevelopment of AltaSea’s 35-acre campus. The amendment unlocks critical infrastructure, as well as reimbursements from the Port of Los Angeles, in the continued transformation into the world’s leading destination for the blue economy. This is the seventh amendment to AltaSea’s lease, which was originally approved in 2017.
The amendment now goes to the Los Angeles City Council for final approval.
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Blue economy innovation hub AltaSea at the Port of Los Angeles has announced major first-year milestones of its Deep Blue Decade Initiative (DBDI), unveiling new partnerships across Jordan, Indonesia, Tanzania, and Tonga.
AltaSea is a 35-acre campus that brings together science, business, and education to accelerate ocean-based solutions. It provides facilities for marine research, regenerative aquaculture, renewable energy, and emerging ocean technologies–while serving as a vital bridge to workforce development and community engagement.
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At Climate Week NYC, AltaSea at the Port of Los Angeles announced major first-year milestones of its Deep Blue Decade Initiative (DBDI), unveiling new partnerships across Jordan, Indonesia, Tanzania, and Tonga. This first-of-its-kind global effort is designed to accelerate ocean-based solutions from research to full-scale commercialization, while ensuring workforce development and economic opportunity in coastal communities worldwide.
The DBDI will bring this model of collaboration and innovation to coastal regions around the world to create a global network of hubs that accelerate ocean solutions and drive economic growth.
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AltaSea at the Port of Los Angeles Trustee Yehudi “Gaf” Gaffen will be honored with the inaugural Gaffen Blue Champion Award for his visionary leadership in seeking to transform San Diego’s waterfront, driving AltaSea’s growth and development, and fostering “Blue” collaboration and partnerships between Los Angeles and San Diego. The award, presented by TMA BlueTech in collaboration with the Norwegian Consulate General during its annual conference, will be presented to Gaffen in San Diego on November 13.
The award presentation and fireside chat will be held aboard the historic tall ship Statsraad Lehmkuhl at Broadway Pier in San Diego. The event is open to the public. More details and tickets can be found here.
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Federal energy policy has taken a sharp U-turn under the American Energy Dominance plan set out by U.S. President Donald Trump earlier this year. But the new policy actually supports several forms of renewable energy, including biomass, hydropower and geothermal. In an interesting development, marine energy sourced from the movement of oceans and rivers also meets the plan’s 24/7 deliverability standard, and recent moves open the door for a plentiful new source of clean electricity for coastal communities and ocean-based industries.
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The Readable Feast has named 𝙏𝙃𝙀 𝘽𝙇𝙐𝙀 𝙁𝙊𝙊𝘿 𝘾𝙊𝙊𝙆𝘽𝙊𝙊𝙆 as a 2025 finalist!
This annual New England culinary book awards program and festival celebrates and supports this amazing community’s pool of food writers. Through their awards, they salute regional cookbook authors, editors, changemakers, and chefs and connect them with the reading public.
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Join UrgentSEA
No matter what is going on in the world, the oceans continue to bring waves to shore. Here at AltaSea, we look towards the ocean for both solutions and inspiration—the oceans don’t stop, and neither do we.
AltaSea remains committed to supporting science-based solutions to climate change—solutions that both protect the oceans and benefit local communities. But we can’t do it without your support. Please make a tax-deductible donation and join UrgentSEA, our new membership campaign, today.
Welcome New Members!
Ilene B.
Dean A.
JJ S.
Travis P.
Marcus G.
Bodhi H.
- Jennifer T.
- Amy R.
- Toni O.
Upcoming Events
Saturday, November 22 at 10:00am
Dive into the world of marine technology with a special feature on Blue Robotics. Discover sustainable underwater technology.
Join us for AltaSea’s final Open House of the year as we explore the future of ocean technology and innovation. This special edition will spotlight Blue Robotics, a pioneer in accessible underwater robotics, and feature a keynote by Founder and CEO Rusty Jehangir.
Learn how cutting-edge marine tech is transforming how we explore and protect our oceans — from autonomous vehicles to affordable underwater thrusters. Whether you’re an ocean enthusiast, student, educator, or just curious about the blue economy, this event is for you!
Career Development Day for High School Students
Calling all future innovators! AltaSea invites high school students to connect directly with start-up founders, scientists, and marine engineers during our Career Development Day.
This is your opportunity to:
- Explore exciting career paths in ocean tech and sustainability
- Get one-on-one advice from professionals
- Start building a network that can help launch your future
This open house is more than a behind-the-scenes look at marine innovation — it’s a chance to get inspired, get connected, and get involved.
Marine Science
As the planet warms, it risks crossing catastrophic tipping points: thresholds where Earth systems, such as ice sheets and rain forests, change irreversibly over human lifetimes.
Scientists have long warned that if global temperatures warmed more than 1.5 degrees Celsius (2.7 Fahrenheit) compared with before the Industrial Revolution, and stayed high, they would increase the risk of passing multiple tipping points.
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Rather than replacing human labor, AI is helping food producers refine climate controls for crops and aquaculture systems and opening doors to more inclusive job opportunities for workers with disabilities.
Here in Maine, AI-driven food technology is increasingly shaping how our food is produced every day, redefining the meaning of “locally produced.”
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Democrat and Republican politicians in the US House of Representatives (the House) have joined forces to introduce a bill that would make it easier to establish offshore fish farms.
The four Representatives from Mississippi, Hawaii, Florida, and California have introduced the Marine Aquaculture Research for America (MARA) Act of 2025 as companion legislation to the same act introduced in the US Senate earlier this year.
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Sustainable and Innovative Business
The women wade with baskets near the beaches, their colorful dresses a magnet for tourist cameras. Sunscreen worn by the holidaymakers may even contain the product the women are collecting: Zanzibar’s seaweed.
An eco-friendly local industry that employs thousands of women, the seaweed farming looks like a picture postcard — even if the reality of the work is grimmer than what meets the eye.
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Ocean energy storage startup Sizable Energy just raised $8 million to bring its long-duration offshore pumped hydro system to market.
The round was led by Playground Global, with backing from Exa Ventures, Verve Ventures, Satgana, EDEN/IAG, and Unruly Capital. The funding will help Sizable move from successful wave basin testing at the Maritime Research Institute Netherlands (MARIN) to full sea trials off the coast of Reggio Calabria, Italy.
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As most measures of ocean health continue to decline, it’s imperative that we move beyond sustainability and build an ocean economy that regenerates. Every major sector that depends on the sea — fisheries, aquaculture, shipping, tourism, energy, biotechnology — faces the same test: can it evolve in ways that make ocean recovery the foundation of long-term business success?
Regeneration is not an abstract goal; it is the practical recognition that maintaining a degraded ocean undermines economic prospects and human well-being.
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Education
Newsela STEM is a standards-aligned K-12 supplemental science product combining Generation Genius video-based science and math lessons and DIY activities with Newsela’s authentic texts, built-in scaffolds, exclusive datasets, support for Claim-Evidence-Reasoning (CER) writing, and more. The product offers curated elementary, middle, and high school science lessons—aligned to national and state science standards—with videos and texts that connect to phenomena, core concepts, and real-world applications.
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Courses focus on understanding and solving issues in the San Pedro Channel, a unique ocean environment off the coast of one of the world’s busiest port cities. Everything takes place at the Wrigley Marine Science Center, our incredible living laboratory on Santa Catalina Island.
All Wrigley Institute Maymester students spend the full four weeks on Catalina Island. In addition to participating in their core classes, students engage in a variety of interdisciplinary activities designed for the whole group.
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Aquaculture is the cultivation of aquatic animals and plants in controlled environments. It’s essentially water-based farming. The Monterey Abalone Company raises abalone, a mollusk cultivated both for its iridescent shell (“mother-of-pearl”) and edible flesh. Trevor Fay, the company’s co-owner, climbs down a ladder from inside his operation’s storefront to a wooden gangway under the pier. The cavernous work area is just about a meter above the glowing green water of the harbor.