In March 2026, at the 13th World Ocean Summit hosted in Montreal by Economist Impact, Generation1.ca was invited to join fellow global leaders exploring the future of ocean systems, sustainability, and innovation. Generation1.ca Founder and CEO Arundati Dandapani engaged in extensive conversations and workshops with robotics, AI, and technology companies along with fellow researchers and leaders, scientists and policymakers interested and invested in building pilot pathways of impact that connect global talent to emerging ocean economies.
The blue economy is, at its core, a high-tech frontier. From AI-powered digital twins of the seabed to advanced carbon removal systems, this emerging sector depends on a highly skilled STEM workforce across science, technology, engineering, and mathematics.
The talent picture is already clear: Immigrants make up 43% of engineers and 35% of computer programmers in Canada (Statistics Canada Census 2021). In the United States, immigrants account for 20% of high-quality patents while representing only 18% of the workforce. The scale of demand: The Ocean Supercluster’s Ambition 2035 projects that building a $220 billion ocean economy will require the creation of more than 1.2 million jobs (Ocean Supercluster – Ambition 2035, 2026).
Together, these figures spotlight a powerful reality: the future of the blue economy will depend heavily on immigrant talent, advanced technical skills, and innovation-led workforce development.
A sustainable ocean economy must learn from past mistakes. Recent research in Frontiers in Marine Science warns that the exclusion of marginalized and newcomer groups from ocean governance can repeat historical errors, deepen economic concentration, and weaken sustainability itself. (For a Prosperous Blue Economy, Everyone Must Be Involved, 2026)
At Generation1.ca, our research on AI literacy and data equity offers a framework to ensure these “hard-to-reach” communities, including immigrant and diaspora populations, are not just counted in data but included in the decisions shaping coastal and marine futures.
There is a clear parallel here: just as biodiversity strengthens ocean ecosystems, inclusion strengthens economies. Our Global Industry Skills Study (GISS) shows strong digital literacy and strategic mentoring among immigrant professionals, alongside the fact that social exclusion (as experienced through reported bias-discrimination) is the single most important driver of churn more than any arrival metrics. To sustain Canada’s coastal communities, we must not only attract global talent but retain it through belonging and opportunity. The Blue Economy is not only about conservation; it is also about who gets to build, govern and benefit from growth. With the ocean sector aiming to reach $220 billion by 2035, inclusive talent systems will be essential. (Ocean Supercluster – Ambition 2035, 2026). Generation1.ca connects newcomer talent to this expanding future.
The discussions opened new possibilities: integrating the United Nations’ blue economy curriculum into Generation1.ca’s Future Ready Innovators Credential, creating learning pathways that prepare diverse global talent to work across the expanding frontier of ocean technologies, environmental multimodal data stewardship and AI-driven discovery. But the summit also reminded us of something far more fundamental.
Beneath the surface of the ocean lives a vast universe of microscopic life. Trillions of plankton drift through our oceans, quietly performing one of the most essential services on Earth. Through photosynthesis, these tiny organisms help produce much of the oxygen we breathe and act as one of the planet’s largest carbon sinks, regulating our climate and sustaining marine and over-water life. There are only about 40 people on the planet dedicated to monitoring penguin populations in Antarctica (Grant Humphries based in Scotland pictured below with CEO Arundati is one of them). Yet a journey to the “forbidden” continent transforms even the most climate-resistant observers into some of the strongest ambassadors for climate awareness and action.
In many ways, plankton are the true stars of our planet, outnumbering the stars we see in the night sky and sustaining the delicate balance that makes life possible. Understanding this reality is why ocean literacy matters.
The ocean is not only a source of food, energy, and biodiversity; it is also an emerging frontier for innovation from autonomous underwater robotics to AI-driven monitoring systems and new models of sustainable resource management. As the blue economy expands, so does the need for skilled, globally minded talent capable of working across data science, AI, technology, policy, geopolitics and community engagement. At Generation1.ca, this moment is an opportunity to connect top global talent (terrestrial and underwater) with forward-thinking people and organizations across the industries shaping the future of our planet. In the framework for national scientific data governance Canada’s Chief Science Advisor unveiled five pillars of which we are proud to be an inevitable proponent of the fifth: Grow Workforce Capacity and Digital Skills with our Future Ready Innovators Credential and more.
From land to underwater ecosystems and even to the space technologies that help monitor them, the next generation of innovators will need the skills, curiosity, robotics and collaboration to steward Earth’s most vital systems.
The ocean may cover more than 70% of our planet, but its future depends on how well we prepare the people who will protect and innovate within it. 🌊
