Open Access Tools
Free tools, databases, and general resources from the ocean tech community. Have one to add? Let us know.
| General Resources | Description |
| Bristlemouth | An open standard delivering plug-and-play hardware interfaces for marine applications |
| Ocean Visions | Roadmaps for Ocean-Based Carbon Dioxide Removal |
| Urban Ocean Lab Resource Hub | Hundreds of resources—from datasets to case studies—to inform policymaking in coastal cities |
| Free Range Ocean | A global directory of ocean citizen science projects |
| Innovation Catalog | The most inspiring solutions supported by Conservation X Labs |
| Synchro | A co-design test bed to synchronize and evolve marine technology solutions for industry, ocean science, and conservation |
| Global Priority Areas for Ecosystem Restoration | From 2020, a paper in Nature |
| SmartBay | Ireland’s national observation and validation facility for the marine and ocean energy sectors |
| The Blue Carbon Explorer | An app that provides detailed maps to help governments evaluate the extent and health of mangroves and seagrasses |
| The Liquid Grid | Resources to facilitate the transition to a sustainable ocean economy |
| Phyconomy | News and resources to understand the emerging seaweed industry |
| Regenerative Ocean Farming Hub | Free seed-to-sale training program, tools, community, and marketplace for seaweed farmers |
| Interactive Maps | |
| Coastal Risk Index | Allows policymakers to better assess coastal risk and improve decision-making in the climate crisis |
| ProtectedSeas Navigator | The first global view of marine life protections |
| Kelpwatch | Hosts the latest kelp distribution data for canopy-forming kelp species from Baja California, Mexico to Oregon |
| Open Ocean Project | Transforming ocean management by making human activity visible |
| Allen Coral Atlas | Maps and monitors the world’s coral reefs to provide actionable data and a shared understanding of coastal ecosystems |
| Marine Manager | A technology portal that provides near-real time data to support the design and management of marine protected areas |
| SeaSketch | A set of open-source tools for marine spatial planning |
| Important Shark and Ray Areas | An e-atlas documenting important shark and ray areas globally |
| Fisheries Resources | |
| Bycatch Solutions Hub | An industry-led hub to reduce bycatch in fisheries |
| Illuminating Hidden Harvests | From 2023, a global study uncovering the contributions and impacts of small-scale fisheries |
| Seafood Alliance for Legality and Traceability | Explore traceability, counter-illegal fishing, and social responsibility efforts |
| Transform Bottom Trawling | Fisher testimonies map |
| Aquaculture Science Hub | Aquaculture research, tools, and resources to help ensure the best outcomes for coastal communities and ecosystems |
| Funding Resources | |
| Ocean Sensors Fund | Microgrants supporting projects that advance the development and implementation of cutting-edge ocean sensor technologies |
| Waitt Foundation Rapid Ocean Grants | ROC Grants provide small grants with a quick turnaround time for solutions to ocean conservation issues |
| Experiment Foundation | Microgrants to answer ocean science questions |
| Coastal Funding Database | A database of current funding opportunities that support coastal resilience programs and projects |
| Our Shared Seas | From 2023, a landscape report on ocean funding |
| Urban Ocean Lab | Guidebook: Ocean Climate Funding for Coastal Cities |
Marine Tech Partner Network
Browse the diverse group of past and present partners that make our network strong.
| Name | Description | Location |
| Stone Aerospace | Developing the Sunfish, an autonomous underwater vehicle capable of exploring and mapping underwater environments. | Austin, TX |
| Induced Polarization Associates | Developing a portable in-water electrical detection technology for mapping water column and seabed contaminants. | Seattle, WA |
| Wibotic | Developing wireless underwater power-transfer technology. | Seattle, WA |
| The Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute | Employing a seafloor “biodome” system, FOCE, that is diver-deployable and enables manipulation of temperature, pH, and other parameters to enable previously impossible underwater studies. | Panama City, Panama |
| Ocean Diagnostics | Building MantaRay, the first autonomous microplastic sampler It will work on multiple platforms and provide much needed data to illuminate a poorly understood issue in marine plastic pollution. | Victoria, BC |
| Future Ocean Labs at MIT | Building an open-source family of very low-cost, low-power acoustic modems that allow low-bandwidth data transfer over intermediate and short distances. | Cambridge, MA |
| The Jaffe Lab | Developing a smart underwater imaging telemeter (The SUIT) that enables permanent association of underwater video and photos with location and environmental data. | San Diego, CA |
| Northeastern Environmental Sensors Lab | Developing low-cost, accurate nitrogen sensors to tackle one of the biggest challenges related to solving the problem of coastal nutrient pollution. | Boston, MA |
| SIO | Developing techniques for three-dimensional mapping of reefs that track regional reef growth or declines, allowing researchers to discern key ecological patterns that inform management plans. | San Diego, CA |
| Seatrec | Powering new measurement capabilities and extended functional lifespans for oceanographic research equipment by harvesting renewable energy from beneath the sea through exploiting water column temperature gradients. | Pasadena, CA |
| Oceanic Labs | Creating mass-deployable tools for ocean monitoring, conservation, and industry. They are currently working on a nutrient sensor that can provide precise measurements even in turbid, rapidly-fouling coastal waters. | Cambridge, MA |
| ORCA | Experimenting with a low-cost pollution sensor that can help identify coastal waters most in need of further study with the group’s more elaborate Kilroy sensor packages. Their overall goal is to apply these technologies to the identification of key pollution sources. | Fort Pierce, FL |
| WHOI Applied Ocean Physics and Engineering | Developing a portable low-power sensor capable of monitoring multiple dissolved gasses playing key roles in climate and marine ecosystem health. | Woods Hole, MA |
| WHOI – Hansel Labs | The DISCO (diver-operated submersible chemiluminescent sensor) has been developed to measure oxygen radicals and other fleeting marine chemicals to measure in situ. | Woods Hole, MA |
| University of Washington | Developing a next generation salinity sensor – a small, low power, low cost, carbon nanotube powered sensor for oceanographic use, enabling ocean sensing on larger temporal and spatial scales. | Seattle, WA |
| University of Haifa | Developing Sea-Thru, a lidar-based platform to image real colors underwater in real-time, intended to work flexibly with consumer cameras under natural and artificial light. | Haifa, Israel |
| CSIRO | Mapping the flow of marine plastics throughout the world. | Canberra, Australia |
| Hohonu | Building low-cost, open source sensors to measure a range of oceanographic parameters such as sea-level, temperature, conductivity, pressure, and pH. | Honolulu, HI |
| Sofar Ocean | Builds tethered underwater drones like the Trident, their underwater vehicle that opens countless new possibilities for ocean exploration. | San Francisco, CA |
| Oceanswell | Sri Lanka’s first marine conservation research and education organization. | Weligama Bay, Sri Lanka |
| Marine Applied Research and Exploration | Explores and documents deepwater ecosystems with deep diving robotic submarines to assist in their conservation and management. | Richmond, CA |
| Experiment Foundation’s Ocean Solutions Fund | Support early-stage experiments, research, and technology development for ocean conservation. | Seattle, WA |
| Purple Mai’a | Born out of a deep love for Hawai’i and a desire to help its people excel in technology and entrepreneurship. The Purple Prize is an annual technology challenge/accelerator where startup teams — led by and committed to Indigenous community values — work towards building and refining their businesses. | O’ahu, HI |
| Ocean Exchange | Advances the adoption of solutions in the field of sustainability through competitive grants to startups and collegiate awards. | Fort Lauderdale, FL |
| Ambercycle | Ambercycle regenerates end-of-life textiles into new materials for brands and manufacturers. | Berkeley, CA |
| Eureka Recycling | Non-profit dedicated to zero waste by advancing a novel artificial intelligence vision system developed by AMP Robotics to monitor and sort plastic and other waste more efficiently. | Twin Cities, MN |
| NovoLoop | Novoloop is an emerging leader in plastic circularity, transforming post-consumer plastic waste into the world’s first chemically upcycled performance materials. | San Jose, CA |
| Rozalia Project | Building a microfiber catcher called the Cora that can be used in washing machines to prevent microfibers from reaching our waterways and the ocean. | Granville, VT |
| CSIRO | Global plastic losses: Quantifying flows of plastic and other debris from land-based sources to the ocean. | Australia |
| Sea Ranger Service | Trains unemployed youth for jobs monitoring marine protected areas. | Rotterdam, Netherlands |