Blue Tech Talk Capt. Bryan Bender and Shay Hanna

Michael Jones of The Maritime Alliance joins us for our first episode with insight on the huge opportunities in the Blue Economy.

Mare Straetmans joins us from PortXL, the world port accelerator, located in Rotterdam.

Amber Michel was a career mariner with a problem. Managing the giant stack of professional credentials required to maintain her license had become a full-time job, which she had to fit in during the few weeks at a time that she was ashore. Missing a single training session could cost a career. After 13 years at sea with the U.S. Merchant Marine, she came ashore to solve "Expiration Anxiety" once and for all.

While sitting at a water-front cafe in Cape Town, Richard Hardiman became annoyed by the plastic garbage floating past the otherwise lovely view of his home town harbour. Then he asked himself the question which seeds all innovation ... why? Why has no one solved this problem already? Listen in to hear his answer.

On today’s show, we head to Washington state to talk about a Blue Economy initiative called Washington Maritime BLUE 2050, a year-long effort to develop the state’s maritime strategy through economic studies and pilot projects. Our guest is the Governor’s Maritime Sector Lead for the Washington State Dept. of Commerce, Joshua Berger. We talk about the state's efforts to stimulate Maritime innovation and create jobs.