The Iceland Ocean Cluster was formally established at the Reykjavík Maritime Museum on May 24. The cluster is defined as economic activities directly related to the ocean around Iceland.
The Reykjavík Maritime Museum. Photo by Páll Kjartansson.
These activities include fishing and fish processing, aquaculture, seafood technology, marine engineering, marine ingredients, research and development, marketing and service etc., a press release describes.
The objective of the Iceland Ocean Cluster project is to map the ocean cluster in Iceland and observe its strengths, weaknesses and opportunities.
The challenge is not only to map established industries such as the seafood industry, aquaculture and seafood processing, processing technology and marine engineering, and various services, but also to map emerging niche areas, such as eco-ocean tourism and renewable marine energy.
The mapping of the technology firms in the ocean cluster has indicated that the technology sector in the Iceland Ocean Cluster is much larger than expected.
There are over 70 firms, mostly small technology driven firms, which have their own ocean-related tech brands and export to other countries.
However, the last two years have seen a slowdown in the establishment of new firms in the ocean tech sector which is most likely the result of the uncertainty around the fisheries management system in Iceland, a press release states.
