The Global forum on Biotech in Vancouver, BC, takes a systematic look at what marine biotechnology can contribute to the grand challenges of food and fuel security, population health, green growth and sustainable industries.
BlueFrontier
MAGAZINE
Algae moon landing
MAY/JUNE 201 2
The marine cross talk
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From the Editor
Marine smartness
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irst priority when addressing the big challenges, like world food supply, is that we find ways to work together cross sector, private-public and cross borders. Common challenges need common and concerted efforts. Akademia, management authorities, seafood producers, solution providers, NGOs, finance must realize we are in the same boat and therefore intensify cross talk to create new standards and new ambitious goals for the “blue” bioeconomy. The "blue" part will play an increasing and major future role in the bioeconomy, outlined in the OECD REPORT 2009: "The Bioeconomy to 2030 Designing a Policy Agenda".
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n spite of the very diverse structure we have now started a vibrant discussion across disciplines and sectors to upgrade our common challenges and opportunities: The master goal for the marine sector across all fields is “smart and sustainable business” and this can best be achieved by systemic approach and solutions which again is best pursued by strengthening cross sector cooperation.
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upply of food, human health, energy, water can best be addressed by a strenthen ocean strategy applying contemporary marine biotechnology and marine sciences with corresponding great business potensials. When the OECD takes a systematic look at what marine biotechnology can contribute, it is a great step towards a new understanding of how to feed the world.
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opefully the Vancouver conference will make new waves in the marine innovative industry, as was also the case at the North Atlantice Seafood Forum 2012 in Oslo earlier this year: Marine biotech life science expertise hand-in-hand with the private sector players and management authorities. All "in the same boat" striving to advance the field in the most sustainable and efficient way. Prof. Øystein Lie,
Executive Manager, Marelife Project Manager, Oslo Innovation Center oystein.lie@marelife.org
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About us
BlueFrontier
MAGAZINE Published by MareLife www.marelife.org
Editor-in-chief: Øystein Lie CONTACT:
Marelife
Gaustadalléen 21 N-0349 OSLO, NORWAY Tel: +47 22 95 85 00 Fax: +47 22 60 44 27 Mobile: +47 91 7 48 240 E-mail: Oystein.Lie@forskningsparken.no http://www.marelife.org
Picture: Oslo Innovation Center in Gaustad Creek Valley Oslo Innovation Center
Gaustadalléen 21 N-0349 OSLO, NORWAY Tel: +47 22 95 85 00 Fax: +47 22 60 44 27 Email: post@forskningsparken.no http://www.forskningsparken.no COVER PHOTO:
Hanne Benjaminsen is sales manager at Cape Fish in Honningsvåg. She is dealing with new market orientation and branding of bacalao, and she received The NASF Innovation Award 201 2. Benjaminsen is one of the young innovative marine solution providers eager to develop new strategies in the marine sector. Photo: Gorm K. Gaare.
WWW.OSLOBUSINESSMEMO.NO PRINTED IN VANCOUVER, BC, BY FEDEX OFFICE
OSLO INNOVATION CENTER aims to
be one of the leading centers in Europe for innovation and industrial development. Oslo Innovation Center has an incubator that develops the most promising research and technology projects into viable start-ups. Our management resources combined with equity have accelerated many start-ups to become successful enterprises over the past 15 years. Together with our investment partner Kistefos, Oslo Innovation Center manages a venture fund, Springfondet that is an early stage investment vehicle taking positions in companies that is past the business incubation. Close relations to the entrepreneur and active ownership best describes our level of involvement.
http://www.forskningsparken.no/
THE NORTH ATLANTIC SEAFOOD FORUM is the world’s largest seafood
business conference. The NASF draws the leading players in cold-water seafood with more than 500 top executive delegates from 300 firms and 30 countries every year. CEO's of leading seafood companies in Norway and internationally take part to network, share their insights, discuss threats and opportunities and compare notes. The combination of science and sea-
food business makes the NASF conference special – not only in the marine industry, but in all industries. The North Atlantic Seafood Forum is a model of how academia and business can come together to find solutions for their industry and the global responsibility. The next NASF conference will take place in Oslo on 5-7 March 2013 and is the 9th NASF conference.
http://www.nor-seafood.com/
MARELIFE is the first bio-marine
member organisation to mobilise trend setters along the entire value chain. It is an independent science-based marine innovation network organized on a membership basis. MARELIFE is covering all three major industrial bio marine fields: aquaculture, fisheries and marine by-products. The stakeholders range from manufacturing and solution providers, start ups and venture companies to R&D organizations and public sector facilitators of innovation and commercialization. MARELIFE works along three major tracks: Projects, Commercialization and Public financial framework. MARELIFE has achieved increased awareness on the use of instruments, especially those geared towards industry-defined projects and towards collaboration between industry-academia.
www.marelife.org
BLUE FRONTIER MAGAZINE 201 2
A MAGAZINE PRODUCED BY
Science to business
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We are just in the starting blocks of the “blue revolution” as a serious response to global food supply.
A blue revolution in the making
Picture: Right: Arne E. Karlsen, CEO, FHF. Bottom: Thor Sigfusson. CEO, IOC. Photo: Gorm K. Gaare
SAVING THE WORLD IS BUSINESS: A
blue, marine, revolution is in the making. It is the only way to meet a dramatic global food shortage.
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Norwegian professor Øystein Lie (64) is a true blue revolutionaire. From his office in Oslo Innovation Center, he manages the project «Bioeconomy 2020». As the founder of GenoMar, a world leading company breeding and farming the no 1 whitefish Tilapia, executive manager of the innovation network MareLife, chairman of North Atlantic Seafood Forum, he is devoted to the enormous challenge of finding solutions to combat hunger and malnutrition. And he also is a strong supporter of making it possible to do good business in saving the world. - The bioeconomy
sector is regarded as a prime future growth industry candidate. The “blue” part will play an increasing and major future role in this economy, says Lie. He emphasizes that the global marine biotech and life science expertise must go hand-in-hand with the private sector players and management authorities to advance the field in the most sustainable and efficient way: we are all “in the same boat”. According to professor Lie, the global macro picture and mega trends support this
statement entirely: Supply of food, human health (food shortage and malnutrition in developing countries and life style diseases in industrial countries), energy, water is the most great challenges of mankind. It can best be addressed by a strengthened ocean approach applying contemporary marine biotechnology and marine sciences with corresponding great business potentials. The fast growing population will reach 9 billion by 2050, and the marine sector is the answer to meet the escalating food demands. The vast majority of global food raw material production is still terrestrial Arne Røksund, Secretary General (agricultural) based, giving at the Norwegian Ministry of Fishapproximately 7,5 billion eries and Costal affairs: tonnes. Marine based foods - Sea's and ocean's resources are production amounts to apuntapped. Seafood represents proximately 140 million only 1 ,8 % of the world's food protonnes, only. duction. The seafood industry is
more than food, it has huge potential, value added can be multiplied and marine biotech plays an important role to achieve smart and sustainable blue growth.
READY FOR THE BLUE REVOLUTION: - We are
just in the starting blocks of the marine response to
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least 100 billion tonnes.
THE MAIN NEW FOOD WAVE: - We
should further develop aquaculture both as a main new food wave and as a mean to lower the pressure on the wild resources. Hence, we should and need to do both to be able to address the above speed of demands, sayes Lie. Only a few species out of the potential candidates have been cultivated and still only 5 percent of globally farmed species have been subject to state of the art selective breeding and domestication. Also there is a great untapped potential in farming and ranching algae; macro algae (seaweeds) and not least microalgae. The latter also in controlled reactor based production systems, photo bioreactors. According to Lie the list of challenges and corresponding opportunities are currently all to some degree addressed by the management authorities, the scientific community and highly competent commercial players. These players ranges from classical fish-
eries (bony fishes and shellfishes) and new fisheries (krill, calanus and other zooplankton spp, integrated seafood operators, to the growing biomarine sector and not least: the solution providers (fishery technologies, aquaculture solutions to cope with all its challenges: vaccines, feeds and feed regimes, breeding, engineering solutions etc). The big common challenges and opportunities (the macro picture), can only be met if we merger public-private forces in a more comprehensive way and also optimize the frameworks and incentives. This is not an exercise of one party. We also need cross talk and systems approach across scientific disciplines and commercial .
NEW INDUSTRY R&D INITIATIVES: The
strong growth in the biomarine and solution provider sectors are supported by dedicated R&D funding, examplified by the Norwegian Seafood Research Fund FHF 28 million euro budget in 2012. On Day Zero of the 2012 North Atlantic Seafood Forum, FHF CEO Arne E. Karlsen outlined the funds priorities in collaboration
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global food supply. Global agriculture is facing restrictions as of land and water and has a falling growth curve and can thus not meet with the above described escalating needs, says prof. Lie. Marine food has a series of advantages in terms of: Lower carbon foot print, less land or area needs, no water supply problem, healthier foods to prevent coronary diseases, abundant feed raw material for the fast growing aquaculture, and not at least if pursuing new marine sources at lower trophic levels and by moving into algae production. The “blue� opportunity is great, according to the Norwegian professor: More than three quarters of the globe is covered by water and we have not been in the neighborhood of sustainably exploiting the ocean riches combined with the untapped potentials of cultivating aquatic and marine organisms. The ocean itself is the world largest aquaculture. Nothing that is implemented in captivity can ever compare. Global ocean annual net biomass production amounts to at
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A pilot plant for industrial production of microalgae will give strengthened and focused research on microalgae as marine resource for the future, and will help developing a knowledge platform on upscale systems to support bioindustries.
Be ready for the Algae Moon Landing!
Picture: Hans Kleivdal, UNI Research, Bergen. Photo: Gorm K. Gaare
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with the industry itself. Use of total marine raw materials as bi-products are among these priorities, according to Karlsen. Genome sequenses are made available to industry for maximum utilization to acieve better breeding programs, escapee tracing, vaccines and disease prevention as well as improved feed and knowlege of external factor influences. According to Arne E. Karlsen we now have a unique R&D cooperation resulting in unique industry value. He emphasized the ongoing projects on finding suitable principles for using roe, milt, viscera and belly flaps as well as finding suitable processing principles for separation and extraction of the selected bi-product fractions. - The impact is a potential for radically increasing the profit margins for the pelagic processing industry and increasing the value of the current pelagic fish production by introducing extracted high-quality biproduct fractions to existing and new markets, the FHF-head concluded. When talking about new and less util-
ized marine resources, Thor Sigfusson, founder and managing director of Iceland Ocean Cluster, said that 45.000 tons of the cod is discarded each year. According to Sigfusson it is possible to increase the value of "the EU cod" from 12 euros to 14-16 euros with better cut, treatment, cooling etc. Examples of bi-products from cod is: Marinederived tissue regeneration product (Kerecis), products from cod liver oil products (LĂ?SI), hand- & foot creams, contain Omega3, suitable for diabetics (Kerecis) and natural fish stock for food processing (Northtaste).
THE SUCCESS OF SALMON FARMING:
- Since the beginning of salmon farming around 40 years ago, technology development has contributed to making salmon one of the top export articles out of Norway, says dr. Petter Arnesen, technical director, Marine Harvest ASA. Production is now more than 1 million tons and makes salmon farming the biggest meat producer in Norway. Export value is more than 30 billion
NOK and together with exports from the traditional fisheries Norway is now, in value, ranked as the second biggest seafood exporter in the world. Only beaten by China. - Biotechnology has played an important role in development of effective vaccines, new feed formulations, and effective breeding programs, and further development of the industry will depend on continued advances in biotechnology. The salmon genome is currently being sequenced through an international project with private and public funding, and represents an important new research resource. According to dr. Arnesen, the continued growth of the salmon farming industry is to a large degree dependent on solving environmental challenges related to farmed/wild salmon interactions and reduced use of marine raw materials (fish meal/fish oil) in the feed. - Prevention of escapes through construction of stronger farming cage structures, more effective sea lice control through non-medicinal treatments, and development of new feed resources, espe-
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cially raw materials rich in omega 3, are among the most important focus areas, says Arnesen.
READY FOR THE ALGAE MOON LANDING: Hans Kleivdal, senior research-
tainable growth of the aquaculture industry. Rene Wijffels, professor at Wageningen University and science director at AlgaePARC outlines the research objectives of the Dutch algae program: -First of all it is a question of developing a scalable algae technology to establish sustainable production of bulk products as biofuels, food, feed, chemistry and materials. The AlgaePARC objectives is to be an international centre of applied research, and to intermediate between basic research and applications. It is a hunt for develThe "Moon Landing" in Noropment of competitive way refers to the Norwegian technology in terms of ecoPrime Minister Jens Stoltennomis and sustainability berg's (picture) New Year and acquire information speech some years ago: "Our for full scale algae plants moon landing is establishing to produce algal bioamass world leading carbon capture for food, feed, chemicals technology at Mongstad". The and fuels. way to make sure Stoltenberg
will have a safe mooon landing is to support the CO2BIO project at Mongstad.
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er at UNI Research in Bergen, outlines a real " moon landing" at Mongstad petroleum refinery and CO2 plant on the North Sea Coast of Norway: How to make use of CO2 sequestration and aquafeed production by industrial microalgae production. - We have the oportunity for a biotechnology "moon landing", said Kleivdal in his Day Zero speech on the microalgae project. On the conference in March Kleivdal gave many answers to the question why establish a pilot plant for industrial production of midroalgae at Mongstad.
It will give strenthened and focused research on microalgae as marine resource for the future, and will help developing a knowledge platform on upscale systems to support bioindustries. Kleivdal emphasizes how the utilization of CO2 as a resource will be a proactive alternative to costly subsurface storage. An industrial production will provide omega-3-rich algae biomass for aquafeed to reduce effect of shortfall on fishoil, and not at least contribute to sus-
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Product: Superba Krill Company: Aker Biomarine ASA Contact: info.us@akerbiomarine.com
A significant proportion of the long-chain omega-3 fatty acids in krill is in the phospholipid form. In contrast, the omega-3 in dietary supplements derived from cod liver, seal, and/or fish oil are almost exclusively omega-3 triglyceride fatty acids. Phospholipidbound omega-3 fatty acids are water dispersible, unlike the omega-3 provided by fish oil. This property is one of the factors favorably affecting the ways our body can absorb and utilize the omega-3 in Superba™ Krill Oil.
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http://www.akerbiomarine.com
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Product: Fresh Atlantic Salmon Company: Marine Harvest ASA Contact: norway@marineharvest.com
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Product: Salmon Roe Company: Aqua Gen AS Contact: firmapost@aquagen.no
Salmon has delicately flavoured red meat with large, moist flakes. It can be used raw for carpaccio and sushi or cooked in a variety of ways. Atlantic salmon is our leading fish product, being farmed to universally high quality specifications and tight husbandry standards across all our salmon farming operations in Canada, Chile, the Faroes, Ireland, Norway and Scotland.
Aqua Gen owns and preserves the world’s most refined genetic material from Atlantic salmon and rainbow trout. Several selections of brood fish at different levels before the final selection is allowed to produce eggs for the farmers. The selection process occurs both at the family level and at the individual level. The salmon eggs that Aqua Gen will deliver are the results of selective breeding for a range of important traits through 10 generations.
http://www.marineharvest.com
http://www.aquagen.com
MARINE INNOVATIONS Solutions for a blue frontier future! 4
Product: Smoked Salmon Loin Company: Leroy Seafood AS Contact: post@leroy.com
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Product: Stockfish Company: Capefish AS Contact: postl@capefish.com
The Cape Fish stockfish are dried outside in the traditional way, by the wind and sun. Produced with very high standards of hygiene and cleanliness in the handling of product at all stages of the production process, and raw materials are fresh from the local inshore fishing fleet. The fishing grounds for the local fishermen are situated about two hours away from the plants in Honningsvaag, the northernmost town in the world.
http://leroy.com
http://www.capefish.com/
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Smoked salmon loin is one of the latest products from Hallvard Lerøy AS (LSG). Loin is filet of the best part of the salmon. The LSG production system relies on a wide variety of skills, from practical persons who can handle boats and large marine structures to veterinarians working with microscopic organisms. A traceability system follows a salmon from roe stage to finished, packaged product.
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Early results of metagenomic studies attest to the bio-diversity of marine bioresources, revealing them to be a significant source of new biological and chemical processes and products from which new bioactive compounds can be isolated, modeled or created, says Rachael Ritchie, OECD.
Expanding rapidly our marine understanding Blue Frontier Magazine: What are the main objectives of the OECD Global Forum on Biotechnology in Vancouver? Rachael Ritchie: This event is the first
BLUE FRONTIER MAGAZINE 201 2
time the OECD has taken a systematic look at what marine biotechnology can contribute to the resolution of the “grand challenges” of food and fuel security, population health, green growth and sustainable industries. Thanks to advances in science and technology over the last decade, our understanding of the marine environment and marine ecosystems is expanding rapidly. Technologies like metagenomics, are bridging the gap between those few marine organisms we can culture and the vast majority which we cannot. Early results of metagenomic studies attest to the biodiversity of marine bio-resources, revealing them to be a significant source of new biological and chemical processes and products from which new bioactive compounds can be isolated, modeled or created. In the past, marine biotechnology has
yielded some notable and wide-ranging advances in fields as diverse as medicine, cosmetics, nutraceuticals and food production, and in industrial application areas like biorefining. Interest in this field as a new source of innovation and economic growth in many countries is driving the development of government efforts to realise this potential. While interest in marine biotechnology is increasing each year, there is a growing recognition that the viability and diversity of marine bio-resources is threatened by a number of direct and indirect causes. These threats to ocean bioresources are very real and, in most cases, the damage done is irreversible. Governments have an interest in ensuring the ocean resources are developed in a productive and sustainable manner. We hope the Global Forum will provide a forum to discuss the potential of marine biotechnology to provide solutions to global grand challenges and to identify areas which may present a barrier to the development of marine biotechnology. We hope also to consider the role of government in creating an enabling environ-
ment for marine biotechnology, and the regulations and the treaties that can affect the large-scale application of marine biotechnology. Finally we hope to identify those areas in which the OECD can provide further policy insight and expertise.
BFM: What are the main questions to be answered during the two days in Vancouver? RR: There are two main questions we
hope to consider during the Forum. They are interdependent, thought each may be viewed as a separate side of the same coin. The first is “what is the potential of the ocean that can be realised by marine biotechnology?” There have been great advances in science and technology and in ocean exploration in the last decade. These advances have improved our understanding of marine bio-resources and are allowing us to understand and access marine ecosystems and bio-resources at the molecular level. Marine bio-resources which have been remained difficult to
11 The OECD in partnership with Genome Canada, Genome British Columbia, Genome Atlantic, Health Canada, The Research Council of Norway, the Norwegian Ministry of Trade and Industry, and the Korean Ministry of Land, Transport and Maritime Affairs are hosting the major conference on marine biotechnology: “OECD Global Forum on Biotechnology: Marine Biotechnology Enabling Solutions for Ocean Productivity and Sustainability.”
Picture: Rachael Ritchie at OECD, expert in marine biotechnology.
access and untapped, are now being used to produce a rich source of innovative products and services. At the same time, marine bio-resources also provide a number of important ecosystem services for the planet and its inhabitants that must be maintained. So the second question relates to sustainability: “how can we extract value from resources that are spread widely across a complex marine ecosystem while maximising the integrity and sustainability of that ecosystem for future generations?” These two questions provide both the framework and title of our Forum: Enabling Solutions for Ocean Productivity and Sustainability.
RR: We believe there are a number of is-
sues that need to be addressed if we are to enable development of the field: for example, issues related to access to marine resources, issues related to benefit shar-
BFM: What can the participants anticipate to achieve from the conference? RR: Participation at the Global Forum is by
invitation only. Our goal was to inivite a diverse range of individuals to participate in the meeting so as to have a wide range of perspectives and expertise. Participants
include policy makers and regulators, industry leaders, academics, and social and natural scientists from all parts of the world. Participants will have an opportunity to discuss the potential of marine biotechnology with other subject matter experts, with a view to elucidating both the potential of and challenges to, the sustainable development of the field. Almost half of the participants will make formal presentations, and all participants will be invited to contribute to thematic discussions to help identify areas that would benefit from new policy work. We expect the meeting will raise awareness among policymakers about the potential of the marine environment that can be realised through marine biotechnology, and those areas where policy may be able to influence positively the contribution of marine biotechnology to economic wellbeing and environmental sustainability. We believe this will have a positive impact on the work and life of all participants and others working in the field.
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BFM: How can this event address the main issues for the marine biotechnology?
ing; and issues relating to the development of research infrastructures and governance of the field. Certainly, we cannot hope to address fully all of the main issues for marine biotechnology. We do hope, however, that -- in convening experts and stakeholders from the private and public sectors from around the world -- we can begin to articulate those areas of the field which could benefit from new policy work to enable the use science and technology to benefit societies and economies in a sustainable manner. These areas will form a basis for new policy work at the OECD in the near future that will begin to address, in a systematic way, those most pressing issues identified at the meeting.
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Last but not least:
Look to Oslo for new solutions!
Picture: John Roger Nesje, CEO, Rolls Royce Marine The North-Atlantic Seafood Forum in Oslo has become the annual venue for industry and policy makers related to the marine sector. This year's event in March had an all-time high attendance.
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- More delegates than ever came to NASF 2012, with some 560 top-level delegates from 32 countries and close to 300 companies attending the conference. This was 18 percent above the 2011 delegate number, states the conference founder Jørgen J. Lund. Lund notes that the NASF event this year was in effect a 3-day event, starting March 6th with the well known Day Zero preconference BioMarine seminar, organized by the MareLife Association. As the largest special session, the preconference Day Zero attracted around 170 delegates to the crowded seminar room at Radisson Blu Scandinavia in Oslo. - We managed to get the key players from the solutions provider and the bio-
marine sector to set the agenda for marine innovation, says prof. Ă˜ystein Lie. Petter Dragesund, head of corporate finance at Pareto Securties, says Pareto as a part-owner of the NASF will work to attract even more international seafood companies to the meeting in the years to come. The special session "Pareto Seafood Finance and Investor Seminar" presented 17 companies. - For our customers this is a good opportunity to meet the companies and talk to the managment face-to-face, says Dragesund. At the pre-conference Day Zero 20 innovative cases from companies in the marine solution provider sector where presented - out of which four cases were awarded. One of the awarded projects was the Green Fishing Vessels. John Roger Nesje, CEO at Rolls Royce Marine, introduced the project initiated and run by Lie-gruppen with Rolls Royce Marine AS, Telenor Maritime Radio AS, NIVA, Det Norske Veritas and SINTEF
Fishery & Acquaculture as partners. The project overall goal is to advance fishery technology substantially forward by adapting to contemporary demands and building competitive edge within energy efficacy, emissions, green classification, smart communication systems and remote sensing of eocean environment parameters. Nesje pointed out the reduction of fuel an emissions trough novel propulsion technology by the Hybrid Shaft Generator as goal no. one. The second goal of the project is to create a more robust basis for decisions on the bridge, with a "smart box" to engage the best carrier at anye time and infomration processing from various sources. The third goal is to monitor ocean environment paramteters by the ferry box device and the fourth goal is to introduce a "green passport" as an environment standard with accompanied certificate.