The overall ocean economy was estimated to be worth more than $1.5 trillion CAD in 2009 with the marine and ocean technology industry contributing a significant portion of this. The industry encompasses a very wide range of technologies and applications including, for example, surface and underwater communications; electronic navigation systems; robotics and intelligent systems; sensors, instrumentation; remote power systems; radar and other remote sensing systems; fish harvesting and processing equipment; aquaculture systems; vessel and platform design; propulsion systems; ocean renewable energy; oceanography meteorology/weather forecasting; and emergency evacuation and response systems.
The companies, post-secondary institutions and research and development institutes that make up the OceansAdvance ocean technology cluster are active in the following sectors: