Iceland Ocean Cluster formally introduced in May 2011 at the Reykjavik Maritime Museum

The cluster is defined as economic activities directly related to the ocean around Iceland. These activities include the seafood industry the catching sector, aquaculture production, at sea and onshore seafood processing, seafood technology and marine engineering, marine ingredients, research and development, marketing and service etc.

The aim is to show the ocean activities in a new light
"Our mission is to map all the ocean related activities Iceland and we have already shown a much more diversed industry and activities than most people realised. The media depicts still a fairly simple picture of ocean related industries, being fisheries, fish processing and fishing gear. We are showing hundreds of other activities related to this sectos and new and exciting fields," says Thor Sigfusson leader of the cluster project. "We are mapping these emerging niche areas (e.g. ego-oceantourism, marine renewable energy, marine ingredients (including biotechnology), green technology, etc,). The mapping is at finalising stage and will form a valuable base for the Ocean cluster in Iceland".  Thor says that the aim of the project is to show the ocean activities in a new light and introduce to new generations of Icelanders an exciting field which require higher education. "New generations should realise that there are great opportunities in the ocean related businesses in the future."

Technology sector much larger than expected
"Our mapping has indicated that the technology sector in the Iceland Ocean Cluster is much larger than we expected. There are over 70 firms, mostly small technology driven firms, which have their own tech brands and export to other countries," says Thor. "We have interviewed many of these entrepreneurs and most of their products have been developed in close cooperation with the dynamic fisheries sector in Iceland. The last two years have seen a bit of a slowdown in the establishment of new firms in the ocean tech sector which is probably the result of the uncertainty around the fisheries management system in Iceland," says Thor.