‘BLUE’ MARINE BIOTECHNOLOGY

Marine biotechnology – listed with a blue colour label  – focuses on technical developments centred in large bodies of water. One of the benefits of biotech is that it can be used to create greener, more efficient energy sources, and by using microalgae, energy can be made in the form of biofuel. It’s amazing the think that whilst water and oceans cover 70% of the Earth’s surface, we’ve only explored 5% of the ocean itself.

This opens us up to a myriad of potential opportunities that could be discovered and exploited. Given that there is all this potential, it’s no wonder that marine biotech is seen as a massive economic driver in the future. Already, marine biotech has been used to create marine-based food ingredients, chemical compounds and biosensors. Again, whilst on one hand marine biotech seems like a great idea, on the other hand, it does pose some difficulties.

Many coastal areas rely on a healthy coastal environment. With the increased use of marine biotech, coral reefs, which can home thousands of different species of marine wildlife can become damaged. Not only this, but without a healthy coastal environment, some areas which rely heavily on tourism for the majority of their external income, may see a decrease in earnings as the attractions have potentially been damaged, or worse, destroyed. Similarly with Green biotech, care has to be taken that the marine organisms as well as humans are not harmed by the change in their environment.

Besides these four, biotechnology can also be split into ‘Yellow’, ‘Grey’ and ‘Gold’. These focus on food production, environmental ecosystems and bioinformatics.