The “blue economy” sounds like a fashionable buzzword, but in truth, it is one of the most serious survival strategies of our time. Simply put, the blue economy means using our oceans and coastal resources to generate jobs, food, energy, and wealth — without destroying the very ecosystems that sustain them. It is economic growth with ecological discipline. What many of us fail to realize is this simple yet powerful fact: the ocean area of the Philippines is larger than its land area. That reality alone should force us to ask — why do we obsess about land-based development when our greatest wealth lies in the seas? Perhaps we should now be speaking more about the blue economy than even the green economy. It was my friend, Mr. Manuel “Nong” Rangasa of LCCAD Holdings and the United Nations Associations of the Philippines, who first made this truth crystal clear to me: our oceans represent the biggest economic frontier we are not fully cultivating. For most Filipinos, when we talk about oceans, we think only of fish and maybe some seaweeds. But the blue economy goes far beyond that. It includes sustainable fisheries and aquaculture, shipping and ports, coastal tourism, offshore renewable energy, marine biotechnology, and even ecosystem services like carbon storage, storm protection, and biodiversity conservation. Globally, the ocean economy is already valued in the trillions of dollars and supports hundreds of millions of jobs. Yet despite this enormous potential, our oceans are choking — not from shortage of opportunity, but from our own waste. I have long believed that our future prosperity depends on our oceans, but their bounty will not magically fall into our laps. We must cultivate that future deliberately and intelligently. And the first step is brutally obvious: we must clean our oceans. We must remove the plastic already there. Better still, we must stop new plastic from entering. But we often forget a painful truth: ocean pollution begins on land. Whatever we throw into our streets ends up in our drains. Whatever flows into our drains ends up in our rivers. And whatever enters our rivers eventually ends up in our seas. So if we truly want to clean our oceans, we must first clean our communities and our rivers. The Philippines, sadly, has been tagged as one of the world’s biggest contributors of plastic waste to the oceans. That is not a badge of honor. That is a national embarrassment — and a warning. Which agency, then, should lead us into a real blue economy? Is it the DENR? BFAR? DOST? Or DEVDEP? My answer is simple: none of them alone. The blue economy is far too big, too complex, and too strategic to be imprisoned within a single bureaucracy. What we need is a national blue economy task force, with real power, real funding, and real accountability. We should not neglect the role of science and education. Institutions such as UP-MSI, the UP College of Fisheries and Ocean Studies, and SEAFDEC must be at the heart of this effort — not merely as consultants, but as architects of policy and innovation. And let us not forget the other ticking time bomb: rising sea levels. A blue economy that ignores climate change is a fantasy. Coastal protection, mangrove restoration, coral rehabilitation, and disaster-resilient fisheries must be central pillars, not decorative afterthoughts. The blue economy is not just about money. It is about food security, climate resilience, community survival, and national dignity. It is about whether we continue to treat our seas as dumping grounds — or finally recognize them as the greatest living asset of our nation. The oceans are not begging us for attention. They are warning us. The question is: will we listen before it is too late?