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The blue economy has gained traction in international and regional discourse and governance throughout the past decade (Mohanty et al., 2015; OECD, 2016; Patil et al., 2016; Mulazzani and Malorgio, 2017; Bennett et al., 2019). Despite the prominence of the term in international and national fora and programs (Bank, W2017; FAO, 2017; Nations, U, 2022a), the blue economy as a concept remains poorly defined and largely under implemented at a national level (Voyer et al., 2022). This renders the blue economy at risk of becoming a political tool rather than a tool to achieve practical objectives and advance ocean health, economic development, and social equity (Brent et al., 2020; Fabinyi et al., 2021; Louey, 2022). Given the increasing urgency of addressing the decline in ocean health, and the continued growth of ocean industries, translating high level conceptualizations of the blue economy into operational implementation and reviewing this implementation for future adaptation should be a high priority. This paper is primarily concerned with the development of a practical assessment tool of blue economy implementation. The conceptual approach of developing a methodology to assess the extent and substance of blue economy implementation globally is grounded in the review of current literature on what should constitute a blue economy with consideration of the inclusion of triple bottom line objectives (environmental, economic, and social). This approach also recognizes the fundamental importance of governance to achieving sustainable development (Foley et al., 2020; Parlee et al., 2021; Stephenson et al., 2021), by embedding an …