Healthy Oceans Research Articles

Knowledge Translation Supports Community Conservation Efforts to Protect and Restore a Local Marine Environment: A Case Study of Átl’ḵa7tsem/Txwnéwu7ts/Howe Sound, British Columbia, Canada

Individuals, communities, organizations, and governments are the building blocks of economies. All require awareness, information, and achievable actions to contribute to moving towards healthy oceans, the base of a robust blue economy. Ocean Watch, a program run by Ocean Wise Conservation Association, was created to translate scientific understanding, combined with community and traditional knowledge, to empower local action for improved marine health. Clear improvements have been made in the Átl’ḵa7tsem/Txwnéwu7ts/Howe Sound marine environment, which have been captured in an updated report following from the original 2017 publication. Information within the reports illustrates the connection of communities and the marine environment through articles describing seven themes, which are: (1) Species and Habitat; (2) Clean Water; (3) Sense of Place; (4) Coastal Development and Livelihoods; (5) Stewardship and Governance; (6) Oceanography and Climate Change; and (7) Seafood. Articles such as the 2017 article: “Sea Stars: wasting disease taking its toll” gave background, rationale for importance, current status, current actions, and recommended actions to improve the health status (healthy, caution, critical, limited/no data). The health status for 10 of 28 reassessed articles improved largely due to actions taken by local communities, as recommended in the 2017 report. However, more work is needed, especially for areas of marine health that were not improving and to address threats from climate change. Establishing a sustainable socio-ecological relationship with the ocean is necessary if we are to protect and restore the health of all components of the ecosystem. Empowering communities to take action improves ocean health, which is inherently linked to the health of individuals, communities, and economies.

He waka eke noa/we are all in the same boat: A framework for co-governance from aotearoa New Zealand

Societal values are crucial for the prioritisation of activities within the marine environment and are therefore fundamental to successfully implementing Ecosystem Based Management (EBM) in New Zealand (NZ). Documenting Social Values (Mauri Moana) is a research project within the Sustainable Seas National Science Challenge (NSC) that is exploring how societal values for the marine environment like intrinsic and recreational along with Māori values are integrated into EBM.Using a case study approach, we explore how Māori values are catered for within planning approaches and institutions for Tauranga Moana (Tauranga Harbour). Through our earlier work in the Sustainable Seas NSC, we developed a framework (He Waka Taurua) for a NZ marine management system that was informed by EBM and mātauranga Māori (Māori knowledge). The current study further elaborates on the components that form a proposed NZ marine management system based on the Tauranga Moana case study. This framework provides a useful approach for informing how co-governance institutions can manage the different values and aspirations of Māori, and local communities with government institutions to support healthy oceans and healthy people.

Integrating climate change in ocean planning

The acceleration of global warming and increased vulnerability of marine social-ecological systems affect the benefits provided by the ocean. Spatial planning of marine areas is vital to balance multiple human demands and ensure a healthy ocean, while supporting global ocean goals. To thrive in a changing ocean though, marine spatial planning (MSP) must effectively integrate climate change. By reviewing existing literature on MSP and climate change, we explore the links between them and with ocean sustainability, highlight management challenges, and identify potential pathways to guide action towards the effective integration of climate impacts in MSP. A review of marine spatial planning literature identifies links with climate change and gaps in the practical integration of both concepts.

We need a global movement to transform ocean science for a better world

The ocean is our planet’s largest life-support system. It stabilizes climate; stores carbon; produces oxygen; nurtures biodiversity; directly supports human well-being through food, mineral, and energy resources; and provides cultural and recreational services. The value of the ocean economy speaks to its importance: The Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) estimates that by 2030, $3 trillion USD will be generated annually from ocean sectors such as transportation, fishing, tourism, and energy (1). Unsustainable resource extraction, pollution, climate change, and habitat destruction are on the rise and affecting many parts of the world’s oceans (2). The ocean is rapidly changing, and yet the ways in which these changes will play out are not yet clear. Although improved ocean management and conservation have helped to reduce threats and restore some key ecosystems, the basic benefits that people receive from a healthy ocean are in overall decline. Image credit: © World Wildlife Fund (WWF-US)/James Morgan. Although improved management and conservation have helped to reduce threats and restore some key ecosystems, the basic benefits that people receive from a healthy ocean are in overall decline (3). If left unchecked, a growing and resource-hungry human population will add additional pressures on the ocean. Scientific research, experimentation, data collection, monitoring, and modeling provide the knowledge, frameworks, and evidence needed to model and explore the environmental consequences of policy and development proposals and thus to chart a sustainable future ocean. The current scale, pace, and practice of ocean scientific discovery and observation are not keeping up with the changes in ocean and human conditions. We need fundamental changes in the way that researchers work with decision makers to co-create knowledge that will address pressing development problems. Researchers need to share their data more freely and sooner so that their work can inform decisions in near real … [↵][1]1To whom correspondence may be addressed. Email: linwood.pendleton{at}wwf.org. [1]: #xref-corresp-1-1

Underprotected Marine Protected Areas in a Global Biodiversity Hotspot

Summary Ocean health is critical for human well-being but is threatened by multiple stressors. Parties to the Convention on Biological Diversity agreed to protect 10% of their waters by 2020. The scientific evidence supporting the use of marine protected areas (MPAs) to conserve biodiversity stems primarily from knowledge on fully protected areas, but most of what is being established is partially protected. Here, we assess the protection levels of the 1,062 Mediterranean MPAs. While 6.01% of the Mediterranean is covered by protection, 95% of this area shows no difference between the regulations imposed inside the MPAs compared with those outside. Full and high levels of protection, the most effective for biodiversity conservation, represent only 0.23% of the basin and are unevenly distributed across political boundaries and eco-regions. Our current efforts are insufficient at managing human uses of nature at sea, and protection levels should be increased to deliver tangible benefits for biodiversity conservation.

Rebuilding marine life.

Sustainable Development Goal 14 of the United Nations aims to "conserve and sustainably use the oceans, seas and marine resources for sustainable development". Achieving this goal will require rebuilding the marine life-support systems that deliver the many benefits that society receives from a healthy ocean. Here we document the recovery of marine populations, habitats and ecosystems following past conservation interventions. Recovery rates across studies suggest that substantial recovery of the abundance, structure and function of marine life could be achieved by 2050, if major pressures-including climate change-are mitigated. Rebuilding marine life represents a doable Grand Challenge for humanity, an ethical obligation and a smart economic objective to achieve a sustainable future.

Value orientations and beliefs contribute to the formation of a marine conservation personal norm

Direct exploitation of resources, climate change, and land pollution drive marine degradation. Influencing these drivers are political, cultural and economic systems, which are guided by people’s values, beliefs, and behaviours. To tackle this conservation challenge and make oceans more sustainable, we need to understand how people think and act in relation to marine issues. This article examined marine value orientations, beliefs and personal norms. Self-administered questionnaires were randomly delivered to coastal residents in Newfoundland, Canada (n = 776, response rate = 49 %). The structural equation model predicted 86 % of the variance in personal norms. Newfoundland residents felt a moral obligation to act in favour of a healthy ocean when they care for the ocean (relational value), felt responsible for their actions, and were aware of the negative impacts of humans can have on marine environments. Relational, instrumental, and intrinsic value orientations were also related to knowledge of human impacts on the ocean. The results imply that efforts aimed at inspiring people to engage in sustainable behaviours should be grounded on relational values, such as care and concern for the ocean.

Joining forces to strengthen European health research.

Joining forces to strengthen European health research.

To Achieve a Sustainable Blue Future, Progress Assessments Must Include Interdependencies between the Sustainable Development Goals

The Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) focus on providing society with a sustainable future. Progress toward the goals is being tracked by a series of indicators. These indicators show progress toward individual goals and targets but do not show how success or failure in relation to one goal might affect success or failure in another area. We show how interactions between the oceans and human poverty, hunger, and gender equity are hidden by indicator assessments and how this undermines the capacity of governments and organizations to maximize long-term moves toward sustainability. These findings are important for decision makers who work in the public and private sectors and wish to avoid unforeseen outcomes when implementing sustainability initiatives. Here, we suggest extensions to the current assessment framework to help counteract the identified issues, providing a research agenda for scientists working in all fields of sustainability science.

The Preservation of Coral Reefs as a Key Step for Healthy and Sustainable Oceans: The Belize Case

Employing scientific literature on the risks linked to the loss of coral, the article highlights the importance of protecting coral reefs from a legal perspective, implementing international environmental law instruments. This study analyses the provisions of the relevant international environmental treaties to highlight the obligations addressed to national governments, in order to ensure the protection of coral reefs and the preservation of the marine ecosystem. For this purpose, the article includes a case study of the successful experience of the Belizean national legislation, supported by a model of shared governance, to promote the conservation of the marine biodiversity and its sustainable use for healthy and protected oceans.

Healthy Ocean, Healthy Planet

Healthy Ocean, Healthy Planet

Building on a Decade of the Ocean Health Index

With oceans under increasing pressure from human activities, sustainable development and conservation efforts are working to set meaningful targets for healthy oceans. Determining whether those targets are achieved requires indicators that measure status and progress. Here, I reflect upon lessons learned from a decade of developing and calculating the Ocean Health Index.

Indian Ocean fisheries regulation: exploring participatory approaches to support small-scale fisheries in six States

ABSTRACTIn the Indian Ocean region fish and other marine living resources are vital for food security, local livelihoods, national economies, and future development opportunities. Of particular importance is the small-scale fishing sector, which supplies food and employment for many local people and coastal communities. To ensure the longevity of artisanal and subsistence fisheries, and healthy oceans and marine living resources, improved legal governance is critical. Most Indian Ocean States have adopted fisheries laws to achieve this goal, yet successfully balancing conservation and sustainable use of marine resources remains a challenge. To enhance fisheries laws in efficient, effective and equitable ways, inclusive governance approaches are needed. This article analyses fisheries laws in six Indian Ocean States, and critically assesses the incorporation of participatory approaches that support small-scale fisheries. The comparative analysis provides a resource that will assist States in identifying legal options to enhance public participation and inclusive fisheries governance.

Future importance of healthy oceans: Ecosystem functions and biodiversity, marine pollution, carbon sequestration, ecosystem goods and services

Future importance of healthy oceans: Ecosystem functions and biodiversity, marine pollution, carbon sequestration, ecosystem goods and services

Prioritization of the Sustainable Development Goals Drives Opportunities and Risks for a Blue Future

The Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) were designed to recognize the fundamental role the biosphere plays in our sustainable future. However, decision-making bodies, from local to international levels, have assigned lowest priority towards Goal 14 (Life Below Water). Here, we analyze policy reports and indicators to explore risks associated with low attainment of Goal 14 for other targets. We show that limited progress towards Goal 14 is likely to affect long-term attainment of social and economic targets. This is particularly the case for countries highly dependent on fisheries or for those developing a blue economy, due to the reliance of the social and economic goals on a healthy ocean in these contexts. To help ensure sustainability is not compromised by environmental degradation we suggest an extension to existing indicator assessments. This approach would provide greater transparency and specificity to decision-makers as they direct actions to attain SDGs.

Recent pace of change in human impact on the world\u2019s ocean

Humans interact with the oceans in diverse and profound ways. The scope, magnitude, footprint and ultimate cumulative impacts of human activities can threaten ocean ecosystems and have changed over time, resulting in new challenges and threats to marine ecosystems. A fundamental gap in understanding how humanity is affecting the oceans is our limited knowledge about the pace of change in cumulative impact on ocean ecosystems from expanding human activities – and the patterns, locations and drivers of most significant change. To help address this, we combined high resolution, annual data on the intensity of 14 human stressors and their impact on 21 marine ecosystems over 11 years (2003–2013) to assess pace of change in cumulative impacts on global oceans, where and how much that pace differs across the ocean, and which stressors and their impacts contribute most to those changes. We found that most of the ocean (59%) is experiencing significantly increasing cumulative impact, in particular due to climate change but also from fishing, land-based pollution and shipping. Nearly all countries saw increases in cumulative impacts in their coastal waters, as did all ecosystems, with coral reefs, seagrasses and mangroves at most risk. Mitigation of stressors most contributing to increases in overall cumulative impacts is urgently needed to sustain healthy oceans.

Bivalves boost biodiversity

Bivalves boost biodiversity

Towards greater transparency and coherence in funding for sustainable marine fisheries and healthy oceans

This final manuscript in the special issue on “Funding for ocean conservation and sustainable fisheries” is the result of a dialogue aimed at connecting lead authors of the special issue manuscripts with relevant policymakers and practitioners. The dialogue took place over the course of a two-day workshop in December 2018, and this “coda” manuscript seeks to distil thinking around a series of key recurring topics raised throughout the workshop. These topics are collected into three broad categories, or “needs”: 1) a need for transparency, 2) a need for coherence, and 3) a need for improved monitoring of project impacts. While the special issue sought to collect new research into the latest trends and developments in the rapidly evolving world of funding for ocean conservation and sustainable fisheries, the insights collected during the workshop have helped to highlight remaining knowledge gaps. Therefore, each of the three “needs” identified within this manuscript is followed by a series of questions that the workshop participants identified as warranting further attention as part of a future research agenda. The crosscutting nature of many of the issues raised as well as the rapid pace of change that characterizes this funding landscape both pointed to a broader need for continued dialogue and study that reaches across the communities of research, policy and practice.

Boost research options with partnerships with industries that share your interests

Coral reefs around the world have degraded, and researchers at Nova Southeastern University are seeking ways to restore them. To enhance the reef‐restoration efforts, officials found a partner with a strong interest in a healthy ocean: Norwegian Cruise Line Holdings.

Biodiversity, Coastal Protection, Promotion and Applicability Investigation of the Ocean Health Index for Turkish Seas

We are witnessing a process that involves environmental problems at the global scale, primarily climate change, which will require all people to be concerned about the health of the oceans. The health of the marine environment and ecology is deteriorating. Declining biodiversity and changing chemical transformations due to this deterioration reduce the capacity of natural processes to reproduce healthy marine environments. Scientists who work on a global scale believe that the processes of change have reached the level we cannot expect to take action and believe that we must prioritize our action to reverse the trend. For this purpose, it is necessary to develop a multi-dimensional scale that can measure not only the science parameters but also socio-economic scaling for measuring the health of the seas-oceans. There are sources describing an acceptable definition of a healthy ocean as the continuation of benefits for humanity (Rapport, et al., 1998; Samhouri, et al., 2011). Multidimensional management and conservation of marine resources can be explained by a derivative of human activities and needs deep analysis (Halpern, et al., 2008). Numerous efforts to quantify natural resources in a comparative form have been the subject of research for many years. Numerous quantities expressed together with graphical visualization, as well as having different approaches to what it means to be in the digital form, are more than an ideal, but a challenge. To better understand and monitor ecosystem conditions; there is a need for a standardized and scalable index that is understandable and usable. In addition, the developments of international organizations and cooperation for the purpose of protecting the coasts and the increase of their activities have revealed the need for a common indexation in determining the status of the coasts and seas. The primary objective of the index in question is to ensure the continuation of the benefits that are used more than the rating of the severity of the deterioration. The Ocean Health Index (OHI) is a good reference to quantitatively assess the status of the marine environment from the perspective of coupled human-ocean systems (Elfes et al., 2014; Lam & Roy, 2014; Halpern et al., 2014; Daigle et al., 2016; Longo et al., 2017). The OHI is a novel indicator approach to assess the health of the oceans through tracking the current and likely future status of ten widely-held public goals (Halpern et al., 2012). In this study, biodiversity, development of coastal protection indices is explained. The introduction of the ocean health index in the Turkish seas and its applicability is being investigated.