Sustainable Development Of Oceans Research Articles

International Legal Framework for Joint Governance of Oceans and Fisheries: Challenges and Prospects in Governing Large Marine Ecosystems (LMEs) under Sustainable Development Goal 14

Sustainable Development Goal 14 (SDG 14) was launched in 2015 to provide an overarching governance framework for long-term sustainable ocean development. This research paper analyzes the extent to which global and regional organizations are coherent with SDG 14 under the existing frameworks of international law. This research paper further assessed Multilateral Environmental Agreements (MEAs) under the framework of the United Nations Convention on Law of the Sea (UNCLOS) and International Environmental Law (IEL) in the context of joint governance of ocean and fisheries as Large Marine Ecosystems (LMEs). According to its objectives, the research indicated that coherence across governing instruments should be increased for the governance of LMEs, leading to the development of a mechanism representing consistency with SDG 14. As a result, a mechanism that demonstrates the coherence of SDG 14 with Agenda—2030 is made, which indicates that, in order to govern fisheries and oceans as LMEs jointly, coherence among governing instruments must be increased. The conclusion followed SDG 14’s recommended actions, which are sly in line with UNCLOS and IEL, although the current initiatives of the regional organizations should be updated.

Current Research and Future Perspectives: A Literature Review on the Blue Economy of Indonesia

As an archipelagic country with an ocean-spanning more than two-thirds of its land area, developing a sustainable ocean economy is vital for Indonesia. Indonesia’s strategic position has also created opportunities for Indonesia to influence regional political and economic stability and lead in sustainable ocean development. Blue Economy is recognized as disentangling socio-economic activities and advancement from environmental deterioration while maximizing the potential gains from marine resources. This study aims to scrutinize and analyse existing academic literature and research papers and analyse the future perspectives of the Blue Economy in Indonesia, employing VOSviewer to examine the current status and scope—a Systematic Literature Review spanning a decade of academic journal datasets extracted from the Scopus database. A Strategic Foresight approach using secondary data was also employed to highlight potential future scenarios and their implications. By employing strategic foresight and analysing potential future scenarios, the study can provide helpful information for long-term planning and decision-making processes in various sectors of the Blue Economy and their human capital development.

Marine pollution management in response to plastic waste under international law and national law – challenges and implications for developing countries: a case study of Vietnam

One of the most widespread environmental problems confronting the global community is marine pollution, particularly the adverse impact of plastic debris. This issue not only has detrimental effects on ecosystems, environmental quality, human health, and habitats of people and species worldwide, but also represents a formidable barrier to the protection of the marine environment and the pursuit of sustainable ocean development. Vietnam, as a Southeast Asian country with a long coastline, faces the issue of significant plastic debris in its waters. Despite significant efforts being made by the Vietnamese Government in developing a legislative framework as a comprehensive approach to ‘white pollution’ in accordance with international environmental standards and its international and regional undertakings on environmentalism, challenges persist in the establishment of effective management of marine environmental pollution. As a developing country grappling with certain challenges in resource allocation for socio-economic development, Vietnam, like other developing countries in the region, face substantial difficulties and hurdles in managing marine plastic pollution. This article first presents the current situation in respect of plastic pollution, with a focus on marine plastic pollution stemming from land-based plastic waste, in Vietnam. The article then concentrates on the regulatory response at both international and national levels to determine whether the international and national instruments comprehensively address the plastic waste issue. The article also explores and critiques the weaknesses and difficulties in effectively managing and controlling the current harm and threat of plastic pollution. Thereafter, the article proposes some recommendations and solutions for the Vietnamese Government to move toward more effective plastic pollution management.

First high-resolution marine natural capital mapping in the coastal waters of Chinese mainland

Marine ecosystems are complex self-organized systems that generate natural capital stocks and vital ecosystem services (ES) for human well-being. However, the assessment of marine natural capital in coastal countries is often overlooked. In this study, we evaluated the value of marine natural capital in mainland China using existing ES classifications and the emergy method. China's marine natural capital was estimated at 3.29E+24 sej/yr, with coastal waters having 3.2 times higher emergy density than terrestrial ecosystems. The annual economic value of marine natural capital in China's coastal water was approximately 8817.42 billion yuan/yr, nearly equal to China's Gross Ocean Product (GOP) in 2019 (8941.5-billion-yuan). Southern China showed significantly higher natural capital values than northern China. These findings highlight regional disparities in marine resource utilization and socioeconomic status, posing challenges to sustainable ocean development. The results provide a reference for policy and strategy development for sustainable marine resource exploitation.

Investigation of water exposure time as a foundation for improving programs for coastal pollutant emission reduction

For sustainable ocean development, coastal pollutant emission reduction (CPER) has been widely implemented to alleviate coastal environmental problems. CPER programs have primarily focused on determining the total amount of emission reduction; however, methods to determine the optimal time to conduct CPER to further improve the environmental benefits remains unclear. Therefore, this study proposed a method to determine the timing of CPER based on the water exposure time (WET) at the pollutant outlet, which involved conduct CPER when the WET was relatively high. Using numerical modeling of pollutant dispersion in the Subei Coastal Water and scenario simulations with different CPER programs, the reliability and superiority of this WET method was verified. Under the same annual mean 10% emission reduction, the CPER program based on WET obtained an average 14% reduction in coastal pollutant concentrations, which was over 40% more than the reduction by two other CPER programs. This finding suggests that WET is an effective indicator to determine the optimal time of CPER. Because of the high complexity and variability of coastal hydrodynamics, environmental management agencies should obtain the spatiotemporal variation characteristics of WET in coastal oceans before formulating corresponding environmental programs.

Operationalizing the blue economy in the Gulf of Guinea, Africa

The Blue Economy is crucial for sustainable development in Africa, and the Gulf of Guinea, one of Sub-Saharan Africa's most economically dynamic countries, faces several challenges in transitioning into this economy. This study assesses the situation of the Blue Economy in the Gulf of Guinea and proposes strategies for its operationalization. A qualitative research approach was used to examine each member state's marine conservation initiatives, regional collaboration, management approaches, and strategic frameworks. Findings show that the Gulf of Guinea is already experiencing blue economy activities, but challenges like rapid population growth, urbanization, piracy, unsustainable anthropogenic activities, poor institutional frameworks, and climate change hinder the transition. The Gulf of Guinea's ocean economy accounts for less than 10% of GDP, so integrating the blue economy into trade strategies is crucial for its transformation. A systematic approach based on national priorities, social context, and resource base is needed to foster social inclusion, economic progress, and sustainable ocean development. Enablers of blue growth, such as integrated coastal zone management, marine spatial planning, marine protected areas, marine biodiversity, and blue justice discourse, must be integrated into policy design, prioritizing sustainability and equity. A cautious, phased approach is suggested, focusing on establishing traditional sectors, growing them, integrating value chains, and implementing regional collaboration so that the blue economy delivers on its social, environmental and economic goals in the Gulf of Guinea.

Omnidirectional water wave-driven triboelectric net-zero power smart ocean network: An advanced hardware solution to long-distance target detection

Collecting ocean energy to build a zero-power smart ocean network that integrates energy harvesting and application is of great significance for achieving the strategy of marine power. This demands a hardware solution with simple structure, high energy efficiency, and high resolving ability. Herein, we proposed a simple fully symmetric triboelectric nanogenerator (FS-TENG) for efficient collection of omnidirectional wave energy without dead spot, based on the 360 degrees of freedom of inertial ball and the simplified double-layer electrode structure responding to arbitrary triggers. Employing the Maxwell’s displacement current generated by FS-TENG, power-free underwater wireless detection was achieved to sense the long-distance (220 m) target in water, which set a new record for triboelectric nanogenerator (TENG) based contactless sensing. The detection strategy is an effective method for marine data acquisition to realize intelligent ocean management demonstrating applications such as noninvasive inspection of pipeline difficult to reach for in-pipe robot, navigation and berthing for ship in need according its dimension, and sensing water level changes without moving part. The work builds a net-zero power smart ocean network based on TENG, providing new ideas for sustainable ocean development.

Ocean accounts as an approach to foster, monitor, and report progress towards sustainable development in a changing ocean – The Systems and Flows Model

Ocean systems are changing due to natural and anthropogenic processes. Ocean resource use is changing as coastal nations have emphasised the opportunity to advance ocean activities to foster economic growth and food, energy, and job security, facilitated by new technologies. The expansion and diversification of ocean-dependent activities increase pressures on the ocean. To ensure current and future opportunities arising from ocean resource use activities, it is critical to prioritise the sustainable development of ocean activities, balancing and bridging ocean health, wealth, and the equitable distribution of opportunities. Historically, economic indicators guide economic expansion, investment, and strategic planning. However, such monetary metrics provide limited information on resource-use sustainability or income distribution, benefits and costs (sectoral inclusivity), hampering their utilisation for environmental and societal decision making. Accordingly, accounting systems that go beyond economic metrics alone and integrate societal, economic and environmental information to measure and manage progress towards ocean sustainable development are essential. This integration is best achieved by incorporating these three domains into a consistent and standard ocean accounting (OA) framework based on established and novel accounting standards. This publication describes the novel OA framework and its components; highlights its use opportunities, benefits, and challenges; and presents the Systems and Flows Model (SaFM) for OA. The SaFM represents the OA framework as a system of systems, evidencing the various accounting standards it integrates and the flows between them.

Digital Twins of the Ocean can foster a sustainable blue economy in a protected marine environment

While the field of hydrography is crucial for maritime navigation and other maritime applications, oceanography is the field that provides the relevant data and knowledge for predicting climate change, monitoring marine resources, and exploring marine life. Digital ocean twins combine these two exciting fields and combine ocean observations and ocean models to establish virtual representations of a real world system, in this case the ocean or an ocean area, as well as assets in the ocean and processes within ocean industries or the natural environment. They have the potential to play a critical role in optimising and supporting sustainable ocean development. Digital Twins are synchronised with their real-world counterparts at a specific frequency and fidelity. They can provide valuable insights into the ocean's state and its evolution over time, which can be used to support decision-making in ocean governance and various ocean-related industries. Digital ocean twins can transform human ocean interactions by accelerating holistic understanding, optimal decision-making, and effective interventions. Digital twins of the ocean use ocean observations, historical and forecast data to represent the past and present and simulate possible future scenarios. They are motivated by outcomes, tailored to use cases, powered by integration, built on data, guided by domain knowledge, and implemented in IT systems. In this article, we explore the benefits of digital twins for the ocean, the challenges in developing them, and the current state of the art in ocean digital twin technology. One of the main benefits of digital ocean twins is their ability to provide accurate predictions of ocean conditions under expected interventions. Their information can be used to support decision- making in various applications including ocean-related industries, such as fishing, shipping, and offshore energy production. Additionally, digital twins can help to improve our understanding of the ocean's complex processes and their interactions with human activities, such as climate change, pollution, resource extraction and overfishing. Researchers and IT companies are combining various technologies and data sources, such as the Internet of Things for ocean observations, state of the art data science, artificial intelligence and machine learning, data spaces and vocabularies into digital ocean twins to contextualise data, improve the accuracy of ocean models and make ocean knowledge more accessible to a wide range of users.

Research on Prediction Platform and Application of Water-Driven State Based on System Modeling Algorithm

With the continuous expansion of water drive oil fields and the increasing difficulty of oil recovery, the accuracy requirements for predicting water drive performance are also increasing. Based on this, this article utilizes system modeling algorithms to construct a high-precision water drive dynamic prediction platform, and conducts model validation and application research on actual oil production data, achieving certain successful results. This platform has built a complete, efficient, and operable water drive dynamic prediction method, which can accurately and stably predict the oil, water, and gas production of water drive oil recovery, achieving the goal of real-time monitoring of oil production wells. In practical applications, the platform effectively solves the problem of predicting water drive production capacity in oil production wells by combining data regression analysis and grey theory. Therefore, the research on the system modeling algorithm based water drive dynamic prediction platform and its application will provide valuable and practical references for the production management and sustainable development and management of resource oceans in the oilfield field.

Public Goods for Global Ocean Sustainable Development: Current Status, Challenges, and Recommendations

Public Goods for Global Ocean Sustainable Development: Current Status, Challenges, and Recommendations

Every account counts for sustainable development: lessons from the African CoP to implement ocean accounts in the Western Indian Ocean region

The Western Indian Ocean (WIO) is critical in supporting the social and economic development of the nations it borders. To safeguard the various opportunities it provides, it is essential to adopt sustainable ocean development models that balance ocean wealth and ocean health. Such models depend on evidence-based and adaptative ocean governance underpinned by holistic social, environmental and economic indicators. The ocean accounts framework provides a standard accounting structure to integrate social, economic and environmental information in alignment with relevant international statistical standards such as the System of National Accounts and the System of Environmental-Economic Accounting. Applying such a framework produces integrated indicators against which changes can be assessed and measured. These indicators also inform decision-making and support the prioritisation of areas requiring further attention by highlighting data deficiencies, ocean governance gaps and under-explored research areas. The framework encompasses and links several systems of accounting that can be used based on specific priorities. However, three initiation points have been identified that can be further expanded and concatenated into other accounts encompassed by the framework. This publication provides practical guidelines to start implementing national, regional or local ocean accounts, following the Global Ocean Accounts Partnership Technical Guidance on Ocean Accounting. It is further complemented by amendments proposed by the African Community of Practice based on lessons learned during the implementation of ocean accounts pilots across the WIO region. Compiling ocean accounts is an adaptative and iterative process and should be constantly ameliorated and adjusted to local contexts and priorities. However, efforts should be made to maintain coherence with the framework and international standards.

The blue economy's retreat from equity: A decade under global negotiation

Heralded as a key agenda for sustainable ocean development, the blue economy has risen to such prominence over the last decade that it is near impossible to engage in the fields of ocean governance or development without encountering it. The exact nature of the blue economy's sustainable ocean development promise, however, remains stubbornly unresolved, with different actors advancing varying, at times conflicting, visions of what sustainable ocean development should look like, how it is to be achieved, and who it is to serve. Tracing the various constructions of blue economy promises over the last decade, this paper contends that the blue economy has progressively retreated from its early commitment to equitable benefit sharing, shifting instead to a deepening preoccupation with economic growth. For small island developing states (SIDS) and coastal least developed countries (LDCs) who took a leading role in embedding equitable benefit sharing within the blue economy during its early popularization, such retreat raises pressing questions over the agenda's continued suitability in advancing desired (and often much needed) sustainable development outcomes. This paper's attempt to grapple with such questions offers a timely contribution to discussions on the blue recovery and ocean-led development avenues in the wake of COVID-19.

A systematic scoping review of environmental and socio-economic effects of COVID-19 on the global ocean-human system

The global outbreak of the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) has strongly affected human lives. The restrictions taken to slow down the spread of the virus impact socio-economic activities and the environment. A comprehensive review of these COVID-19 impacts on the ocean-human system is lacking. The current study fills this gap by synthesizing the environmental and socio-economic effects of the COVID-19 pandemic on the global ocean by conducting a systemic scoping review of 92 published articles. From a geospatial perspective, the studies covered a total of 37 countries, mainly from Asia, Europe, and North America, with a particular focus on the Indian Ocean and the Mediterranean Sea. From an environmental perspective, both positive and negative effects on global oceans were summarized. Notably, improved coastal water quality and reduced underwater noise were reported. On the other hand, the increasing COVID-19-related medical waste such as personal protective equipment leads to severe pollution, which threatens the marine ecosystem and wildlife. From a socioeconomic perspective, the impacts of the pandemic were negative throughout with marine tourism and the fishery industry being severely disrupted. Coastal communities suffered from loss of income, unemployment, inequalities and health problems. The COVID-19 pandemic offers an opportunity for transformation of management and economic practices in order to save our ocean and boost progress towards Sustainable Development Goal 14 (SDG 14). Future research should include other sectors such as marine biodiversity, marine renewable energy, climate change, and blue economy development of Small Island Developing States. Effective policies and strategies across land and ocean around the world need to be developed and implemented to enhance resilience of the human-ocean system and to achieve post-pandemic global sustainable ocean development.

Global impacts of COVID-19 on sustainable ocean development

The abrupt outbreak of coronavirus disease in 2019, also known as COVID-19, has led to an unprecedented global public health crisis. Current studies have paid immense attention to the impacts of COVID-19 posed to the atmosphere and the land-based sectors in areas such as air quality, carbon emission, economic sentiment, educational and social equality, etc. It is depicted that carbon emission had dropped about 8.8% in the first half of 2020 compared to 2019;1 significant reduction of air pollutants such as PM2.5 and NO2 were moreover reported at national, regional, and global levels.

Blue Justice and the co-production of hermeneutical resources for small-scale fisheries

Blue Justice emerges as a counternarrative to the promise and commitment to Blue Economy and Blue Growth by shifting imperatives for growth and innovation to the central role played by small-scale fisheries and social justice in sustainable ocean development. To instrument Blue Justice, it is important to understand injustices experienced by small-scale fisheries people which can range from accusations of disregard for the environment to equating their fishing practices as illegal, or even the sudden usurpation of their customary fishing grounds and means of livelihoods. Drawing on Fricker’s concept of epistemic injustice, we examine how discrimination and lack of interpretative concepts to communicate unjust experiences wrongs small-scale fisheries people in their capacity as knowledge holders and subjects them to testimonial and hermeneutical injustice. We examine 20 testimonies of injustices experienced by small-scale fisheries people collected by the Global Research Network “Too Big To Ignore” (TBTI) and suggest a glossary of new concepts that can be used to interpret these experiences. Our results exemplify the presence of epistemic injustice, emphasizing the need to associate injustices in small-scale fisheries with non-conventional terms or concepts. We discuss the contribution of transdisciplinary research for providing such concepts and the potential role of social scientists and action researchers to enhance collective hermeneutical resources and thereby advance the goal of Blue Justice for small-scale fisheries.

The Pacific blue economy: An instrument of political maneuver

As large ocean states with aspirations for sustainable development, it comes as little surprise that Pacific Island nations have found appeal in the concept of the blue economy. This paper attempts to map the construction and mobilization of the blue economy concept in the Pacific Islands over the last ten years through case studies of three regional bodies: the Pacific Small Island Developing States grouping (PSIDS), the Pacific Islands Development Forum (PIDF), and the Pacific Islands Forum (PIF). Rather than working to uncover some central definition or understanding of a Pacific blue economy, this paper frames the concept as a political tool that is mobilized by specific agents in response to specific challenges and in pursuit of specific goals. It is suggested that the blue economy has been engaged as an instrument of political maneuver by Pacific regional bodies, with these agents leveraging the concept across both regional and international platforms to advance their political and diplomatic interests. However, emerging observations also indicate a potential disconnect between the political effectiveness of this concept and its material reality, namely its ability to advance sustainable ocean development outcomes on the ground to the benefit of Pacific communities and ecosystems. Therefore, while the blue economy may present an attractive political tool for Pacific Islands agents, this paper suggests that greater scrutiny is required into the concept’s material value and virtue.

Marine high temperature extremes amplify the impacts of climate change on fish and fisheries.

Extreme temperature events have occurred in all ocean basins in the past two decades with detrimental impacts on marine biodiversity, ecosystem functions, and services. However, global impacts of temperature extremes on fish stocks, fisheries, and dependent people have not been quantified. Using an integrated climate-biodiversity-fisheries-economic impact model, we project that, on average, when an annual high temperature extreme occurs in an exclusive economic zone, 77% of exploited fishes and invertebrates therein will decrease in biomass while maximum catch potential will drop by 6%, adding to the decadal-scale mean impacts under climate change. The net negative impacts of high temperature extremes on fish stocks are projected to cause losses in fisheries revenues and livelihoods in most maritime countries, creating shocks to fisheries social-ecological systems particularly in climate-vulnerable areas. Our study highlights the need for rapid adaptation responses to extreme temperatures in addition to carbon mitigation to support sustainable ocean development.

Changing climates in a blue economy: Assessing the climate-responsiveness of Canadian fisheries and oceans policy

Climate change poses challenges to achieving sustainable ocean development, with particularly acute risk posed to coastal states and marginalized coastal users. International efforts to address these challenges include the 2015 Paris Climate Agreement and the UN 2030 Agenda. Further, some countries are refocusing their ocean programs to align with blue economy strategies globally. We look to Canada, an ocean nation developing a blue economy strategy, to examine the climate-responsiveness of their oceans policies. First, we identify climate change impacts on ecosystem services affecting each of Canada’s coasts through a document scan. Then, through a structured policy analysis, we examine whether Canadian fisheries and oceans policy are responsive to these impacts. Finally, we discuss how current policies do or do not address climate impacts on oceans and coasts in Canada, and how this focus, or lack thereof, will have an outsized impact on certain ocean sectors (e.g., inshore fisheries). Our findings show a policy landscape largely dependent on climate change action promoted in a few broad federal initiatives, with oceans-related climate action operating through area-based conservation measures and research and monitoring initiatives. We conclude with recommendations for Canada and similar ocean states to integrate climate and ocean policies across federal departments and ocean sectors by centering vulnerable coastal users in policy formulation. Given Canada’s rapid development of a blue economy strategy as a new governing framework for oceans policy, we recommend the strategy be guided by long-term sustainability goals that prioritize environmental and social sustainability over short-term economic growth.

A bird's-eye view on turbulence: seabird foraging associations with evolving surface flow features.

Understanding physical mechanisms underlying seabird foraging is fundamental to predict responses to coastal change. For instance, turbulence in the water arising from natural or anthropogenic structures can affect foraging opportunities in tidal seas. Yet, identifying ecologically important localized turbulence features (e.g. upwellings approximately 10–100 m) is limited by observational scale, and this knowledge gap is magnified in volatile predators. Here, using a drone-based approach, we present the tracking of surface-foraging terns (143 trajectories belonging to three tern species) and dynamic turbulent surface flow features in synchrony. We thereby provide the earliest evidence that localized turbulence features can present physical foraging cues. Incorporating evolving vorticity and upwelling features within a hidden Markov model, we show that terns were more likely to actively forage as the strength of the underlying vorticity feature increased, while conspicuous upwellings ahead of the flight path presented a strong physical cue to stay in transit behaviour. This clearly encapsulates the importance of prevalent turbulence features as localized foraging cues. Our quantitative approach therefore offers the opportunity to unlock knowledge gaps in seabird sensory and foraging ecology on hitherto unobtainable scales. Finally, it lays the foundation to predict responses to coastal change to inform sustainable ocean development.