Research for Ocean Sustainability

There is increasing recognition of the role of the ocean as a key part of providing solutions to the need to manage the world's resources sustainably. It is well documented however that the ocean is subject to a range of pressures. Climate change is leading to warming waters, increasing acidity and reducing oxygen levels. There is increasing pressure on biodiversity, exploitation of fish stocks and other anthropogenic perturbations notably inputs of nutrients and plastics. Marine resource management is crucial to address these issues and to contribute to the world's Sustainable Development Goals including, but not restricted to, SDG14 (life below water). This was recognised in the establishment in 2018 of the Ocean panel who have the aim of building momentum for a sustainable ocean (https://oceanpanel.org/). In a commentary (Lubchenko et al., Reference Lubchenco, Haugan and Pangestu2020) highlight five areas for policy action for a sustainable ocean economy: Sea food production; mitigation of climate change; stemming biodiversity loss; seizing the opportunity for economic recovery and management of the ocean holistically. All of these policy areas need to be underpinned by scientific evidence and peer reviewed studies. The Journal of the Marine Biological Association of the UK has provided a vehicle for the publication of such studies throughout its one hundred volumes.