Sustainable oceans
Elements of this project started in November 2014, funded by and in close collaboration with, Ocean Conservancy, who continue to support and guide much of this work. From January 2016, additional major funding from Oxford Martin School provides for the launching of the Oxford Martin School Programme on Sustainable Oceans (Principal Investigators: Richard Bailey, Alex Rogers (Zoology, University of Oxford), Catherine Redgwell (Faculty of Law, University of Oxford)) - this is a 5 yr Programme, brief details of which are given below.
Executive summary
Much of the global ocean is on a trajectory of significant degradation as a result of overexploitation of marine resources and other human impacts. Increasing human population and per-capita demand, coupled with the most recent global financial crisis, are driving a new agenda of “blue growth”, which along with coinciding technological advances, are threatening a new era of industrialization of the oceans. Although many marine species have undergone major reductions in abundance, there have been few extinctions. This situation may soon change if habitat alteration and overexploitation of marine resources continues to accelerate, exacerbated by global climate change, which exerts an increasingly negative influence. Decreased biodiversity in marine ecosystems leads to loss of ecosystem services, negative impacts on food security, and degradation of vital functioning within the Earth system, such as carbon sequestration. Transitioning the oceans from decline to recovery is a hugely difficult problem, involving complex socioeconomic drivers, climate change, geopolitical and legal issues, inadequacies of policy and enforcement, and cannot be solved without a broad inclusive holistic approach.
The aim of the project is to alter the trajectory of ocean degradation by guiding the management of marine resources toward sustainable exploitation, where biodiversity and the associated ecosystem services are maintained for future generations. The project harnesses a wide variety of new technologies including Earth observation methodologies, advances in computer modelling and applied machine learning, and the use of deep-submergence vehicles. Such methods will be used to resolve knowledge gaps and to develop new approaches to marine management, surveillance of human activities and regulatory enforcement - a significant element of the project will work to resolve legal barriers to progress in sustainable ocean management.
This project is strongly interdisciplinary and particularly timely given both the shrinking window of opportunity for averting the decline set in motion by the mistakes of previous decades, and the potential agreement amongst States to open discussions on a new implementing agreement for the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS) over the next 3-4 years.
Programme work packages
WP 1: The aim is to build a web-based tool (‘OcToPUS’) that provides compiled fine-grained data on the current state of the oceans globally (using a variety of metrics), and how they are changing over time. The aim is to support scientific study, monitoring, policy and decision-making related to the management of the oceans. We aim to use this tool to study the geographic distribution of biodiversity, ecosystem services and risks to the environment in support of the negotiations on a new implementing agreement for UNCLOS to protect biodiversity on the high seas.
WP 2: We are using a combination of theoretical modelling and empirical data analysis approaches to investigate new practical approaches to fisheries management in a range of contexts. The extraction of ocean resources plays out as a complex interaction between ocean ecology, collections of individual fishermen, economics and policy. Finding management solutions which engender sustainability both ecologically and economically, in conditions which are dynamic and heterogeneous on a variety of temporal and spatial scales, is non-trivial and is the key problem that drives this research.The aim of WP2 is to build a sophisticated fisheries model (including ocean ecology, an individual-based fishing fleet, market interactions and policy), which can act as a ‘flight simulator’ for fisheries management strategies in both data-rich and data-poor contexts. State of the art computational approaches, analysis of decision-making, and extensive engagement with stakeholders and policy-makers, will be employed to optimize policies for a range of sustainable target states. The figure below shows the core project partners for WP2.
Executive summary
Much of the global ocean is on a trajectory of significant degradation as a result of overexploitation of marine resources and other human impacts. Increasing human population and per-capita demand, coupled with the most recent global financial crisis, are driving a new agenda of “blue growth”, which along with coinciding technological advances, are threatening a new era of industrialization of the oceans. Although many marine species have undergone major reductions in abundance, there have been few extinctions. This situation may soon change if habitat alteration and overexploitation of marine resources continues to accelerate, exacerbated by global climate change, which exerts an increasingly negative influence. Decreased biodiversity in marine ecosystems leads to loss of ecosystem services, negative impacts on food security, and degradation of vital functioning within the Earth system, such as carbon sequestration. Transitioning the oceans from decline to recovery is a hugely difficult problem, involving complex socioeconomic drivers, climate change, geopolitical and legal issues, inadequacies of policy and enforcement, and cannot be solved without a broad inclusive holistic approach.
The aim of the project is to alter the trajectory of ocean degradation by guiding the management of marine resources toward sustainable exploitation, where biodiversity and the associated ecosystem services are maintained for future generations. The project harnesses a wide variety of new technologies including Earth observation methodologies, advances in computer modelling and applied machine learning, and the use of deep-submergence vehicles. Such methods will be used to resolve knowledge gaps and to develop new approaches to marine management, surveillance of human activities and regulatory enforcement - a significant element of the project will work to resolve legal barriers to progress in sustainable ocean management.
This project is strongly interdisciplinary and particularly timely given both the shrinking window of opportunity for averting the decline set in motion by the mistakes of previous decades, and the potential agreement amongst States to open discussions on a new implementing agreement for the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS) over the next 3-4 years.
Programme work packages
WP 1: The aim is to build a web-based tool (‘OcToPUS’) that provides compiled fine-grained data on the current state of the oceans globally (using a variety of metrics), and how they are changing over time. The aim is to support scientific study, monitoring, policy and decision-making related to the management of the oceans. We aim to use this tool to study the geographic distribution of biodiversity, ecosystem services and risks to the environment in support of the negotiations on a new implementing agreement for UNCLOS to protect biodiversity on the high seas.
WP 2: We are using a combination of theoretical modelling and empirical data analysis approaches to investigate new practical approaches to fisheries management in a range of contexts. The extraction of ocean resources plays out as a complex interaction between ocean ecology, collections of individual fishermen, economics and policy. Finding management solutions which engender sustainability both ecologically and economically, in conditions which are dynamic and heterogeneous on a variety of temporal and spatial scales, is non-trivial and is the key problem that drives this research.The aim of WP2 is to build a sophisticated fisheries model (including ocean ecology, an individual-based fishing fleet, market interactions and policy), which can act as a ‘flight simulator’ for fisheries management strategies in both data-rich and data-poor contexts. State of the art computational approaches, analysis of decision-making, and extensive engagement with stakeholders and policy-makers, will be employed to optimize policies for a range of sustainable target states. The figure below shows the core project partners for WP2.
WP 3: In this work package we aim to develop the use of Earth observation technology for the monitoring, control and surveillance of fisheries, through a practical assessment of it capabilities and the resolution of existing legal barriers to its use. Satellite data will be used to examine the efficacy of MPAs in both EEZs and on the high seas, and to quantify levels of fishing impacting vulnerable marine ecosystems in remote areas.
WP4: The goal is to gather data on the biodiversity and connectivity of deep-sea hydrothermal vent ecosystems on slow / ultraslow-spreading ridges, given their potential targeting for deep-sea mining. The aim is to understand the drivers of community assemblage and structure, and to use these data to inform a new standard for EIA of mining activities in deep sea locations. We also aim to do this for deep-sea bottom fishing in high seas areas and to see whether EIAs can be developed that are cross-sectoral. Results will inform deliberations on EIAs in negotiations over the new implementing agreement for UNCLOS.
Collaborations with the following organisations are crucial to the success of the Programme:
WP4: The goal is to gather data on the biodiversity and connectivity of deep-sea hydrothermal vent ecosystems on slow / ultraslow-spreading ridges, given their potential targeting for deep-sea mining. The aim is to understand the drivers of community assemblage and structure, and to use these data to inform a new standard for EIA of mining activities in deep sea locations. We also aim to do this for deep-sea bottom fishing in high seas areas and to see whether EIAs can be developed that are cross-sectoral. Results will inform deliberations on EIAs in negotiations over the new implementing agreement for UNCLOS.
Collaborations with the following organisations are crucial to the success of the Programme:
- Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation, CSIRO
- EU Directorate-General for Maritime Affairs and Fisheries, DG MARE
- Global Ocean Commission, GOC
- Improbable (http://improbable.io)
- International Seabed Authority, ISA
- International Seafood Sustainability Foundation, ISSF
- International Union for the Conservation of Nature, IUCN
- Marine Stewardship Council, MSC
- Marine Management Organization, MMO
- National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, NOAA
- Pew Foundation
- The Nature Conservancy