The Skimmer & MPA News

• New marine planning and management trainings added to Skimmer database
• More than 50 countries commit to protecting 30% of land and oceans by 2030
• Japan and Russia take measures to reduce sale of IUU catch
• Ten largest seafood companies commit to eliminating IUU from supply chains
• New WTO head makes ending fishing subsidies top priority
• Effects of oceanic noise pollution synthesized in new paper
• New reports assess strengths, weaknesses, best practices for plastic standards, certifications, and credit and advise caution on plastic crediting and neutrality [Read short summary of key points from two reports/assessments]
• Study provides comprehensive review of impacts of ocean pollution on human health
• Evidence increases for weakening of Atlantic Ocean currents
• New observations show sea levels rising faster than expected
• Report overviews current methods and knowledge for coral reef restoration
• New report projects timing of severe coral bleaching conditions and potential refugia
• New framework helps plan ocean use in 3D
• World’s first solar and seaweed farm created in the North Sea
• EU releases plan for boosting offshore wind capacity
• Finland approves national marine spatial plan
• Timor-Leste analyses how Blue Economy fits national ocean governance
• New resource help practitioners plan behavior change interventions for conservation
• US President Biden issues executive orders rejoining Paris Climate Agreement, pausing new federal oil and gas leasing in US offshore waters, authorizing doubling of offshore wind energy by 2030, setting goal of protecting 30% of ocean by 2030, and more
• First analysis of corporate high seas fishing finds 36% effort from 100 companies
• Oceanic shark, ray populations down 70+% since 1970 due largely to overfishing
• Coalition of European NGOs call for 10 steps to protect ocean biodiversity
• Coral atlases for Southeast Asian Archipelago and Coral Sea available

It has been a long four years for those in the environmental field here in the US – four years filled with rampant attempts by the Trump administration to remove, weaken, or circumvent environmental protections; promotion of climate science denialism; and obstruction of efforts to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. This amplified the relentless, global march of climate change and its associated natural disasters and was all topped off by a worldwide pandemic and recession.

The incoming administration of President-elect Joe Biden and Vice President-elect Kamala Harris promises a significant shift in policies in many areas, including ocean management – but what exactly needs to be done and how likely are changes to occur? We hear from eight US ocean policy experts about what they expect and/or hope for in terms of US ocean management under the incoming Biden-Harris administration.

By Erik Thulin and Rocky Sanchez Tirona, Rare

Editor’s note: Erik Thulin is the behavioral science lead for the Center for Behavior & the Environment at Rare. Rocky Sanchez Tirona is the vice president of Rare Philippines and the Pacific Islands. They can be contacted on LinkedIn here and here respectively and on Twitter @EThulin and @Rare_org respectively.

The environmental field is full of cooperative dilemmas: in other words, what is best for the individual is different than what is best for the group. This creates a clash in priorities and sometimes results in ecosystem collapse. At Rare’s Center for Behavior & the Environment, we believe that these behavioral challenges require behavioral solutions. 

In 2017, MEAM (now The Skimmer on Marine Ecosystems and Management) interviewed 17 social science and interdisciplinary researchers from around the world to learn how their work could improve marine conservation and management practice. Since then, the social science of marine management has developed further in these areas and branched out in many other valuable directions. In this issue of The Skimmer and the next, we update our previous coverage by interviewing an ensemble of other social science and interdisciplinary researchers doing innovative social science work with great potential to improve (or a proven track record) of improving marine conservation and management practice. This work ranges from the use of cognitive mapping to create mental models of how fishers in the Caribbean view and organize the world…to testing how “nudges” could cost-effectively increase compliance with conservation regulations…to innovating how communities participate in marine planning processes to reduce feelings of exclusion and suspicion.

Here is the first set of interviews. As with last time, we hope that you find these research and practice profiles as energizing and inspiring for your own work as we found editing them.