The Skimmer on Marine Ecosystems and Management

Editor’s note: Joanna Smith is director of ocean planning and mapping with Nature United, the Canadian affiliate of The Nature Conservancy. In this capacity, she is the Seychelles marine spatial planning (MSP) process and science lead. She splits her time between Canada, Seychelles, and other travels.

The Skimmer: How have you seen Blue Economy develop over recent years?

Smith: In 2012, the European Union introduced its “Blue Growth” platform. This platform was heavily focused on employment and creating jobs in new and emerging ocean sectors. It was a diversification of sorts to make up for shrinkage in other markets. Initially it did not have a sustainability focus per se, but in the following years, the word “sustainable” became more prominent.

To me, the “Blue Economy” was launched in 2014 by small island developing states (SIDS). It is a fundamentally different concept from Blue Growth in that it highlights the significance of the oceans for these nations in the context of ocean conservation, sustainable livelihoods, economic diversification, and maritime security. For many SIDS, a high percentage of their Gross Domestic Product (GDP) comes from marine sources – their economies truly are “blue”. For these nations, Blue Economy is not just about diversifying their ocean economies (the parts of their national economies dependent on the ocean). It is also about increasing the resilience of their ocean economies, increasing maritime safety and security (from piracy and IUU), improving ocean management and food security, protecting the environment, and adapting to climate change.

• Marine social sciences network launched
• New IUU Fishing Index maps global exposure and response to IUU fishing (read the report)
• Guatemala conducts marine spatial planning exercises
• New report describes changes and variations in the ocean over past decades
• Ocean acidification dissolving seafloor calcite in hotspots around globe
• Climate change changing ocean colors
• UN estimates improved coral reef health could generate over US$70 billion
• US National Academy of Sciences releases report on interventions to increase the persistence and resilience of coral reefs
• Report describes national single-use plastic policies worldwide
• Successful models for reducing marine pollution (wastewater, agricultural runoff, and marine litter) reviewed
• Measures to reduce plastic pollution in Latin America and the Caribbean summarized
• Report recommends ways to strengthen European marine ecosystem modeling to better inform management
• Open access book provides first comprehensive overview of marine spatial planning
• IOC launches Ocean Data and Information System (ODIS) catalog of ocean-related data, information, products, and services
• New guide helps marine scientists tweet more effectively

And check out new training opportunities on The Skimmer’s Marine Planning and Management Training page!

The Skimmer’s new Tools page is now fully operational, and you can use it to find information on tools that deal with:

• Ecosystem service assessment
• Climate change assessment and planning
• Fisheries management
• Marine spatial planning
• Monitoring
• Stakeholder engagement
• And more.

The new Tools page pulls together journal articles, reports, MEAM/Skimmer articles, and other resources that provide information about a range of tools for these and other marine management and conservation tasks. Please let us know what you think!