SciDev.net has a great new Spotlight feature on "Ocean science for sustainable development". The reasons for protecting the worlds oceans are numerous, and have been highlighted in past posts here at sdupdate.Our track record of protecting these ecosystems has been dismal, although glimmers of hope make us (very carefully) optimistic for the future

For poor, developing nations with large human communities relying on healthy oceans for their survival, creating the conditions for succesful science-based management is critical. This means having reliable data (that is well balanced between science and traditional local knowledge) on which to base sound policy decisions. Challenges include building the capacity to both generate and interpret such data.

The SciDev Spotlight feature presents a number of articles highlighting the challenges faced in generating the robust scientific data that form the bedrock to effective management of marine resources, with a particular emphasis on the Pacific region.

Sarah Grimes from UNESCO's Intergovernmental Oceanographic Commission, describes the main monitoring and data-gathering projects that currently operate in the Pacific, and how they help keep track of threats to sustainable development, and summarizes some of the reasons for protecting the oceans in a neat little box:

"Box 1. Oceans: benefits and threats to living organisms [1-9]

Oceans cover 71 per cent of the Earth. They contain 96 per cent of the Earth's living space, and 80 per cent of living organisms.

The benefits:

Ocean plants produce almost half of the oxygen we breathe.

Oceans carry 90 per cent of world trade.

Oceans hold an estimated 80 per cent of the Earth's mineral resources.

Oceans provide 60 per cent of dietary protein in tropical developing countries.

Fisheries support 170 million jobs.

Marine and coastal tourism, aquaculture and other uses of marine environments (excluding fisheries) provide livelihoods for millions more people.

Around 90 per cent of the energy from warming of the Earth system has been stored in the ocean over recent decades."

And, Grimes also brings up the, easily forgotten, importance of fisheries in fueling and driving European expansion and colonization:

"In the early 1800s, ocean scientists used simple instruments and nets lowered from boats to measure ocean conditions or sample marine species. This initial ocean science was linked directly to European expansion and colonisation, which was driven by — and then fuelled — demand for fish and accessible trade routes across the world."

A great read on this is the book "Cod: A Biography Of The Fish That Changed The World" by Mark Kurlanski.

In an opinion piece from the same special feature, Ben Ponia describes how monitoring priorities have changed over the years in the Cook Islands, of which he is marine resources secretary. He highlights the importance of building local capacity to use scientific tools, and argues that Pacific islands need to take responsibility for monitoring into their own hands. I found the most interesting section of this article to be the anecdote Ponia shares on the pearl aquaculture industry on Manihiki Atoll.

"By the late 1990s, the concern had shifted to monitoring pearl aquaculture on Manihiki Atoll. Farming there went unchecked and reached unsustainable levels — and despite monitoring warnings, eventually led to the collapse of production because of an oyster disease. NZD$100 million was lost in gross revenue, and fifty per cent of the population abandoned the atoll."

This terrible type of situation - where opportunities for financial gains drive linked social-ecological systems towards an increasingly impoverished and vulnerable state - has been referred to as social-ecological traps. In essence, what happens is that the the lucrative value of a natural resource causes stakeholders and managers to overlook risks of unexpected decline and associated negative social and ecological consequences. An illustrative example of a social-ecological trap is the ecologically destructive but financially lucrative lobster fishery that has put the coastal fisheries in the Gulf of Maine at great risk. Centuries of unsustainable fishing of lobster predators, such as Atlantic cod, in the Gulf of Maine have gradually allowed the lobster to become the dominant organism in the marine ecosystem. Lobsters now contribute to more than 80% of Maine’s landed fishery values. However, over-capitalization of the fishing fleet and low economic and ecological diversity has made the Maine fishery highly vulnerable to unforeseen ecological and socioeconomic events. In Eastern Long Island Sound, situated some 200km south of the Gulf of Maine, lobsters were recently infected by a shell disease resulting in a 72% population decline. There are now major concerns that the disease could spread and infect the lobsters in the Gulf of Maine, severely impacting lobster fishery and fishery-related activities - and subsequently a substantial part of the Maine economy.

And finally, I've just read through the feature piece by Naomi Antony, on the growth of locally managed marine areas (LMMAs) in the Pacific region — one of the success stories of sustainable ocean resource development — describes the challenges in balancing the contribution of modern science with that of the traditional knowledge embedded in local cultures, and the practical demands of locally managed resource conservation strategies.

"But finding a balance between the local and the scientific has proved tricky. Without science, communities risk pursuing practices that have little long-term impact. But too much science can trample on a community's way of doing things — destroying the morale that lies at the heart of local conservation.

As a local, Etika Rupeni, who works with the Asia-Pacific LMMA Network and is regional programme manager at Foundation of the Peoples of the South Pacific, has seen the rise and fall of these debates. We can't really do science without good community-based management," he says, "and community-based management processes need to be informed by good science".The key to it all, he says, is to answer the question: 'What is the minimum science that a community needs to do its own management?'"

All in all, great work by the SciDev.net team.