Marine Stewardship Council

Abstract This article uses the Sargasso Sea as a case study to provide an analysis of the provisions of Part III of the Agreement under the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea on the Conservation and Sustainable Use of Marine Biological Diversity of Areas Beyond National Jurisdiction (BBNJ Agreement) on measures such as area-based management tools (ABMTs), including marine protected areas. The ability of the BBNJ Conference of the Parties (COP) to establish internationally legally binding ABMTs in areas beyond national jurisdiction (ABNJ) presents a new opportunity for the conservation of the Sargasso Sea. Existing work of the Sargasso Sea Commission, as well as the preparations it could make to support a proposal by one or more States Parties to the new COP for an ABMT in the Sargasso Sea are discussed, as is the comprehensive process the BBNJ Agreement establishes for stakeholder engagement as part of the submission of proposals. The Sargasso Sea Commission has a long history of collaboration with international organisations, governments, scientists and others to strengthen the stewardship of the Sargasso Sea. More recent activities to engage directly with the shipping industry stakeholder group specifically are discussed. Finally, the article discusses the work being undertaken in collecting the best available science, collaboration with other international frameworks and bodies and other stakeholders, and the preliminary work on the development of an outline management plan particularly in relation to ongoing monitoring using remote sensing capacity.

Ontologies have gained popularity in the scientific community as a way to standardize terminologies in organizations’ data. Although certain cohorts have created frameworks with rules and guidelines on creating ontologies, there exist significant variations in how Materials Science ontologies are currently developed. We seek to provide guidance in the form of a unified automated framework for developing interoperable and modular ontologies for Materials Data Science that simplifies the ontology terms matching by establishing a semantic bridge up to the Basic Formal Ontology(BFO). This framework provides key recommendations on how ontologies should be positioned within the semantic web, what knowledge representation language is recommended, and where ontologies should be published online to boost their findability and interoperability. Two fundamental components of the MDS-Onto framework are the bilingual package called FAIRmaterials for ontology creation and FAIRLinked, for FAIR data creation. To showcase the practical capabilities of FAIRmaterials, we present two exemplar domain ontologies of MDS-Onto: Synchrotron X-Ray Diffraction and Photovoltaics.

Species abundance trends are valuable as direct measures of progress towards conservation goals such as the 2030 targets of the Global Biodiversity Framework and the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals. However, current methods for estimating abundance trends rely on ecological time series of population abundances, which are often missing for long time periods and for many populations. We addressed these data biases by developing a multivariate autoregressive state-space models (MARSS) framework that estimates abundance trends of species, along with uncertainty in population deviations and sampling methods. We incorporated spatial synchrony in the modeling framework to estimate trends during unsampled time periods for populations by borrowing information from nearby sampled populations. We applied this modeling framework to pinniped species because of their ecological importance and wide range of trajectories following the end of industrial exploitation. We curated a database of 515 time series of population abundances for 29 of 34 extant pinniped species. We showed that the total monitored abundances for 12 species are increasing, 8 are stable, 5 are decreasing, and 4 are uncertain. Total species abundance growth rates, on average, peaked positively in the 1980s and have slowed to near 0 in recent years, confirming the widespread recovery of pinnipeds. Sampling methods had varying observation uncertainty with capture-mark-recapture having the lowest uncertainty, followed by ground surveys, and then aerial surveys. Simulation experiments reveal that, though accounting for spatial synchrony improved abundance estimates, availability of data is more crucial. We recommend more rigorous monitoring efforts for species in decline or unknown status while considering tradeoffs between precision and cost for sampling methods.

Abandoned, lost or discarded fishing gear, otherwise known as ‘ghost gear’, impacts marine ecosystems in a variety of important ways. The growing recognition of these impacts has led to an evolution of fisheries management with a focus on gear loss avoidance and ghost gear mitigation. The Marine Stewardship Council has responded to the global ghost gear challenge through important revisions made to its Fisheries Standard during the recent Fisheries Standard Review (FSR). Fisheries certified against the Fisheries Standard will be required to explicitly assess and manage their ghost gear impact on target stocks, on bycatch and on marine habitats - this outcome received strong support during public consultation undertaken for the policy development process. These changes are aimed implementation of best practice management strategies which emphasise gear loss preventative measures supplemented by mitigation and remedial action to minimise impact of ghost gear. Here, we discuss the policy development process which supported these changes, current best practice for ghost gear management and mitigation, policy design, public consultation, and impact testing. Lessons learned from the policy development process are presented, as well as an overview of these changes and their potential impact for fisheries currently certified and those planning to seek certification against the MSC Fisheries Standard.

SUPPORTING CITY KNOW HOW This article comprises thirteen ‘City Know-how’ briefings, each offering research findings translated into actionable insights for urban health practitioners and communities. Designed to facilitate knowledge sharing, these briefings aim to enhance health outcomes while reducing risks to both human and planetary health. We hope they will foster connections and conversations between researchers, practitioners, policy-makers, communities, and decision-makers in cities. Cities & Health, together with our ‘City Know-how’ partner Building Health Lab and our two global knowledge partners, the International Society for Urban Health and SALUS.Global; invite communities, researchers, practitioners, and policy-makers to join our networks and contribute to the dialogue. You can access our repository on our platform www.cityknow-how.com.

Identification of the key biotic and abiotic drivers within food webs is important for understanding species abundance changes in ecosystems, particularly across ecotones where there may be strong variation in interaction strengths. Using structural equation models (SEMs) and four decades of integrated data from the San Francisco Estuary, we investigated the relative effects of top-down, bottom-up, and environmental drivers on multiple trophic levels of the pelagic food web along an estuarine salinity gradient and at both annual and monthly temporal resolutions. We found that interactions varied across the estuarine gradient and that the detectability of different interactions depended on timescale. For example, for zooplankton and estuarine fishes, bottom-up effects appeared to be stronger in the freshwater upstream regions, while top-down effects were stronger in the brackish downstream regions. Some relationships (e.g., bottom-up effects of phytoplankton on zooplankton) were seen primarily at annual timescales, whereas others (e.g., temperature effects) were only observed at monthly timescales. We also found that the net effect of environmental drivers was similar to or greater than bottom-up and top-down effects for all food web components. These findings can help identify which trophic levels or environmental factors could be targeted by management actions to have the greatest impact on estuarine forage fishes and the spatial and temporal scale at which responses might be observed. More broadly, this study highlights how environmental gradients can structure community interactions and how long-term data sets can be leveraged to generate insights across multiple scales.

ABSTRACT We describe neighbourhood community ‘walkabouts’ using photography as a pragmatic, low-cost methodology for engaging with disadvantaged and marginalised communities, to assist local authorities providing and consulting about city services. Using a health lens frame on neighbourhoods as providing or restricting opportunities for play, interaction, physical activity and nutrition for children and families, we conducted two walkabouts using photography in an ethnically diverse European city. The meeting point for Somali and other ethnically diverse community members, practitioners, elected representatives and academics in this action research was a shared wish to improve the neighbourhood public realm for child health and development, family wellbeing and confident childrearing. The methodology brought opportunities to improve local physical environments for communities, to develop relationships with neighbours and authorities, and to influence statutory planning, decision-making and urban investment. Neighbourhood walkabouts with photography can serve as an accessible platform for communication and advocacy, and help decision-makers effectively hear the voices of disadvantaged and marginalised communities.

Fishery certification is increasingly employed as a multi-stakeholder, market-based mechanism to promote sustainability of fisheries. Preparing for, and achieving certification continues to deliver tangible improvements and benefits to fisheries, but the number of certified fisheries from Africa remains low. Some of the factors that constrain certification of fisheries in the region include limited data to assess and manage fisheries, the open access nature of many fisheries, overfishing, poor management, inadequate enforcement, and low demand for certified seafood. To overcome these constraints, several fisheries employ a “pathway to sustainability” approach that involves using the MSC fisheries standard as a framework for gap analysis, action planning, progress tracking and improvement. Certification may not always be the goal. This allows fisheries to make ongoing improvements over prior performance, regardless of whether they immediately achieve certification or not. Progress towards the desired goal, sustainable management, can be tracked over time. Some of the reported benefits include clarity of objectives, consolidation and focus of stakeholder efforts, participatory engagement, ability to attract resources for improvements, benchmarking of performance and, ultimately, improved environmental performance through better fisheries management. This paper discusses the uptake of this approach in Africa, by presenting case study fisheries from the continent. It outlines mechanisms through which these fisheries embarked on a pathway to sustainability using the MSC fisheries standard, and the outcomes from these initiatives. It highlights the successes and challenges associated with implementation. The paper concludes that the MSC standard and the improvements that it incentivizes can make a positive contribution to regional efforts to improve environmental sustainability, fisheries governance and consequently the socio-economic viability and resilience of fisheries in Africa.

The United Nations (UN) Decade of Ocean Science highlights a need to improve the way in which scientific results effectively inform action and policies regarding the ocean. Our research contributes to achieving this goal by identifying practical actions, barriers, stakeholder contributions and resources required to increase the sustainability of activities carried out in the context of artisanal fisheries to meet UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) and International Year of Artisanal Fisheries and Aquaculture (IYAFA) Global Action Plan (GAP) Pillar targets. We conducted a novel ‘social value chain analysis’ via a participatory workshop to elicit perspectives of value chain actors and fisheries stakeholders associated with two Spanish artisanal common octopus (Octopus vulgaris) fisheries (western Asturias—Marine Stewardship Council [MSC] certified, and Galicia—non-MSC certified) about their priorities regarding sustainable octopus production and commercialization. Our adapted Rapfish sustainability framework emphasised the importance of economic, environmental, ethical, institutional, social, and technological indicators to different actors across the value chain. We mapped participants’ shared sustainability priorities (e.g. integrated fisheries management, knowledge-based management, product traceability) to six Rapfish indicators, seven IYAFA Pillars and twelve SDGs to reveal how our results can inform ocean policy and actions. This identified how certification incentives and other cooperative approaches can facilitate environmental, economic and social sustainability (e.g. value-added products, price premiums for producers, gender inclusive organisations); support IYAFA priority outcomes (raised awareness, strengthened science-policy interface, empowered stakeholders, partnerships); and help to achieve UN SDG targets (e.g. SDG 14.b, SDG 17.17). The results can inform actors, stakeholders and policymakers about how different actors contribute to efforts to achieve the SDGs and how to manage priorities for sustainable actions within artisanal fisheries and their value chains. We recommend inclusive and equitable participatory knowledge transfer and governance platforms as part of the UN Decade of Ocean Science and beyond where participants can create theories of change towards sustainability involving the development of multi-sectoral ocean policies framed at the level of the value chain and supported by appropriate governance structures.Graphical

SUPPORTING CITY KNOW-HOW Human and planetary health are influenced by city lifestyles, city leadership, and city development. For both, worrying trends have led to increasing concern – and it is imperative that these become core foci for urban policy. This will require concerted action and the journal Cities & Health is dedicated to supporting the flow of knowledge, in all directions, to help make this happen. We wish to foster communication between researchers, practitioners, policy-makers, communities, and decision-makers in cities. This is the purpose of the City Know-how section of the journal. We, and our knowledge partners (the International Society for Urban Health and Salus.Global), invite you to join these conversations with the authors and communities directly, and also to consider publishing in Cities & Health to influence urban policy.