Vanuatu’s Oceans Act No. 45 of 2025 rescales national ocean space and mandates collaborative ocean governance zones for inclusion of indigenous customary management systems. Enacted to ensure alignment to Vanuatu’s international ocean governance commitments, notably to protect 30% of ocean space by 2030, the Oceans Act incorporates an integrative design of marine spatial planning and marine protection tools with indigenous governance approaches, in a manner that its legal architects describe as ‘decolonial’. This commentary unpacks the Act and concludes that the Act’s decolonial intent will be challenged by the commitment to meet the imminent timeframe for achieving 30 × 30, if collaborative governance practice is to be genuinely fostered.
This study explores aquaculture-based tourism as a tool to improve public perceptions of aquaculture, promote sustainable development of marine industries, and advance Blue Growth. Global aquaculture production is rapidly increasing due to increased food security demands, protein needs, and declining wild fish stocks. However, the sustainable growth of the aquaculture industry is challenged in policymaking due to public scepticism and environmental concerns. Through 48 semi-structured interviews with visitors to a fish farm-tourism collaboration in Western Rhodes, Greece, this study examines the impact of these tours on public perceptions of aquaculture. Using a mixed methods approach combining quantitative Likert scale rankings and qualitative thematic analysis, this study investigates participants’ knowledge, perceptions, and the benefits and challenges of aquaculture-based tourism. Results show that over 80% of participants improved their views of aquaculture after the tour, influenced by experiential learning through snorkelling and educational talks. Thematic analysis revealed a lack of prior knowledge among participants, the reasonings for respective negative and positive and shifts from little understanding of fish farming to an appreciation of sustainable aquaculture practices. The findings underscore the role of effective communication in bridging public knowledge gaps, improving acceptability of aquaculture, and fostering a social license to operate for marine policymaking. By enhancing environmental awareness and reconnecting individuals with the marine socio-ecological system, aquaculture-based tourism incentivises responsible practices and supports multi-use marine management. This study contributes to limited literature on aquaculture perception research and highlights the potential of educational tourism to reshape attitudes and drive sustainable marine development.
The Aegean Sea is a transboundary marine system facing increasing ecological pressure from overfishing, habitat degradation, pollution, and climate change, while fisheries management remains fragmented between neighbouring jurisdictions. Marine Protected Areas (MPAs) have therefore emerged as a key policy tool for supporting ecosystem recovery and sustainable fisheries. Recent initiatives by Greece and Türkiye provide a timely opportunity to evaluate how alternative spatial protection strategies may influence ecological and fisheries outcomes in a shared marine basin. Using an established Ecopath with Ecosim (EwE) model and its spatial module (Ecospace), we assessed five hypothetical MPA scenarios reflecting individual (country based) and combined protection configurations associated with recent proposals and designations, relative to a baseline scenario representing current management. To allow direct comparison among alternative spatial designs, the additional MPAs were implemented as hypothetical no-fishing zones, with fishing excluded for all modelled fleets from 2025 to 2035, followed by a return to baseline management conditions until 2040. By 2040, five years after the additional MPA restrictions ended, changes in total ecosystem biomass were small across scenarios, while spatially localized and functional group-specific responses persisted. The magnitude and direction of responses varied among spatial configurations and functional groups, with both positive and negative legacy effects on biomass and catches. The combined transboundary spatial configuration produced stronger and more extensive persistent spatial responses than the individual configurations tested. These findings underscore the importance of spatial design and cross-border considerations when evaluating MPA strategies for reconciling conservation and fisheries objectives in the Aegean Sea.
This study examines the relationship between economic growth, measured through gross value added (GVA), and CO₂ emissions in the European Union’s marine primary sector (fisheries and aquaculture) over the period 2008–2024. Using the Tapio elasticity framework and a multi-level clustering approach, we assess the extent and nature of decoupling across EU member states and institutional contexts. Results show that EU member states exhibit both relative and absolute decoupling patterns, with six countries achieving absolute decoupling between economic production and CO₂ emissions. Median CO₂ intensity per unit of GVA declined by approximately 41% across the EU, indicating important improvements in carbon efficiency within the sector. In some cases, fisheries demonstrate simultaneous economic growth and emission reductions over the period 2008–2023, suggesting the emergence of localized low-carbon transition pathways. However, the dominant pattern remains recession-driven decoupling, where emission reductions are primarily associated with declining or stagnant economic activity rather than structural decarbonization. This suggests that many emission reductions are linked to economic contraction, rising fuel costs, and reduced fishing activity, rather than long-term systemic transformation. Strong decoupling is geographically concentrated, with the Northeast Atlantic emerging as the only basin showing consistent structural improvements. In contrast, aquaculture-dominated countries exhibit weaker decoupling performance, with only one country showing sustained convergence toward low-carbon trajectories. These regional differences highlight the role of institutional capacity, fleet structure, and governance frameworks in shaping decarbonization outcomes across marine systems. The frequent divergence between modal and average decoupling states reveals high structural instability and sensitivity to economic and energy shocks. This volatility indicates that current low-carbon trajectories remain fragile and insufficiently embedded within the sector. Overall, the findings demonstrate that efficiency gains alone are insufficient to achieve climate neutrality. Achieving sustained emission reductions will require deeper structural transformations, including fleet-specific decarbonization strategies, energy transition, stronger climate-oriented governance, and integrated policies that support both environmental sustainability and socio-economic resilience in coastal communities.
