From rising temperatures and habitat destruction to plastic pollution and overfishing, our oceans and those who rely on them are in trouble. While the crisis warrants urgent action, solutions often fall short because the law, science, economics, and policy all approach our seas from different perspectives. They often struggle to communicate with each other about, let alone agree on, how our oceans should be treated. And the voices of small-scale fishers and coastal communities are often altogether ignored.

Fishing restrictions meant to curb overfishing end up harming those who depend on it for their daily living, and ‘blue economies’ meant to build wealth from offshore gas drilling can undermine not just ecology and biodiversity but also local heritage and cultural traditions.

To build fair and sustainable interventions to protect our oceans, a myriad of perspectives must engage in meaningful dialogue about how our seas should be regulated, and over the past five years, the One Ocean Hub provided a platform for this to happen.

Researchers, policymakers, activists, and ocean communities alike became a part of the global, award-winning research and community network focused on placing fair and inclusive decision-making at the heart of ocean governance.

Under the helm of researchers Dr Dylan McGarry and then later Taryn Pereira, the ELRC acted as the Hub’s South African stronghold and influenced its transdisciplinary, community-centred research approach.

At the end of June, the One Ocean Hub, in its current form, came to an end. But its network and vision to safeguard the ocean and platform coastal communities holds fast amidst changing tides.

“[In my view], the Hub’s biggest achievement was building a strong social network. Not just among academics and social scholar activists, but within civil society, from small-scale fishing networks and traditional healers to government groups,” explained Dr McGarry, “We could work together and share what we were learning. But we also built incredible friendships across very different worldviews and disciplines.”

To read more about this project, access the full article here: https://www.ru.ac.za/elrc/latestnews/one_ocean_hub_reflection_article_.html