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We find ourselves at a critical crossroads for the future governance of the high seas, but the perceived remoteness of the global ocean creates a psychological barrier for people to engage with it. Given challenges of overexploitation, inequitable access and other sustainability and equity concerns, current ocean governance mechanisms are not fit-for-purpose. This decade offers opportunities for direct impact on ocean governance, however, triggering a global transformation on how we use and protect the half of our planet requires a concerted effort that is guided by shared values and principles across regions and sectors. The aim of the series of workshops outlined in this paper, was to undertake a futures thinking process that could use the Nature Futures Framework as a mechanism to bring more transformative energy into how humans conceptualise the high seas and therefore how we aim to govern the ocean. We found that engaging with the future through science fiction narratives allowed a more radical appreciation of what could be and infusing science with artistic elements can inspire audiences beyond academia. Thus, creative endeavours of co-production that promote and encourage imagination to address current challenges should be considered as important tools in the science-policy interface, also as a way to elicit empathetic responses. This workshop series was a first, and hopefully promising, step towards generating a more creative praxis in how we imagine and then act for a better future for the high seas.

Scientific bottom-trawl surveys are ecological observation programs conducted along continental shelves and slopes of seas and oceans that sample marine communities associated with the seafloor. These surveys report taxa occurrence, abundance and/or weight in space and time, and contribute to fisheries management as well as population and biodiversity research. Bottom-trawl surveys are conducted all over the world and represent a unique opportunity to understand ocean biogeography, macroecology, and global change. However, combining these data together for cross-ecosystem analyses remains challenging. Here, we present an integrated database of 26 publicly available bottom-trawl surveys conducted in national waters of 18 countries that are standardized and pre-processed, covering a total of 2,162 sampled fish taxa and 232,800 hauls collected from 1963 to 2020. We describe the processing steps to create the database, flags, and standardization methods that we developed to assist users in conducting spatio-temporal analyses with stable regional survey footprints. The aim of this database is to support research, marine conservation, and management in the context of global change.

Conservation approaches to social-ecological systems have largely been informed by a framing of preserving nature for its instrumental societal benefits, often ignoring the complex relationship of humans and nature and how climate change might impact these. The Nature Futures Framework (NFF) was developed by the Task Force on scenarios and models of the Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services as a heuristic approach that appreciates the diverse positive values of nature and its contribution to people. In this overview, we convene a group of experts to discuss the NFF as a tool to inform management in social-ecological systems facing climate change. We focus on three illustrative case studies from the global south across a range of climate change impacts at different ecological levels. We find that the NFF can facilitate the identification of trade-offs between alternative climate adaptation pathways based on different perspectives on the values of nature they emphasize. However, we also identify challenges in adopting the NFF, including how outputs can be translated into modeling frameworks. We conclude that using the NFF to unpack diverse management options under climate change is useful, but that there are still gaps where more work needs to be done to make it fully operational. A key conclusion is that a range of multiple perspectives of people’s values on nature could result in adaptive decision-making and policy that is resilient in responding to climate change impacts in social-ecological systems.

The ocean contains unique biodiversity, provides valuable food resources and is a major sink for anthropogenic carbon. Marine protected areas (MPAs) are an effective tool for restoring ocean biodiversity and ecosystem services1,2, but at present only 2.7% of the ocean is highly protected3. This low level of ocean protection is due largely to conflicts with fisheries and other extractive uses. To address this issue, here we developed a conservation planning framework to prioritize highly protected MPAs in places that would result in multiple benefits today and in the future. We find that a substantial increase in ocean protection could have triple benefits, by protecting biodiversity, boosting the yield of fisheries and securing marine carbon stocks that are at risk from human activities. Our results show that most coastal nations contain priority areas that can contribute substantially to achieving these three objectives of biodiversity protection, food provision and carbon storage. A globally coordinated effort could be nearly twice as efficient as uncoordinated, national-level conservation planning. Our flexible prioritization framework could help to inform both national marine spatial plans4 and global targets for marine conservation, food security and climate action. Using a globally coordinated strategic conservation framework to plan an increase in ocean protection through marine protected areas can yield benefits for biodiversity, food provisioning and carbon storage.

Regulatory boundaries and species distributions often do not align. This is especially the case for marine species crossing multiple Exclusive Economic Zones (EEZs). Such movements represent a challenge for fisheries management, as policies tend to focus at the national level, yet international collaborations are needed to maximize long-term ecological, social and economic benefits of shared marine species. Here, we combined species distributions and the spatial delineation of EEZs at the global level to identify the number of commercially exploited marine species that are shared between neighboring nations. We found that 67% of the species analyzed are transboundary (n = 633). Between 2005 and 2014, fisheries targeting these species within global-EEZs caught on average 48 million tonnes per year, equivalent to an average of USD 77 billion in annual fishing revenue. For select countries, over 90% of their catch and economic benefits were attributable to a few shared resources. Our analysis suggests that catches from transboundary species are declining more than those from non-transboundary species. Our study has direct implications for managing fisheries targeting transboundary species, highlighting the need for strengthened effective and equitable international cooperation.

The immense challenges associated with realizing ocean and coastal sustainability require highly skilled interdisciplinary marine scientists. However, the barriers experienced by early career researchers (ECRs) seeking to address these challenges, and the support required to overcome those barriers, are not well understood. This study examines the perspectives of ECRs on opportunities to build interdisciplinary research capacity in marine science. We engaged 23 current and former graduate students and postdoctoral fellows in a policy Delphi method with three rounds of surveying that included semi-structured questionnaires and q-methodology. We identified the following five barriers that limit ECRs’ capacity for interdisciplinary research: (i) demanding workloads; (ii) stress linked to funding, publishing, and employment uncertainty; (iii) limited support for balancing personal and professional commitments; (iv) ineffective supervisory support; and (v) the steep learning curve associated with interdisciplinary research. Our analysis highlights three main types of responses to these barriers adopted by ECRs, including “taking on too much”, “coping effectively”, and “maintaining material wellbeing at any cost”. To overcome these barriers, we propose the following three institutional actions to build early career interdisciplinary researcher capacity: formalize mentorship, create interdisciplinary research groups, and mainstream mental health support.

Climate change is shifting the distribution of shared fish stocks between neighboring countries' Exclusive Economic Zones (EEZs) and the high seas. The timescale of these transboundary shifts determines how climate change will affect international fisheries governance. Here, we explore this timescale by coupling a large ensemble simulation of an Earth system model under a high emission climate change scenario to a dynamic population model. We show that by 2030, 23% of transboundary stocks will have shifted and 78% of the world's EEZs will have experienced at least one shifting stock. By the end of this century, projections show a total of 45% of stocks shifting globally and 81% of EEZs waters with at least one shifting stock. The magnitude of such shifts is reflected in changes in catch proportion between EEZs sharing a transboundary stock. By 2030, global EEZs are projected to experience an average change of 59% in catch proportion of transboundary stocks. Many countries that are highly dependent on fisheries for livelihood and food security emerge as hotspots for transboundary shifts. These hotspots are characterized by early shifts in the distribution of an important number of transboundary stocks. Existing international fisheries agreements need to be assessed for their capacity to address the social-ecological implications of climate-change-driven transboundary shifts. Some of these agreements will need to be adjusted to limit potential conflict between the parties of interest. Meanwhile, new agreements will need to be anticipatory and consider these concerns and their associated uncertainties to be resilient to global change.El cambio climático está afectando la distribución de las poblaciones de fauna marina compartidas por Zonas Económicas Exclusivas (ZEEs) de países vecinos y en el alta mar. Los efectos del cambio climático en el manejo pesquero internacional estarán determinados por la escala temporal de dichos desplazamientos transfronterizos. Para determinar esa escala temporal, el presente estudio combinó un modelo dinámico poblacional, con una serie de simulaciones de un modelo del sistema terrestre, bajo un escenario de cambio climático de altas emisiones. Los resultados siguieren que para 2030, el 23% de las poblaciones transfronterizas se habrán desplazado y en el 78% de las ZEEs del mundo habrán experimentado cambios en la distribución de al menos una población transfronteriza. Para fines de este siglo, las proyecciones muestran que el 81% de las ZEEs tendrán al menos una población en movimiento y 45% de las poblaciones transfronterizas globales habrán cambiado su distribución. La magnitud de tal desplazamiento se reflejará en un cambio promedio del 59% de la proporción de captura de poblaciones transfronterizas entre ZEEs vecinas para el 2030. Muchos países que dependen de la pesca para sustento económico y seguridad alimentaria emergen como zonas críticas de cambios transfronterizos. Estas zonas se caracterizan por cambios tempranos en la distribución de un número importante de poblaciones transfronterizas. Por lo tanto, los acuerdos pesqueros internacionales deben evaluarse por su capacidad para responder a los impactos socio-ecológicos del desplazamiento de poblaciones transfronterizas debido al cambio climático. Dichos acuerdos deberán de ser ajustados para limitar los posibles conflictos entre las partes de interés y evitar amenazar la sustentabilidad del recurso. Así mismo, los nuevos acuerdos que vayan a establecerse deberán considerar los posibles cambios en la distribución de poblaciones compartidas (y la incertidumbre asociada) para anticiparse a dichos conflictos y aumentar la resiliencia frente al cambio climático.Le changement climatique altère la distribution des stocks de poissons exploités posant de sérieux problèmes de juridiction et gestion des espèces partagées entre pays voisins, et/ou avec la haute mer. C’est en analysant l’échelle de temps de ces migrations transfrontalières que l’impact du changement climatique sur la gouvernance mondiale des pêches peut être évalué. Dans cette étude, nous explorons cette échelle de temps à l'aide d’un modèle de dynamique des populations marines exploitées couplé à des simulations dérivées d’un ensemble de modèles globaux océan-atmosphère. Les résultats montrent que d’ici 2030, pour le scénario à hautes émissions, 23% des stocks transfrontaliers auront changé de distribution et que 78% des zones économiques exclusives (ZEE) expérimenteront au moins une nouvelle espèce transfrontalière. A la fin du siècle, et pour ce même scénario, 81% des ZEE auront au moins une espèce transfrontalière et 45% des stocks transfrontaliers auront changé de distribution. La magnitude de tels changements de distribution est ici quantifiée par la variation dans la proportion de capture entre ZEE partageant ce stock transfrontalier. D’ici 2030, de tels changements entre ZEE seront de l’ordre de 59% à l'échelle globale, avec de nombreux pays dont la qualité de vie et la sécurité alimentaire dépendent de la pêche émergeant comme zones à haut risque. Ces zones se caractérisent par le déplacement précoce d’un grand nombre de stocks transfrontaliers. A la lumière de ces résultats, les traités et accords de pêche internationaux doivent être évalués pour leur capacité à répondre aux implications socio-écologiques du changement climatique et renégocier afin d’éviter tout conflit entre pays voisins. En anticipant des changements potentiels de distribution entre stocks transfrontaliers, tout nouvel accord de pêche se voudra plus résilient aux effets du changement climatique.As mudanças climáticas vêm promovendo alterações na distribuição dos estoques de peixes compartilhados por países vizinhos, tanto nas suas Zonas Econômicas Exclusivas (ZEE) como em águas oceânicas internacionais. A escala de tempo desse deslocamento transfronteiriço vai determinar como as mudanças climáticas afetarão o manejo pesqueiro internacional. Diante disso, o presente trabalho teve por objetivo analisar essa escala de tempo, combinando um amplo conjunto de simulações de um modelo do sistema terrestre sob um cenário de mudanças climáticas de altas emissões a um modelo de dinâmica populacional. Foi observado que, para 2030, 23% dos estoques transfronteiriços terão suas distribuições alteradas e 78% das ZEEs do mundo terão experimentado deslocamentos em pelo menos um estoque transfronteiriço. No final deste século, as projeções mostram que 45% dos estoques transfronteiriços do mundo sofrerão alterações e que 81% das ZEEs apresentarão alterações em pelo menos um estoque. A magnitude de tal deslocamento será refletida por uma mudança média de 59% na proporção de capturas de estoques transfronteiriços entre ZEEs vizinhas no ano de 2030. Muitos países que são altamente dependentes da pesca para subsistência e segurança alimentar surgem como pontos críticos para mudanças transfronteiriças. Estes são caracterizados por mudanças iniciais na distribuição de um número importante de estoques transfronteiriços. Os acordos internacionais de pesca precisam ser avaliados quanto à sua capacidade de abordar as implicações sócio-ecológicas de deslocamentos transfronteiriços impulsionados pelas mudanças climáticas e ajustados para limitar um possível conflito entre as partes de interesse. Da mesma forma, novos acordos devem considerar possíveis mudanças na distribuição de populações transfronteiriças a fim de antecipar tais conflitos e construir resiliência em face das mudanças climáticas e das incertezas que as acompanha.

16 pages, 6 figures, 3 tables, supplementary data https://doi.org/10.1016/j.pocean.2021.102659.-- Code and data availability: The experimental protocol in this paper has no code associated with it. Forcing data from CMIP5 used for the protocol, and the FishMIP model outputs presented in this paper are available on the ISIMIP servers (https://www.isimip.org/), Climate change is warming the ocean and impacting lower trophic level (LTL) organisms. Marine ecosystem models can provide estimates of how these changes will propagate to larger animals and impact societal services such as fisheries, but at present these estimates vary widely. A better understanding of what drives this inter-model variation will improve our ability to project fisheries and other ecosystem services into the future, while also helping to identify uncertainties in process understanding. Here, we explore the mechanisms that underlie the diversity of responses to changes in temperature and LTLs in eight global marine ecosystem models from the Fisheries and Marine Ecosystem Model Intercomparison Project (FishMIP). Temperature and LTL impacts on total consumer biomass and ecosystem structure (defined as the relative change of small and large organism biomass) were isolated using a comparative experimental protocol. Total model biomass varied between −35% to +3% in response to warming, and -17% to +15% in response to LTL changes. There was little consensus about the spatial redistribution of biomass or changes in the balance between small and large organisms (ecosystem structure) in response to warming, an LTL impacts on total consumer biomass varied depending on the choice of LTL forcing terms. Overall, climate change impacts on consumer biomass and ecosystem structure are well approximated by the sum of temperature and LTL impacts, indicating an absence of nonlinear interaction between the models’ drivers. Our results highlight a lack of theoretical clarity about how to represent fundamental ecological mechanisms, most importantly how temperature impacts scale from individual to ecosystem level, and the need to better understand the two-way coupling between LTL organisms and consumers. We finish by identifying future research needs to strengthen global marine ecosystem modelling and improve projections of climate change impacts, JDE was funded by Australian Research Council Discovery Projects DP150102656 and DP190102293. MC, JS, NB and OM received financial support by the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under grant agreement No 817578 (Triatlas project). CH received funding from the Open Philanthropy Project. NB and OM also acknowledge the support of the French ANR project CIGOEF (grant ANR-17-CE32-0008-01). DPT acknowledges funding from the ISI-MIP project to support a workshop on this topic, and the Jarislowsky Foundation. EDG received funding from the European Research Council (ERC) under the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme (grant agreement No 682602, BIGSEA). RFH was funded by the Spanish Ministry of Science, Innovation and Universities through the Acciones de Programación Conjunta Internacional (PCIN-2017-115). MC acknowledges the ‘Severo Ochoa Centre of Excellence’ accreditation (CEX2019-000928-S) to the Institute of Marine Science (ICM-CSIC). TDE acknowledges funding from the ISIMIP project to support a workshop on this topic and the Fisheries and Oceans Canada Atlantic Fisheries Fund. All authors declare no conflict of interest with respect to this study. JAFS received funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 FutureMARES project (#869300).

Climate change is shifting the distribution of shared fish stocks between neighboring countries’ Exclusive Economic Zones (EEZ) and the high seas. The timescale of these transboundary shifts determines how climate change will affect international fisheries governance. Coupling a large ensemble simulation of an Earth system model to a species distribution model, we show that by 2030, 23% of transboundary stocks would have shifted and 78% of the world EEZs will experience at least one shifting stock under a high emission climate change scenario. By the end of this century, 81% of EEZ waters will see at least one shifting stock with a total of 45% of stocks shifting globally, under a high emissions scenario. Importantly, many countries that are highly dependent on fisheries for income, food and nutrition security, as well as livelihoods emerge as hotspots for transboundary shifts showing early, and sometimes past shifts. Existing fisheries agreements need to be assessed for their capacity in addressing transboundary shifts, and strengthened where necessary to limit conflict over these fish stocks while new agreements are urged to considere this problematic in order to be resilient to global change.

Sustainably managed wild fisheries support food and nutritional security, livelihoods, and cultures (1). Harmful fisheries subsidies—government payments that incentivize overcapacity and lead to overfishing—undermine these benefits yet are increasing globally (2). World Trade Organization (WTO) members have a unique opportunity at their ministerial meeting in November to reach an agreement that eliminates harmful subsidies (3). We—a group of scientists spanning 46 countries and 6 continents—urge the WTO to make this commitment...

22 pages, 5 figures, 1 table, supplementary information https://doi.org/10.1038/s41558-021-01173-9.-- Data availabilityAll standardized forcing variables from the ESMs are available at https://doi.org/10.48364/ISIMIP.575744.1; all outputs from the MEMs are available via ISIMIP (https://www.isimip.org/gettingstarted/data-access/).-- Code availabilityAll code used to analyse simulations is available at https://github.com/Fish-MIP/CMIP5vsCMIP6, Projections of climate change impacts on marine ecosystems have revealed long-term declines in global marine animal biomass and unevenly distributed impacts on fisheries. Here we apply an enhanced suite of global marine ecosystem models from the Fisheries and Marine Ecosystem Model Intercomparison Project (Fish-MIP), forced by new-generation Earth system model outputs from Phase 6 of the Coupled Model Intercomparison Project (CMIP6), to provide insights into how projected climate change will affect future ocean ecosystems. Compared with the previous generation CMIP5-forced Fish-MIP ensemble, the new ensemble ecosystem simulations show a greater decline in mean global ocean animal biomass under both strong-mitigation and high-emissions scenarios due to elevated warming, despite greater uncertainty in net primary production in the high-emissions scenario. Regional shifts in the direction of biomass changes highlight the continued and urgent need to reduce uncertainty in the projected responses of marine ecosystems to climate change to help support adaptation planning, This work was supported by the Jarislowsky Foundation (D.P.T.), the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada Discovery Grant programme (D.P.T., H.K.L., T.D.E., W.W.L.C., J.P.-A. and V.C.); Australian Research Council (ARC) Discovery Projects DP170104240 (J.L.B. and C.N.), DP190102293 (J.L.B., C.N., A.J.R., J.D.E. and D.P.T.) and DP150102656 (J.D.E.); the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under grant agreements 817578 (TRIATLAS) (M.C., J.S., L.S., O.M., L.B., Y.-J.S., N.B. and J.R.), 869300 (FutureMARES) (J.A.F.-S.,Y.-J.S. and M.C.) and 862428 (MISSION ATLANTIC (J.A.F.-S, Y.-J.S. and M.C.); the Spanish National Project ProOceans (PID2020-118097RB-I00) (M.C. and J.S.); the Open Philanthropy Project (C.S.H.); the United Kingdom Research and Innovation (UKRI) Global Challenges Research Fund (GCRF) One Ocean Hub (NE/S008950/1) (K.O.-C. and L.S.); the Simons Foundation (nos. 54993, 645921) (G.L.B.); the Belmont Forum and BiodivERsA under the BiodivScen ERA-Net COFUND programme (SOMBEE project, ANR-18-EBI4-0003-01) (Y.-J.S. and N.B.); the MEOPAR Postdoctoral Fellowship Award 2020–2021 and the Ocean Frontier Institute (Module G) (A.B.-B.); the French ANR project CIGOEF (grant ANR-17-CE32-0008-01) (O.M., L.B. and J.R.); the California Ocean Protection Council Grant C0100400, the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation and the Extreme Science and Engineering Discovery Environment (XSEDE) allocation TG-OCE170017 (D.B. and J.G.); the National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Association (NA20OAR4310441, NA20OAR4310442) (C.M.P.). M.C. acknowledges the Severo Ochoa Centre of Excellence accreditation (CEX2019-000928-S) to the Institute of Marine Science (ICM-CSIC)

11 pages, 8 figures, Queen scallop Aequipecten opercularis, is exploited by small-scale trawlers in separated aggregations along the east Atlantic coast and the Mediterranean Sea. However, population performance is poorly known. Here, we combine official information and on-board observers’ data over two decades to study the fishery ecology of an aggregation occurring in a coastal upwelling system (Ría de Arousa, NW Spain). Annual landings fluctuated around a mean of 170 tons while beam trawlers declined at a rate of 11 vessels per decade. A hurdle Bayesian spatial model fitted to observers’ catch and effort data showed that the probability of occurrence and abundance of the species increased with fishing effort and decreased in sandy bottoms. Moreover, abundance increased with upwelling intensity and decreased with continental runoff and along the fishing season. Furthermore, occurrence was higher in the inner part of the embayment while abundance increased in the central channel. The predicted index of standardized abundance correlated with the trend in landings, and year-to-year fluctuations in abundance were negatively and positively related to upwelling intensity and net primary production, respectively, during the spawning and settlement period, L.O. thanks the Consellería de Cultura, Educación e Ordenación Universitaria from the Xunta de Galicia for the financial support through the Postdoctoral Program I2C 2014 (ED481B 2014/051-0)

Climate change is shifting the distribution of fish stocks that straddle between exclusive economic zones (EEZ), challenging transboundary fisheries management. Here, we examine the projected sharing of jointly managed transboundary fish stocks between Canada and the United States. We hypothesize that ocean warming will alter the sharing of fish stocks between the two countries, and that such changes will intensify under a high carbon emission scenario. We look at the specific cases of the International Pacific Halibut Commission that manages Pacific halibut (Hippoglossus stenolepis) and a resource sharing arrangement in the Gulf of Maine for cod (Gadus morhua), haddock (Melanogrammus aeglefinus), and yellowtail flounder (Limanda ferruginea) to discuss the management consequences of shifts in transboundary stocks. We rely on multiple Earth system models' simulations and species distribution models to estimate the change in catch potential and stock share ratio of each transboundary stock in the 21st century under two climate change scenarios. Results show that, even under a low emission scenario, most transboundary fish stocks sharing ratios, i.e., the proportion of the total catch of a fish stock taken by a given country, will change by 2050 relative to present. The overall reduction in catch potential, in addition to the changes in stock-share will further exacerbate trade-offs between changes in species catch potential. Such trade-offs in the Atlantic and Pacific regions will be amplified if a high emission scenario is followed, relative to a low carbon emission scenario. Based on the simulation results, we examine possible solution options to reduce climate risks on transboundary fish stocks and fisheries.

In this Article, the affiliation of author Cristina Garilao was incorrectly given as ‘Evolutionary Biology and Ecology Laboratory, Albert Ludwigs University, Freiburg, Germany.’ (affiliation 8). It should be ‘GEOMAR Helmholtz Centre for Ocean Research Kiel, Kiel, Germany’ (affiliation 18). The original Article has been corrected online.

Marine protected areas (MPAs) are valuable tools for marine conservation that aim to limit human impacts on marine systems and protect valuable species or habitats. However, as species distributions shift due to ocean warming, acidification, and oxygen depletion from climate change, the areas originally designated under MPAs may bear little resemblance to their past state. Different approaches have been suggested for coping with species on the move in conservation. Here, we test the effectiveness of different MPA designs, including dynamic, network, and different directional orientations on protecting shifting species under climate change through ecosystem modeling in a theoretical ecosystem. Our findings suggest that dynamic MPAs may benefit some species (e.g., whiting and anchovy) and fishing fleets, and these benefits can inform the design or adaptation of MPAs worldwide. In addition, we find that it is important to design MPAs with specific goals and to account for the effects of released fishing pressure and species interactions in MPA design.

The ocean is a critical source of nutrition for billions of people, with potential to yield further food, profits, and employment in the future ( 1 ). But fisheries face a serious new challenge as climate change drives the ocean to conditions not experienced historically. Local, national, regional, and international fisheries are substantially underprepared for geographic shifts in marine animals driven by climate change over the coming decades. Fish and other animals have already shifted into new territory at a rate averaging 70 km per decade ( 2 ), and these shifts are expected to continue or accelerate ( 3 ). We show here that many species will likely shift across national and other political boundaries in the coming decades, creating the potential for conflict over newly shared resources.

Climate change, mismanaged resource extraction, and pollution are reshaping global marine ecosystems with direct consequences on human societies. Sustainable ocean development requires knowledge and data across disciplines, scales and knowledge types. Although several disciplines are generating large amounts of data on marine socio-ecological systems, such information is often underutilized due to fragmentation across institutions or stakeholders, limited standardization across scale, time or disciplines, and the fact that information is often not searchable within existing databases. Compiling metadata, the information which describes existing sets of data, is an effective tool that can address these challenges, particularly when metadata corresponding to multiple datasets can be combined to integrate, organize and classify multidisciplinary data. Here, using Mexico as a case study, we describe the compilation and analysis of a metadatabase of ocean knowledge that aims to improve access to information, facilitate multidisciplinary data sharing and integration, and foster collaboration among stakeholders. We also evaluate the knowledge trends and gaps for informing ocean management. Analysis of the metadatabase highlights that past and current research in Mexico focuses strongly on ecology and fisheries, with biological data more consistent over time and space compared to data on human dimensions. Regional imbalances in available information were also evident, with most available information corresponding to the Gulf of California, Campeche Bank and Caribbean and less available for the central and south Pacific and the western Gulf of Mexico. Despite existing knowledge gaps in Mexico and elsewhere, we argue that systematic efforts such as this can often reveal an abundance of information for decision-makers to develop policies that meet key commitments on ocean sustainability. Surmounting current cross-scale social and ecological challenges for sustainability requires transdisciplinary approaches. Metadatabases are critical tools to make efficient use of existing data, highlight and address strengths and deficiencies, and develop scenarios to inform policies for managing complex marine social-ecological systems.