Blue Science

Blue Marine’s Science, Impact and Innovation (SII) unit drives conservation through scientific expertise, international project management, and innovative research methodologies. The unit has focused most recently on coordinating scientific expeditions, developing monitoring frameworks and software, and providing scientific support to projects and partners. This includes working across over 15 of Blue Marine’s international projects. Marine conservation is best achieved when underpinned by robust and up-to-date scientific evidence. 

In 2023, we supported the projects team to draw out key findings from surveys beneath the waves in St. Vincent and the Grenadines, providing evidence-backed recommendations to the Ministry of the Environment to reform fisheries and management of marine protected areas (MPAs). The team also supported research on the Dutch Caribbean Island of St. Maarten by analysing acoustic telemetry used to track the movement of sharks, enabling local project partners to explore MPA management to safeguard threatened species.  

In the UK we have been building a valuation report for ecosystem services in Scotland and have assessed biodiversity data to paint a picture of marine life for the Wild Oysters team.  

Monitoring and evaluating our work and communicating lessons learnt allows us to continually improve our conservation effectiveness and impact. Blue Marine has developed a rigorous monitoring and evaluation process for us and our project partners. It allows us to track impact, assess progress and record data. This in turn helps us to evaluate our approach and conservation interventions. By adopting a flexible approach within a broader framework, we allow for the unique nature of our projects and their challenges to shine through, while ensuring that our efforts and impacts remain laser-focused on our strategic pillars. Our impact team have also been working closely with partners in Namibia to develop a streamlined monitoring and evaluation system for their bold project, the Namibia Islands MPA. 

The SII team has worked to build both internal and external knowledge on delivering 30×30 effectively, especially in a rapidly changing climate. In collaboration with the Blue Climate unit, and led by Professor Ana Queirós from Plymouth Marine Laboratory, in 2024 we produced a report on the importance of climate-smart marine protected areas (marine protected areas designed to enhance ecosystem and species resilience in the face of climate change) and how we can ‘future-proof’ MPA designations in a warming world. This will be released in early 2025. 

With the Blue Economics unit, SII is structuring a bond to give sustained financial support to MPAs that work towards a high level of protection through effective implementation, enforcement and management. SII supported Blue Marine’s first organisational impact report, detailing its effectiveness since it began, and we are developing our own monitoring and evaluation software, ‘Mearl’, to help track conservation impact. The SII team also represented Blue Marine at conferences including the UN Ocean Decade of Science, CBD COP16 and Blue Earth Summit. 

We have also launched an Innovation Programme, in which the Blue SII team will be facilitating the deployment of pioneering ocean technologies within our projects, gather further insights from the marine innovation field, and propel Blue Marine towards realising the ambitious target of 30×30.