Sustainability of the oceans is paramount to our human wellbeing, livelihoods and economies. Ocean ecosystem accounting offers an approach of measuring progress towards ocean sustainability by linking data on marine environments, economies and human wellbeing.
Interest in developing national ocean ecosystem accounts has grown, and a number of countries have produced ocean ecosystem account case studies. In this study we review ocean ecosystem accounts globally, identifying emergent opportunities and challenges. Our review highlights that ocean ecosystem accounts developed to date are highly divergent in their focus (e.g., in terms of ecosystem assets and services). We also find evidence for relatively poor data reporting and management practices.
We recommend that to provide comprehensive, repeatable, reusable and transparent accounts, future ocean ecosystem account case studies should consider 1) open science 2) FAIR (Findability, Accessibility, Interoperability and Reusability) data principles 3) reporting error around data. If ocean ecosystem account practitioners embrace openness and transparency in reporting through open science tools, FAIR data principles, and reporting error they will be better equipped to address policy needs at varying scales, ultimately improving the functionality and applicability of ocean ecosystem accounts.