Open Ocean: Status and Trends, Summary for Policy Makers

Abstract

The Open Ocean Assessment provides a baseline review of issues linking human well-being with the status of the open ocean through the themes of governance, climate change, ocean ecosystems, fisheries, pollution, and integrated assessment of the human-ocean nexus. It uses indices and indicators where data exist, in many cases with future projections due to global climate change, complemented by expert scientific assessment of numerous low certainty but potentially high impact issues where global ocean monitoring is inadequate.