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Consumers are being encouraged to choose sustainable seafood. In particular, eating less‐popular, under‐utilized species is promoted as a more sustainable seafood choice. This message is advocated in the media by a range of different organizations and individuals; however, evidence of greater seafood sustainability as a result of these messages is lacking. We examine current media messaging around sustainable seafood, focussing on the messages to eat more under‐utilized species, in an Australian and international context. We identify six different intended outcomes of these messages, including that eating more under‐utilized species will take pressure off heavily fished stocks, and explore the conditions under which the perceived outcomes would be realized. We use an economic lens and discuss the effect of certain aspects of consumer demand and seafood product substitutability. We propose that in order to take pressure off overfished stocks, the message to consume more under‐utilized species would need to be accompanied by messages to limit or eat less seafood. In addition, the benefits of eating more under‐utilized species as currently promoted are not always achievable and that the outcomes of some messages, if realized, could lead to overfishing of unregulated stocks and a reduction in overall fish supply. While there are many potentially positive social, economic and environmental outcomes of consuming currently under‐utilized species, media messages should encourage consumers to buy a range of seafood, including under‐utilized species, which can be traced back to a well‐managed fishery, rather than promoting under‐utilized species per se. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Successfully managing current threats to marine resources and ecosystems is largely dependent on our ability to understand and manage human behavior. In recent times we have seen increased growth in research to understand the human dimension of marine resource use, and the associated implications for management. However, despite progress to date, marine research and management have until recently largely neglected the critically important role of "sense of place," and its role in influencing the success and efficacy of management interventions. To help address this gap we review the existing literature from various disciplines, e.g., environmental psychology, and sectors, both marine and nonmarine sectors, to understand the ways is which sense of place has been conceptualized and measured. Doing so we draw on three key aspects of sense of place, person, place, and process, to establish a framework to help construct a more organized and consistent approach for considering and representing sense of place in marine environmental studies. Based on this we present indicators to guide how sense of place is monitored and evaluated in relation to marine resource management, and identify practical ways in which this framework can be incorporated into existing decision-support tools. This manuscript is a first step toward increasing the extent to which sense of place is incorporated into modeling, monitoring, and management decisions in the marine realm. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The term "social licence to operate" (SLO), popularized in corporate usage over the last 20 years, is frequently used to refer to the level of social approval that exists in relation to the development of natural resources for private or public purposes. However, the theoretical and practical utility of the concept remains contested and it is often used opportunistically to advance individual agendas. Moreover, it remains difficult to assess how an adequate level of SLO can be transparently assessed, or how dialogue can be appropriately achieved. In this paper we argue that the increasing use of the SLO concept is an indication that trust in, and the legitimacy of, formal regulatory processes for natural resource management has eroded and needs to be reimagined. In response, we outline five principles that provide pathways to increase the legitimacy of, and trust in, regulatory approval processes: (i) clear regulatory objectives; (ii) transparent regulatory approval processes; (iii) clear pathways for appeals and reviews of regulatory decisions (iv) early and inclusive collaborative consultation process; and (v) independence of decision-making authorities. By rethinking the basic principles of regulatory and licencing processes in natural resource management, our five principles aim to reduce the need for SLO. This could minimize erratic decision making and inequitable approval processes that are driven by a perceived need for SLO, often only for the corporate sector, which risks the voices of other stakeholders being unevenly represented. We draw upon natural resource management experiences from Tasmania, Australia as illustrative examples to stimulate a discussion on the usefulness of SLO and the need for improved approaches to natural resource management. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The changing geographical distribution of species, or range shift, is one of the better documented fingerprints of climate change in the marine environment. Range shifts may also lead to dramatic changes in the distribution of economic, social, and cultural opportunities. These challenge marine resource users' capacity to adapt to a changing climate and managers' ability to implement adaptation plans. In particular, a reluctance to attribute marine range shift to climate change can undermine the effectiveness of climate change communications and pose a potential barrier to successful adaptation. Attribution is a known powerful predictor of behavioural intention. Understanding the cognitive processes that underpin the formation of marine resource users' beliefs about the cause of observed marine range shift phenomena is therefore an important topic for research. An examination of the attribution by marine resource users of three types of range shifts experienced in a marine climate change hotspot in southeast Australia to various climate and non-climate drivers indicates the existence of at least three contributing cognitions. These are: (i) engrained mental representations of environmental phenomena, (ii) scientific complexity in the attribution pathway, and (iii) dissonance from the positive or negative nature of the impact. All three play a part in explaining the complex pattern of attribution of marine climate change range shifts, and should be considered when planning for engagement with stakeholders and managers around adaptation to climate change. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We seek to contribute to the scholarship on operationalizing resilience concepts via a working resilience indicator framework. Although it requires further refinement, this practical framework provides a useful baseline for generating awareness and understanding of the complexity and diversity of variables that impinge on resilience. It has potential value for the evaluation, benchmarking, monitoring, and reporting of marine system resilience. The necessity for such a framework is a consequence of the levels of complexity and uncertainty associated with climate change and other global change stressors in marine social- ecological systems, and the problems involved in assessing their resilience. There is a need for: (1) methodologies that bring together knowledge from diverse sources and disciplines to investigate the complexity and uncertainty of interactions between climate, ocean, and human systems and (2) frameworks to facilitate the evaluation and monitoring of the social-ecological resilience of marine-dependent sectors. Accordingly, our main objective is to demonstrate the virtues of combining a case study methodology with complex adaptive systems approaches as a means to improve understanding of the multifaceted dynamics of marine sectors experiencing climate change. The resilience indicator framework, the main product of the methodology, is developed using four case studies across key Australian marine biodiversity and resource sectors already experiencing impacts from climate and other global changes. It comprises a set of resilience dimensions with a candidate set of abstract and concrete resilience indicators. Its design ensures an integrated approach to resilience evaluation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

van Putten, I. E., Gorton, R. J., Fulton, E. A., and Thebaud, O. 2013. The role of behavioural flexibility in a whole of ecosystem model. – ICES Journal of Marine Science, 70:150–163.The predictive accuracy of complex fisheries models developed to anticipate the effects of changing fishery regulations appears to depend on a solid understanding of the processes and feedback systems linking biological and physical information to resource user. Many fisher decisions are modelled in the human component of the models, including inertia, or location choice flexibility. We unpack a whole of ecosystem system model and explore how location choice flexibility in fleet behaviour (sticking to the same seasonal and spatial distribution of fishing) affects outcomes such as catches and income levels and variability. Our analysis shows that the interpretation is not straightforward, and the relationship between behavioural flexibility and income level and income variability has to be considered in the context of three main fleet characteristics: profitability; how diversified the fleet is; and growing or declining target species biomass. We contend that making behavioural flexibility sensitive to the health of the stock and fleet profitability could potentially improve accuracy of large whole of ecosystem models such as Atlantis. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

In the domain of decision-support tools for the management of marine fish resources, considerable attention has been paid to the development of models explaining how fish stocks change over space and time. In most models, fishing effort is assumed to be exogenous and determined by factors such as management. Increasingly, there has been a call for bio-economic models to also account for the dynamics of fishing fleets, recognizing that fishers respond to changing environmental, institutional and economic conditions. A growing literature has sought to explicitly model the endogenous determinants of the capacity of fishing fleets, the intensity of its use and its temporal and spatial allocation across fishing opportunities. We review this literature, focusing on empirical applications of the behavioural models that have been put forward to explain and predict observed fleet dynamics. We find that although economic factors are usually included as a dominant driver in most studies, this is often based on the use of proxy variables for the key economic drivers, for which adequate data are lacking. Also, while many studies acknowledge that social and social-psychological factors play a significant role in explaining observed fishing behaviour, their inclusion in fishing fleet dynamic models is still very limited. Progress in this domain can only be achieved via the development of multidisciplinary research programmes focusing on applied quantitative analysis of the drivers of fishing fleet dynamics. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Knowledge co-production (KCP) is presented as an effective strategy to inform responses to complex coastal and marine social-ecological challenges. Co-production processes are further posited to improve research and decision outcomes in a wide range of problem contexts (e.g., biodiversity conservation, climate change adaptation), for example, by facilitating social learning among diverse actors. As such, KCP processes are increasingly centered in global environment initiatives such as the United Nations Decade of Ocean Science for Sustainable Development. However, KCP is not a panacea, and much uncertainty remains about its emergence and implementation, in particular, the manner in which broader governance contexts determine the interplay of knowledge, power, and decision-making. Three objectives guide our analysis: (1) to interrogate more fully the interplay among social relations of power, knowledge production practices, and the (colonial) governance contexts in which they are embedded; (2) to consider the challenges and limitations of KCP in particular places by drawing attention to key governance themes and their implications for achieving better outcomes; and (3) to work toward a fuller understanding of "deep KCP" that cautions against a tendency to view knowledge processes in coastal and marine governance settings as an instrumental or techno-managerial problem. A qualitative and reflective approach was used to examine multiple dimensions of the interplay of KCP, governance, and power in several marine and coastal contexts, including Canada, New Zealand, and Papua New Guinea. In particular, our analysis highlights the importance of: (1) recognizing diverse motivations that frame co-production processes; (2) the manner in which identities, positionality, and values influence and are influenced by governance contexts; (3) highlighting governance capacity with respect to spatial and temporal constraints; (4) institutional reforms necessary for KCP and the links to governance; and (5) the relationship between knowledge sharing, data sovereignty, and governance. We seek to encourage those involved in or considering co-production initiatives to engage carefully and critically in these processes and make co-production more than a box to tick. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Evidence-informed decision-making is in increasing demand given growing pressures on marine environments. A way to facilitate this is by knowledge exchange among marine scientists and decision-makers. While many barriers are reported in the literature, there are also examples whereby research has successfully informed marine decision-making (i.e., 'bright-spots'). Here, we identify and analyze 25 bright-spots from a wide range of marine fields, contexts, and locations to provide insights into how to improve knowledge exchange at the interface of marine science and policy. Through qualitative surveys we investigate what initiated the bright-spots, their goals, and approaches to knowledge exchange. We also seek to identify what outcomes/impacts have been achieved, the enablers of success, and what lessons can be learnt to guide future knowledge exchange efforts. Results show that a diversity of approaches were used for knowledge exchange, from consultative engagement to genuine knowledge co-production. We show that diverse successes at the interface of marine science and policy are achievable and include impacts on policy, people, and governance. Such successes were enabled by factors related to the actors, processes, support, context, and timing. For example, the importance of involving diverse actors and managing positive relationships is a key lesson for success. However, enabling routine success will require: 1) transforming the ways in which we train scientists to include a greater focus on interpersonal skills, 2) institutionalizing and supporting knowledge exchange activities in organizational agendas, 3) conceptualizing and implementing broader research impact metrics, and 4) transforming funding mechanisms to focus on need-based interventions, impact planning, and an acknowledgement of the required time and effort that underpin knowledge exchange activities. [Display omitted] • We analyzed 25 successful examples of marine science-policy knowledge exchange (KE). •A diversity of KE approaches was used, and a diversity of successes were achieved. •Successes were enabled by the right actors, processes, support, context, and timing. •Situational awareness, building relationships & engaging diverse actors/knowledge types is key. •Better training, institutionalization, broader impact metrics & flexible funding needed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Public engagement on climate change is a vital concern for both science and society. Despite more people engaging with climate change science today, there remains a high-level contestation in the public sphere regarding scientific credibility and identifying information needs, interests, and concerns of the non-technical public. In this paper, we present our response to these challenges by describing the use of a novel "public-powered" approach to engaging the public through submitting questions of interest about climate change to climate researchers before a planned engagement activity. Employing thematic content analysis on the submitted questions, we describe how those people we engaged with are curious about understanding climate change science, including mitigating related risks and threats by adopting specific actions. We assert that by inviting the public to submit their questions of interest to researchers before an engagement activity, this step can inform why and transform how actors engage in reflexive dialogue. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Ocean acidification (OA) is caused by increasing levels of atmospheric CO 2 dissolving into the world's oceans. These changes are predicted to have detrimental effects on commercial and aquaculture fisheries. Here we examine the implications of OA on the prawn and scallop fisheries in Queensland, Australia, and compare the adaptive capacity of wild and aquaculture fisheries to address and mitigate its effects. We do this by reviewing the available OA literature for scallops and prawns to determine the likely impacts, and our confidence in these impacts, on Queensland prawn and scallop species. The tolerance of scallops and prawns to OA is determined by species-specific differences in their structure, life history, environmental preference, behaviour, physiology and sources of nutrition. Studies of similar taxa are used to supplement the sparse information available for the target species. Wild populations of prawns and scallops appear to be more vulnerable to OA and climate-induced stresses than aquaculture-based populations as ameliorating physico-chemical change in natural waters is difficult or impossible. Our analysis suggests the wild prawn fishery is more resilient to increasing OA conditions than the scallop fishery. We also conclude that aquaculture is likely to be more viable in the long term than the wild fishery as aquaculture facilities allow water quality monitoring and modification to avoid excessive exposure to the physico-chemical stresses imposed by OA and climate change. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

There is broad consensus that the main problem facing fisheries globally is too many boats chasing too few fish. Unfortunately it is also possible to argue that there are too many proposed solutions and not enough practical answers to improving fisheries management. There is a deepening divide between those who propose alternative regulatory controls on fishers, including establishing large areas permanently closed to fishing, and those who argue for better alignment of incentives combined with broad participation of resource users in fishery management decisions (in simple terms, between top down and bottom up systems of governance). However despite the choice of policy instruments used, a consistent outcome is that resource users behave in a manner that is often unintended by the designers of the management system. Hence whilst uncertainty is broadly recognized as a pervasive feature of fisheries management, to date most of the attention has focussed on only part of that uncertainty - scientific uncertainty about the status of exploited resources. The effect of uncertainty generated on the human side of fisheries science and management has received much less attention. However, the uncertainty generated by unexpected resource user behaviour is critical as it has unplanned consequences and leads to unintended management outcomes. Using empirical evidence of unexpected resource user behaviour and reviewing current responses to unexpected management outcomes, we identify different approaches that both improve prediction of human behaviour in fisheries systems and identify management measures that are more robust to these sources of uncertainty. However, unless the micro scale drivers of human behaviour that contribute to macro scale implementation uncertainty are communicated effectively to managers and considered more regularly and in greater depth, unanticipated responses to management actions will continue to undermine management systems and threaten the sustainability of fisheries. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A correction to the article "Modelling marine community responses to climate-driven species redistribution to guide monitoring and adaptive ecosystem-based management" that was published in the 2016 issue is presented.