Blue Science

Blue Science aims to communicate research findings to policymakers and the public; provide support to the Blue Marine team; quantify the impact of our projects; and identify technology and innovation that can improve our conservation efforts. Blue Science has focused most recently on coordinating scientific expeditions, and developing monitoring frameworks and software, supporting more than 15 of Blue Marine’s international projects. We have also launched an Innovation Programme to provide projects with pioneering technologies. 

In collaboration with Blue Climate, we produced a report on the importance of climate-smart marine protected areas (MPAs) – those 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. With Blue Economics, Blue 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.  

Blue SII supported Blue Marine’s first organisational impact report, detailing the charity’s effectiveness since it began, and we are developing our own monitoring and evaluation software – ‘Mearl’ – to help track conservation impact. The team represented Blue Marine at conferences including the UN Ocean Decade of Science, CBD COP16 and Blue Earth Summit.  

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 country’s Ministry of the Environment. We supported research on the Dutch Caribbean island of St Maarten by analysing acoustic telemetry used to track the movement of sharks, and our impact team worked closely with partners in Africa to develop a streamlined monitoring and evaluation system for the Namibia Islands MPA. In the UK we have built a valuation report for ecosystem services in Scotland, and assessed biodiversity data to paint a picture of marine life for the Wild Oysters team. 

Joining forces with Blue Economics and Blue Climate, we are also addressing the financing of MPAs for long-term protection, and building biodiversity resilience against climate change – two major threats to achieving 30×30, the international goal of protecting 30 per cent of the ocean by 2030. 

We have also launched an innovation programme to facilitate the integration of conservation technology tools across the Blue Marine project portfolio.