Effective ocean governance beyond UNCLOS will require integrated approaches that connect sustainability, safety, culture, and community at global and local scales
This piece is part of the series 'Governing the Oceans: Rethinking Access and Equity'
The most urgent governance challenge facing the oceans is not the absence of frameworks; it is fragmentation. Climate change, food security, biodiversity loss, overfishing, pollution, port emissions, maritime safety, climate refugees, and emerging industries such as deep-sea mining are all accelerating simultaneously, yet governance remains divided across jurisdictions, sectors, and oceans. The result is a deeply interconnected system managed as if its parts were unrelated.
Consider a foreign-flagged vessel fishing illegally in the waters of a small Pacific Island nation: the fisheries body lacks enforcement power, the maritime safety convention has no mechanism to communicate with the environmental agency tracking species collapse, and the port authority offloading the catch has no visibility into how it was caught. Every governing body can claim it did its job — yet the fish disappear, the community loses its primary food source, and no one is accountable for the episode.
Existing international frameworks, anchored by the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS) and its landmark 2023 implementing agreement, the High Seas Treaty, provide important legal structures, but implementation remains inconsistent. The United States, one of the world's most powerful nations, has signed but not ratified the High Seas Treaty, a telling example of the gap between intention and action. The treaty entered into force on January 17, 2026, currently protecting only about 1 percent of the high seas, against a goal of 30 percent by 2030. Yet, the United States, which helped negotiate the agreement, has still not ratified it, with Senate approval stalled. The Trump administration is actively pushing for open deep-sea mining in the very waters the treaty was designed to protect. Maritime safety, governed through separate conventions and agencies, continues to operate in parallel rather than in integration with sustainability goals, even though the two are inseparable. Unsafe systems like ageing vessels, poorly regulated ports, and untested technologies pose risks not only to human life but to ecosystems and economies alike.
Maritime safety, governed through separate conventions and agencies, continues to operate in parallel rather than in integration with sustainability goals, even though the two are inseparable.
Equity must be central to any effective solution. For wealthier nations, limiting overfishing or phasing out single-use plastics may feel like reasonable policy choices. For communities in the Global South, where food security is threatened by illegal fishing and coastal populations are already becoming climate refugees, those same conversations can feel like a distant luxury. Hundreds of well-intentioned ocean-focused NGOs — in the United States alone — work in parallel rather than in sync, competing for limited resources without a shared platform for vetted data. Meanwhile, inconsistent global communications and climate despair narratives exhaust an already anxious public rather than mobilising it.
Addressing this challenge effectively and equitably requires integration: aligning safety, sustainability, and social equity into a cohesive system of action — one that brings together the Global North and South on equal footing.
Cultural institutions, particularly maritime museums, are uniquely positioned to help make that happen. Unlike regulatory bodies or private companies, museums are trusted civic spaces capable of convening diverse stakeholders, translating complex issues, and elevating both maritime safety and ocean sustainability in ways that resonate broadly with the public. The Maritime Museum of San Diego, in partnership with the Galata Museo del Mare in Genoa, is working to build exactly this kind of platform — a replicable, scalable "BlueHQ" model designed for maritime museums around the world, with particular attention to institutions in the Global South.
Leveraging leadership roles within the International Congress of Maritime Museums — a network of over 250 member institutions worldwide — and working alongside heritage organizations such as Lloyd's Register Foundation in London, the Port Authorities of San Diego and Genoa, blue economy leaders, training and science institutions, and indigenous knowledge holders in San Diego and Mexico, this effort looks to the past to support better decision-making in the future. As models for this global project, local stakeholders will be integrated into their respective regional master sustainability plans, ensuring they are treated as part of a broader system rather than isolated silos. A structured 36-month program will also be launched in 2026 to create a durable, exportable framework for long-term global collaboration, including an open-access digital toolkit that institutions can adapt to suit their own regions, budgets, and strengths. The goal is to enable museums to become active participants in data-driven solutions at local, regional, and ultimately global scales.
Maritime museums can help build structured pathways that begin with early exposure and extend through internships, apprenticeships, and partnerships with community colleges, universities, and industry — preparing a diverse, globally representative workforce that knows how to operate responsibly within complex ocean systems.
Workforce development is a critical and often overlooked dimension of this equity challenge. The blue economy spans careers in shipbuilding, marine engineering, ocean science, conservation, robotics, logistics, and clean energy, all of which require strong foundations in both safety and environmental stewardship. Ocean-centric sectors alone — including fisheries, offshore wind, and marine tourism — could create 93 million additional jobs globally by 2050, yet the critical challenges standing in the way include skills gaps, insufficient training and educational resources especially in developing nations, and inadequate funding and institutional capacity. Maritime museums can help build structured pathways that begin with early exposure and extend through internships, apprenticeships, and partnerships with community colleges, universities, and industry — preparing a diverse, globally representative workforce that knows how to operate responsibly within complex ocean systems.
Maritime history itself is a powerful resource in this effort. The historical record is rich with lessons about safety failures, environmental degradation, technological innovation, and the slow arc of regulatory change. Bringing these case studies into contemporary governance discussions helps stakeholders understand long-term risks — and builds the kind of safety culture and institutional memory that proactive governance requires.
For an anxious public with waning faith in a sustainable future, museums as storytellers can align the problem with forward-facing solutions. The exhibition Oceanus: Alexis Rockman presented a series of commissioned works focused on the impacts of the maritime industry on ocean health over time. Confronting the public with the very legitimate and real threats to our oceans through these remarkable works was tempered by a side exhibition on regional blue technology solutions to some of these challenges. This mobilised the public to learn, support, and invest in the blue economy in our region. They saw the potential for positive change. In visiting the International Maritime Organization (IMO) decarbonisation strategy through renewable fuels and sail assist technology, MMSD is connecting innovations from the 19th century to the 21st, making sense of and validating investment in these solutions.
What is needed is a model that connects rather than divides — one that integrates environmental sustainability, maritime safety, and social equity, and that meets communities where they are.
The fragmentation of ocean governance is an urgent challenge, but it is not insurmountable. What is needed is a model that connects rather than divides — one that integrates environmental sustainability, maritime safety, and social equity, and that meets communities where they are. By connecting heritage with innovation, safety with sustainability, and education with workforce development, this model will hopefully serve as a resource and inspiration for global collaboration for successful governance.
Christina Brophy is the President and CEO of the Maritime Museum of San Diego, California and Board Member at the International Council for Maritime Museums (ICMM) and TMA Blue Tech.
The views expressed above belong to the author(s). ORF research and analyses now available on Telegram! Click here to access our curated content — blogs, longforms and interviews.
Christina Connett Brophy, PhD, is the President and CEO of the Maritime Museum of San Diego, California and a former senior executive at the Mystic ...
Read More +
PREV
