Opening up ocean governance

Ocean governance can be considered complex says Jemma Lonsdale, co-chair of the Ocean Governance Special Interest Group, but SIG membership paves the way towards shared knowledge and understanding. 

Jemma Lonsdale is co-chair of the Ocean Governance SIG which she helped set up back in 2016. Quick to point out that she isn’t an engineer or a technologist (she has a PhD in Estuarine and Coastal Management) she says the SIG welcomes and brings together a wide range of disciplines to inform environmental management including engineers and technologists, natural scientists, and others working in regulatory, government, academia and industry. 

The SIGs greatest challenge is its wide remit. “The SIG is so broad! Being able to focus on just a few things at a time is definitely one of our major challenges,” says Lonsdale. “And because it does encapsulate everything, it's very complex.” 

Important questions such as how to meet biodiversity and energy requirements need to be answered but Lonsdale adds that the speed at which the answers need to be found is the SIGs other challenge. Speed is certainly of the essence with an emerging topic such as deep seabed mining.  

“A few SIG members are involved in deep seabed mining in international waters – and there are lots of views on deep seabed mining including whether it should go ahead at all. If it does, we want to make sure the regulations are in place.”  

Lonsdale highlights the many conversations that offshoot from deep seabed mining such as the protection of species at the bottom of the ocean. “New species are always being found. But if we don't know much about them, how can we do a proper assessment on what the impacts of deep seabed mining will be?” 

Addressing the need for information

Responding to the wide remit, Lonsdale says the SIG structure is being revised so focus groups tackle the issues and report back to the SIG committee. Lonsdale hopes this will facilitate greater knowledge sharing. “And the new task-based groups will help spread understanding of ocean governance.” 

The SIG co-chairs have organised webinars on what ocean governance is, and working in international waters, as well as focusing on early career scientists and students. Lonsdale says that students don’t know enough about ocean governance as a career. “They kind of stumble into ocean governance as opposed to having a career path mapped out.”  

Knowledge exchange particularly around the early career science, is the answer. “I really struggled when I didn't know where to work. Providing early intervention with universities is really helpful. Lonsdale’s route in ocean governance came after university. “I had no idea what I wanted to do but in university, when we started learning about environmental impact assessments, I was convinced I wanted to be a consultant.  After university, when I was working with consultants and saw the civil service side of things, I realised I wanted to be on that side of the fence.” 

Alongside the introduction of task groups, the SIG is increasing the frequency of meetings, while making them shorter – just long enough to review priorities and receive updates from task-based groups. Which task groups will be the first ones to get off the ground? Lonsdale expects deep seabed mining and biodiversity beyond national jurisdiction to be among the first groups to be set up.  

The SIG co-chair also wants to increase membership. “International representation on the SIG is quite good but the committee is probably too European centric and UK-focused. I want more women, and more people from different backgrounds because we are interested in different views.”   

 “If you've got someone from natural sciences, who has an idea but isn’t sure how it might impact engineers, they can reach out to members and say "what do you think? And when a new regulation comes in, it might be fantastic for the scientists, but it might be horrendous for industry. We need that exchange!” 

Lonsdale says the SIG webinars are a great opportunity to talk, listen and discuss. Lonsdale attends the London Convention and Protocol meetings; which provides great insight also. “Being aware of the issues, understanding what drives the political challenges and how other people are affected by them, is really, really important.” 

Accessible communication 

One of the broader challenges for ocean governance is the fact that it's so complicated and complex. “If you’re a scientist,” says Lonsdale, “that's quite good because the complexity needs to be explained. But for others such as the planners or the regulators, complexity means people may think ‘what's the point? We're never going to address this’.” Lonsdale says the goal is for the SIG to communicate in a way that everyone can understand and can come together to share knowledge and find a solution as opposed to being scared of it. 

“My passion is knowledge sharing,” concludes Lonsdale, “and being co-chair means a lot to me personally because I'm so passionate about the work that I do. I'm one of those people who loves my job!”  

Jemma Lonsdale was in conversation with Pamela Cahill. 

Credit: Shutterstock

To become a member of the Ocean Governance SIG, log into your My IMarEST account, click on My Special Interest Groups and then tick the boxes of the SIGs you’d like to join. You can then also join the group on Nexus, our networking platform.”