“Human Dimensions of Oceans: From a Sociological Perspective” blog series is live on FATHOM.
Ocean equity is defined as the actions and policies that seek to dismantle systemic structures in ocean governance rooted in racism, coloniality, and gender discrimination.
Ocean equity is distinct from equality. As Harvard Professor Martha Minow has explained through the words of a civil rights activist: “Equality is giving everyone the same thing; equity is giving people what they need.” Ocean equity, therefore, involves ensuring appropriate support and rights for people who have been marginalized by factors such as race, gender, class, or geography, and addressing the structural inequalities that shape their lives. In this sense, equity is not about treating everyone the same—it is about prioritizing those who have been placed at disadvantage.
Marine conservation has long managed development and resource use by treating all parties “equally,” whether they are communities experiencing environmental burdens or corporations with substantial influence. Although this may appear fair, such frameworks often silence those who are currently harmed or who have been historically marginalized. Their voices and needs are overshadowed in struggles over power, resources, and decision-making.
In practice, this means that the very communities who have long cared for the ocean are expected to endure disasters, resource depletion, and pollution impacts on their own. Yet today, as environmental crises outpace our ability to predict or control them, the most essential knowledge lies in the lived experiences of people on the frontlines—those who have been responding to these changes directly for generations.
Global environmental problems are not distant events. Even if they seem unrelated today, they quickly become realities we must confront tomorrow. The ocean is interconnected across the planet; it is nearly impossible to protect one part while ignoring the rest. The notion that one can safeguard only oneself by shifting burdens onto others is, in fact, the least realistic strategy in the context of the ocean.
Pursuing such a path leads to an empty future: an ocean where the communities who depended on it, the fish that sustained our tables, and the cultures shaped around it have vanished—leaving only “a vast blue expanse devoid of people.”
At Ocean Nexus, our mission is to establish ocean equity at the center of ocean governance.
Journalists from the Metcalf Ocean Nexus Academy (MONA) recently participated on a panel at the Society of Environmental Journalists conference in Chicago on April 18, 2026, highlighting the growing importance of ocean equity in environmental reporting.
The session featured 2025 MONA fellows Rachel Ramirez, Eva Tesfaye, and Luis Joel Méndez González, who shared how their work connects ocean issues to questions of power, inequality, and lived experience. Their reporting reflects a shift in how ocean stories are framed, moving beyond a narrow focus on scientific data to include the social and political dimensions that shape ocean governance.
As discussed in The Confluence, a journalism platform and newsletter supported by Ocean Nexus, ocean coverage has historically emphasized the “what” of ocean change while overlooking the “who,” including coastal communities, fishers, Indigenous peoples, and workers whose lives are directly affected. This gap has limited how ocean issues are understood in public and policy spaces.
MONA supports journalists in addressing this gap by providing resources to develop stories that examine how ocean systems are shaped by systemic inequities. Through this work, fellows contribute to more grounded reporting that connects environmental change with social justice.
The panel underscored a broader shift in environmental journalism: ocean equity is emerging as a framework that reframes ocean issues as questions of governance, access, and accountability, and positions journalism as a key tool for making these dynamics visible.
🔗 Click here to read the full story by journalist and MONA fellow, Rachel Ramirez.
🔗 Learn more about The Confluence and register for the newsletter here.
Ocean Nexus Fellows around the world actively engage on international platforms to contribute to global conversations on equity in ocean governance, bridging research and action.
In 2025, we attended the Our Ocean Conference in Busan, South Korea, where fellows from the University of Wollongong co-hosted a side event on the BBNJ Agreement alongside Pew Research Center, High Seas Alliance, and the Deep Sea Conservation Coalition.
FATHOM advances disruptive narratives and promotes voices of people and stories of anti-inequity.
The United Nations discussions on ocean justice highlight procedural inequities in global decision-making, especially for small island developing states (SIDS). The BBNJ Agreement’s implementation phase raises concerns about fair participation, resource distribution, and institutional design, affecting SIDS’ ability to influence outcomes. The upcoming COP1 will test equity in governance and procedural justice.
Oceanic conservation operates at the intersection of law, activism, and everyday work at sea. This can be seen within the ongoing politics of cetaceans in French jurisdictions, where the state regulators, fishers, and NGOs like Sea Shepherd have been embroiled in policing efforts. While policing and surveillance can strengthen the protection of marine life, it also raises critical questions about fairness, justice, equity, legitimacy, and power. Understanding these dynamics requires moving beyond simple oppositions between “fishers” and “environmentalists.” Instead, it calls for attention to the complex ways in which ecological, legal, and social worlds overlap – and sometimes collide – in the contemporary ocean.
©2026 Ocean Nexus. All Rights Reserved.