Sustainable Use of the Ocean
OBIS informs the sustainable management of ocean resources by mapping habitats, spawning grounds, ecosystem dependencies, and genetic diversity. By making this data openly accessible, OBIS supports evidence-based decisions that balance human use with the long-term health of marine ecosystems.
Supports: KMGBF Target 10, BBNJ (sustainable use of marine genetic resources), SDG 14.2 & 14.4, FAO Guidelines
OBIS data reveals that climate change will exacerbate the impact of historical overfishing on grouper — illustrating the compounding pressures on commercially exploited marine species.
Protecting critical spawning grounds to sustain commercially important fish populations
Implemented
OBIS occurrence and environmental data have been used to model the distribution of critical spawning aggregations for commercially exploited species, providing spatially explicit evidence to support seasonal closures and habitat protection measures in fisheries management plans.
Region: Global
Challenge/issue: Spawning aggregation sites are highly vulnerable to fishing pressure but often poorly mapped — their protection requires spatially explicit data that traditional stock assessments rarely provide.
Impact: Spatially explicit spawning ground maps supporting seasonal closure design and habitat protection measures in national and regional fisheries management plans.
OBIS inputs: OBIS occurrence data, environmental co-variables, species distribution modelling outputs
Accounting for trophic dependencies in ecosystem-based fisheries management
Implemented
OBIS records of small pelagic species — anchovies, sardines, herrings — have been combined with fishing effort data to characterise the spatial overlap between forage fish populations and commercial fishing pressure, informing ecosystem-based management approaches that account for trophic dependencies.
Region: Global, with priority in upwelling systems and small pelagic fisheries zones
Challenge/issue: Conventional fisheries management focuses on target species in isolation, overlooking trophic cascades — overexploitation of forage fish can destabilise entire ecosystems and the larger predators that depend on them.
Impact: Ecosystem-based management frameworks that account for forage fish as a foundational trophic layer, reducing the risk of cascading ecosystem impacts from fishing pressure.
OBIS inputs: OBIS small pelagic species occurrence data, long-term time-series, OBIS API
Extending the temporal and geographic baseline for fish stock assessments
Ongoing
OBIS distribution data can supplement traditional stock assessment models by providing independent, long-term occurrence records that extend the temporal and geographic baseline beyond what fisheries surveys alone can cover.
Region: Global
Challenge/issue: Stock assessments are constrained by the limited temporal and spatial coverage of dedicated fisheries surveys — historical occurrence records from research collections and monitoring programmes remain largely untapped.
Impact: Richer stock assessments with longer baselines, reducing uncertainty in population trend estimates and improving the robustness of quota-setting advice.
OBIS inputs: Long-term occurrence records, historical collection data, OBIS API
Minimising conflicts between aquaculture siting and sensitive marine ecosystems
Potential use case
OBIS habitat and species data can inform the selection of environmentally appropriate locations for aquaculture development, minimising conflicts with sensitive ecosystems and wild species populations.
Region: Coastal zones globally
Challenge/issue: Aquaculture siting decisions are often made without systematic consideration of biodiversity values, leading to conflicts with sensitive habitats, seagrass meadows, and wild species populations after development has begun.
Impact: Evidence-based aquaculture siting that reduces conflicts with sensitive habitats and minimises regulatory risk for developers.
OBIS inputs: OBIS habitat and species occurrence data, benthic records, OBIS API
Detecting commercially important and sensitive species across large ocean areas using eDNA
Ongoing
OBIS's emerging eDNA data infrastructure and publishing guidelines offer new tools for detecting commercially important and ecologically sensitive species across large ocean areas at lower cost, opening new possibilities for sustainable ocean resource management and monitoring.
Region: Global
Challenge/issue: Conventional species detection methods are too costly and labour-intensive to deploy at the spatial and temporal scales needed for effective ocean resource management.
Impact: Scalable, cost-effective species detection across large ocean areas, enabling more frequent and geographically comprehensive monitoring for sustainable resource management.
OBIS inputs: OBIS eDNA publishing infrastructure, Darwin Core DNA extensions, OBIS occurrence baseline data
