Overcoming the barriers to transformative change to advance SDG 14: Potential ways to shift views, structures, and practices in fisheries governance in the era of blue acceleration

Never have we seen the importance of our oceans and marine resources so high on the global agenda. The marine realm has recently seen the adoption of two global treaties, with the Agreement on Marine Biological Diversity of Areas beyond National Jurisdiction in 2023 and the WTO Agreement on Fisheries Subsidies this year. Initiatives on sustainable fisheries, such as eco-labelling or the creation of marine protected areas or Other Effective Area-Based Conservation Measures (OECMs) have substantially increased in the past decade. Yet, we have seen that despite these efforts, fish stocks and marine biodiversity continue to decline and most targets under Sustainable Development Goal 14 – SDG 14 (Life below water) have not been achieved. We contend that this is due to the persistence of the key challenges and barriers identified in the IPBES. Transformative Change Assessment, especially in the fisheries sector. The latter is also faced with novel challenges as other sectors enter the ocean space. In this paper, we will discuss how the challenges to transformative change unfold in marine capture fisheries and explore strategies to address them while navigating coexistence with other sectors. We propose that an integration of local and Indigenous knowledge, as well as a more holistic consideration of ecosystems and the seafood supply chain, can shift views, structures, and practices to achieve transformative change in the fisheries sector. We will illustrate these changes across key topics central to marine fisheries: the commodification of fishing rights, fishing access arrangements, Regional Fisheries Management Organisations, fisheries subsidies, access to technologies to address Illegal, Unreported, and Unregulated (IUU) fishing, telecoupled seafood supply chains, and coexistence with offshore wind. These topics are closely linked to three SDG 14 sub-goals, notably SDG 14.2 (protect and restore ecosystems), 14.4 (sustainable fisheries) and 14.6 (harmful fisheries subsidies). We hope to provide real-life examples of how we could transform the fisheries sector to advance the achievement of SDG 14 and shape its future post-2030.