Ocean sustainability is all about approaching ocean management in a way that protects the ocean and the services it provides. It is, in short, a balancing act between what is good for the health and well-being of the ocean and what is good for the economic well-being of those who are dependent on the ocean. Ocean sustainability requires the “use of ocean resources in ways that preserve the health and resilience of marine ecosystems and improves livelihoods and jobs, balancing protection and prosperity.”
We’ve compiled an extensive reading list to help you understand more about this important topic.
Agardy, Tundi S. (2010). Ocean Zoning: Making Marine Management More Effective. ISBN: 9781138881235.
Aricò, Salvatore, Ed. (2015). Ocean Sustainability in the 21st Century. ISBN: 9781107100138.
Buono, Andrea, et al., Eds. (2021). Remote Sensing of the Oceans: Blue Economy and Marine Pollution: Blue Economy and Marine Pollution. ISBN: 9783036512723.
Caradonna, Jeremy L. (2019). Routledge Handbook of the History of Sustainability. ISBN: 9780367855840.
Cheung William, Ota, Yoshitaka, Cisneros-Montemayor, Andres, Eds. (2019). Predicting Future Oceans: Sustainability of Ocean and Human Systems Amidst Global Environmental Change. ISBN: 9780128179451.
Chowdhary, Pankaj, et al., Eds. (2022). Microbial Biotechnology: Role in Ecological Sustainability and Research. ISBN: 9781119834458.
Clover, Charles (2005). The End of the Line : How Overfishing Is Changing the World and What We Eat. ISBN: 9780091897819.
Dame, Richard F. (2011). Ecology of Marine Bivalves: An Ecosystem Approach. ISBN: 9781439839096.
Ellis, Richard (2004). The Empty Ocean. ISBN: 9781559636377.
Finley, Carmel (2017). All the Boats on the Ocean: How Government Subsidies Led to Global Overfishing.ISBN: 9780226443379.
Gonstalla, Esther (2019). The Ocean Book: How endangered are our seas? ISBN: 9780857844774.
Goodstein, Eban S. and Polasky, Stephen (2020). Economics and the Environment. ISBN: 9781119693314.
Harvell, Drew (2019). Ocean Outbreak: Confronting the Rising Tide of Marine Disease. ISBN: 9780520296978.
Hilborn, Ray and Hilborn, Ulrike (2019). Ocean Recovery: A sustainable future for global fisheries? ISBN: 9780198839767.
Jentoft, Svein et al., Eds. (2022). Blue justice : small-scale fisheries in a sustainable ocean economy. ISBN: 9783030896232.
Kirchman, David, L. (2021). Dead Zones: The Loss of Oxygen from Rivers, Lakes, Seas, and the Ocean. ISBN: 9780197520376.
Kurlansky, Mark (1998). Cod: A Biography of the Fish that Changed the World. ISBN: 9780140275018.
Longo, Stefano B., Clausen, Rebecca, Clark, Brett (2015). The Tragedy of the Commodity: Oceans, Fisheries, and Aquaculture. ISBN: 9780813565774.
Mulligan, Martin (2017). An Introduction to Sustainability: Environmental, Social and Personal Perspectives. ISBN: 9781138698307.
Roberts, Callum (2007). The Unnatural History of the Sea: The Past and Future of Humanity and Fishing. ISBN: 9781856752947.
Rush, Elizabeth (2019). Rising: Dispatches from the New American Shore. ISBN: 9781571313812.
Santha, Sunil (2023). Climate Change, Small-Scale Fisheries, and Blue Justice Fishscapes and Alternative Worldviews. ISBN: 9781032450889.
Smith, Bren (2020). Eat Like a Fish: My Adventures Farming the Ocean to Fight Climate Change. ISBN: 9781101974322.
Smith, Hance D., Suárez de Vivero, Juan Luis, Agardy, Tundi S., Eds. (2018). Routledge Handbook of Ocean Resources and Management. ISBN: 9781138495340.
Stern, Marc J. (2018). Social Science Theory for Environmental Sustainability: A Practical Guide. ISBN: 9780198793199.