As ocean industrialization accelerates, corporate transparency is increasingly seen as critical to improve governance. Yet little is known about how firms disclose their impacts on marine ecosystems. This study addresses that gap through a content analysis of sustainability and annual reports from 75 of the largest companies across 8 sectors of the ocean economy.

The global ocean economy is currently undergoing profound transformation. In the face of multiple challenges, the issue of sustainable ocean development has become a central concern for the international community. As a major maritime nation and a key player in the global ocean economy, China has responded to the call for sustainable development and is accelerating its transition toward a more sustainable blue economy (SBE).

Prior research suggests that the global financial services sector could influence the sustainability of the ocean economy, particularly with better information on companies’ externalities (Barbier 2023; Sumaila et al. 2021; Jouffray et al. 2019). This brief summarizes preliminary, non-peer-reviewed findings from ongoing research that explores the potential influence of the financial sector on the sustainability of the ocean economy. It aims to contribute to and inform policy discussions emerging from the United Nations Oceans Conference in June 2025.

Oceans@Duke Director Stephanie Rousso discusses her personal experience working with women fisherfolk to promote sea turtle conservation in an opinion for Frontiers in Ocean Sustainability. "Globally, women are blending traditional knowledge with modern science, taking on challenges head-on, and redefining what it means to work toward a sustainable ocean," she writes. "While these global initiatives are empowering women at a large scale, my personal journey has shown me how deeply transformative their contributions can be at the grassroots level."

Small-scale fisheries play a significant but overlooked role in global fisheries production and are key to addressing hunger and malnutrition while supporting livelihoods around the world, according to research featured on the cover of Nature. The data and methodology for this paper were produced within the framework of the Illuminating Hidden Harvests initiative conducted by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, Duke University, and WorldFish.

We provide the first global assessment of the status of preferential access areas (PAAs), a relatively understudied policy tool to govern small-scale fisheries. We find 44 countries, most of them of low or low-middle income, have established a total of 63 PAAs encompassing 3% of continental shelf area worldwide.

Citizen science is a valuable tool for addressing spatial distribution gaps in endangered, migratory species, especially in data-limited regions. This paper examines how diverse community groups (coastal residents, SCUBA divers, and artisanal fishers) contribute to sea turtle distribution information in the Bay of La Paz, Baja California, Mexico. Though the sample size is small, the variety of sources and sighting types highlight the value of collaborative citizen science in complementing traditional research.

The goal of this research is to understand the implications of using nature-based solutions, or natural infrastructure (NI), to mitigate the impacts of flooding. The two solutions I evaluate to supply NI are a program that financially incentivizes its supply by private landowners, and a government-run floodplain property acquisition program. This dissertation consists of three papers examining payments for ecosystem services (PES) programs in terms of enrollment, incentives, and outcomes. 

Global sustainability challenges, such as climate change and the plastics crisis, converge across disciplines and involve diverse stakeholders. Given the magnitude and interconnected nature of sustainability challenges, problem-solvers must be trained across disciplines.

The United States has increasingly relied on government-administered floodplain buyout programs to reduce flood risk and remove flood-damaged dwellings from floodplains. However, high transaction costs and long administrative timelines dramatically hamper buyout program efficiency. This report derives financial efficiency thresholds suggesting situational advantages to both private- and government-run buyout programs and also evaluates alternative institutional structures for implementing buyouts and novel mechanisms for financing buyouts