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http://dx.doi.org/10.25607/OBP-1903 The goal of the sixth Ocean Best Practices System workshop (OBPS VI) was to guide the development of best practices and operating practices, to promote their documentation, and to share them widely using the OBPS. The workshop featured two plenaries held in two time zones each and 19 theme sessions held over two weeks. These theme sessions were planned and held by separate communities of practice in ocean science, engineering, and technology. The workshop attracted the attention of a total of 1152 registrants from around the world, with some 600 people attending across time zones in the theme sessions and the plenaries. The workshop allowed the different communities of practice to focus on the creation, documentation and use of best practices working with members of the OBPS Steering Group. It drew on the experience of OBPS User Groups and stakeholders and provided an opportunity to gather feedback on how the system should evolve to better fulfil each community’s vision. 

Abstract People depend on biodiversity—the heart of healthy ecosystems—in many ways and every day of our lives. Yet usable knowledge of marine life is a missing link in the way we have designed marine observing and information systems. We lack critical biodiversity information to inform sustainable development from local levels to global scales—information on Essential Ocean Variables such as how many types and how much plankton, seagrasses, macro-algae, mangroves, corals and other invertebrates, fish, turtles, birds, and mammals are in any location at any one time, the value we may derive from that combination of organisms, and how this is changing with time and why. Marine Life 2030 is a program endorsed by the Ocean Decade to develop a coordinated system to deliver such actionable, transdisciplinary knowledge of ocean life to those who need it, promoting human well-being, sustainable development, and ocean conservation. Marine Life 2030 is an open network that invites partners to join us with ideas and energy to connect communities, programs, and sectors into a global, interoperable network, transforming the observation and forecasting of marine life for the future and for the benefit of all people. 

Abstract Marine Life 2030 is a programme endorsed by the United Nations Decade of Ocean Science for Sustainable Development (the Ocean Decade) to establish a globally coordinated system that delivers knowledge of ocean life to those who need it, promoting human well-being, sustainable development, and ocean conservation. It is an open network to unite existing and new programmes into a co-designed, global framework to share information on methods, standards, observations, and applications. Goals include realizing interoperable information and transforming the observation and forecasting of marine life for the benefit of all people. Co-design, sharing local capacity, and coordination between users of ocean resources across regions is fundamental to enable sustainable use and conservation. A novel, bottom-up networking structure is now engaging members of the ocean community to address local issues, with Marine Life 2030 facilitating the linkage between groups across different regions to meet the challenges of the Ocean Decade. A variety of metrics, including those proposed by the Group on Earth Observations, will be used to track the success of the co-design process. 

The UN Decade of Ocean Science for Sustainable Development (Ocean Decade) challenges marine science to better inform and stimulate social and economic development while conserving marine ecosystems. To achieve these objectives, we must make our diverse methodologies more comparable and interoperable, expanding global participation and foster capacity development in ocean science through a new and coherent approach to best practice development. We present perspectives on this issue gleaned from the ongoing development of the UNESCO Intergovernmental Oceanographic Commission (IOC) Ocean Best Practices System (OBPS). The OBPS is collaborating with individuals and programs around the world to transform the way ocean methodologies are managed, in strong alignment with the outcomes envisioned for the Ocean Decade. However, significant challenges remain, including: (1) the haphazard management of methodologies across their lifecycle, (2) the ambiguous endorsement of what is “best” and when and where one method may be applicable vs. another, and (3) the inconsistent access to methodological knowledge across disciplines and cultures. To help address these challenges, we recommend that sponsors and leaders in ocean science and education promote consistent documentation and convergence of methodologies to: create and improve context-dependent best practices; incorporate contextualized best practices into Ocean Decade Actions; clarify who endorses which method and why; create a global network of complementary ocean practices systems; and ensure broader consistency and flexibility in international capacity development. 

This perspective outlines how authors of ocean methods, guides, and standards can harmonize their work across the scientific community. We reflect on how documentation practices can be linked to modern information technologies to improve discoverability, interlinkages, and thus the evolution of distributed methods into common best practices within the ocean community. To show how our perspectives can be turned into action, we link them to guidance on using the IOC-UNESCO Ocean Best Practice System to support increased collaboration and reproducibility during and beyond the UN Decade of Ocean Sciences for Sustainable Development.