How Ropes and Reefs Feed Science and Policy
October 2, 2025 | 1 min to read
Llucia Mascorda-Cabre urged early-career scientists to close the science-policy gap at ICES ASC in Klaipėda, arguing that research alone often gets shelved because policy cycles and management timelines are misaligned. She presented a mussel farm project as a model for translating science into marine policy, promoting bivalve aquaculture as a nature-based solution for sustainable seafood, conservation, and practical resource management.
In a message to early-career scientists, Llucia Mascorda-Cabre spoke at ICES ASC in Klaipėda, Lithuania, to share how a mussel farm project became a model for how to bridge research and management.
With the ocean facing challenges such as fish stock collapse and the need for sustainable seafood, science alone isn’t always enough, Mascorda-Cabre stressed during her Tuesday keynote lecture. Factors like policy cycles being out of sync with research mean that the science-policy gap remains hard to cross; science often ends up on the shelf.
Mascorda-Cabre wanted her work to have real-world impact and shape marine policy. She envisioned bivalve aquaculture as part of conservation and management as well as being a nature-based solution for sustainable food.
To read more, please visit International Council for the Exploration of the Sea (ICES).