How Ropes and Reefs Feed Science and Policy

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).