Evaluating the Impact of Ocean Acidification on Seafood – a Global Approach

This CRP provided a unique cooperation platform for research organisations from 14 countries across five continents – Africa, Europe, North America, South America and Asia – to join their efforts in co-designing a comprehensive experimental framework implemented in parallel and providing important data on species’ response to OA. This was a first of its kind collective assessment of OA impacts on socio-economically relevant species using a unitary approach and a collaborative design and implementation, with knowledge sharing, capacity building and establishment of best practices.

The CRP allowed for a comprehensive assessment of existing research capabilities in the countries, identifying gaps and allowing for new infrastructure and expertise to be developed (e.g., a new specialised laboratory for OA research in Türkiye and Cuba, and new OA monitoring stations in Argentina). The enhancement of inter-institutional partnerships in countries was a major outcome of this project. This created a platform for shared knowledge building, training and transfer of know-how, and consolidation of national efforts to tackle the topic of OA and bring it closer to decision makers’ attention. Partnerships were equally facilitated at regional (between CRP participants) and international level.
For many participating countries, the CRP offered a new way to think about experimental research, co-design, and science driven by societal needs, as well as socio-economic aspects for food security and economic activity, which helps to set OA as a priority area of concern and may further attract governmental financial and technical support for targeted research. Importantly, the CRP enabled participants to engage in science communication and outreach to various types of stakeholders. For many, this was a valuable learning experience in terms of communication strategies and tools and created lasting relationships with users of scientific data, and discussions on potential solutions adapted to the local context. For example, in Ecuador, results from the CRP were shared with policymakers to feed the National Environmental Law articles which now mentions OA.

During the final RCM, all CRP participants considered that their learning outcomes from the CRP experience were very high (5 out of 5 on a scale from 1 to 5), while the benefits to their countries were ranked as high (4.2 out of 5). All participants agreed that this CRP project allowed them to build the capacity to perform ocean acidification experiments in their country.