Can we raise awareness and understanding of interdisciplinary marine conservation through online action?

Over recent years, there has been a growing effort to bridge the gap between social and natural sciences, with increasing calls for disciplines such as marine social science to supplement and complement traditional marine... [ view full abstract ]

Over recent years, there has been a growing effort to bridge the gap between social and natural sciences, with increasing calls for disciplines such as marine social science to supplement and complement traditional marine biology in marine conservation efforts. However, this transition seems to being hampered by the often silo-ed structures of academic and government institutions. While a move to interdisciplinarity is underway, the existing research landscape can be frustratingly slow. Consequently, there are doubts as to whether the necessary integration of the social and natural sciences can happen in time to address some of the most pressing socioecological issues impacting are coasts and oceans (e.g. climate change, plastic pollution, overfishing). With this in mind, we ask if the less structured, but rapidly growing, online community of marine researchers, stakeholders, and policy-makers can become active in the transition towards greater interdisciplinarity in marine conservation. Recent conversations on Twitter around the hashtag #MarSocSci (i.e. ‘marine social science’), for instance, have initiated the growth of a virtual research community, bringing international social and natural scientists together in discussions on interdisciplinary issues. Can this be built on to accelerate progress toward true interdisciplinarity in marine conservation? In this facilitated discussion we will identify and discuss current and potential online networks, tools, and resources, examining a range of opportunities that can and should be part of this progress. We will start this discussion through highlighting how a soon to be established Marine Social Sciences Network aims to foster greater interdisciplinarity, on and offline.