A year of collaboration, investigation and outreach for Marine SABRES

Marine SABRES project co-ordinator Emma Verling (MaREI, UCC) reflects on a busy and productive year.

In October 2024, partners gathered in Madeira for the Marine SABRES General Assembly. This busy and productive meeting focused on shaping the project’s direction as it entered its second half. External Advisory Board member Alice Newton played a key role in guiding discussions and provided invaluable advice to the project team as the project moves forward.

A major achievement this year was the refinement of the Simple SES – the result of almost three years of work. The Simple SES provides a critical foundation for the Decision Support System (DSS), now at an advanced stage of development and set to become a central focus of the project’s final year. In developing our DSS, stakeholder voices remain central to Marine SABRES.

Over the winter months, Stakeholder Engagement teams travelled to Tuscany, Madeira, the Azores, the Canary Islands, Iceland, the Faroe Islands and Greenland to meet with stakeholders, such as local communities and decision-makers. The objective was to engage with them about the work of the project and gather opinions and inputs to guide the continued development of the work. Following from these consultations, a second Over-arching Stakeholder Meeting was held in Zandvoort, Netherlands in in April 2025. This brought together stakeholder groups from Marine SABRES and the MARBEFES project. Over two days, stakeholders from sectors as diverse as the hotel industry, tourism and fisheries shared valuable insights and ideas, strengthening the projects’ collaborative approach and most crucially, ensuring that the outputs of both projects were fit for purpose. Looking ahead, the group will reconvene in 2026 for a third Over-arching Stakeholder event, to demonstrate how their contributions have shaped the work of both projects.

One of the most intensive areas of work this year has focussed on exploring how different interventions can help advance EBM. These range from transboundary fisheries management to seagrass restoration and the creation of a marine corridor. The project team has developed structured, comparative methods to evaluate interventions not only for their ecological effectiveness, but also their economic efficiency and social acceptability. This provides policymakers with evidence to guide investment and align actions across sectors. Importantly, the work also refines how behavioural and governance factors are considered in socio-ecological models, building semi-quantitative tools to explore the consequences of societal choices. This marks a significant step forward in bridging science with real-world decision-making.

To bring science closer to the public, the 'Marine SABRES in Fairs' initiative was launched, taking the project on tour through booths, seminars, and public events. In June 2025, Marine SABRES participated in FIMAR 2025 in the Canary Islands, an international celebration of the blue economy. The project’s activities – from interactive displays to social media campaigns – reached thousands of people, with over 14,000 visitors recorded during the weekend. November 2024 saw the first Marine SABRES School Competition, held on World Fisheries Day. Ten schools from Spain, Italy, and Greece joined the event, engaging students in a serious game about marine sustainability. Teachers received dedicated support and resources, ensuring a smooth and enjoyable experience. Building on this success, the 2025 School Competition is already underway, with a launch in August and the next event scheduled for 21 November 2025. Once again, students across Europe will come together to explore the challenges and opportunities of protecting our oceans.

As Marine SABRES moves into its final year, scenario-based assessments will aim to evaluate the costs, opportunities, and real-world feasibility of different management pathways in each Demonstration Area. There will also be a strong focus on completing the DSS and ensuring that its outputs are practical, impactful, and accessible to policymakers, stakeholders, and communities. There will also be a strong focus on the upscaling of the DSS in order to evaluate how it could be adapted for other areas.

With a continued emphasis on scientific research and collaborative engagement, the project is on track to deliver meaningful contributions to the future of Europe’s seas.

Emma Verling

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