National Marine Science Committee – Marine science driving the blue economy

Marine science driving the development
of Australia's blue economy

A New Decade: what has changed?

The National Marine Science Committee (NMSC) has begun a process to develop a new national decadal strategy for marine science, and an associated plan to deliver on this strategy. This Strategy and Plan will follow on from the 2015-2025 Plan and an update and assessment of progress in the NMSC Midway report.

NMSC has designed this process to ensure that “The Strategy” is focussed on coordinating and delivering high- quality marine science to support priorities identified by intergovernmental processes (e.g., UN Sustainable Development Goals, Ocean Decade; Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), Conference of the Parties (COP), World Ocean Assessment (WOA),etc.), National and State governments (e.g., National Science and Research Priorities, Australia’s Sustainable Ocean Plan (SOP), etc.), industry peak bodies, NGOs, communities, and First Nations peoples.

This is a complex task, and we are counting on the broad science and end-user communities to collaboratively develop a strategy and plan we can collectively support.

Over the next months, we invite the marine science community and interested end-users to collaborate and contribute to the new National Marine Science Strategy (2025-2035) through:

Developing White Papers
from November 2024 focused on describing the science required to satisfy priority national end-user needs and maximize societal benefits and the best means to deliver this science.

Express your interest: Help develop a White Paper

Information on the White Paper process

Participating in the National Marine Science Symposium
in June 2025 to review the white papers and discuss priority recommendations for the NMSP.

Supporting the Official Launch
of the National Marine Science Strategy and Plan (NMSP) 2025-2035 at Parliament House, Canberra, in November 2025.

The Midway Point: how far have we come?

The National Marine Science Committee recently launched the National Marine Science Plan 2015–2025: The Midway Point.

The Midway Point is both a review of the National Marine Science Plan 2015–2025 and a renewed clarion call for the marine science community, industry and government to drive the blue economy’s development and fulfil its prosperity potential.

Read the report and its accompanying Stories from the blue economy here.

How can I get involved?

I'm a marine scientist

I work in government

I work in industry

I'm in the community

At a glance: Australia's valuable marine estate

Australia’s vast oceans are the heritage, heart and economic future of our country. The value of this marine estate to the homes, work, play, energy, food, safety and security of all Australians is matched only by the enormous economic and environmental wealth this national asset affords us.

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Australia's marine industry, including fishing, offshore oil and gas, ship-building and tourism, contributed $69.2 billion in 2017-18. This was 3.7% of the national gross domestic product.

(Source: Australian Institute of Marine Science Index of Marine Industry 2020)

The Great Barrier Reef has an economic, social and icon asset value of $56 billion. It supports 64,000 jobs and contributes
$6.4 billion pa to the Australian economy. It is integral to Traditional Owners' identity.

(Source: Deloitte Access Economics, The Economic, Social and Icon Value of the Great Barrier Reef 2017)

More than 85% of Australians live within 50km of the coastline, which extends approximately 33,000 km. Australia's Exclusive Economic Zone is one of the largest in the world at 10 million km²

(Source: Australia State of the Environment 2016 and Geoscience Australia)

The marine science community commits to integrating traditional knowledge, two-way knowledge exchange and partnerships with Traditional Owners wherever possible.

Recommendation 9, National Marine Science Plan 2015–2025: The Midway Point