By and for those managing the ocean at scale.
Field-defining guidance, living management tools, case studies, origin stories, and papers: the ground-truthed practice of managing the world's largest ocean places.
Guides & major publications
The cornerstone guidance and tools for designing, managing, and funding large-scale ocean places.
Large-Scale Marine Protected Areas: Guidelines for Design and Management ↗ IUCN Best Practice Series No. 26 · co-produced with Big Ocean (2017) Political Conditions Table ↗ A living management tool · available in English, Spanish & French LSMPA Research Agenda ↗ A shared research framework for large-scale MPAs (2013) Funding Marine Protection at Scale ↗ Co-produced by Conservation International, Starling Resources & Big OceanPapers
Peer-reviewed work shaping how the field understands large-scale management.
[PDF NEEDED] Managers' Priorities & Progress Survey — full report (2025) and pilot report (2021), by Gruby & Gray. These will sit at the top of this list once you send the PDFs.
A large-scale MPA for the sea of Rapa Nui: from ocean grabbing to legitimacy ↗ Gaymer et al., Ocean & Coastal Management (2020) Why people matter in ocean governance: incorporating human dimensions into large-scale MPAs ↗ Christie et al., Marine Policy (2017) · from Big Ocean's Human Dimensions Think Tank Keeping the "Great" in the Great Barrier Reef: large-scale governance of the GBR Marine Park ↗ Day, International Journal of the Commons (2017) An appeal for a code of conduct for marine conservation ↗ Bennett et al., Journal of Marine Policy (2017) One size does not fit all ↗ Toonen et al., Marine Pollution Bulletin (2013)Origin stories
Where we, and the places we serve, began.
[TEAM INPUT NEEDED] You'll provide the origin stories — send PDFs or links and a one-line description each.
