DOSI Town Hall

Deep-Ocean Science as the Foundation for a Thriving Global Ocean (TH33F)

Wednesday 25 February 2026, 12:45-13:45

DOSI is hosting a Town Hall at the Ocean Sciences Meeting in Glasgow, focused on the essential role of deep-ocean science in underpinning a healthy, resilient, and productive global ocean. This session will bring together researchers, policymakers, and practitioners to discuss how deep-ocean knowledge supports effective ocean governance, informs international agreements, and enables sustainable management across areas within and beyond national jurisdiction.

The Town Hall will provide space for open discussion, community exchange, and identification of priorities for advancing deep-ocean science in support of global ocean goals.

The deep ocean is a vast Earth-spanning ecosystem, kilometres deep and continuously yielding new discoveries. It is also attracting increasing commercial attention. Nascent deep-sea mining and marine carbon dioxide removal industries are potential significant new pressures on top of ongoing impacts from climate change, fisheries and offshore energy extraction. We must shed light on these darkest areas of the ocean to safeguard their future. The context of the Biodiversity Beyond National Jurisdiction Agreement and the UN Ocean Decade provide powerful international frameworks within which to rally a global community of deep-ocean stewards. The deep-ocean science community has already been proactive and successful in engaging with the UN Ocean Decade  from the outset. This event gathers representatives of deep-ocean-focused Decade Actions to provide updates of their achievements, followed by discussions with the audience to identify future opportunities to enhance engagement of the community across the Decade. This call halfway through the Decade for further scientific participation in the future of global ocean sustainability and policy comes at a critical time, with momentum to generate much needed deep-ocean knowledge.