Strengthening the global network for sharing of marine biological collections: recommendations for a new agreement for biodiversity beyond national jurisdiction

Abstract

Biological collections are fundamental to marine scientific research and understanding of biodiversity at various scales. Despite their key importance, sample collections and the institutes that house them are often underfunded and receive comparatively little attention in the discussions associated with global biodiversity agreements. Furthermore, access to collections can be limited by inadequate systems, infrastructure, and networks. With negotiations underway for a new implementing agreement on biodiversity beyond national jurisdiction, marine genetic resources (MGR), including questions on the sharing of benefits, remains the most debated and contentious element. Disparities remain between States regarding access to and utilization of marine biological samples (including MGR) from areas beyond national jurisdiction. Addressing capacity gaps related to collections could provide a point of agreement during negotiations and enhance global inclusivity in access to and utilization of MGR. Here, we examine both existing capacity and regional gaps in marine collections. We propose the strengthening of a distributed network of marine biological collections, building on existing initiatives and emphasizing best practices to bridge regional gaps. Our recommendations include: promoting scientific best practice for the curation of collections; alignment with ocean observing, and sampling initiatives; a potential pairing scheme for collections in developing and developed States; raising awareness of collections and benefits to marine science including through a global registry/directory; and promoting sustainable funding mechanisms to support collections and sustain global generation of contributors and users.

Marine Genetic Resources in Areas Beyond National Jurisdiction: Promoting Marine Scientific Research and Enabling Equitable Benefit Sharing

“…It will enhance opportunities for collaboration amongst scientists from all States and might also prevent unnecessary replication of scientific sampling reducing the environmental impact of scientific activities. Given the massive costs of global and ocean-class research vessels, this may also lead to more effective usage of resources through better use of existing cruises and by preventing cruise overlap (Oldham et al, 2014;Collins et al, 2021). In Table 1 (see also Supplementary Material 4.0) we survey the current practices of cruise notification, with examples provided for countries in different geographic regions, as well as for international programs.…”

Traceability Approaches for Marine Genetic Resources Under the Proposed Ocean (BBNJ) Treaty

“…Scholz et al (2020) have also pointed out that major upfront investment would be required for such technology development, which is difficult to justify given existing traceability of NSD through the INSDC infrastructure; and potential issues futureproofing for a rapidly evolving technology. As a general point, maintenance of both databases (e.g., INDSC and biodiversity databases 25 ) and physical collections have substantial (long-term) cost implications (Rabone et al, 2019;Collins et al, 2020;Rohden et al, 2020), which should be considered in the development of any potential traceability system. The cost of developing a new, stand-alone global traceability system should be balanced against the more likely successful and more cost-effective approach of building on, and improving, current scientific collections and databases.…”

“…Traceability at collections or bulk specimen lot 29 level (i.e., all specimens from a given sampling event 29 ) can be more challenging. For example, all collections from a given cruise may be housed at different institutions, and while bulk specimen lots may have entries on an institution database they are generally not published online (Rabone et al, 2019;Collins et al, 2020). Work is underway in the biodiversity informatics community to try to capture the 'gray' data of unsorted collections, for example in publishing bulk specimen lots on OBIS, and development of both collectionslevel data descriptions (Thessen et al, 2019) and of existing collections registries, e.g., GRSciColl (Schindel et al, 2016).…”

Health-Related Exposures and Conditions among US Fishermen

“…1,2 However, health and wellbeing concerns within fishing communities such as general physical health, mental health, lifestyle and behavioral factors, and healthcare access remain less explored. [1][2][3][4] Work-related risk factors may contribute to obesity, cardiovascular disease, depression, sleep disorders, and other health disorders previously considered unrelated to work. [5][6][7][8][9][10] Surveillance in England and Wales found fishing amongst the top industries with the poorest general health and the highest incidence of longterm work-limiting illness.…”

“…11 However, analyses of US household-based national surveys (National Health Interview Survey [NHIS] and Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System [BRFSS]) that document worker health trends have not focused on fishermen. 3,4,12 We used the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health -Worker Health Charts (NIOSH-WHC) interactive online tool to create customized charts to obtain occupation-specific estimates of workplace exposures, safety behaviors, health status, illnesses, and injuries, as well as working and employment conditions. We sought to determine if NIOSH-WHC national survey data could identify risk factors and health outcomes disproportionately affecting fishermen, and identify opportunities for future research, training, and engagement with fishing communities.…”