The Fourth Assessment Report by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) in 2007 and the Stern Review, published in 2006, created an unprecedented level of awareness worldwide of the problems and impacts of climate change. This sparked the idea of producing a similar type of report for the oceans, which cover three-quarters of the Earth’s surface, thus focusing attention on some of the most urgent issues facing us today.

To that end, the publishing house mareverlag in Hamburg set up the non-profit company maribus two years ago. This was motivated not by commercial interest but by the desire to focus maximum possible attention on the state of the world’s oceans. Partners were sought to support the pursuit of this objective, and the International Ocean Institute (IOI) and the non-profit Ocean Science and Research Foundation (OSRF) – both founded by Elisabeth Mann Borgese – joined the project. The IOI provides logistical support, its close association with the work of the United Nations playing an important role in this context. The OSRF provides financial backing for the project. The key scientific partner is the Cluster of Excellence “The Future Ocean” – a research group made up of more than 250 scientists investigating climate and ocean change at a number of research institutions in Kiel.

World Ocean Review 2010