Publications

Andrew Hattle, Cynthia Flores, Dianty Ningrum, Robert Blasiak, Frida Bengtsson, Henrik Österblom. 2025. An active academia for peace and sustainability. Peace and Sustainability. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.nerpsj.2025.100004

With discontent rising in response to insufficient action to address climate, biodiversity, equity, democracy, and peace challenges, activism is prevalent. We explore a history of civil disobedience, direct action and protest related to gender equality, anti-war and anti-nuclear movements, the protection of indigenous rights, nature, and LGBT+ rights, to consider the role of academics amid interlinked climate, biodiversity and...

Frida Bengtsson, Jean-Baptiste Jouffray, Shinnosuke Nakayama, Erik Zhivkoplias, Colette C. C. Wabnitz, Robert Blasiak, Elizabeth R. Selig, Henrik Österblom. 2024. Who owns reefer vessels? Uncovering the ecosystem of transshipment in fisheries. Science Advances. https://doi.org/10.1126/sciadv.adn3874

A central barrier to effective governance and accountability in fisheries is the limited transparency of corporate ownership. Transshipment—the transfer of catches, fuel, parts, or crew between fishing and cargo vessels known as reefers—is often criticized for its opacity and poor governance. Better insight into the beneficial ownership of vessels involved in transshipment and their operational patterns could lead to more effe...

Guillermo Ortuño Crespo, Shane Griffiths, Hilario Murua, Henrik Österblom, Jon Lopez. 2024. Adaptive spatiotemporal management to reduce shark bycatch in tuna fisheries. Conservation Biology. https://doi.org/10.1111/cobi.14324

Purse-seine tropical tuna fishing in the eastern tropical Pacific Ocean (EPO) results in the bycatch of several sensitive species groups, including elasmobranchs. Effective ecosystem management balances conservation and resource use and requires considering trade-offs and synergies. Seasonal and adaptive spatial measures can reduce fisheries impacts on nontarget species while maintaining or increasing target catches. Identifyi...

Robert Blasiak, Jean-Baptiste Jouffray, Diva J. Amon, Joachim Claudet, Paul Dunshirn, Peter Søgaard Jørgensen, Agnes Pranindita, Colette C. C. Wabnitz, Erik Zhivkoplias, Henrik Österblom. 2023. Making marine biotechnology work for people and nature. Nature Ecology & Evolution. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41559-022-01976-9

Robert Blasiak, Jean-Baptiste Jouffray, Albert Norström, Cibele Queiroz, Colette CC Wabnitz, Henrik Österblom. 2023. The Ocean Decade as an instrument of peace. Current Opinion in Environmental Sustainability. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cosust.2023.101319

The United Nations Decade of Ocean Science for Sustainable Development 2021–2030 (the ‘Ocean Decade’) is poised to stimulate new cooperation for ocean science, but makes no mention of conflict or peace. We contend that this is a missed opportunity, and use an environmental peacebuilding typology to review how ocean science has historically contributed to peace. Such considerations are timely in the context of an increasingly c...

Österblom, H. (Ed.). (2023). The sounds of science: orchestrating stewardship in the seafood industry. Elsevier.

The Sounds of Science provides a comprehensive account of a large-scale scientific experiment with globally operating seafood corporations headquartered in North America, Europe, and Asia. It describes how scientists worked to identify these, world’s largest seafood companies, and how their disproportionate powers were mobilized in a coalition of companies called SeaBOS (Seafood Business for Ocean Stewardship), aiming to pro...

Henrik Österblom, Francisco Gazitúa, Angela Leible, Henrik Osterblom. 2023. To split a stone. Ecology and Society. https://doi.org/10.5751/es-14270-280311

Science and art are often disconnected but, if combined, can help stimulate learning and novelty and guide societal change. How then to bridge the divide between scientists and artists in a way that extends beyond superficial, short-term interactions? We describe an ongoing coproduction practice between a Swedish sustainability scientist and two Chilean artists—a sculptor and painter—striving to find ways to work together. Our...

H. Österblom, J. Bebbington, R. Blasiak, M. Sobkowiak, C. Folke. 2022. Transnational Corporations, Biosphere Stewardship, and Sustainable Futures. Annual Review of Environment and Resources. https://doi.org/10.1146/annurev-environ-120120-052845

Corporations are perceived as increasingly powerful and critically important to ensuring that irreversible climatological or ecological tipping points on Earth are not crossed. Environmental impacts of corporate activities include pollution of soils, freshwater and the ocean, depletion of ecosystems and species, unsustainable use of resources, changes to air quality, and alteration of the global climate. Negative social impact...

Österblom, H., Blasiak, R.. 2022. Credibility at stake in Sweden. Science. https://doi.org/10.1126/science.adf4127

Swedens legacy as a global leader in the push to put climate and the environment at the heart of government decision-making may have come to an end on 18 October 2022. The first casualty of the countrys new right-wing government was the Ministry of the Environment, eliminated on Day 1. A key question is the extent to which this change derails progress made toward building a sustainable nation and world. Sweden has long been a...

Blasiak, R., Jouffray, J., Amon, D., Moberg, F., Claudet, J., Søgaard Jørgensen, P., Pranindita, A., Wabnitz, C., Österblom, H.. 2022. A forgotten element of the blue economy: marine biomimetics and inspiration from the deep sea. PNAS Nexus. doi.org/10.1093/pnasnexus/pgac196

The morphology, physiology, and behavior of marine organisms have been a valuable source of inspiration for solving conceptual and design problems. Here, we introduce this rich and rapidly expanding field of marine biomimetics, and identify it as a poorly articulated and often overlooked element of the ocean economy associated with substantial monetary benefits. We showcase innovations across seven broad categories of marine b...