The rapidly evolving ocean economy, driven by human needs for food, energy, transportation and recreation, has led to unprecedented pressures on the ocean that are further amplified by climate change, loss of biodiversity and pollution. The need for better governance of human activities in the ocean space has been widely recognized for years, and is now also incorporated in the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals. Even so, many challenges relating to the implementation of existing governance frameworks exist. Here, we argue that integrated ocean management (IOM) should be the key overarching approach—building upon and connecting existing sectoral governance efforts—for achieving a sustainable ocean economy. IOM is a holistic, ecosystem-based and knowledge-based approach that aims to ensure the sustainability and resilience of marine ecosystems while integrating and balancing different ocean uses to optimize the overall ocean economy. We discuss examples of IOM in practice from areas where preconditions differ substantially, and identify six universal opportunities for action that can help achieve a sustainable ocean economy.

人类对食物，能源，运输和娱乐的需求推动了迅速发展的海洋经济，从而给海洋带来了前所未有的压力，气候变化，生物多样性丧失和污染进一步加剧了海洋压力。多年来，人们已经广泛认识到需要更好地管理人类在海洋空间中的活动，现在也将其纳入联合国可持续发展目标。即便如此，仍然存在与执行现有治理框架有关的许多挑战。在这里，我们认为，综合海洋管理（IOM）应该是实现可持续海洋经济的主要总体方法（在现有部门治理工作的基础上建立并相互联系）。IOM是一个整体 基于生态系统和基于知识的方法，旨在确保海洋生态系统的可持续性和弹性，同时整合和平衡不同的海洋用途以优化总体海洋经济。我们讨论了前提条件差异很大的地区在实践中的IOM示例，并确定了六项普遍的行动机会，可以帮助实现可持续的海洋经济。