The ocean provides important ecosystem services to society, but its health is in crisis due to the impacts of human activities. Ocean sustainability requires ambitious levels of scientific evidence to support governance and management of human activities that impact the ocean. However, due to the size, complexity and connectivity of the ocean, monitoring and data collection presupposes high investments, and nations need to cooperate to deliver the ambitious, costly science that is required to inform decisions. Here, we highlight the role that ocean science diplomacy plays in facilitating the science needed to support ocean governance and management from domestic, regional to international scales in the Atlantic region via the All Atlantic Ocean Research Alliance. This Alliance is supported by the Galway Statement (2013), the South–South Framework for Scientific and Technical Cooperation in the South and Tropical Atlantic and the Southern Oceans (2017), and the Belém Statement (2017). We discuss the national and international interests that drove the processes of negotiating these agreements, as well as their challenges to date. We also discuss the potential future of the All Atlantic Alliance, as well as its significance in emerging global initiatives such as the UN Decade of Ocean Science for Sustainable Development (2021–2030).

海洋为社会提供了重要的生态系统服务，但是由于人类活动的影响，海洋的健康正处于危机之中。海洋的可持续性需要雄心勃勃的科学证据来支持对影响海洋的人类活动的治理和管理。但是，由于海洋的规模，复杂性和连通性，监视和数据收集成为高投资的前提，各国需要合作以提供雄心勃勃，代价高昂的科学知识，从而为决策提供依据。在这里，我们重点介绍了海洋科学外交在促进通过全大西洋研究联盟支持大西洋地区从国内，区域到国际规模的海洋治理和管理所需的科学方面的作用。该联盟得到了高威声明（2013）的支持，《南，热带大西洋和南大洋的南南科学和技术合作框架》（2017年）和《贝伦声明》（2017年）。我们讨论了推动这些协议谈判进程的国家和国际利益，以及迄今为止的挑战。我们还将讨论全大西洋联盟的潜在未来，及其在新兴的全球计划中的重要性，例如联合国海洋科学促进可持续发展十年（2021年至2030年）。