Globally, fisheries continue to face a range of pressures that can be addressed by more effective national, regional, and international fisheries governance. Increasing the transparency of decision-making and implementation of adopted measures is widely recognised as forming part of the solution to this challenge. While transparency has emerged as a good governance principle in general, it is embedded in specific international law obligations when it comes to fisheries. For fisheries management, it is crucial that relevant data be available to inform decisions and that the process be inclusive. Ensuring inclusive decision-making relies not only on the participation of outsiders but also on the equality of States in the negotiations leading to a decision. Furthermore, transparency serves important functions in relation to compliance and accountability: putting information on vessels, States, international organisations or even private actors in the public domain enables scrutiny, might encourage compliance, and builds trust in the regime. Several lessons for fisheries management arise from the contributions to this special issue of Marine Policy. First, the positive impact of transparency ought not to be accepted without a thorough examination of its implementation in practice. Second, transparency in a substantive sense does not mean simply the availability of data; it must also focus on information of high quality and usability for specific stakeholders. Finally, keeping in mind the ultimate purpose of sustainability, transparency is but one stone in the larger process of building legitimate and effective regimes for managing shared resources.

在全球范围内，渔业继续面临一系列压力，可以通过更有效的国家、区域和国际渔业治理来解决。提高决策和实施措施的透明度被广泛认为是解决这一挑战的一部分。虽然透明度已成为普遍的善治原则，但在涉及渔业时，它嵌入在具体的国际法义务中。对于渔业管理而言，重要的是提供相关数据来为决策提供信息并且该过程具有包容性。确保包容性决策不仅依赖于局外人的参与，还依赖于各国在导致决策的谈判中的平等。此外，透明度在合规性和问责制方面发挥着重要作用：将有关船舶、国家、国际组织甚至私人行为者的信息公之于众，可以进行审查，可能会鼓励合规性，并建立对制度的信任。对渔业管理的一些经验教训来自对这一特刊的贡献海洋政策。首先，如果没有对其在实践中的实施情况进行彻底检查，就不应接受透明度的积极影响。其次，实质意义上的透明度不仅仅意味着数据的可获得性；它还必须关注特定利益相关者的高质量和可用性信息。最后，牢记可持续性的最终目的，透明度只是建立合法和有效的共享资源管理制度的更大过程中的一块石头。