Nathan J Bennett ^1,2,3,4* Veronica Relano ⁴ Katina Roumbedakis ^4,5,6 Jessica L. Blythe ⁷ Mark Andrachuk ⁸ Joachim Claudet ⁹ Neil Dawson ¹⁰ David Gill ¹¹ Natali Lazzari ^12,4,9 Shauna L Mahajan ¹³ Ella-Kari Muhl ¹⁴ Maraja Riechers ¹⁵ Mia Strand ¹⁶ Sebastian Villasante ⁴

• ¹ Global Science, World Wildlife Fund, Washington DC, Washington, United States
• ² International Union for Conservation of Nature, Gland, Switzerland
• ³ Institute for the Oceans and Fisheries, Faculty of Science, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada
• ⁴ University of Santiago de Compostela, Santiago de Compostela, Galicia, Spain
• ⁵ Instituto de Investigaciones Mariñas, IIM-CSIC, Vigo, Spain
• ⁶ Centro de Investigación y de Estudios Avanzados del Instituto Politécnico Nacional, Merida, Mexico
• ⁷ Environmental Sustainability Research Centre, Faculty of Social Sciences, Brock University, St. Catharines, Ontario, Canada
• ⁸ Reconnect Consulting, Guelph, Canada
• ⁹ National Center for Scientific Research, PSL Université Paris, CRIOBE, Paris, France
• ¹⁰ University of East Anglia, Norwich, England, United Kingdom
• ¹¹ Marine Lab, Nicholas School of the Environment, Duke University, Beaufort, North Carolina, United States
• ¹² Vicerectorat de Recerca, Universitat de Barcelona, Barcelona, Spain
• ¹³ Ocean Conservation, World Wildlife Fund, Washington DC, Washington, United States
• ¹⁴ Vulnerability to Viability (V2V) Global Partnership, University of Waterloo, Waterloo, Ontario, Canada
• ¹⁵ Thünen Institute of Baltic Sea Fisheries, Rostock, Germany
• ¹⁶ Nelson Mandela University, Gqeberha, South Africa

Inequity is ubiquitous in the ocean, and social equity receives insufficient attention in ocean governance and management efforts. Thus, we assert that proponents of sustainability must center social equity in future ocean governance, to address past social and environmental injustices, to align with international law and conservation policy, and to realise objectives of sustainability. This obligation applies across all marine policy realms, including marine conservation, fisheries management, climate adaptation and the ocean economy, in all socio-political contexts and at different geographical scales. Indeed, many governmental, non-governmental, and philanthropic organizations are striving to advance social equity across their ocean sustainability focused agendas, policies, programs, initiatives, and portfolios. To date, however, there has been limited attention to how to meaningfully assess status and monitor progress on social equity in ocean governance (aka “ocean equity”) across different marine policy realms. Here, we contribute to ongoing efforts to advance ocean equity through providing guidance on five steps to develop bespoke, fit to purpose and contextually appropriate assessment and monitoring frameworks and approaches to measure status of and track changes in ocean equity. These steps include: 1) Clearly articulating the overarching purpose and aim; 2) Convening a participatory group and process to co-design the assessment framework; 3) Identifying important objectives, aspects and attributes of social equity to assess; 4) Selecting and developing indicators, methods, and measures; and 5) Collecting, analyzing and evaluating data. Then, we discuss four subsequent steps to take into account to ensure that assessments lead to adaptations or transformations to improve ocean equity. These steps include: 1) Communicating results to reach key audiences, to enable learning and inform decision-making; 2) Deliberating on actions and selecting interventions to improve ocean equity; 3) Ensuring actions to improve ocean equity are implemented; and, 4) Committing to continual cycles of monitoring, evaluation, learning and adapting at regular intervals. Following these steps could contribute to a change in how oceans are governed. The diligent pursuit of ocean equity will help to ensure that the course towards a sustainable ocean is more representative, inclusive and just.