This article explores several key ingredients for successful and sustainable interactions of people and oceans, based on an integrative social–ecological systems perspective. Several key themes are examined: governance and decision-making, livelihoods and well-being, and the modern challenge of adaptation to current and future climate change. Each of these applies at various scales, from the local to the global. While much attention in the literature lies on global and large-scale systems, the smaller scale is deserving of at least as much attention; this point is illustrated by a local-level example. Indeed, cross-scale linkages that connect scales of impacts and levels of decision-making are key elements in improving the governance of marine systems.
