The “blue economy” emerged as a popular vision for sustainable ocean development during the 2010s, as communities across the world grappled with challenges of declining ocean health, economic crises and stalling development outcomes. Today, it is a centerpiece of many global sustainable ocean agendas, including those of the World Bank, U.N. Environment Programme and Asian Development Bank. Central the blue economy’s appeal is a promise to transform human interactions with the ocean, promoting a “paradigm shift,” to quote The Commonwealth, from “brown” development models to one that prioritizes ecological health, improved livelihoods and job creation in balance with economic prosperity. In the current age of ecological crisis, accelerating climate change impacts and deepening inequities, such change in how society engages with oceans is urgently needed. However, after years researching the blue economy — its actors, activities and logics — I’ve come to suspect there’s something fishy about this oceans vision. Is the blue economy but a charming deception that is being leveraged to extend and innovate exploitative systems ever further over maritime spaces, communities and ecologies? Artisanal fishermen set off in their dhow from Nosy-be in northwestern Madagascar in April 2015. Image © Pierre Baelen/Greenpeace. A vision from SIDS? It is commonly said within policy and academic circles that the blue economy originated under the leadership of small island developing states (SIDS) at the Rio+20 conference of 2012. According to this narrative, ocean-reliant communities across the world united to advocate for sustainable ocean development, by asserting their agency and challenging…This article was originally published on Mongabay