Marine Ecosystem Services and Integrated Management: "There's a crack, a crack in everything, that's how the light gets in"!

There have been many recent developments and discussions regarding marine science for policy, governance and management in the pages of Marine Pollution Bulletin and elsewhere and especially the movement towards systems analysis to cope with the complexity of marine natural and human systems (for example, Elliott et al., 2017, 2020a, 2020b; Cormier et al., 2022, and references therein). It is emphasised that the marine system has to be viewed through both eco-centric and anthropocentric lenses but both aspects are needed to consider the whole ecosystem. Because of this, it is now especially appropriate to reappraise an integrative model linking the natural and social sciences, governance and management. If such a model can be agreed then it would enable a recipe for assessing and managing human activities in the sea. Such a model would need to merge the natural and social sciences, not least to include concepts regarding the ecosystem services and societal goods and benefits provided by our oceans. Despite this, and perhaps as expected, there continues to be discussion and even argument relating to the meaning, interpretation and use of the relevant terms, especially regarding the concepts relating to ecosystem services. This article attempts to clarify the ecosystem services concept while also proposing such an integrative model