There is increasing recognition of the role of the ocean as a key part of providing solutions to the need to manage the world's resources sustainably. It is well documented however that the ocean is subject to a range of pressures. Climate change is leading to warming waters, increasing acidity and reducing oxygen levels. There is increasing pressure on biodiversity, exploitation of fish stocks and other anthropogenic perturbations notably inputs of nutrients and plastics. Marine resource management is crucial to address these issues and to contribute to the world's Sustainable Development Goals including, but not restricted to, SDG14 (life below water). This was recognised in the establishment in 2018 of the Ocean panel who have the aim of building momentum for a sustainable ocean (https://oceanpanel.org/). In a commentary (Lubchenko et al., Reference Lubchenco, Haugan and Pangestu2020) highlight five areas for policy action for a sustainable ocean economy: Sea food production; mitigation of climate change; stemming biodiversity loss; seizing the opportunity for economic recovery and management of the ocean holistically. All of these policy areas need to be underpinned by scientific evidence and peer reviewed studies. The Journal of the Marine Biological Association of the UK has provided a vehicle for the publication of such studies throughout its one hundred volumes.
In respect of seafood production, fisheries was very much at the heart of the formation of the Marine Biological Association and fisheries related papers are a regular feature of the journal – in this issue for example there is a description of the effects of net size and season on Scomberomorus commerson in the Persian Gulf artisanal gillnet fishery (Pouladi et al., Reference Pouladi, Paighambari, Broadhurst, Millar and Eighani2021). The immense biodiversity of the ocean is to be celebrated and is typified in the cover image of this issue and within this issue there are several papers addressing aspects of understanding biodiversity. Uyeno et al. (Reference Uyeno, Kakui, Watanabe and Fujiwara2021) document copepods from a hydrothermal vent field including one new species they found; Díaz et al. (Reference Díaz, Ramírez-Amaro, Ordines, Cárdenas, Ferriol, Terrasa and Massutí2021) describe lesser known sponges from the Mediterranean. Understanding of marine systems is fundamental to their management and in this issue Holmes and Callaway (Reference Holmes and Callaway2021) describe survey techniques targeted at describing fouling communities and identifying non-native species within active ports.
As part of our celebration of our 100th volume we have published a series of reviews (Dando & Southward, Reference Dando and Southward2020, Rainbow, Reference Rainbow2020, Raven & Beardall, Reference Raven and Beardall2020, Langstone, Reference Langston2020, Hawkins et al., Reference Hawkins, Pack, Hyder, Benedetti-Cecchi and Jenkins2020) reflecting on subjects typical of the Journal for more than one hundred years. We encourage authors to submit review articles and will continue to welcome such reviews and the insights they provide in the future.
Finally it is my pleasure to acknowledge the scholarly contribution of reviewers across the year. The process of review, suggestion of revisions and editing of manuscripts prior to publication is key to ensuring the quality of the journal. I would like thank all involved in this effort and in this final issue of Volume 100 a list of reviewers is included to acknowledge their contribution.
