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As World Ocean Day is coming closer, preparations of Mundus maris and its partners working on this year's UN theme "The Ocean: Life and Livelihoods" are heating up. The international jury is finishing its assessment work of 61 submissions from 10 countries. Our team in Senegal is planning no fewer than five activities! Nigeria two, Argentina in collaboration with others two and our teams in Belgium and Ghana one each. In Cameroon our partners Bénévoles Océan are mobilising young people in Kribi, Douala on the coast and elsewhere. Partner Eco Ethics in Kenya has already scheduled mangrove planting before and a series of beach and press activities at the day itself. 

The May 28 webinar of the V2V Project featured Dr Maarten Bavinck of Amsterdam University as keynote speaker. Starting out from his basis as a development sociologist and interested in governance, he spoke about nowadays common situations of legal plurality. The term describes a context where typically traditional laws and regulations apply to the same geographical space as modern positive law.

This year's UN motto for World Ocean Day "The Ocean: Life and Livelihoods" is particularly well-chosen as it reminds us that our lives and livelihoods are inextricably connected to the ocean. Human extractions and destruction of nature on land and in the seas are identified by many scientists and ordinary citizens as one of the major reasons why we are afflicted by more viral diseases. This is in addition to the fossil fuel addiction of how powerful companies have organised their businesses and framed our heating, cooling and mobility. This messes up the climate and generates more extreme events, such as hurricanes, droughts, inundations and harvesting losses.

The Fisheries Transparency Initiative (FiTI) is a global multi-stakeholder partnership that seeks to increase transparency and participation for more sustainability in marine fisheries. It provides governments, all kinds of participants in the fishing industry and civil society with an international framework for credible quality information about national fisheries. It promotes informed public debate about sector policies and supports the long-term contribution of the sector to national economies and the well-being of citizens and the viability of companies. A webinar on 14 April 2021 served to introduce a wider public to achievements so far and announce the forthcoming national reports of the Seychelles and Mauritania.

In the April 30, 2021 edition of the V2V Webinars Dr. Silvia Salas of CIVESTAV in Mérida, Mexico talked about the principles extracted from empirical research to facilitate the transition of small-scale fisheries from vulnerability to viability. Silvia recalled some of the basic principles we need to keep in mind for a better understanding of their current challenges and how to address them adequately. An awareness of the inherent uncertainties helps critical interrogation and risk-minimising strategies.

This year's General Assembly of the European Geosciences Union (EGU) from 19 to 30 April 2021 takes again place in the virtual EGU Sphere. Fired up by broad debates in almost all countries about how to start on new, more sustainable footings post-covid there was a notable increase in submissions seeking a stronger explicit connection between asking questions in society and doing research and education in the geosciences.

SWAIMS, the Regional Programme "Support to West Africa Integrated Maritime Security", headquartered in Abidjan, Côte d'Ivoire, focused it's webinar on 31 March 2021 on "Curbing Maritime Insecurity in the Niger Delta". One of the speakers invited in the occasion of this exchange with civil society organisations was Prof. Stella Williams, Vice President of Mundus maris, who spoke on the topic of Illegal, unreported and unregulated (IUU) fishing and its effect on small-scale fisheries.

In the third of the monthly thematic webinars of the V2V research partnership about exploring ways to lead small-scale fisheries from vulnerability to viability, on 27 March 2021, Ingrid van Putten of CSIRO in Australia shared research results into the marketing of four major marine commodities from the so-called Treaty villages in Papua New Guinea. Lack of information, skills and support systems for communities in the coastal villages of Torres Strait mean that swimbladders of Barramundi and Jewfish considered a delicacy and an aphrodisiac in countries like China, dried bêche de mer and shark fins produced by men and live mud crabs caught by women fetch low prices, especially when sold illegally to Indonesian traders conveniently going from house to house to buy the catch.

After more than one year without presential trainings of the Small-Scale Fisheries Academy due to the covid-19 pandemic a catching-up workshop was convened with some precautionary measures in Yoff, Saturday, 27 February 2021. This not only helped to reconnect and exchange about what had happened in the meantime with the annual workplans of Academy learners, but it was also an opportunity to try the feasibility of a mixed working method with co-facilitation on the spot and remotely.

Today, we want to honour at least a small selection of the women leaders in fisheries working to make the world a better place.

Aujourd'hui, nous voulons rendre hommage à au moins une petite sélection de femmes leaders de la pêche qui travaillent pour rendre le monde meilleur.

Heute möchten wir zumindest eine kleine Auswahl der leitenden Frauen in der Fischerei ehren, die daran arbeiten, die Welt zu einem besseren Ort zu machen.

Hoy, queremos honrar al menos a una pequeña selección de las mujeres líderes en la pesca que trabajan para hacer del mundo un lugar mejor.

Oggi vogliamo onorare almeno una piccola selezione delle donne leader nel settore della pesca che lavorano per rendere il mondo un posto migliore.

In the second of the monthly thematic webinars organised by the V2V research partnership about exploring ways for small-scale fisheries from vulnerability to viability Research Lead Pip Cohen of WorldFish Center talked about vibrant and vital small-scale fisheries amidst a sea of transformation. While the major global and regional political fora endorse and recommend small-scale fisheries as reflected e.g. in the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) of Agenda 2030, the Voluntary Guidelines for securing sustainable SSF, statements by the International Labour Organization (ILO), the ground realities are more complicated.