Economic activity
Production, income and employment associated with ocean-related activities.
Global Ocean Accounts Partnership
Technical Guidance on Ocean Accounting
Methods for compiling ocean accounts and using their outputs in policy, planning and reporting.
The guidance covers environmental, economic and social accounts, data requirements, compilation methods and indicators. It is intended for account compilers, data providers and users of ocean accounts.
Find guidance by task
Choose a task below. Each circular lists the background knowledge and inputs needed to apply its methods.
| Task and output | Guidance |
|---|---|
| Assess implementation readiness Assess institutional capacity, data and skills, and identify implementation priorities. | TG-0.8: Implementation Readiness Assessment |
| Identify data requirements and sources Plan data collection, processing and quality assurance. | Section 4: Data production |
| Compile account tables Apply methods for environmental, economic and social accounts. | Section 3: Compiling accounts |
| Derive indicators Calculate indicators from account outputs for policy monitoring and reporting. | Section 2: Indicators |
| Use account outputs in policy and planning Prepare evidence for budgets, national plans and marine spatial planning. | Section 1: Decision-making |
For a sequence matched to your role, see TG-0.5: Navigating the Technical Guidance. To search by topic or filter by audience and workflow stage, use the circular finder.
What ocean accounts measure
Ocean accounts organise environmental, economic and social data about marine and coastal systems using accounting concepts and classifications. The guidance addresses three areas:
Environmental assets and change
The extent and condition of marine and coastal ecosystems, natural resource stocks, and changes over time.
Benefits, costs and their distribution
How livelihoods and wellbeing depend on the ocean, and how benefits and costs are distributed across groups.
The guidance draws on the 2025 System of National Accounts, the System of Environmental-Economic Accounting (SEEA) Central Framework and SEEA Ecosystem Accounting. It includes applications and extensions to these standards. Circulars identify their relationship to the standards and carry a method-maturity label: Core, Applied, Emerging or Pilot. These labels do not indicate adoption of the consultation drafts.
7 sections, 89 circulars
View the catalogue →71 available for review; 18 forthcoming. Forthcoming entries list titles only and do not yet have text or a comment form.
Country case studies in Section 5 are forthcoming.
Comment on the draft guidance
Comments can identify unclear instructions, factual or methodological errors, missing data sources, or methods that cannot be applied with available data or institutional arrangements. Where possible, describe the issue and suggest a correction or alternative.
Select a passage in a circular to open its comment form. For a figure, use Comment on this figure beneath it. You can comment on an individual passage without reviewing the whole circular. A GitHub account is not required.
See how to comment for submission instructions and how responses are handled, or read the consultation record.
Your comment may be published in the consultation record without your name attached. Your email address is never published. Your name and organisation appear in the list of respondents unless you opt out in the form. You can also submit anonymously.
Publisher and contact
Published by the Global Ocean Accounts Partnership (GOAP) Secretariat, hosted by the University of New South Wales (UNSW). Read about the guidance and consultation for the review process and information about GOAP.
- Contact
- info@oceanaccounts.org · oceanaccounts.org
- Credits
- Contributors are listed in TG-0.3: Acknowledgements. Funding information is on About GOAP.