All at sea? Exploring key actors’ understandings of the role of EU policies for protecting marine nature

Ambitious European Union (EU) policies are aiming to halt and reverse marine biodiversity loss in the current decade. However, EU environmental and conservation policies have so far fallen short of their targets. This study explores how the key actors in policy interpretation and implementation frame their understandings of these policy objectives, and how these framings influence the protection of marine biodiversity. The results of a Q-methodological study undertaken with key actors from national, regional sea, and EU governance levels reveal the existence of two predominant frames. Key actors are divided between Environmental Protection and Sustainable Use-focused understandings, with the first framing further partitioning into four distinct subframes. All the identified frames are internally coherent and are firmly held, therefore begging the question of how EU conservation policy should proceed, given that the same policy texts and the marine biodiversity crisis are perceived in distinctly different ways, with different actions prioritized. It is important to understand and reflect on the different positioning of key actors because these differences directly influence the achievement of marine biodiversity goals.