‘Our Ocean Conference’ is an annual fixture in the global ocean governance calendar. It brings together philanthropists, NGOs, community actors and politicians to strengthen the implementation of the ocean agenda, including the ambitions under the SDG14, 30×30 biodiversity target, and the new BBNJ treaty. The 2026 edition, the 11th conference, is the first time held in Africa, with Mombasa acting as the host city. This brings much-needed attention to the support needs of the African continent.

Although maritime security is one of the priority areas of the conference, there is little sign that the importance of security, safety and blue crime as a major risk factor in ocean governance is taken seriously. After all, any incident — whether piracy or an oil spill — can rapidly undermine conservation efforts and threaten long term blue economy investments. Only three panels of the five day conference deal substantially with blue crimes, with the main focus on illicit fishing and pollution crimes. Other challenges which should feature, such as marine safety, coast guard cooperation, or the role of shipping and ports, do not feature on the agenda.

I had the pleasure to give two presentations. At one of the pre-conference panels, I discussed the importance of better integrating maritime domain awareness with other information sharing systems, including those developed for ocean observation and marine spatial planning. This draws on my ongoing work on Maritime Domain Awareness and a collaboration with Paul Trautendorffer of JPI Oceans. At an informal side event on the Regional Maritime Security Architecture in the Western Indian Ocean, organized by the Indian Ocean Commission, the Kenya Navy, and the University of Oxford, I gave a brief talk on the changing maritime security environment and how research can assist in coping with it.

Delighted to note that the Charles Telfair Centre of Mauritius, which I joined as an associate fellow this year, has a strong presence. Dr. Myriam Blin, the director of the Centre, was invited to chair the main plenary session focused on maritime security, which is scheduled for this Thursday. This is evidence of growing recognition that island leadership is key in maritime security. Yet, more efforts will be needed to build stronger bridges between maritime peace and security and the other ocean agendas.