on more than 'just' additional data and knowledge. Moreover, public support for science appears at an all-time low (Kreps and Kriner 2020) and the sciencepolicy gap is growing (Cvitanovic and Hobday 2018). "The ocean we need for the future we want" requires scientists and decision-makers to identify how to facilitate the use of available science and encourage the uptake of behaviours and the implementation of policies-at individual, local and global scales-that will leverage greater environmental benefit. This Future Seas 2030 Special Issue is the product of a large-scale inter and transdisciplinary collaboration that includes ecologists, psychologists, public health and education experts, philosophers, oceanographers, climate modelers, economists, social scientists, engineers, mathematicians, natural resource managers and information and communications technology researchers, as well as governance, ethics, finance and insurance, and law and policy experts from 12 countries and 25 nationalities. A unique and fundamentally important aspect was the involvement and collaboration with Traditional knowledge holders and Indigenous scholars and Elders from 13 First Nations around the world through a Traditional and Indigenous Peoples' Working Group.Collectively, this Special Issue explores possible futures for our oceans by 2030 for a series of 'key' societal challenges, from climate change, food security and biodiversity, through to issues of ocean governance, ocean literacy and the blue economy. Most papers explore a 'business-as-usual' future-what