Ocean sentinels: seabirds and the lively governance of marine ecologies

Thesis

The ocean is increasingly central to discussions about planetary futures. Its unruly effects on the global climate system and its ecological unravelling at the hands of decades of intense exploitation feed narratives of crisis, whilst redemption is proposed in new blueprints for sustainable development aligned with enlightened marine stewardship. This thesis is concerned with the changing more-than-human collectives, technologies, and practices implicated in knowing and governing the Anthropocene ocean. My specific focus is on seabirds, which are one of the most globally threatened bird groups and are used as key indicators, or sentinels, of marine environmental change. As sentinels, seabirds are put to work to know and govern ocean spaces and ecologies in diverse ways, and they illuminate a wider set of knowledge and environmental governance practices operating through animal bodies. I begin my exploration of these practices by tracing the emergence and shifting character of seabird sentinels from the 1950s to the present. My focus then turns to two distinct, digitally-mediated ways in which a particular group of seabirds – albatrosses – are operationalised as sentinels to govern ocean space. Lastly, I consider the limitations of digital transformations in environmental monitoring, specifically those meant to render the incidental catch of seabirds in fisheries visible to decision-makers. Through these cases, the thesis develops sentinel geographies as a novel field of geographical enquiry which accounts for these varied practices, the lively agencies of the nonhumans entangled with them, and the broader political economic relations within which they unfold. The practical implications of this research concern the needs for situated ethical frameworks regarding sentinel animals’ use in environmental knowledge production and governance, for questioning the naturalisation of surveillance as a marine governance technique, and for critically appraising data-driven transparency as a governance ideal in light of how it manifests in practice. In conclusion, I further articulate the promise of sentinel geographies for future geographical research on the digital mediation of human-nonhuman relations and the roles of animals in environmental sensing and governance.

Authors: Hartman Davies, O

• DOI: 10.5287/ora-rdwpbn7md
• Type of award: DPhil
• Level of award: Doctoral
• Awarding institution: University of Oxford
• Language: English
• Keywords: ocean governance; more-than-human geography; anthropocene; blue humanities; digital ecologies