As early as 2013, an expert panel of the German Federal Government (the German Advisory Council on Global Change, WBGU) developed ten criteria that can be used to analyse and realign existing marine management structures. The criteria have lost none of their value or relevance to this day. Ambitious marine management under this approach is based on the following principles:

1. Adaptive management aims to continuously improve the knowledge base for governance and to promptly use it in the conservation and sustainable use of the oceans. Adaptive management aims to broaden our knowledge of the structure and dynamics of ecosystems via a learning process and thus iteratively improves the protection and management of the seas.
2. Incentives for innovation encouraging a sustainable, low risk use of the oceans reward players who develop long-term, sustainable business models on the use and conservation of the seas instead of seeking short-term profit maximization.
3. A clear assignment of rights of use is necessary to prevent the overexploitation of the sea, which is a common good. This makes it possible to exclude certain users and thus to coordinate use – either via markets or by negotiation. Furthermore, the societal costs of use can be charged to the users according to the polluter pays principle, so that the external costs are internalized.
4. Neither the conservation nor the sustainable use of the oceans as a global public good is possible without an unprecedented level of global cooperation and global cooperation mechanisms. Global cooperation forms the foundation for the development of international treaties on marine conservation and use, and for the joint implementation of these treaties.
5. Subsidiary decision-making structures – i.e. assigning deci­sion-making powers primarily to decentralized decision-makers at the regional or local level, and secondarily to central international agencies – are crucial for the acceptance of global and national regulations. Moreover, such an interpretation of subsidiarity makes regulations easier to enforce efficiently.
6. Transparent information ensures that all players have access to the relevant data.
7. Participatory decision-making structures make it possible to reveal interests; they lead to decisions that all stakeholders can understand.
8. Fair distribution mechanisms aim to ensure an equitable distribution both of the benefits of marine resource use and of the costs – e.g. of conservation, monitoring, surveillance and sanctions. This applies to the sharing of costs and benefits between countries and between different levels of a country’s government.
9. Conflict-resolution mechanisms are necessary in order to coordinate the many and complex use interests of different stakeholders (e.g. governments and individuals).
10. Sanction mechanisms at the different governance levels are key instruments for enforcing compliance with regulations on use.