Launched internally on 1st July 2021, the 4-OCEANS project has a broad, established and dedicated research team. The project is led by 4 PIs - Poul Holm, Francis Ludlow, James Barrett and Cristina Brito - and was publically launched in November 2021. The project PIs successfully formed a joint collaborative agreement with project additional beneficiaries, University of Oslo, Columbia University, NASA, University of San Diego (foreseen) and University of Texas System (unforeseen). Colleen Petrik, additional beneficiary with PI Ludlow, also completed her move from the University of Texas to the University of San Diego, as planned, and was then brought onto the project formally.
In report period 1, the entire project hosts over 40 staff and students, and the four 4-OCEANS teams have published 23 peer-reviewed and 5 editor-reviewed publications in this reporting period - all open access. We have participated in or attended over 50 conferences, workshops, seminars or science festivals. The combined teams have completed more than 50 research trips during this report period. A total of 10 dedicated workshops took place during this timeframe: online, in Dublin, Lisbon and Hull.
The PIs meet on a monthly basis and have completed a number of in person and virtual workshops involving the core teams, international experts and students, to ensure collaboration is developing on a level required to meet the goals of a Synergy project. The project is managed by the 4-OCEANS project manager (Joanne D’Arcy) based at Trinity College Dublin. 4-OCEANS has a new and dedicated endnote library with over 11,000 entries, resulting from an extensive and dedicated systematic literature review conducted by different team members.
From the start of the 4-OCEANS project, the consortium has built an integrated research platform uniting archaeology, history, ecology, and climate science. The four PI-led teams rapidly established laboratories, systematic reviews, and international collaborations. Early achievements included ancient DNA and stable isotope studies revealing past exploitation of cod, herring, and walrus, alongside the creation of large zooarchaeological databases. Historical analyses traced whaling, sealing, and manatee hunting across the Atlantic and beyond, while drivers of extraction were modeled using climate reconstructions, archival trade data, and Earth System Models. By 2025, the project has laid a solid foundation of systematic and learning-driven literature reviews, an Expert Review platform engaging hundreds of scholars, reconstructions of historical North Sea zooplankton abundance and European jet stream patterns, and identified Atlantic Europe’s marine footprint over five hundred years. The Lisbon and London seafood economy case studies mapped global supply chains, while Northern Seas and Eastern North America Syntheses consolidated zooarchaeological records. Across 50+ research trips and extensive mobility of postdocs and students, the project achieved strong synergy. Further notable results to date include identifying marine event horizons, reconstructing drivers of fish catch and demand such as volcanic winters and economic shocks, and tracing ecological consequences like trophic downgrading. Public engagement has been an important component, with exhibitions linking science to heritage, videos, and digital resources widely shared. By the end of this reporting period, 4-OCEANS has laid the foundation for the first global timeline of marine exploitation, revealing when, where, and how oceans shaped societies, and positioning its outputs to inform future sustainability debates.
In report period 2, the still hosts a large volume of staff and students however most will be finished their tasks by the end of the report period. The 4-OCEANS teams have published over 70 publications to date. The team has participated in or attended over 60 conferences, workshops, seminars or science festivals in this period. The combined teams have completed more than 55 research trips during this report period. A total of 8 dedicated workshops took place during this timeframe: Dingle, in Dublin, Lisbon Troia and Trondheim.
Details about the 4-OCEANS project can be accessed via the project website
https://www.tcd.ie/tceh/4-oceans/(odnośnik otworzy się w nowym oknie) and local websites at each host institution
https://www.ntnu.edu/museum/4-oceans(odnośnik otworzy się w nowym oknie) and
https://cham.fcsh.unl.pt/en/projects-detail.php?p=2069(odnośnik otworzy się w nowym oknie). Social media accounts have been created on Bluesky (@erc4oceans.bsky.social) and Instagram (@4oceanserc). In January 2023 we produced the science animation video “The Fish Revolution: how humans thrived and oceans shrank”, which attracted over 2,000 views on Youtube
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oQvNru2ab2M(odnośnik otworzy się w nowym oknie). The video was co-funded by the Marine Institute of Ireland Foras na Mara. PI Brito curated a long term exhibition about the past of whales and whaling, and cetacean conservation in Atouguia da Baleia (together with the local municipality), Portugal (2023). The project repository website is under way and can be accessed here
https://4oceanserc.org/(odnośnik otworzy się w nowym oknie).
The digital World Atlas of Historical Marine Extractions is underway with a GIS specialist from UTA (additional beneficiary Dr Charles Travis) who formally joined the project team in July 2023. Dr Travis coordinates and develops the Atlas in conjunction with the PIs. Preliminary discussions have been undertaken with EMOD-Net, VLIZ, and the Irish Marine Institute to gauge the potential for collaboration and a long-term repository of the Atlas.
Key regions of focus:
-Transect 1 (Yellow Sea to Baltic) reveals medieval and early modern intensification (e.g. cod, herring).
-Transect 2 (Chile to Mozambique) highlights under-researched tropical exploitation zones.
-Transect 3 (Arctic to Tierra del Fuego) documents large-scale whaling, sealing and walrus hunting, particularly during the 17th–19th centuries.
The project has appointed an international panel of experts who contribute their expertise to the project pro bono.
The project is running on schedule and has experienced no major issues or delays.
