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The goal for the General Assembly in creating the Regular Process for the Global Reporting and Assessment of the State of the Marine Environment, including Socioeconomic Aspects, was to ensure a comprehensive overview of the ocean and the relationships between the ocean and humans, covering all environmental, social and economic aspects. Such an overview would serve as a background to the many decisions that must be taken in that field at the international, national and local levels in pursuit of sustainable development. The first World Ocean Assessment was completed in 2015 and represents a major step towards that goal.

Coastal communities play a key role in supporting all components of the ocean economy, as well as a range of social and cultural values, and all forms of coastal and marine management governance. This ocean supports a wide range of economic activities, including the harvesting of food, shipping seabed mining, offshore hydrocarbon exploration and exploitation tourism and recreation use of marine genetic resources, production of fresh water by desalinization and production of salt.