Marine environments are transboundary and borderless. Ocean health is increasingly threatened by global climate change, ocean acidification, plastic pollution, emerging contaminants, noise pollution and deep-sea mining disturbances. Current ocean pollution governance suffers from fragmented coordination, insufficient cross-border cooperation and incomplete regulatory frameworks. There is an urgent demand for integrated, sustainable and legally sound strategies for marine protection, pollution prevention and ecosystem restoration. This Research Topic addresses these global challenges from interdisciplinary and international governance perspectives to support healthy and sustainable oceans.

This Research Topic aims to analyze global best practices, gaps and emerging challenges in marine environmental protection, with a special focus on marine plastic pollution and ocean rule of law. It seeks to provide scientific evidence and policy recommendations for a unified international agreement to combat transboundary marine pollution. The goal is to promote integrated ocean governance, improve cross-border collaboration, strengthen legal and institutional frameworks, and support evidence-based policy-making. By gathering global insights, the topic will advance holistic understanding of marine ecosystem health and drive practical changes toward sustainable marine management worldwide.

This collection welcomes Original Research, Reviews, Policy Briefs, Perspectives and Commentaries covering: international marine environmental law, marine plastic pollution governance, transboundary pollution control, marine protected areas, ecosystem health assessment, sustainable fisheries and aquaculture, and marine data management.

Contributions from global, regional and national perspectives are encouraged. Manuscripts should combine theoretical innovation with practical policy relevance to support better governance, legal improvement and collaborative protection of the marine environment.

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Advances in Marine Environmental Protection: Challenges, Solutions and Perspectives Volume III