The Technical Guidance outlines how to compile, use and maintain ocean accounts. The latest release is now open for global consultation
New Technical Guidance Release
The Global Ocean Accounts Partnership has published its revised Technical Guidance on Ocean Accounting as a draft for review.
It is now open for global consultation and we’re asking for your help to review.
The Technical Guidance on Ocean Accounting outlines how to compile, use and maintain ocean accounts (organised by the Ocean Accounts Framework). It was developed in response to country demands for methodological and process guidance on ocean accounting, and is in line with the System of Environmental Economic Accounting (SEEA) and System of National Accounts (SNA) and is supporting the development of a SEEA Ocean.
The Technical Guidance is published as 88 short circulars across seven sections.
Each states its own prerequisites and can be read and applied on its own, so you can go directly to the two or three that bear on your work. Each circular also carries a stability badge indicating how settled the method is, from Core (established and widely applied) to Pilot (tested in a single context).
You do not need to read all 88 circulars, only those parts relevant to your organisation.
They have been designed to guide you through:
These are all currently in draft - and this review round exists to find out where it fails before it is finalised.
How to comment. No account is needed. Select any passage on the page and the comment form opens. The most useful comment is a practical one: a step you could not follow, a data source you do not have, a method that will not survive your national context. If you can, propose the wording you would put in place of what is there now.
How to Review & CommentTo start go through the circular closest to your own work and answer the three questions at the end of it: is it clear, could your office apply it with the data it has, and does it sit correctly against the standards you already work to.
Answering those three questions on a single circular is a useful contribution on its own. Get started here
Comments close on Friday 13 November 2026.
The past document based versions of the Technical Guidance is here for reference viewing together with dedicated summaries. Note this has now been superseded by the new online version.
Technical Guidance on Ocean Accounting for Sustainable Development-v32
Summary Guidance for Account Compilers and Data Providers-v10
The Ocean Accounts Framework is a conceptual framework designed to enhance the consistency, comparability and coherence of ocean-related maps, data, statistics, and indicators across social, environmental and economic domains.
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This training provides an overview of the System of Environmental-Economic Accounts (SEEA) and introduction to Ocean Accounts, including the integration of environmental, economic and social values.
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This guidance document provides a comprehensive introduction into how to create core ocean accounts.
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