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Short abstract

We provide an overview of marine stations in France and the UK where various ways of knowing and intervening about the ocean coexist. By analysing the temporalities, institutional histories, and local entanglements of stations, we reveal contrasting visions of resilient aquatic futures.

Long abstract

Marine stations are often described in the STS literature as hybrid spaces between laboratories and field sites, urban academic centres and coastal peripheries, and basic and applied research. Building on a comparative analysis of British and French marine stations, we argue that they are also sites where different ways of knowing and intervening about the ocean are enacted.

By mapping the diversity of marine stations and their trajectories, we offer an overview of how various research orientations coexist since their emergence in the 19th century. Some stations, like Roscoff, historically emphasize long-term monitoring and zoological research and progressively contributed to conservation of marine and freshwater ecosystems. Others, like SAMS in Oban, are more directly involved in aquaculture and regional fisheries, although the balance between basic and applied research continues to evolve.

These contrasting orientations not only distinguish stations: within each station, multiple research cultures often coexist. Moving beyond isolated case studies, we connect stations across scales and show that they develop divergent relationships with the past, present, and future of local and global aquatic environments. Depending on the scale of analysis and changing social demand, marine stations appear either as tools producing knowledge to conserve ecosystems, or for exploiting them for the socio-economic development of coastal communities.

We explore how these visions of the purpose of marine stations are practised and experienced by researchers, and the potential frictions they generate. Analysing the temporalities, institutional histories, and local entanglements of these stations reveals how contrasting visions of resilient aquatic futures coexist.